Benkid
Member
Registered: 16th Mar 09
Location: Wokingham
User status: Offline
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Hey all, well heres my WIP for my GSI, its partially taken from another site (www.teamshock.co.uk) so it might not all make sense lol but i tried my hardest for you.
My love for the little red Vauxhall started in July 2005 after writing of my Mk3 Fiesta on Friday the 13th of May.
I received pay out from my claim and paid the £600 asking price for the first car I was offered. (Corsa #1 - sorry but can't find any pictures of corsa #1. maybe its for the best ; )) A 93 red corsa 1.4 LS. It was completely standard bar colour coded bumpers, a Peco ‘zorst and a set of 15” TSW stealths.
It wasn’t long before I had a sound system, black Lexus style rear lights, Corbeau buckets, harnesses, 280mm momo wheel, and swapped the exhaust for a Yoshimura jobby off of my dads Fireblade. After about 1 year of loyal service from the car I decided to accidently bury it into a mates car and was forced to take it off road to repair. Whilst it was sat on the driveway looking sorry for itself I decided to ditch all the “gay” mods and start again.
Note: Hope the pictures come out clear as they where all taken with my Nokia N82!!!
I ordered:
• A set of white 16” compomotive MO’s wrapped in Eagle f1 rubber. (guarded by the cat lol)
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• Gaz coilovers
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• 6 point OMP rollcage, front and rear OMP strut braces.
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• Swapped the rear lights back to the original red ones.
(sorry but i'm sure you dont need a picture of this lol)
• And also managed to get a custom inlet manifold made up and sourced a set of Yamaha YZF R1 carbs. Sorted!
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After fitting all this over the course of nearly a year I still had the dent in the rear quarter panel to sort out from the accident and thought sod it. Buy a corsa GSI and swap all the parts. So in March 2007 deciding to stay with the red and white theme I had planned I was impatient and spent a regretful £600 on (corsa #2) a red 93 GSI with no carpet, patchy paintwork and worst of all no MOT, got it home, swapped everything over and had constant problems with trying to pass the MOT a lot of work and money I finally passed the MOT and that same week the 1.6 decided to give up on me and the timing belt slipped, leaving me carless :'(
Corsa #2
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Stuck but not willing to give up just yet I decided to have one last attempt at building the corsa I had always wanted and in June 2008 came across (corsa number 3) a freshly painted 2.0. Redtopped corsa GSI on some knackered speedline alloys, came with a spare set of cheapy fox alloys and some new fk coilovers. After parting £1700, £300 short of the asking price, a long drive back from Birmingham with only 4 gears (lost 5th on the slip road joining the M40) and having all the dash lights come on I was really ready to give up.
It was when I got to the lights at the roundabout just off the M40 taking you to the A404 that I had a sudden change of heart. A Bad Ass Peugeot 206 pulled up beside me and gave me the nod. Unsure as to whether or not to go for it and risk total shame by being beaten by this pimped up French pile, especially as I had four bald tyres and no experience in trying to launch a teeny weeny car with a big revvy 2.0 16v engine I decided to go for it. Sure enough my conscience got the better of me and a cloud of smoke and 2 lines of tarmac later I destroyed the little pimpmobil leaving him for dead. By This point I was very very happy lol it seems to rev forever and appears to have minimal if not no flat spots whatsoever.
Corsa # 3 with Corsa # 2 just after getting her home
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With a big Smile on my boat race and my mind made up I got her home and began fixing all the…ahem…little faults that occurred one after the other.
• New gearbox
• New alternator
• New battery
• New dizzy cap and rotary arm
• New plugs
• New leads
• New crank shaft sensor
• New driveshaft and gators
• New coil pack
• New ECU
• Oil change
• New brakes and master cylinder. System Flushed and re-bled
• Her constant obsession to repeatedly brake down on me about 7 times (which later turned out to be a faulty connection with the fuel regulator).
Here she is after losing the gearbox
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Old F20 box next to F18 (all interesting stuff lol)
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Piccy of her looking sorry for herself during the gearbox swap, serves her right. Would just like to add that this is the most annoying job I have ever had to do, there is just so little space with such a big engine in such a little bay and I am not looking forward to doing this again which I know I will. GRRR!
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I have now ended up with what I hope to be a good solid base (fingers crossed) ready to be neatened up stripped out and have everything swapped over one last time and get her tweaked and tuned ready for all the shows and track days I hope to be reliably attending.
A few before and after pics during the process of swapping over all the parts for the third time.
Before…
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After
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Before...
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After
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Before...
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Afterish lol still needs cage and the inside will all be painted white to match cage and wheels.
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Anyway thats it at its current state, gunna try as hard as i can to keep this thread up to date but i suck at it reall bad so bear with me.
Its off the road again at the mo currently having issues with the brakes which are nearly finished and she'll be back on the road again soon (but for how long lol?)
Anyway enough of all the bad bits heres some pretty pictures.
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And some more with my cat coz he's funny
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all comments welcome, i personally dont like the wheels because i think they stick out too much however everyone else seems to prefer them. Reyland motorsport (compomotive main dealer) apparently thought i requested snow wheels lol???
Thought i'd update as ive climbed a few rungs on the modifying ladder of love.
After not being able to drive the car for a week due to a problem with the brakes...again... i finally managed to find the problem, it turned out to be a knackered bearing and worn hub. Sounds like a pretty queer reason i know but it does actually make sense. You'll just have to trust me lol
Now that the brakes where fixed i could get back to the fun stuff, making the car fun to drive and more appealing to the eye if you will.
After having the CV boots constantly popping of the driveshaft on numerous occasions and spitting CV grease all over my once shiny white wheels i decided to get them fixed once and for all. I took both front wheel assembleys apart and put new CV boots on properly. This left me with oily grey wheels instead of the previous shiny white ones. No matter how many times i tried to wash them the oil just wouldn't come away from the wheels so there was only one thing for it. I had to take all four wheels off and give them a thourough clean and polish in all the little nooks a crannys.
i immediatly noticed the difference and after a good hour - hour and a half...PER WHEEL!!! It started to become worthwhile as you can tell from the comparison piccy below
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So with wheels cleaned heres some pictures of old Red in her current state. Oop, but wait.
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Why is it under a sheet you might ask (except Kieran he already knows why lol)...
.... heres a clue...
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arr yes the rollcage you reply to yourself, but that still doesn't explain why its under a sheet...
Another clue??? OK!
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AHA! Bingo!
Yeess because this car has a sunroof, something which my two previous corsas didnt have, the rollcage wouldn't fit meaning the whole rooflining, plastics, and sunroof itself had to come out so we could assess the situation, and thanks to an 8mm socket,
(8mm socket)
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some help from my Dad,
(my dad)
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and some help from Kieran,
(kieran)
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the sunroof was removed,
(removed sunroof)
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leaving me with a big gaping HOLE,
(me in the above said big gaping hole)
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Now all needs doing is to cut the rear half of the frame away from the sunroof as this is the bit that stops the cage from fitting, Paint the cage (Davey?) painting inside of rear to match the cage (Davey?) and fit it all in aswell as the rooflining and plastics. not sure what order this will be done nether the less it will be done, especially as i cant drive the car at the moment... again...
NOTE: The picture above isnt actually my Dad, i just didnt have a picture of him to hand so thought that would do ; )
as usuall any comments or recomendations from previous experiences are encouraged!!!
Tank Q
we took the glass out of the frame and fabricated some new smaller brackets to hold the glass in.
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only problem is leakage so i need to find some suitable sealent to go around the top of the sunroof and underneath but its got to look tidy so its gotta be black, have you got any ideas?
Managed to get the rollcage in, its not completely bolted down yet as it still needs painting and i'm contemplating on fitting doorbars but for now i really needed the space in the garage and thought in the car would be the best place for it.
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Took old Red out for a little run lastnight with Russ (thanks for the zip ties by the way) and ended up recieving a lovely new modification. A passenger side brake duct with the help from one helpfully annoying, now dead, mincy, ponsy, Badger. I now officially hate badgers.
I don't know who it hurt more... Me...
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... or the Badger.... probably the Badger ; )
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Anyone good at puzzles???
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Sorry Davy this is why i didn't come down and visit you Today!
Now need to find £210 for a gsi bumper which puts my latest idea on hold for a while as i was going to source a new dashboard and get it flocked. Does anybody know of a company that does flocking while i'm on the subject.
I HATE BADGERS!
Not updated this for a while but since my last update the cars been off the road, again, after the following.
Twatted a kerb at some speed, bent the front wheel to buggery
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Kerbed the rear.
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Purchased a new front wheel and had the rear refurbed by the sexy paint gods at Imagination Creations who did a wonderful job.
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as you can see in the picture above there was a slight difference in colour, the brighter one was the new one ordered from Reyland Motorsport whilst the other one was the refurbed jobby. Originally i thought the refurbed one was the wrong colour but it was infact the new one which was too bright, being three years since i ordered them as a set they've obviously changed their paint codes so i had the new one painted to match the refurbed one again by IC.
After a pair of Eagle F1's, and new front wheel assembly later, the car owed me loadsa money but as soon as it was back on the road it and running it was all worth it.
Just ordered my front bumper, splitter, foglight ect after the Badger incident and also treated myself to some jacking covers which where also missing.
Money spent getting the car to its original state...
- front wheel £170
- Refurbed front and rear £60
- 2x Eagle F1's and fitted £130
- New front wheel assembley inc track rod end, hub, hub carrier and tracking ect £85
- Front bumper £190
- Splitter £50
- Fog light £50
- 3x jacking covers £60
- Killing Civic Type R's £priceless lol
Grand total = £795!!! sh*t, didn't know it was going to equal that much, i'm actually speechless!
Didn't manage to get any pictures earlier on in the project but im sure you've all seen enough pictures of holes being filled and bumpers being prepped. It's a lot more interesting when its your own car though i must say.
Boot semi-smoothed and primed, lost the boot lock, rear wiper and heavy wiper motor.
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Bumper Primed, as those of you following my W.I.P may of noticed i avoided the smoothed bumper idea and kept it looking standard.
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Boot and bumper with a few layers of flame red
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this is pretty much what it'll look like bar the spoiler and number plate and although its not to everyones taste (mainly you Davy Wink) i think its subtle, looks cool and does away with some weight which is what its all about. I'm also thinking about slappin' some brand new GSI 16V badges on her because from behind it just looks like a normal Corsa.
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Bumper nearly finished. Where the car had been re-sprayed originally they had painted the whole lower grill red when in actual fact it's supposed to be black so I also got Chris to paint the inner lower grill satin black just to finish it off.
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Also got all 4 Jacking covers replaced (you'll very rarely see a GSI with all 4 as they often fall off or get half inched) the later spec colour coded door handles a new non rusty wing and a white towing eye to comliment the rimmage
Hoping to have her back by the weekend looking clean and fresh but as i said to Chris, theres no rush, id rather it be a steady slow process than him feel under pressure and have to rush the job.
It very very nearly ended up looking like this but with my white cage which i think would've looked awesome but its not a car you can drive hard which is what i'm after so i decided against it.....Plus i couldn't bare to see anyone else rollin on my Compo's
The steering rack has pulled the bulkhead away from the chassis, meaning the engines gotta come out or the dashboard to weld it safely and avoid fires aswell as a leaky fuel tank and a few other silly bits like number plate bulbs. And to top it off dads welders packed up
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