pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I got bored with having a warranty and not being able to tinker then a woman at work was selling a Corsa for a rock bottom price so I snapped it up!
It's a filthy horrible 1.2 V8 Merit, no glovebox, no fag lighter with 4 speed gearbox but I only paid £60 for it with 6 months tax and a months MOT on it so I could refund the tax and have the scrap man take it away and it owe me nothing.
Few problems with it:
- Driver seat was FUUUCCKKKEDD - insides coming out of it, seatbelt wouldn't even clip in, seat snapped off subframe and worst of all one of the hooks to attach it into the floor has magically disappeared.
- Main beam "flash" wasn't working
- Wipers have about 4" of play in them
- 1 (which turned out to be 4) bald tyres on it - she told me one was "on the mark". When I actually went to drive it for the first time I found all 4 were bad enough to give me points.
First problem was the bald tyres, couldn't drive it like that so after finding one good wheel with tyres on it in my garage and a small headscratch, I phoned Neo off here to ask if he still had the steels that he took off his Corsa like 3 and a half years ago knocking around at home. Answer was yes and 20 minutes later she was sat on 4 practically new tyres! Cost: £0 and 0p! Cheers Mike 
The main beam flash was easy, I whipped the stalk out, bridged the right pins and the main beam worked as it should. Quick eBay scout scored me a 99p indicator stalk + delivery to work. Fitted that and she now flashes
A quick scout on MIGWEB scored me a set of FREE Corsa LS seats from a guy all of 10 miles down the road, loaded up the trusty Prius and bought them back. Unfortunately, although they were in far better nick than the drivers seat in there, the seatbelt still refused to stay in so I binned all but the drivers seat and went on the hunt for more. I'm hoping that OJC is gunna be a winner for me when I pop down to his on Wednesday to collect some more seats from him for some dollar. I'm also hoping to secure a deal with a friend in the future on some Cali leather (and if I don't I'll get some anyway cos I do love them!).
The worse bit was the lack of a hook to secure the drivers seat to the floor, an obvious MOT fail and pretty dangerous tbh! Called on an old friend of mine and in return for helping him and his son out with some electrical work on a Capri he welded me in a new hook  It's not the prettiest job in the world but it's cost me nothing and I'm sure you could lift the car on it. Plus, once the carpet is down and the seat is over the top of it, you can't see it and the seat doesn't budge an inch!
Next job was starting to clean the thing, the woman that had it before obviously didn't have a clue how to wash a car lol!
Starting inside because it's too cold to be washing the outside of the car at the moment!
Seats out, before:
1.5 hours with the hoover on later:
Also, my next door neighbour very kindly donated me some mats he had in his garage for free so they went down, pretty good fit and like shag pile carpet!
I also have started on (while the seats are out) wiring in the heated seat loom (home-made) which I'll write about later. No glovebox but heated leather  
More to come...
[Edited on 26-01-2011 by pow]
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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This morning my parents and sister buggered off to a family thing early so I took the time to work on the car a little
Heated seats
Most of the stuff came out of what I had in the garage so costing me naff all. While the seats were out, I thought I'd get the wires up to the gearstick area at least
So, centre console out to locate conveniently placed earth location - where the heated pads' "earth" would go to:
Quick raid of stock found a nut that fitted on perfectly.
I used 17amp Halfords cable and blue crimps to start the loom, bit of black wire from each "slit" in the carpet to a ring, bolted to earth location:
Ran some red wire alongside that for the feed from the switch, just bought that up to the gear stick area for now:
Carpet down and end terminated for heated seats - one male and one female to stop any accidental confusion:
Then boxing day tea called
Knocked up a little wiring diagram to show how to use the original switches as well. Going to use more spade connectors on the correct numbered terminals on the switches:
I'll write a guide when I've got them in a working as well.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Still need to so the wipers, a friend is going to get me a set on Wednesday in return for me setting his wifes computer up so they can just get bolted on. Top POW tip, if the wiper won't come off the splines, a lil tap with a hammer on the tip of the spline/threaded nut persuades them off
Also have some oil (£10 for 10W40 semi from Wilkos!), a filter (£1 on halfs trade) and loads of coolant from changing the KA's coolant to change all them, perhaps tomorrow if the weather allows.
Also got a nice bottle of T-cut to use on it.
Please don't tell me "theres no point", I just like having something to play with, it may just be a fix up and sell project or (it looks this way) a keep and play project, perhaps with some engine changing in the future just to play with it. If I break it, it's no problem, it's just all a bit of fun and games while I'm living at home and can spare £20 here and there to play with it.
[Edited on 26-12-2010 by pow]
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ramboreynolds
Member
Registered: 17th May 10
Location: Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
It's a filthy horrible 1.2 V8 Merit
1.2 V8!!!!! cor i bet that things got some POWER!!!! javascript:icon('') looks like it could be a good project base once you get all the lits bits sorted keep up the good work (Y)
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zanda101
Member
Registered: 12th Nov 10
Location: Newport
User status: Offline
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Doing good so far. Another car saved from the scrapyard
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Pow's top tip for the day, heatgun on a bumper really does work!
Washed and Tcuted it today, ran out of light for pictures! More about that tomorrow!
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Jamie-C
Member
Registered: 3rd Jun 08
Location: Ballycastle
User status: Offline
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Going to keep an eye on this, for some reason I have a feeling its going to turn out nice , god knows why.
I need to try out that heat gun method, not in the current weather though
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I couldn't belive it, got a £10 heatgun from screwfix and it's really bought the colour back to the bumpers. It's a little patchy but a little bumper gel should hide that nicely.
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3i_gaz
Member
Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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i think this will end up a nice little car too for some reason lol will keep an eye
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Thanks guys
£10 TITAN heatgun from screwfix - I really bought this to do the KA as that has all black bumpers and really suffered from bumper fade but I thought I'd risk melting bumpers on this first!
I washed the bumpers when i washed the car and also gave them a quick wipe with some panel prep wipes to remove any shit left on them. Produced the above result which I am VERY pleased with!
Just took these from the front door:
I dried the rear bumper and arches off with a towel as I wanted to see how good/bad the heatgun had done in the light!
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Jamie-C
Member
Registered: 3rd Jun 08
Location: Ballycastle
User status: Offline
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Thats done a great job! I'm off to get one tomorrow
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Bonney
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 04
Location: St Helens
User status: Offline
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I think I have a set of LS wheel trims in the loft, Will have a root through and see. If they are there you can have them if you pay the postage.
Came off my corsa, They are a bit tatty but a can of silver they should be reet 
Similar to these
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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BEAST
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Mate, for a tenner you can't loose!
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/68998/Power-Tools/Heat-Guns/Titan-TTB216HTG-2000W-Heat-Gun
New seats tomorrow providing I can get out of bed, feeling rough at the moment!
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Ojc
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 00
Location: Reading: Drives : Clio 197
User status: Offline
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I've got an awesome heatgun I'm gonna set about the mine as well.
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Phillips_91
Member
Registered: 20th Jan 10
Location: Blackpool. Drives: Sapphire Black Mk4 Astra 1.8
User status: Offline
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i did that on mine aswell, comes out really well, just have to do it every couple of weeks to keep it up but everytime you do it you have to be more carefull, i melted 2 of my arches last time  and also watch the arches as they start to bend away from the car with the heat
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Neo
Member
Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
First problem was the bald tyres, couldn't drive it like that so after finding one good wheel with tyres on it in my garage and a small headscratch, I phoned Neo off here to ask if he still had the steels that he took off his Corsa like 3 and a half years ago knocking around at home. Answer was yes and 20 minutes later she was sat on 4 practically new tyres! Cost: £0 and 0p! Cheers Mike
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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OH. BABY.
Trip to reading for a little cash returned this little lot!
Full sport interior
4 Sport Alloys with tyres
Bilstien shocks and springs.
FUCK KNOWS how I got that all in the worlds most impractical hatchback
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I've just had a horrible thought, they better have the little tabs to hold them to the subframes
EDIT they do
[Edited on 29-12-2010 by pow]
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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Looks proper wedged in the Alfa there mate
I've got a suggestion for you btw. MV6 it
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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I'm impressed that all fitted in the Mito
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I'm shocked it all went in as well
Put the wheels, front seats and did the front bumpers and arches yesterday then took me 15 minutes to start it.... just wouldn't fire, eventually spluttered into life on 3 cylinders, gave it a squirt of the throttle and she ran... bit of white smoke though lol! Might go and give it a good run round the block later. Started everytime on the turn of the key after that!
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
User status: Offline
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Awesome, a Corsa B sprucing kit
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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Ben G
Member
Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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looks like you've got a dead body in the pasenger seat
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Mark.W
Member
Registered: 3rd Jan 07
Location: County Durham
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ben G
looks like you've got a dead body in the pasenger seat
I was going to say the same thing
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