Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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A couple of months back I spoke to Jamie Hastings about his Corsa LET for sale. I ended up buying the rolling shell from him. It's an X-reg Corsa B 3-dr, non-sunroof with 5-stud setup (rear discs), smoothed GSi kit, flush tailgate, colour coded handles and a few other nice touches. It's also got the chassis weld-in strengthening kit.
In anticipation I painted up some Cav Turbo fanblades I had lying around
I spent nearly 12 hours on the road going to pick it up. Including possibly the scariest road ever. Here's the car back at base.
Within a few days I had sourced enough parts and a donor car for the C20LET conversion. Here's a brand new rad going in.
F28 degreased, stripped, F20 speedo ring added and all painted silver
And mated to a rebuilt C20LET
The spec is 86.5mm on fresh Mahle pistons. New oil pump, glyco bearings, steel rods, ARP bolts, all new seals/gaskets etc. It's a fairly modest spec for now. It's also got a knife-edged tophat for improved flow, rebuilt K16 turbo, magnecore KV85's, MBC and a phase 2 EDS chipped ECU. It should be around 260bhp I'd imagine.
I also mocked up the Forge intercooler and Roose hoses prior to fitting anything, to make sure it was ok.
When I was happy with that I pikey'd on some welded steel brackets
Meanwhile Chris Astley sorted me a PAS conversion as these really aren't much fun without PAS
Which I mated to Tigra pipes. They are more or less a direct fit
I also decided to beef up the rear gearbox mount. I added some sections of Astra subframe to it, mainly curved pieces to spread the load across the mount and also pick up the three holes on the gearbox that face the bulkhead. It's pikey as hell but really strong.
Intercooler will be going black at some point, must buy some matt paint actually. Here it is all fitted
Engine in after 5 days from buying the shell. It wasn't too bad except some hassle with dropping the tie bars and using the ARB (ARB wouldn't go back on after)
The gear linkage is polybushed and a short shifter with metal linkage pin
Injectors are reconditioned Z20LET blues
After finding a coolant leak on startup I bought a full set of Roose coolant hoses
I also changed the rear water pipe to metal one
And added a painted cam cover/cambelt and Roose turbo coolant hoses
The covers are Rover Gunmetal, same as the wheels.
For the wiring I soldered Calibra car loom plugs onto the Corsa car loom, so the LET loom was then plug and play. There's no need to chop anything to be honest.
Body wise it's pretty near mint. There's stone chips on the front end and im not too happy with the cutout front bumper so that has to be sorted.
First up is a brand spanking new GSi bumper from Vauxhall, I bought 2 in the end so one will be up for sale.
I've got a new bonnet as well, which I was hoping to get louvred like this one at Cool Louvres
Sadly though cool louvres are moving premises so I wont be able to get that done so it will just be a standard bonnet resprayed along with new wings to hopefully leave it mint.
Interior wise I've fitted remote central locking, and some uprated door speakers. While the door cards were off I've dyed the fabric black to match the black leather I'm getting for the interior
The plan is to use heated Calibra front leather, with rear bench properly retrimmed to match
Here's the shelf I've also dyed black with 6x9s.
And the obligatory Tigra coin tray for the bit between the front seats
I've also run wiring for an amp and sub in the boot. It won't be anything too complex, just something to add some bass.
I've also sourced a pair of Vectra 5x110 15's for the track and strip, which I painted to match the fanblades and put Toyo R888's on them.
At some point I will be getting a quaife diff, probably this winter. Ideally I'd like to do a quarter mile in it before and after fitting a diff.
Suspension wise it's on FK coilovers (no pics?) and a set of polybushes are also waiting to go on
There you can see an Opel plug cover too, which might look out of place im not sure.
Brakes are 288mm V6 with braided lines and rear disc conversion.
Here's how it stands now. It starts, runs and drives... all in about 10 man-hours work. I didn't cut the bulkhead and I can fit the "turbo" cover back on.
Something else isn't getting much attention...
I'll hopefully be going to some events in this next year and taking the Calibra as well.
[Edited on 21-10-2010 by Partyvan]
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Corsa_Scotty
Member
Registered: 8th Aug 07
Location: Scottish Borders
User status: Offline
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Really nice car youve got their mate! Nice work 
[Edited on 21-10-2010 by Corsa_Scotty]
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swissxe
Member
Registered: 8th Aug 10
Location: Switzerland
User status: Offline
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i want that
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barney1.6sport
Member
Registered: 17th Nov 09
Location: luton
User status: Offline
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those turbo rims looks quality!
looks spot on
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Kieran
Premium Member
Registered: 12th Sep 08
Location: Kent
User status: Offline
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Front bumper how much they go for. 
Nice mate looking gooood
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connollygt30
Member
Registered: 16th Nov 08
Location: West Lothian
User status: Offline
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Give me a shout if your selling the opel cover please mate
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flybikeslee
Member
Registered: 2nd Jan 07
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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spot on that, playing chess whilst taking pics of car bits..how odd
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Danny W
Organiser: East Midlands
Premium Member
Registered: 14th Nov 05
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Blimey you dont hang around do you, great progress on this
Smoke Grey 5 Door
EastMids Regional Events
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mex
Member
Registered: 25th Apr 10
Location: East Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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seen this in the flesh, and the calibra
very nice
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chris1990smith
Member
Registered: 3rd Mar 10
Location: Walker, Newcastle
User status: Offline
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Fell in love with this when i saw it the other day! got some quality builds going on!
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Jamie_Hastings1
Member
Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway
User status: Offline
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Took good care of it mate 
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Cheers guys
Here's the new AFM to turbo hose and 5-piece breather set.
I also fitted the tophat cover back on
I've also been busy on the interior. The standard front seats came out
Subframes were swapped onto black Calibra leather, it's just four bolts to swap them over.
And bolted in
Next the rears came out, and were laid out alongside the Calibra rears
The foam and base got separated
Then the push-button to release the seat forwards was moved in about 3", sorry for the bad pic
This can then be trimmed and re-stitched to suit
More on that when it's finished. I'm hoping to have the heater elements working as well. Anyone know if I just need to put 12v through it to work or does it need regulating? I might even fit Astra Mk4 adjustable temperature ones?
I also gave it a bit of a service with some new plugs and antifreeze.
Thats it for now!
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Norcy91
Member
Registered: 15th Sep 08
User status: Offline
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Looks like you're doing a miles better job with the calibra rear seats than i've done with mine! How did you move the push button at the top of the frame? I've made a right mess with my seats 
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Norcy91
Looks like you're doing a miles better job with the calibra rear seats than i've done with mine! How did you move the push button at the top of the frame? I've made a right mess with my seats
If you line them up side by side you'll see the cutout for the push button is a few inches off when you line up the leather, right? So what you do is flip the leather skin round 180 degrees.
This means
a) The existing hole in the leather will not be seen, as it's on a piece of leather that is excess
b) You just cut a new hole (stanley knife) where you want it
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Norcy91
Member
Registered: 15th Sep 08
User status: Offline
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Ahh ok... that sort of makes sense to me, but i can't picture it at all
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I'll put some pics up when they are done!
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Right with the back seats out I decided to tackle the rear speaker upgrade. The standard speakers aren't behind the door cards, they are in the boot panels.
I found the best way to tackle this was to undo the little torx bolts holding the panels in, then swing them out on the seatbelts as it saved unbolting them and yet gave enough space to work in
Here are the standard speakers removed
And the replacements
Autoleads make a plug and play kit that gives you the mounting bracket and wiring adapter to make it all nice and easy, £15 in Halfords or about a fiver on ebay!
All fitted back in...
Sadly the wiring didn't plug and play for some reason, so I just chopped the OE plug off and crimped on some terminals.
By the time I'd sat and listened to a few tracks through all 4 upgraded speakers the leather had been finished. Here's the uprights which im very happy with
Obviously being the Corsa frame and padding, they did bolt straight back in to the standard brackets after some poking of holes.
And all fitted in with the rear bench in place
As you can see some of the leather is a slightly different shape, this is down to the designs of the Calibra bench vs the Corsa bench. In simple terms, the Calibra has a lot more time and money spent on the upholstery to give it a sporty shape with thicker foam, whereas the Corsa is pretty shit by comparison. The same can be said for the rest of the car in fairness, it all feels pretty crap to be honest.
I think I might just use a complete Calibra rear bench and velcro it in place. There's no getting away from the fact it's better!
Anyway we managed to get the backs of the seats trimmed up to look standard
And fitted. I might dye these black as the grey looks a bit dirty.
The boot is now ready for an install which will be coming soon.
Finally I found some genuine Vauxhall floor mats to finish it off!
So there you go. That's the interior done with the exception of a few gadgets and some aftermarket front seats coming.
I took these pics when I was all finished
Now I'm going to focus on putting some miles on it before christmas to make sure everything is ok. I'll then be taking the engine and box out for a quaife diff and a few other bits.
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Minty_Fresh
Member
Registered: 1st May 08
Location: westmidlands
User status: Offline
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very nice, just the rear end that lets it down imo mate, standard gsi rear bumper and a single tailpipe back box would finish it off
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I think thats just a bad angle on the bumper but yeah I agree on the exhaust, I want a Magnex oval ideally
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Danny W
Organiser: East Midlands
Premium Member
Registered: 14th Nov 05
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Very good progress mate, i quite like the kit on it and an oval exhaust would set it off a treat imo
Smoke Grey 5 Door
EastMids Regional Events
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Thanks for the comments guys
I got the new bonnet, wings and GSi bumper back from the bodyshop today
The finish is excellent, the guy I use has a freshly built dupont booth with a few grands worth of filtering on it which makes all the difference in the finish.
However, I'm not that impressed with the above pictures, they look nothing like arden blue. "The best phone on the market" = FAIL
Even after playing with all the settings it wont come out right. Just take my word for it, it's arden blue, lol
Next up I've finally got hold of some Astra Coupe Edition 100 alloys (aka BBS RX).
The tyres came straight off as they were too big for the Corsa
They are now being refurbished in bright silver powdercoat, along with a set of 19" snowflakes for my Vectra. I was tempted to see if they'd do the wheels off my DTM but it didn't work out any cheaper as they'd have to be done white.
Last on the agenda is the ICE I've been collecting, the headunit and speakers are already in. I'm now planning a simple boot install with these Vibe 6x9s and sub
...and a matching Vibe amp to run them.
I've got f*ck all to do for the next few months so I'll be cracking on with this, starting with the boot floor build. In fact I might have a go tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
[Edited on 10-12-2010 by Partyvan]
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Jamie_Hastings1
Member
Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway
User status: Offline
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Going to look perfect Ben,wish i kept it and finished it off but my head was up my arse lol. Just got a HTC HD myself,camera seems ok.
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Partyvan
Banned
Registered: 21st Feb 09
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Jamie_Hastings1
Going to look perfect Ben,wish i kept it and finished it off but my head was up my arse lol. Just got a HTC HD myself,camera seems ok.
You've got first dibs when I sell
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Jamie_Hastings1
Member
Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway
User status: Offline
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Cheers,the money will be ready lol.
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dalejones
Member
Registered: 9th Dec 08
Location: Swansea, Wales
User status: Offline
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Brilliant work mate! Looking really good!
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