1989 vauxhall astra merit estate 1.7 diesel

according to dft figures there are only 29 astra merit diesels left (of this mk2 era) 4 on the road, filter that down through all the body types there's a chance this is the last of its kind in any condition!



general concesus is better ! its more focused on the car clubs, better security, has a kind of festival atmosphere to it. billing used to feel a bit like holiday resort that happened to be hosting a car show (stating the obvious) but you know what i mean.

astra mk2 owners club were invited to the NEC classic car show two years ago. i know what you are thinking, how on earth did that happen. well either west loathian austin FX4 cabriolet owners club were busy, or its because 34 years have passed since mk2 astras went into production we met the minimum level of awesome so have been invited back ever since then.

potentially stupid or genius, i have not decided yet, but mick asked me if i would bring the estate this autumn to rep the poverty end of the spectrum. there's a few problems with that, the drivers seat looks like it was used as a ground sheet for mafia hit, more on that in another reply. also i still haven't fixed the roof lining so have been collecting samples of foam backed material. so far ive managed to collect 7 different shades of grey but none are quite the right hue of beige-grey with a hint of throat infection

the two small squares are from livedale, larger square from woolies, laid ontop of the old headlining



these 3 are from martrim



martrim 3 again in sunlight, see how different they look? mind boggling when you are trying to rationalise it. theres nothing to say i have to match the standard colour, but it kind of has to be close in order to match the sun visors and plastics which i cant change.



while i am on roof detail, i previously added some bitumen anti drum pads (thats the posh description for roof flashing tape) but i had also noticed it was a bit buzzy due the seam sealant between the cross members cracked and separated, so i gunned some tigerseal into the joins as demonstrated with these here red lines.



there was also this aerial business before i can think about replacing the roof lining. its a mod i have done to all my astras so far, which is a european spec amplified antennae, i.e the ubiquitous "bee-sting" which was then fitted to millions of mk3/mk4 astras, cavaliers, vectras and so on.



the ebay listing said "missing nut" which clearly it isnt, but i could see it was missing the rubber gasket which goes between the base and your roof. they are easy to get.



drill 14mm hole in your roof, oh well one less spot to T-cut.



routing the coax is dead easy, down this useful channel in the roof (its already got some loom and rear wash wipe hose through there)



then theres a big square hole in the A pillar (no not rust!) which you can access with the glove box dropped, pull the coax through. loom bundle runs along the lower edge of the dash so its easy to piggy back there



i had removed the centre console and fed the coax up to the rear of the head unit, the powered wire for the antennae already has a multiplug terminal on it and you can literally click it into the ISO connector. soon as the headunit is turned on it sends 12v up the aerial



i also scored this new old stock gear stick gaiter. i'd been saving it for best but i guess NEC is a good reason!



its got a natty stitching effect on the side but actually just rubber, somehow i had to get the neck which is the size of a 20p, over the gear knob which is the size of a tennis ball. logical solution was go from the thin end of the linkage, but that meant removing this perilous little cross pin and circlip arrowed red. almost certain to fall into the bowls of the shifter mechanism given half a chance, so i got one of the neodymium magnets out and shoved it down there to collect



as i was saying, the potential genius is having a deadline and actually doing some work

If it wasn’t for deadlines I’d never get anything finished. 😃

Ok - I am on the Jowett Car Club stand Fri & Sat - Hall 3 Stand 148 - be nice to catch up at some stage - there are several other RR cars / members attending too

Ba11s - I'd thought got away without mentioning that again - Friday - something to do with a press launch for the club that has been masterminded by our club president

I have a similar headlining job to tackle on the Carlton at some stage. Looking at the photos there might be a bit more too the job than first appears.

the resin'd roof lining sees the cold light of day



i flipped it back over and gave it a whizz with the mouse and some 80 grit, i'm making it up as i go along but figured its some kind of man made coating. making the surface a bit more fibrous and fluffy would help the contact adhesive grab.



after that i dragged out my 18 foot roll of roof lining material, i bought enough to do this plus the silver GTE too. here i've cut a section to about 96 inches for a test fit



i was going to glue it outside on the drive on a pallet, just like all the top flight re-trimmers, but the wind kept curling the sides up and i was already in a panic as it is. i went into the lounge instead, if you are wondering why its concrete we had a huge flood (rain running off the fields) and the carpet was ruined. anyway, following chris's advice i did it a half at a time, the tin of contact adhesive (Martrim blue) said to spray the surfaces in different directions so it has a better chance of adhesion (actually a really good idea). i also noticed a warning triangle on the side which said its got dichloromethane in it which is main constituent of paint stripper, tenacious stuff i hope!



this is after i had flipped that half down, pressed it all, then doubled the other end back and repeated. i let gravity do most of the work when laying the cloth, letting it droop down the centre line of the board then working out to the edges where it curves up. you can see i used a mini gloss roller to press it all home without damaging the cloth.



after another rolling and trimming the excess round the edges, plus cutting out all the holes for handles and trim clips. i'm really pleased how it came out, its taken the shape really well even round the tricky sun visor recess



i was doing quite well for time (read as daylight) so nipped out and prepped the car to take the headliner. pulling trim back, moving door seals and the lamps and stuff. contact adhesive is pretty much "dry" as soon as bring the two halves together, but it had about 90 mins before i actually came to sliding it in the car.



vauxhall gods were smiling on me and it went in quite easily, which is mostly the confidence knowing its not going to snap in half (its about 2 meters long !) you can see in this picture its lighter than the cabin plastics, but the old fabric was too.



up the front end you can see its a really good match for the roof plastics, the grab handles and blanking plugs. the sun visors are the exact same colour as the old fabric, its a shade darker than my new fabric but the shadow gap round the edges i think it just about gets away with it. super happy with this !!



next job is sorting out this drivers seat, its failed structurally on the hip and thigh bolster, and theres way too much organic matter on it, all previous owners work i might add, guessing he was a bit rotund and sweaty. i have a perfect drivers seat in my spare shell @46k miles, but its the grey/black version of the cloth. the plan is to strip them both down, put my cloth (after washing it) on the good frame

thanks chris, lets see if it ends up on the head rests by the morning, before signing off any flat cap work

thanks gtv. trim code is 82I (thats a capital i, not a 1) at this age there was only 1 type of cloth for merits (called chester) but there was a grey and anthracite version, where the grey was actually beige, i have the beige/grey version. my donor car for the seat frame has the anthracite version.