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Did quite a bit yesterday, but unfortunately very little of it was on the van  I managed to fit the door cards back on temporarily, whilst doing that I swapped the speakers. The ones in the tailgate were definately ready to be changed  and the fuel filler flap. Was going to load up some tools and gear in the back but I’m going to try and get the rear window tinted today before doing that.  Next job is to sort the tailgate wiring loom |
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Must be nice to put a different colour into the fleet John with the previous home fleet being all blue  |
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Macleesh
Part of things
Posts: 37
Member is Online
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Another thread with GN content, how did I miss this?
Great looking van, credit to you for looking beyond the economics and ensuring this van's survival.
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Last Edit: Jun 29, 2020 6:53:31 GMT by Macleesh
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Jun 29, 2020 15:56:50 GMT
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Had a job this morning and got the rear window tinted on my way out of town.  (A much better job than I’d have managed, I’m going to put it down to being out of the wind   ) Been to a couple of jobs, and had quite a few chats about the van Proof it’s not a garage queen  I’ve loaded some stuff in for tomorrow, and stripped the loom out of the old tailgate... waiting for some small heatsthink and I’ll get fixing that |
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Jun 29, 2020 16:28:40 GMT
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I hope the chats about the van are on charged time! |
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samta22
Club Retro Rides Member
Stuck in once more...
Posts: 1,276 
Club RR Member Number: 32
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Jun 29, 2020 16:49:22 GMT
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Cor nice van mister  Looks great - well done both |
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'37 Austin 7 '56 Austin A35 '58 Austin A35 '65 Triumph Herald 12/50 '69 MGB GT '74 MGB GT V8'73 TA22 Toyota Celica restoration'95 Mercedes SL320 '04 MGTF 135 'Cool Blue' (Mrs' Baby) '05 Land Rover Discovery 3 V8 '67 Abarth 595 (Mrs' runabout) '18 Disco V |
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OGDB
Part of things
Posts: 544
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Jun 29, 2020 21:36:05 GMT
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This is by far the coolest Astra van I have ever seen, and I had a 2.0l turbo MK4 years ago. Paintwork is blinding, super fantastically awesome in every way.
The wheels suit it so perfectly. If it was mine I would have to make it a little lower, but obviously its a work van, so a level of practicality must be maintained. Get some scrap wire in the back there and bring it down a little!
Its cooler than your Transporter by a country mile, which is saying something because I love transporters in every way shape and form.
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Jun 29, 2020 21:50:04 GMT
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This is by far the coolest Astra van I have ever seen, and I had a 2.0l turbo MK4 years ago. Paintwork is blinding, super fantastically awesome in every way. The wheels suit it so perfectly. If it was mine I would have to make it a little lower, but obviously its a work van, so a level of practicality must be maintained. Get some scrap wire in the back there and bring it down a little! Its cooler than your Transporter by a country mile, which is saying something because I love transporters in every way shape and form. Thanks funny you should mention the ride height... I did order some stuff last night and yeah, loading it up helps, it’s got a fair bit of rake when it’s empty |
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OGDB
Part of things
Posts: 544
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Jun 29, 2020 22:21:35 GMT
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This is by far the coolest Astra van I have ever seen, and I had a 2.0l turbo MK4 years ago. Paintwork is blinding, super fantastically awesome in every way. The wheels suit it so perfectly. If it was mine I would have to make it a little lower, but obviously its a work van, so a level of practicality must be maintained. Get some scrap wire in the back there and bring it down a little! Its cooler than your Transporter by a country mile, which is saying something because I love transporters in every way shape and form. Thanks funny you should mention the ride height... I did order some stuff last night and yeah, loading it up helps, it’s got a fair bit of rake when it’s empty Another update to look forward to seeing! What is the rear set up like on these? Trailing arm with an independent spring and damper, like a Corsa B? After my MK4 I had a Caddy van, had a rear beam with leaf springs which I obviously flipped to make it low. I was able to make up some adjustable plates, took a bolt out, jacked the back up on the tow bar and bolted it all back together. Was ideal for lugging engines and engineering equipment about. Going by your user name I don't suspect you are carrying around Tonne bags, kangoos and generators in the back, so a little bit of a lower would be liveable I would have thought. This is the joys with coilovers, there is a good bit of adjustability in there. I will continue to follow with interest. |
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This is by far the coolest Astra van I have ever seen, and I had a 2.0l turbo MK4 years ago. Paintwork is blinding, super fantastically awesome in every way. The wheels suit it so perfectly. If it was mine I would have to make it a little lower, but obviously its a work van, so a level of practicality must be maintained. Get some scrap wire in the back there and bring it down a little! Its cooler than your Transporter by a country mile, which is saying something because I love transporters in every way shape and form. Having previously owned a new T6 for a few years the Astra will be a hell of a lot cheaper to run & maintain too |
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Jun 30, 2020 11:40:43 GMT
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This looks great now, wasn't sure about the colour in its old guise but it really suits now!
Another quality job by Chris, well done!
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Jun 30, 2020 19:54:48 GMT
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Thanks funny you should mention the ride height... I did order some stuff last night and yeah, loading it up helps, it’s got a fair bit of rake when it’s empty Another update to look forward to seeing! What is the rear set up like on these? Trailing arm with an independent spring and damper, like a Corsa B? After my MK4 I had a Caddy van, had a rear beam with leaf springs which I obviously flipped to make it low. I was able to make up some adjustable plates, took a bolt out, jacked the back up on the tow bar and bolted it all back together. Was ideal for lugging engines and engineering equipment about. Going by your user name I don't suspect you are carrying around Tonne bags, kangoos and generators in the back, so a little bit of a lower would be liveable I would have thought. This is the joys with coilovers, there is a good bit of adjustability in there. I will continue to follow with interest. Rear suspension is a beam with Independant coil and damper, Don’t carry too much, but when you get a few drums of twin and earth in there it does add up! The front end is struts, but the hub is part of the arm, and the rear has separate coils and dampers. There are coil over conversion kits, GAZ do a conversion to Gold which would be adjustable and low. But for the money I think it would be worth paying a bit more still and bagging it.. |
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Jun 30, 2020 19:58:04 GMT
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This is by far the coolest Astra van I have ever seen, and I had a 2.0l turbo MK4 years ago. Paintwork is blinding, super fantastically awesome in every way. The wheels suit it so perfectly. If it was mine I would have to make it a little lower, but obviously its a work van, so a level of practicality must be maintained. Get some scrap wire in the back there and bring it down a little! Its cooler than your Transporter by a country mile, which is saying something because I love transporters in every way shape and form. Having previously owned a new T6 for a few years the Astra will be a hell of a lot cheaper to run & maintain too Saving on finance is the biggest difference, but being able to work on it myself should also make a difference, I guess I could have worked on the van... but if you do then not having service history is seen as a bad thing when it comes to selling on |
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pOG
Posted a lot
SHATNER'S BASSOON
Posts: 1,341
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Jun 30, 2020 22:21:23 GMT
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Don't know if I've said it before, but this is the lickety-spit of the one I used to drive back in 2000/01.
It was the second-oldest thing on the fleet where I worked (oldest being a battered D-reg Carlton), but I would always try to wangle the burgundy Astra. It weren't as quick as the other vans (which where mainly the later shape 2-litre ones) but by 'eck could you chuck it about. And it never seemed to use much juice regardless of how badly you abused it.
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But for the money I think it would be worth paying a bit more still and bagging it..  YES! |
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John, are you still after a rear window security grille for the tailgate, or did you modify the later version successfully? I think a chap on my lane has a dead van of the same age in his back garden that has the window grille (the brambles growing over it make identifying it's age tricky!) - I could ask if he'd consider selling it next time I see him about? I will add the caveat that he might be "keeping it to restore" as he also has a Porsche 944 in the front garden that he's "going to do up one day" but last time he showed me it you could see the grass growing through the floorpan! Bit of a character. Cheers, Steve |
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John, are you still after a rear window security grille for the tailgate, or did you modify the later version successfully? I think a chap on my lane has a dead van of the same age in his back garden that has the window grille (the brambles growing over it make identifying it's age tricky!) - I could ask if he'd consider selling it next time I see him about? I will add the caveat that he might be "keeping it to restore" as he also has a Porsche 944 in the front garden that he's "going to do up one day" but last time he showed me it you could see the grass growing through the floorpan! Bit of a character. Cheers, Steve I would be interested if it’s available.... I have partially made one with weld mesh, and Keith has some but we’d need to identify with one, if any would fit.... but if there is certified correct one I’d take it, thanks |
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Had the van back a week, and not done much since last weekend tbh I swapped the number plate screws, tiny difference but so much better   It was also my birthday, and I got some car cleaning bits  We were going to see some friends, with a holiday cottage next door at the weekend... so Ella drove up to their house in the Corsa. I had a job to do and then made my way up after work as I was near the M1 anyway. Since I was going to sit on the motorway for an hour, after the job I temporarily fitted the tailgate loom so I’d have rear speakers...  It was a last minute decision made just before I set off, so pulled into an industrial estate to fit..... and because the loom wasn’t fitted in the week I’ve been having to use the lock on the tailgate, which is a deadlock when the central locking is working. Wired it up, shut the boot and couldn’t find the keys.... yup, I’d left them in the back! I had to unbolt the bulkhead guard and then climb through to open the door, then fall out of the back before climbing in again and refixing the guard and recovering the keys.... all under the watchful eyes of some truck drivers Anyway, the speakers worked... I’ll sort the loom out this week And got a couple of thumbs up on the M1, and comments all through the week about the van |
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Also, I contacted the previous owner of the van, Kevin. I sent him a message and a couple of photos. He replied, and said he’d found my thread (either here or mk3oc, but if it’s here... Hello! ) and was going to comment, we had a chat and he gave me the actual history of the van, said he’d root out some photos when he first got it in Jarvis Rail livery, which I’ll post here when I get them. Before painting, the livery was sometimes visible when dirty  He also said “It was white for only a year or so, then red with Jarvis stickers when Jarvis bought Fastline. I peeled the stickers off when I bought it off my employer Jarvis. That will be the date at the start of my maintenance log. Amazing how the Jarvis logo has always come back despite so much polishing.” And I asked if it had been his van from new as I was told, and was told “No. It was first issued to the On-Track machine supervisor at Guide Bridge, greater Manchester. I became the Maintenance Manager for there and Liverpool summer 1999. I used the van alternate weekends and at the time the mileage was very low. The timing belt went on it when I was on the way home from Hatfield rail crash October 2000, and it was recovered to Vauxhall main dealer in Leicester? for engine repair. Ford couriers were being brought in during 2001, but Lex Leasing chose to keep P204 due to such low mileage. I kept hold of it for me for a while until a Ford Focus was allocated to me. It then went to Newcastle for the Supervisor there until the lease end, when I bought it off Lex knowing it was still relatively low mileage.” Which I think is pretty interesting, will try to sort a show next year and meet up hopefully |
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Jul 11, 2020 19:35:48 GMT
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Been quiet this week, we were away last weekend and when we got home it became obvious that there were issues next door. The issues were terrible, Luke, the 26 year old son died unexpectedly. As a result I’ve stayed out of the way as there have been plenty of visitors etc.... with everything else going on, they really don’t need me crashing and bashing about. Decided today was fair game though, and Lucy worked last night and is in again tonight, so I had to be quiet until 5ish when she got up... so started by fixing the tailgate loom, I cut some wire out of the spare Corsa at the farm (yep, still there... it was ready to be collected on 10th December... it is now full of other scrap and has given up even more since) so spliced new cables in either side of the cracked and damaged section. I didn’t take any photos though so just imagine it Then put the tailgate back together properly. Yesterday, the van developed a knock on the front end, so I needed to investigate that, so whilst sorting that it seemed the ideal time to look at the ride height again So when I first lowered it, the only springs I could find that were load rated for a van was the bilsten/eibachs. They were rated 860kg front and 870kg rear, where most others were rated 800kg... that’s probably fine for the estates which are only loaded occasionally but as I run with load most of time it’d be soft on the rear and hard on the front, hence I ordered the eibach -35 springs. Since I didn’t swap the rear springs, I started looking for some -60 front springs rated 860kg, with some careful choosing ta technix do some, which were ordered from Germany (because it was cheaper to buy a -60/-40 full set of springs for a caravan than to get anything in UK) And this afternoon when Lucy got up I swapped the springs again, and the other top mount that was the source of the knock!   So it has -60 ta technix springs on the front, and -35 eibach springs on the back, but the load ratings are right     Only went 5 miles up the road, and the light was against me.... but you get the idea I’ll wash it tomorrow and take some more photos soon |
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