Post by carloskadetts on Jun 8, 2009 2:35:57 GMT
thought i'd better get round to doing a thread for my coup as its probably about 80% complete now, so here goes..
bought this off a guy i was working with back in 2000.he wouldn't part with it then,but he phoned me the following spring and i became the owner on april fools day 2001.
my brother and i had been driving kadetts since we'd passed our tests but this was the cleanest i'd seen for a long time so i just had to get my hands on it.
it was totally original when i got it, with low mileage of about 43,000 and very faded 22 year old paintwork! i gave it a polish and ran it for a couple of months then booked it in at a bodyshop for a fresh topcoat, as there were little scabs here and there but nothing serious.just found the pics of the respray so i'll start with them:
so after i got it back i basically stored it in a garage and only used it for mot's as the head gasket kept going on it. back then i was running a black/yellow coupe that had the 1.8 manta engine and box with manta a axle. eventually i sold the black/yellow kadett to a guy down south, who wanted to reshell his rally car. we agreed a price and i kept the engine, alloys and other bits and bobs as i had thoughts of one day getting a 16 valver fitted into this white kadett.
this is how it looked last year:
inner wings, floors, sills, etc were all mint. front wings are original which is quite rare on a kadett these days, so i can't do a thread on the rebuild of the car because its never really been touched. lucky me.
so, fast forward to 2008, with a couple of visits to billing inbetween, and i decided it was time for the 16v project to begin.
i'd been running an astra gsi for the last 4 years as a daily driver but it was a bit rotten, so i decided to break it, and along with the manta 1.8 engine i had nearly everything i needed for the xe conversion. i had to get another a series manta axle as i never got my old one back off the guy who bought my previous kadett, which annoyed me a bit as they are rare and costly these days.
2008 was a busy year for me. i'd just moved house, the other half wanted a new kitchen, bathroom, etc etc, and on top of that we were getting married that year too! so i decided to get a proffesional to do the engine conversion for me and after spending ages on the net one night i spoke to a guy called simon who owned suffolk county mantas. he'd put the xe into numerous a and b mantas. i'd seen his own manta at billing and in a couple of mags so i knew he churned out some top work. i decided to go and meet him to discuss the job and we soon agreed on what the end product should look like. i wanted the engine bay to look as good as possible with fresh paint and polished bits etc, but after seeing a v8 cortina he'd just finished, i soon told him to add a bit of custom touch and hide everything possible!
it was later in the year before he could fit me in, but he even managed to put me in touch with a low milage manta a axle. i delivered the astra in september and the kadett in october. so after 7 years of ownership the project was finally about to start.
this was the astra donor car, and below is the cavalier which i got to replace it as my daily driver..
the red kadett is the next project but that wont be turned around in 6 months like this one.
oh,and i dont have a fetish for white cars! before people suggest it, ha ha, its just the way things worked out.
i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/carloskadetts/mon13oct2009.jpg[/img]
middle of october and the tear down begins at the workshop...
engine was dropped in to see how everything was going to fit. i'd decided to splash out on some sbd throttle bodies which look a 100 times better, gain a few more bhp, but help to do away with a lot of the factory fitted junk, so the fit was perfect. although the bulkhead did have to be reshaped slightly to help with the fit.
washer bottle was here but that had to find a new home...
battery tray was here, but thats going to find a new home in the boot. not the best of pictures because the flash reflected back off the bare metal.
once everything had been worked out, redundant holes welded up and everything removed that wasn't needed it was stripped bare so it could be sealed, treated, smoothed out, primered and painted.
as this was all going on the engine was cleaned and repainted, and built back up with the clutch and gearbox
next time i went to see the progress, the engine bay was painted and simon had got the engine in to give me an idea of how it was going to look in the end. the brilliant white paint and smooth clean look was exactly what i had in my head but in the flesh, it was probably better than i'd been expecting.
next up was to get the guy to come down and measure up for the custom alloy rad and oil cooler, which cost me more than the original price i paid for the car! this took a few weeks to be made which gave simon the time to work along the running gear from front to back.
first off was the front end. for this we used the astra callipers paired up with new vented discs which are meant for an audi. the discs had the right offset to fit, but had to have the centre hole enlarged slightly to fit perfect. they fit perfect now and look as they should, no dodgy brackets as i've seen elsewhere on the web!
all the brake lines were replaced and the new suspension set was fitted. i went for the spax psx kit because they're adjustable so if i do some track days you can stiffen it right up, or you can soften it for normal driving.
over the next year or so i intend to pull all the running gear off and get it powder coated and get some other bits polished and chromed, but i've spent so much this last 12 months that its going to have to do as it is for now.
the manta a axle isn't a straight swap like people say. the crossmember that supports the torque tube is different and needs making up out of the two. but it is quite straight forward and looks factory fit when its done.
with the running gear ready and the radiator/oil cooler delivered,brakes bled up and most things sorted, it was starting to near the time when it was ready to fire up. the engine bay was nearing completion now.
i started to look for some new wheels and had got the idea in my head of how i wanted it to be in the end. originally i wanted it yellow and white like the gte's, after a guy who lives near me took me for a spin in his gte a couple of years back. (i'll have to try and get him to join the site). it was so eye catching, but in the end i wanted the retro 70's look. i wanted it to look like it was made like that. i wanted to keep all the chrome, and other things that made it retro, so i've bought some ats cups which suit it well with the deep dish.
here's some up to date pictures. hope you all like it but let me know either way
i've got the top of the car more or less how i want it. the ride hight has a 60mm drop. i think the chrome bumpers and trim, and wheels, go well with the general look of it. at some point i'm going to get the paint done again, just to get it perfect.
this is how the engine bay is now, not much left to do other than maybe polish or chrome the odd bit:
i'm going to get the cambelt cover polished or chromed, and probably get the engine rebuilt and tweeked over the next couple of winters. future plans include a retrim with leather or half leather recaros but due to me having too many cars this might be a couple of years off yet.
now i've got it back and on the road, i've gotta say a big shout out to simon who did the work for me. i'm so pleased with how it goes,stops, and handles that i might just do the red one the same.
this is what she sounds like:
double click on the pic to get the video clip
bought this off a guy i was working with back in 2000.he wouldn't part with it then,but he phoned me the following spring and i became the owner on april fools day 2001.
my brother and i had been driving kadetts since we'd passed our tests but this was the cleanest i'd seen for a long time so i just had to get my hands on it.
it was totally original when i got it, with low mileage of about 43,000 and very faded 22 year old paintwork! i gave it a polish and ran it for a couple of months then booked it in at a bodyshop for a fresh topcoat, as there were little scabs here and there but nothing serious.just found the pics of the respray so i'll start with them:
so after i got it back i basically stored it in a garage and only used it for mot's as the head gasket kept going on it. back then i was running a black/yellow coupe that had the 1.8 manta engine and box with manta a axle. eventually i sold the black/yellow kadett to a guy down south, who wanted to reshell his rally car. we agreed a price and i kept the engine, alloys and other bits and bobs as i had thoughts of one day getting a 16 valver fitted into this white kadett.
this is how it looked last year:
inner wings, floors, sills, etc were all mint. front wings are original which is quite rare on a kadett these days, so i can't do a thread on the rebuild of the car because its never really been touched. lucky me.
so, fast forward to 2008, with a couple of visits to billing inbetween, and i decided it was time for the 16v project to begin.
i'd been running an astra gsi for the last 4 years as a daily driver but it was a bit rotten, so i decided to break it, and along with the manta 1.8 engine i had nearly everything i needed for the xe conversion. i had to get another a series manta axle as i never got my old one back off the guy who bought my previous kadett, which annoyed me a bit as they are rare and costly these days.
2008 was a busy year for me. i'd just moved house, the other half wanted a new kitchen, bathroom, etc etc, and on top of that we were getting married that year too! so i decided to get a proffesional to do the engine conversion for me and after spending ages on the net one night i spoke to a guy called simon who owned suffolk county mantas. he'd put the xe into numerous a and b mantas. i'd seen his own manta at billing and in a couple of mags so i knew he churned out some top work. i decided to go and meet him to discuss the job and we soon agreed on what the end product should look like. i wanted the engine bay to look as good as possible with fresh paint and polished bits etc, but after seeing a v8 cortina he'd just finished, i soon told him to add a bit of custom touch and hide everything possible!
it was later in the year before he could fit me in, but he even managed to put me in touch with a low milage manta a axle. i delivered the astra in september and the kadett in october. so after 7 years of ownership the project was finally about to start.
this was the astra donor car, and below is the cavalier which i got to replace it as my daily driver..
the red kadett is the next project but that wont be turned around in 6 months like this one.
oh,and i dont have a fetish for white cars! before people suggest it, ha ha, its just the way things worked out.
i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/carloskadetts/mon13oct2009.jpg[/img]
middle of october and the tear down begins at the workshop...
engine was dropped in to see how everything was going to fit. i'd decided to splash out on some sbd throttle bodies which look a 100 times better, gain a few more bhp, but help to do away with a lot of the factory fitted junk, so the fit was perfect. although the bulkhead did have to be reshaped slightly to help with the fit.
washer bottle was here but that had to find a new home...
battery tray was here, but thats going to find a new home in the boot. not the best of pictures because the flash reflected back off the bare metal.
once everything had been worked out, redundant holes welded up and everything removed that wasn't needed it was stripped bare so it could be sealed, treated, smoothed out, primered and painted.
as this was all going on the engine was cleaned and repainted, and built back up with the clutch and gearbox
next time i went to see the progress, the engine bay was painted and simon had got the engine in to give me an idea of how it was going to look in the end. the brilliant white paint and smooth clean look was exactly what i had in my head but in the flesh, it was probably better than i'd been expecting.
next up was to get the guy to come down and measure up for the custom alloy rad and oil cooler, which cost me more than the original price i paid for the car! this took a few weeks to be made which gave simon the time to work along the running gear from front to back.
first off was the front end. for this we used the astra callipers paired up with new vented discs which are meant for an audi. the discs had the right offset to fit, but had to have the centre hole enlarged slightly to fit perfect. they fit perfect now and look as they should, no dodgy brackets as i've seen elsewhere on the web!
all the brake lines were replaced and the new suspension set was fitted. i went for the spax psx kit because they're adjustable so if i do some track days you can stiffen it right up, or you can soften it for normal driving.
over the next year or so i intend to pull all the running gear off and get it powder coated and get some other bits polished and chromed, but i've spent so much this last 12 months that its going to have to do as it is for now.
the manta a axle isn't a straight swap like people say. the crossmember that supports the torque tube is different and needs making up out of the two. but it is quite straight forward and looks factory fit when its done.
with the running gear ready and the radiator/oil cooler delivered,brakes bled up and most things sorted, it was starting to near the time when it was ready to fire up. the engine bay was nearing completion now.
i started to look for some new wheels and had got the idea in my head of how i wanted it to be in the end. originally i wanted it yellow and white like the gte's, after a guy who lives near me took me for a spin in his gte a couple of years back. (i'll have to try and get him to join the site). it was so eye catching, but in the end i wanted the retro 70's look. i wanted it to look like it was made like that. i wanted to keep all the chrome, and other things that made it retro, so i've bought some ats cups which suit it well with the deep dish.
here's some up to date pictures. hope you all like it but let me know either way
i've got the top of the car more or less how i want it. the ride hight has a 60mm drop. i think the chrome bumpers and trim, and wheels, go well with the general look of it. at some point i'm going to get the paint done again, just to get it perfect.
this is how the engine bay is now, not much left to do other than maybe polish or chrome the odd bit:
i'm going to get the cambelt cover polished or chromed, and probably get the engine rebuilt and tweeked over the next couple of winters. future plans include a retrim with leather or half leather recaros but due to me having too many cars this might be a couple of years off yet.
now i've got it back and on the road, i've gotta say a big shout out to simon who did the work for me. i'm so pleased with how it goes,stops, and handles that i might just do the red one the same.
this is what she sounds like:
double click on the pic to get the video clip