Hello PNG

[JunkMan]

As its usually forum etiquette to introduce yourself I thought I would.

My name is Gary Matthews and im 20 years old living in herefordshire, I have a love for driving that was given to me by my dad allowing me to drive his Land Rover Discovery down Weston-Super-Mare beach when i was about 12.


I learned to drive in a little 1.2 Nova Spin, the only reason i brought it was:
It was cheap, about £300
It was boxxy, i hate rounded cars (The Corsa B i owned after the Nova was an eyesore)
It was white with a orange flower on the bonnet!!
As i said ive owned a Corsa B but that would require an entire website in its self for how jinxed it was (might make a book on it called "raves, break-ins and stonehenge" or "How i learned to stop hating and start despising the Corsa")

Ive joined the forum as im looking for a new car and am interested in a nova saloon and after checking some insurnce quotes (£990 for the cheapest which isnt too bad, Nova £1700, Corsa £1500) Ive become pretty set on the idea, and if theres anybody on the internet that could help me relise my dream of a nice Nova saloon then its going to be you guys.

Thank you for taking time to read, i know it was alittle long winded but i got carried away, i hope that i can eventually be able to start helping other members out as my knowlege grows with reading the forum.

JunkMan/Gary

[Andy]

Welcome.

[mk1nova_rich]

Welcome along mate :thumb:

[mowgli]

oh boy were you misled............


lol


welcome to the png, don't feed the animals

[steviegsi]

Welcome :thumb:

[swedge]

welcome along :) like mowgli said dont feed the animals or place your hands in the cages ;)

[TeddyThom]

Welcome, your straight jacket will be in the post just as soon as you decide to become a red fonter lol

[Southie]

http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/welcome1.jpg

[Lewis.]

Welcome along Gary, it's nice to read a proper introduction thread, unlike some of the text type rubbish other new users spout lol

Loons are great, what have you got planned for it?

http://cdnet.myxer.com/tn/c/692151/big/?t=20081219200952

[Hayley]

Hello from the laaaaaddy quater

[Tanya.]

Yay for saloons. Welcome to PNG.

[JunkMan]

Im thinking along the lines of subtlty, as if Vauxhall made a nice special edition or something, im not the kinda person for gawdy over the top things, alot of novas have been ruined by chavs going to halfords and I cant bring myself to do it. Some general ideas I have are:


White paint
Black 15"s (I have to look round though, as at the moment most the aftermarket wheels I find just look terrible)
Drop it by 30mm, ive been informed this is the lowest you "should" go, ive seen alot of kits go down to 50mm, would appreicate some help on this.
Good brakes, i dont want to touch performance until I can make the thing go round corners level and stop quickly.
Uprated sound system, Properly E.Qed out. I studied audio engineering for a year and it taught me to hate down on most car stereo systems people put in due to the need for MOER BASSES LOLOZLOZOR!!! :/
I want to uprate the preformance but sadly this is where I am clueless and would love the help of PNG.
Not comprehensive, but gives you a good idea of what im thinking. Just need to find a good (4 door) saloon now.

Ive seen them advertised from £450 upto £3000 so im a little lost on what i should be paying for a ok condition model and what things I should lookout for.

[Gareth_C]

Welcome to the house of fun mate

[Lewis.]

plans sound good mate, you'll fit right in :thumb:

as far as lowering goes, 60mm is quite acceptable for a hatch, but with loons and their comparably cavernous arches, 100mm + is quite achievable.

As you have already seen, Nova prices are stupid. Some people seem to think their rotten poverty spec hatch is worth 2 grand, while other seem to think that a no expense spared show car is worth less lol

[scott.parker]

Im thinking along the lines of subtlty, as if Vauxhall made a nice special edition or something, im not the kinda person for gawdy over the top things, alot of novas have been ruined by chavs going to halfords and I cant bring myself to do it. Some general ideas I have are:


White paint
Black 15"s (I have to look round though, as at the moment most the aftermarket wheels I find just look terrible)
Drop it by 30mm, ive been informed this is the lowest you "should" go, ive seen alot of kits go down to 50mm, would appreicate some help on this.
Good brakes, i dont want to touch performance until I can make the thing go round corners level and stop quickly.
Uprated sound system, Properly E.Qed out. I studied audio engineering for a year and it taught me to hate down on most car stereo systems people put in due to the need for MOER BASSES LOLOZLOZOR!!! :/
I want to uprate the preformance but sadly this is where I am clueless and would love the help of PNG.
Not comprehensive, but gives you a good idea of what im thinking. Just need to find a good (4 door) saloon now.

Ive seen them advertised from £450 upto £3000 so im a little lost on what i should be paying for a ok condition model and what things I should lookout for.

Welcome along mate,

Nice idea's there mate, as for lowering, as your going for a Saloon and want to keep it looking subtle i would say go for Bilstein shocks and some uprated 60mm lowering springs, as any less then 60mm on a loons round arches will look like nothing but standard stance, you can 100mm or more lower.

Now as for brakes the standard thing to do is a set of ATE calipers and 256mm disk's The calipers were fitted to most cav/calibra and Astra mk2 models, search ebay or ask on here, and the disk are still made and available from your local motor factors at about £50 a pair, or go drilled/grooved from mtec for £75.
Also worth fitting goodridge (or other brands) braided brake lines to stop the flex from old worn rubber type brake pipes etc.

Now as for wheels, i would personally say in 15" for subtlety there is a few nice options, Cavalier Cesaro's, Cav expression wheels, or a standard corsa steel wheel, 15's will be needed for the brake upgrade anyway.

Now for pricing, this is tough one, as you can get what you pay for, or be lucky and grab a bargain, if your prepared to work on it and do body work, or no someone who can then look to spend around the £400-700 mark, other wise about £1200 might get you a very clean mk1/mk2 saloon.

All the best with your search, im just starting a saloon project my self.

Scott

[JunkMan]

Thank you Scott and Lewis for your replys, I have obviously come to the right place!

I didnt know I could drop it that low, ive been looking at hatch parts by the sound of it. I think im going to have to start writing in my notebook these things as there are some good idea's and alot of knowlage floating about.

As for Vauxhall wheels, I had forgot (I know this sounds wierd) that you could buy them, as I said I want to go as if it was a special edition or something so im going to look more carefully into this as a option.

I hope your project comes along good as well, best of luck!

[Connor]

Welcome, your plans sound spot on :thumb: You should be able to find a clean one for 800-1200 imo, anything above are with stupid low miles and dreamers.
Cavalier expression wheels look so good on saloons, or other old style vauxhall wheels. Heres joe_riley's off here for an example, simple and subtle.
http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz145/joeriley_01/IMG_1286.jpg
My old saloon 4dr was lowered by 60mm on some old astra wheels i had lying about and that still left it a relatively comfortable ride with ok handling, even with the massive ditch finders i had on it at the time.
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/22656_243081334925_637964925_3437705_6343040_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/28492_385257904925_637964925_4109365_1743460_n.jpg

[JunkMan]

Welcome, your plans sound spot on :thumb: You should be able to find a clean one for 800-1200 imo, anything above are with stupid low miles and dreamers.
Cavalier expression wheels look so good on saloons, or other old style vauxhall wheels. Heres joe_riley's off here for an example, simple and subtle.
http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz145/joeriley_01/IMG_1286.jpg
My old saloon 4dr was lowered by 60mm on some old astra wheels i had lying about and that still left it a relatively comfortable ride with ok handling, even with the massive ditch finders i had on it at the time.
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/22656_243081334925_637964925_3437705_6343040_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/28492_385257904925_637964925_4109365_1743460_n.jpg

Your saloon is the way im going in my head, I like the two tone look youve got going on as well but id feel un-original if i went along with the same thing! And are the pics of yours with it lowered the 60mm?

[Connor]

Yes there 60mm springs, which isnt low really but i needed to keep it practical as my uni hack and constantly was 5's up doing taxi runs in it no problem, bought it standard for £100 a couple of years back, welded up the arch corners, painted it and put the wheels on etc and sold it to a mate for £400 it then was ruined :( then a lad off here bought it in a sorry state and scrapped it eventually i believe. I got some comparison pics from standard height to -60mm. (ignore stupid plate position lol)
Standard...
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/15769_213793679925_637964925_3283724_5139922_n.jpg
-60mm
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/15769_213797254925_637964925_3283728_3939663_n.jpg
Heres what it looked like the day i bought it compared with my 1st nova which was -60mm, look how high it is!!!!....
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/10630_136464974925_637964925_2707426_5397250_n.jpg

[JunkMan]

Ow my god, its like a SUV! Joking aside lowering it that 60mm does make all the difference aestheically to it, was there a massive diffrence in the way the car rided? I happen to like the position of the number plate as well, a little different.

And the hatchback!! Thats a little beauty, you must of been proud.

[Pete]

Welcome to the forum pal

I'm personally not a fan of loons, but each to their own hay...
Plans sound good tho. Look forward to a project thread

[Connor]

There was a considerate improvement in the cars ride, lost so much boatyness handling wise, and the plate was put there by the previous owner, i didnt wanna take it off as it was seriously cracked but it did eventually fall off lol.
As for the hatch, the loon was only bought due to it being cheap, but then it ended up being the hatches replacement due to an accident in the ice and the back of a van, must of been about a week after this pic was taken. :cry: so the hatch was sold on for peanut as i was at uni and had no where to store it
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/22656_222791224925_637964925_3329831_312953_n.jpg

[JunkMan]

There was a considerate improvement in the cars ride, lost so much boatyness handling wise, and the plate was put there by the previous owner, i didnt wanna take it off as it was seriously cracked but it did eventually fall off lol.
As for the hatch, the loon was only bought due to it being cheap, but then it ended up being the hatches replacement due to an accident in the ice and the back of a van, must of been about a week after this pic was taken. :cry: so the hatch was sold on for peanut as i was at uni and had no where to store it
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/22656_222791224925_637964925_3329831_312953_n.jpg

Thats a horrible story man, I ended up just abandoning my Corsa on a hill in kiddiminster when the immoboliser got stolen, I never saw it again, my uncle went to go collect 3 weeks after I left it and said I didnt want to see it.. I did though, caused me nothing but trouble.

And if it makes it look cooler and ride nicer then its definatly on my list, did you say what shocks you were using?

[Jack]

Well if we're picwhoring saloons, here's mine. 60mm on Spax RSX (front coilovers, but wound down about 60mm), excuse the sh!t wheels...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/251292_10150276671818885_667958884_9199342_6819699 _n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/268216_10150318056538885_667958884_9472226_5744706 _n.jpg

IMO 60mm is the height to have on a saloon. I'm always dubious about 80-100mm as either they look broken or not as low as people quote.

As for price, you should be able to pick up a decent 4dr for £sod all as nobody seems to like anything that has more than 3 doors lol

[JunkMan]

Thank you for the pic-whoring, its nice to see what people have done modification wise.

And so the general concensus is that 60mm is a pretty nice set up?

[burgo]

im afraid im of the -100mm+ variety, simply because it works on saloons

epic lows
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/31513_10150192330795577_692945576_12537084_7658087 _n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/234_43919885576_692945576_2725542_8515_n.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/sclurgess/pv%202008/S7300443.jpg

as for a price on a 4 door, really not a lot as nobody wants them lol

[JunkMan]

Burgo, do you experiance any rubbing on the archs with it dropped the 100mm? And due to the fact i used to do alot of ferrying to free partys in wales, if you were to drive over a field (not the somme, but an ok level field) do you getting any rubbing on the underside?

Sorry for the questions, Mechanically im not too clued up, and I do appreiciate having people that know what there talking about being able to help me.