89 Gte

[GTE999]

Hi all,

Thought i would do a wip thread. First some details about the car.

I bought the car in September last year and travelled down to whitley bay from Ayrshire. I had been looking for a while and having owned a couple of novas in the past, saw this one and new it was ok.


http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010058.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010059.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010066.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010065.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010052.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010049.jpg

Ive drove it for a couple of months mainly as a second car and now its time to tidy it up a little. Looking for some opinions on the following:

I cant decide whether to do an xe transplant or keep with the original 1600 and tune it???

Also ive bought some standard gte wheel trims and am thinking of putting them on with standard wheels to make it a sleeper.

Now to get on with the pictures and story:

First the heater blower went and a hole blew in the manifold

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010063.jpg

Then found a "WET" carpet. On further inspection found a sm

all pool of water

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010038.jpg

And on even closer inspection, found the cause

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010045.jpg






Anyway, its not all doom and gloom because the shell is actually not bad and with some little work will be "sound".

Some pics of the engine bay which needs welding as well

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010062.jpg



I'll be getting the welding done asap and post pics when its done.

Also whats your opinion on an xe or tuned 1600??

cheers
craig

[GTE999]

Forgot to add the pictures of the wet carpet insulation

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010032.jpg

along with the Hole from underneath the car

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010046.jpg

[GTE999]

Should also have mentioned that since i got the car, ive mainly removed the masses of old stero wires and generally tidied up. Also changed the momo steering wheel back to standard and bought new front and rear lamps and the rears were euro style and the fronts were errrr rusty.

[brucer]

exterior looks very nice.id keep the standard 1600 and tune it.every body puts xe's in these days.with mine i wanted to keep it gte spec'd as there getting hard to come by.

but up to you.

btw i like the mirrors and wheels.

[Steve]

I'd definetaly keep it as original as possible, std gte's are hard to come by, especially one that isnt XE'd.

Std lump is fairly quick, and would be decent with a set of twin carbs. :thumb:

[steveturbo]

this used to live down my way ive seen it plenty times and even considered buying it off joe just didnt have the funds at the time.
its a very good example and i would keep it as a 1600 8v GTE lump.
bye the way those HIDs are bloody bright when its behind you lol

[GTE999]

Cheers

Unfortunately i cant take the credit for the mirrors or wheels (previous owners work) but im changing the mirrors for standard items anyway and want to put it back to steel wheels with the trims.

[Shaun_O'Donnell]

Whereabouts are you mate?

[GTE999]

Yeah the hids are bright (even if you do adjust the headlamp adjuster). Again im getting shot of them.

Im from glasgow mate but have just moved to irvine in ayrshire.

[chimp007_uk]

nice gte! the gte has to be the nicest looking nova imo!

the car's 19years old, looks pretty tidy to me. def keep it 1600! i loved the 2 i had!

[Count Vaux Alot]

Looks like a good project i would like one like that!

[Sherco]

Very nice mate, its very simlar to mine. PM'd you

[ade]

agree keep it 1600!

Lol at the body - how are the arches so good but the underside so patchy!

Like you say - nothing a fre plates wont sort out.

very tidy car though!

[twistysnovagte]

keep it as it is m8 ive just found that my carpet is wet but this iis due to some scumbag cunnt peeling the door, but i will now be all over mine like a rash seing your pics, very nice find:thumb:

[burgo]

im suprised no one else has mentioned the passenger side rear arch yet. its sitting on the wheel in that pic!!! cant be right

[vaughanmc]

My dad was telling me he seen this one going about and I knew what car it was straight away

Keep up the good work mate :)

[twistysnovagte]

im suprised no one else has mentioned the passenger side rear arch yet. its sitting on the wheel in that pic!!! cant be rightyeah surely its not been driven like that as it?and by cutting the arches like the other side youll be opening up a whole lot of futre problems, do not cut your arches have them rolled or tucked in;)

[GTE999]

yeah surely its not been driven like that as it?and by cutting the arches like the other side youll be opening up a whole lot of futre problems, do not cut your arches have them rolled or tucked in;)

Guys, sod knows whats going on in that photo. Its not like that at all. Its probably my photography skills. None of the rear arches have been cut or rolled. There both untouched and according to the service record, were replaced in late 2003.

Although theres a fair bit of rust on the floor pan and engine bay, its by far nothing complicated and wont take much to sort out.

Im going to remove the rest of the sound material tomorrow in preparation for the welding. Ill take more pics in better light then.

Vaughanmc - I work in ayr so your dad will have seen in a few times.

cheers guys.

[hybridturbo]

Ah i wondered if i would ever see it one day in here :D

Am glad your happy with it, i never noticed the water collection in the floor when i had it :eek: and worse the MOT tester musnt have. One of the areas i never got round to was the engine bay, I always had plans to strengthen up the strut tops and paint the whole of the bay but i was using it as my everyday car and never found the time.

The eurorallye manifold is less than a year old, i can olny guess the heat wrap has collected water and rusted through the bugger :confused:

Still a cracking car i hope you get the jobs done i wanted to sort and get it to some shows

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c139/gsijoe/G300/DSCF0200-1.jpg

[Mike B GTE]

Really like this one! nice find mate. Keep it prefacelift and keep the 1.6 8v lump and it will be excellent! looking forward to seeing your progress :thumb:

[GTE999]

Hi joe

Love the car, its been fun the past few months. tbh, the hole in the floor has to be expected with a car this age. Also the heat wrap seems to be the prob with the manifold.

Anyway! Some progress to report

Got the holes in the floor welded up along with the manifold and also managed to sort some standard gte/gsi alloys (cheers slingy).

Will post pics later this week.

Just need to sort out the hid problem and the engine bay now. Also purchased and xe lump with 73k. BUT still not decided on fitting it as im now thinking of tuning the standard 1600. i.e head, cam tb's or t40's.

Wish i could make my mind up!!!!!!!


craig

[Steve]

Nothing wrong with the XE but I think its a bit done to death. Same problem I had last year, but I would say tune the 1.6, cams headwork and a set of bike carbs and you'll be laughing.

[GTE999]

I know mate. tbh, im starting to piss myself off now. Always wanted to do an xe. Done a 2.0 8v 5 years ago, but keep telling myself to keep it standard. Just dont know now!

[GTE999]

Hi all, bit of an update. My original plan was to put the car back to standard, however came across lots of problems in the process which had to be sorted out. For example major leak, fire, buggered blower motor, buggered heater matrix. Also the more and more diggin i done, the more and more holes i found. So here goes, ill try to organise the pics as best as i can!

1st found some holes (before)



http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010045.jpg

after

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/nsfrtweld.jpg

also the same on the o/s

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/osfrtweld.jpg

dont have before pics. Will explain later.

along with the rear suspension turret

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/rearosarchweld.jpg

After i sorted this, i found this

before

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010062.jpg

and

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/P1010060.jpg

after

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/osinnerwing.jpg

Not to happy with the inner arch welds but was done for free by the mot guy to get it through.

After all the welding i though my "leak" was over, however how wrong was i!!! Still found lots of water in the foot wells due to faulty matrix so renewed it

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/newmatrix.jpg
along with a new heater blower since the old one packed up. Was really surprised how easy it was to change these as most folk stated the dash had to come out etc

old blower and matrix

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/oldmotorblower.jpg

[GTE999]

After all this i thought excellent thats the leak fixed. BUT on my way from glasgow to ayrshire on the M8 i saw lots of steam coming from the bonnet which turned out to be this

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/bursthose.jpg

so after being towed 40 miles i went to vxhall and bought these

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/newhose2.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/newhose1.jpg

also bought lots of other hoses just for the sake of it.

As i said i thought my leak was fixed until i saw this

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/causeoftheleak.jpg

and on close inspection found these

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/insidefrtarch2.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/nsfrontarch.jpg

so i sorted this (no pics) (again will explain later)

Just to be on the safe side i thought i would check all rain tubes from the sunroof since i had gone this far and found that they were all fine except the rear n/s which was blocked by crap namely this

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/blockage.jpg

and also found the rear tube wasnt even connected up

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/nsrearraintube.jpg

dirt from the tube

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/dirtfromraingutter.jpg

[GTE999]

also


I hadnt started the car for a couple of weeks due to the burst hoses and water problems so when i sorted the probs i started it and took it out a run. IT was great to drive it again so i took a couple of pics. lol at how high the rear is since ive removed the hole interior.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/randomshot2.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/gte999/randomshot.jpg

Well folks thats about it for now. The reason for the lack of some pics are due to the sister in law "BORROWING MY CAMERA" for "HER PARTY" and then loosing it grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The plans for tommorrow are to grind back all the welds and sand and paint the interior.

Should also have mentioned ive now managed to source a complete mint gte interior so this will be in soon.

cheers
craig

p.s the reason for the rust round the welds in due to me being lazy and not sorting the leak problem sooner.

p.p.s if anyones looking for a mint gsi interior let me know because i have one. Only prob is the front seats have no subframes as i need these since being conned by an ebay member "shrewsburyfan1". Also i cant post or deliver, so get your backsides down and make me an offer. Will post pics later this week and am not looking for crazy money for them.

[vaughanmc]

Good progress mate - I wish I could drive, I'd come down and see it :)

[GTE999]

Thanks mate. Just need to get the floor prep'd and painted today and get my interior fitted and thats it hopefully.

[liam944nova]

nice car mate remember seeing it drive round ayr before i moved in december

[Sherco]

Hello again mate. Shes coming on nicley, keep it up. Also PM'd you

[Shaun]

love it mate, keep the 1600 and tune it!!

u have pm also mate :)

[Matt GTE]

Lovely looking car, really need to get on with mine but have two Vectra GSi's to deal with and get rid of 1st :(.

[Dave.]

and also managed to sort some standard gte/gsi alloys (cheers slingy).

does that mean you can finally sell the comps to my mate twisty (twistysnovagte) becaus ei know hes been dying for them lol

[GTE999]

does that mean you can finally sell the comps to my mate twisty (twistysnovagte) becaus ei know hes been dying for them lol

should be able to once i get some standard calipers. The standard 3 spokes dont fit over the 16v ones! doh!

Plus since the cars in the body shop at the moment, its set me back a couple of weeks (funking ice cream van drivers). Went to the bodyshop yesterday for an update and its looking good. ive had the doors/bonnet and wings sprayed also. I should get it back tomorrow so will post pics. All i need to do then is put in all the original interior ive sourced and thats me finished (fingers crossed).

cheers
craig

[hybridturbo]

Looking forward to the update mate

[vaughanmc]

Really tidy looking car mate, nice noise when you drove away :)

Look forward to seeing it at the meet

[cole.321]

you sellin the alloys mate

[~~joycey~~]

Good stuff fella :thumb: