dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Well the time came to finally buy myself a decent car instead of bombing around in cheap shitters  msl:
All though my last work bomber was a £100 Calibra 16v cost me £40 in bits to get it through an MOT and i've had a years hassle free motoring out of it only having to replace a CV joint and a couple of gaitors so not bad at all 
Here she is in all her glory:
I took her for her MOT knowing she'd fail but on how much i wanted to know 3 pages later it was concluesive she was destined to be stripped and weighed in :cry:
Shame really as it was such a confortable car to drive and sat happily at 90mph on motorway (private one ) but now i'll be having her hassle free engine out as it's a DIS as well and things like equal length shafts etc out and selling any other bits before weighing her in and probably still get £100 back for her :clap:
So here's my new daily driver it's a 51 plate Europa blue 2.2L Bertone SE1 has done 72K and has FSH and 12 months MOT and is mint inside and out bar a broken filler cap catch but thats an easy fix, it's standard bar a tinted rear screen, matching alcantara handbrake and gear gaitor, some custom mats and full blue LED's which look really good tbh.
And my favorite part the black leather and blue alcantara interior
Planned mods are gonna be cosmetic to start with:
De-badged grill and boot lid
HID's (possibly, not driven at night yet, but anything like calibra definatly will)
Paint wheels (anthraite)
Fit coilovers and slam on it's arse
Fit some 19" snowflakes or BBS style rims (at a later date)
Back box or i'll make full system
not gonna touch engine as it's a daily driver (famous last words msl: )
although would be tempted with a super charger kit
Gonna look after this unlike the calibra, I'll even wash it unlike the one wash the calibra got in a year msl:
[Edited on 14-02-2015 by dewismotorsport]
[Edited on 01-04-2016 by dewismotorsport]
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dewismotorsport
Member
Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Couldn't resist buying myself a few bits, after some bastard tried scamming me (VXR888, Samgsi, Frog or whatever you wanna call yourself), i went and spoke to Turbo Chris at CS autos and dragged him out of bed early on his day off (sorry mate) and bagged myself a genuine gsi bumper, Irmscher rear spats and a new fuel cap as mine doesn't lock properly
added bonus is there all in europa blue so don't need painting, will fit them when i shake my new years eve hangover off msl:
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Got round to fitting front bumper and fuel flap today
Bumper off
And new one on and a quick wash
Will fit rear spats tomorrow hopefully, just waiting on new grill and headlamp eyebrows and will order some tinted number plates also
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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got the car down to work and had a look around it on the ramp all seems fine, while it was up there i fitted the irmscher rear spats
then removed the Bertone badges from the sides as i'm not a fan of them
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Small update as i'm still waiting on other bits to turn up but my grill arived today and was litrally a two minute job to fit, looks a million times better than the standard V grill
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Couple more parcels turned up today, one had the irmscher heater dial surounds and traction control switch panel, still need to buy the loom for this though, all fitted
And the other had the tinted number plates in
Looks moodier with them on I think
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Fixed another small fault from when I bought the car, one of the check straps on the glove box had snapped off and it's the one that's meant to turn the light off, so it's permanently on which ain't good 
Ordered these off eBay there the newer type (top one, old one bellow) with two positions
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Vectra C intake pipe turned up today, is a fair bit bigger than the original and a lot less restrictive
Was a bit of a tight squeeze to get the old one out but much swearing and brut force got it out, while i was at it i derestricted the air box as well, amazing how much shite they put in it
Decided to change my CD player as it came with a crap Sony one, and the areial had come out the back so had rubbish reception, so i nicked the DVD head unit out of the corsa, the old one put up a good fight on the way out, i also removed the whole console as i droped my screw driver down the back :cry:
Made a hole in the bottom of the tray so that the ipod jack can come through
no photos of it all fitted as i forgot and was too tired
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Ridiculously small update msl:
Fitted the smoked side repeater much better than the clear ones
also got a photo of new head unit fitted up and as you can see previous owner did a full blue LED conversion
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Called in at Taunton on the way home from work to drop an inlet off to Chip and while I was there got Leslie to mix me some paint up for the car as you can't buy it off the shelf :cry:
Can finally get round to painting the headlamp eye brows now, just wanna say a massive thanks to Chip and Leslie for treating me to the paint :clap: Nice one mate :beer:
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Finally treated her to a decent set of wheels, bought these VXR wheels today and couldn't resist fitting them, 19's plus no coilovers is not good, so come pay day they'll be on order, and a set of shorter drop links
Also wasted £5 on a crap illegal immigrant car wash, car was still dirty so will do it again, serves me right for being lazy
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Another small update, got round to painting and fitting the headlight eyebrows, got these to cover the cloudy tops of the lights
And just a tidy up mod done to the bonnet release catch as it stuck out and you could always see it when the bonnet was down so a quick bit of trimming and a modded catch later it's a lot better
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Long time since my last update but i've been pumping all my time and money into my corsa so this has just been driven and thats it as this is just my daily driver and not my main project
I couldn't get the corsa ready in time for the spring action day at castle combe on saturday so i'm gonna take the astra instead, not good really as i still haven't got round to buying the coilovers nor have i done the traction control switch so ain't expecting much out of it
Seeing as it's going round track i treated it to a oil and filter change, i emptyed the oil and flushed it through with about 4 litres and then wacked some more oil in ran it for 5 minutes with a bit of load and then dumped that as well, glad i did as it was still a bit dirty, topped it up with new oil and it now purs really quitely
Also seeing as it's off round track i need to squeeze some much needed power out of it, so set about taking the exhaust off and removing the pre cat, amazed how blocked up it looked
Chain drilled it and then chiseled the rest out
Cleaned it all up before re fitting
Have to admit it's made a noticeable difference to how the car picks up so highly recomend it
on a slightly gayer note i clay bar'd the car the other day and it came up a treat, i'm not really a car cleaning type but was more than happy with the result, so today i washed it again and gave it a polish and hoovered it out to try and save some weight msl:
It may not be fast round track but at least it will look good
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
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Well just got back from combe and to say I had an interesting time on track is an understatement! I wasn't expecting much out the car and it certainly delivered....... Nothing! I nearly span it on the first bend (mainly my fault tbh) had a serious case of cold tires and lift off oversteer, managed to catch it with full opposite lock only for it to bite and go the other way full lock caught that but put the back tyre on the grass causing me to get a flat tyre unknown to me as I drove it out laughing to a very nervous looking passenger lmao
Carried on with the session finding the suspension wallowing at ever bend and massive brake fade within 3-4 laps, one lap tried braking for the chicane only to find they weren't doing what I wanted so decided to blank it and tell my passenger were going over the grass instead lmao
Result of my off
Safe to say i'll be putting some coilovers, decent brakes and tires before I even think about using it on track again
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Some more pics from castle Combe
Early morning drive there
On the Vauxsport stand
Who needs rear wheel drive to drift
And the result of that little off
And a few of me blowing up the spare
msl:
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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One of my car going round a bend properly msl:
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dewismotorsport
Member
Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Well haven't updated this for ages as I've just been using it tbh, spend all my money on the corsa project as this is just my daily drive
Mostly maintenance work really like aero wipers, changed the crank sense as the eml came on and changed the front indicator bulbs for mirrored ones as I hate the fried egg look
Bought a complete set of tyres off eBay as the front two ditch finders were almost bald and the inner edge was showing canvas in one place, managed to get a set of 4 used Nexen NX3000 235/35/R19's for £138 + £20 delivery :clap: I'd never heard of them so googled them and every review was positive so thought I'd chance it, 2 had 7mm and other 2 had 5mm so took them to get fitted and balanced
While I was there I got him to stick it on the ramp and do a laser wheel tracking for me
Can't believe how good the tyres are compared to the old ditch finders that was a mix of fullrun (worst tyre ever invented) and Kuhmo equally crap had no choice as they came on the wheels when I bought them :cry: In the dry they grip really well, not tested in the wet yet but hoping they'll be equally good.
The front brakes are on there way out as well so i'm upgrading to Turbo brakes as there bigger at 308mm instead of 280mm so I've bought a complete set of nearly new EBC drilled and groves discs, calipers and carriers and Red stuff pads so should have some confidence in braking now, will change the fluid to 5.1 while I'm at it. I still haven't lowered it yet :cry: Hoping to do that soon though as I hate how wallowy it is and looks crap as well.
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Decided to treat her to a bit of TLC took a trip to see Ben (Nemisis) today to pick up a couple of new wings and a bonnet as so idiot has scraped my drivers side wing with there bumper so wanted to replace it and the other is just a spare tbh, will fit it once back at work next week
Ben was sound enough to part ex my bonnet for one of his as mine had a dent under the grill which has always annoyed me, so within 5 minutes we had them swapped over and was good as new
Such simple thing but makes a big difference, plan is to try and find a drivers door as well as it's had a dent repair before and now I know it's there it's doing my head in, once that's done it'll be a very tidy car again
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
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Got round to fitting the new wing today was a really easy job tbh only one bolt that needed baby hands to get too
While I was at it I decided to cut down the plastic inner arch in preparation to lowering it
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Well decided to upgrade my brakes as the standard 2.2 brakes are crap so sourced some gsi turbo 308mm ones managed to get like new EBC discs and Redstuff pads
Gave them a good clean up and removed the old paint before re painting them in heat resistant blue
All fitted up and blead will give them a good test tomorrow
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Well the old girl is still serving me well chomping up the miles getting me between Plymouth and Coventry weekly
In way of payment for doing Robs exhaust I got to have his 2 1/4" stainless system off his mk3 Astra turbo was straight through with a bike rear can so gave him that back but bought a back box which was meant to be for a Astra coupe but wasn't as it didn't fit :cry: was only £20 so no dramas I just had to now make it fit, I wanted an extra silencer for the middle so had a look in the store and found a land rover back box which are very compact so used that
Removed the old rotten crap and the heat shield which was loose as it had come away from around the bolts
Modded the back box to fit
And removed some of the tail pipe surround to miss the tow bar and rear metal valence
All welded up and fitted
As you can see i have a tow bar, which me and Rich spent the evening fitting so that I can tow the corsa this year as its too expensive having to insure and tax etc when it's not used much on the road tbh :cry:
At some point I'm gonna make a plug so I can remove the electrics from outside the car, and I'll remove the ball and back plate and colour code the rest so you can't see it as much as they are a bit of an eye sore
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Well it's finally happen.......
Treated her to some coilovers, got a good deal on some JOM so thought it rude not too
Fronts fitted up with the shorted drop links
On there lowest setting just to see what it looked like
Rears fitted up
Chopped the bump stops down and removed both top and bottom rubber platforms and also ditched the height adjuster
Had to remove the rear bumper bracket completely and some of the valence to allow for no srubbage
Then whipped out the tracking gear and reset it back to normal
Next time I buy tyres I will get 215/35/R19 instead of the 235/35/R19 just to allow me more space on the fronts
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Treated her to a fairy liquid wash and a hoover as the car was filthy and changed the spark plugs while I was at it
Few pics
My favourite, have a new found love for the car again
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Been having a few problems of late turned out to be a faulty alternator not kicking out enough power and then eventually dying all of a sudden causing lose of power steering and various other side effects whilest at speed on a dual carriageway :cry:
New re furb item was £149  But a quick scan of eBay found a recently refurbished one for £43 delivered :clap:
Nipped round to Rich's house as I have no tools with me and let the apprentice help fit it
Powered up and everything back to normal :thumb:
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dewismotorsport
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Registered: 16th Feb 08
Location: Coventry & Poole
User status: Offline
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Still trying to cure my P0378 fault code, so far different battery, alternator, crank sensor, spark plugs and now coil pack
But still no change :cry:
Will give it a good service once back at work and investigate further with op com
Will also re gas the air con as its coming into the warm weather now :clap:
Finally got round to getting myself the TC loom so I can get rid of the intrusive TC
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