-
Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Corsa C Ute - Another Toy Story
- Thread starter gavsadler
- Start date
gavsadler
///Member
Time for another update.
Recently I began to notice some irregular tyre wear on my left front tyre. Also, when transporting some rather built passengers, there would be some touching of the tyre on the inside of the fender liner. Through various enquiries and investigations, the diagnosis pointed to some worn suspension components. Long story short, I decided to replace the control arms and stabilizer links.
I decided to try out Teknorot (thanks Tashick), their parts are good quality, and reasonably priced. The salesman was also confident and gave me a 1yr warranty on the parts (although it must be said that he was less confident after hearing that I have a big-ass 2l turbo motor and gearbox sitting up front now
).
New stabilizer link:
New control arms:
Old control arm + new one:
New stuff fitted:
Now comes the fun part, evaluating the condition of the old parts. I'll let the pics do the talking:
Old LHS stabilizer link:
Old control arms:
Clearly, the old stuff is pretty shot. The ball joints could be moved with 2 fingers. Same goes for the stabiliser links, if you shook them the ends would flap around all over the place. Also the tears in the rubbers on the control arms signify that their life was fast drawing to an end.
Then I finally got round to measuring the ride height after fitting the new motor - see below (measured from the ground to the inside of the plastic arches).
Front:
Standard height: 657mm
With Koni setup: 618mm
With Koni setup + 2l motor and gearbox: 600mm
Rear:
Standard height: 705mm
With Koni setup: 648mm
With Koni setup + 2l motor and gearbox: 640mm
So I basically have a 18mm drop courtesy of the bigger stuff fitted in front, and a corresponding 8mm drop in the rear. This could explain the touching.
Be warned, if you're an "oomph-type-of-a-product" and require a lift, I may just ask you to jump on the back in future
Recently I began to notice some irregular tyre wear on my left front tyre. Also, when transporting some rather built passengers, there would be some touching of the tyre on the inside of the fender liner. Through various enquiries and investigations, the diagnosis pointed to some worn suspension components. Long story short, I decided to replace the control arms and stabilizer links.
I decided to try out Teknorot (thanks Tashick), their parts are good quality, and reasonably priced. The salesman was also confident and gave me a 1yr warranty on the parts (although it must be said that he was less confident after hearing that I have a big-ass 2l turbo motor and gearbox sitting up front now
).New stabilizer link:
New control arms:
Old control arm + new one:
New stuff fitted:
Now comes the fun part, evaluating the condition of the old parts. I'll let the pics do the talking:
Old LHS stabilizer link:
Old control arms:
Clearly, the old stuff is pretty shot. The ball joints could be moved with 2 fingers. Same goes for the stabiliser links, if you shook them the ends would flap around all over the place. Also the tears in the rubbers on the control arms signify that their life was fast drawing to an end.
Then I finally got round to measuring the ride height after fitting the new motor - see below (measured from the ground to the inside of the plastic arches).
Front:
Standard height: 657mm
With Koni setup: 618mm
With Koni setup + 2l motor and gearbox: 600mm
Rear:
Standard height: 705mm
With Koni setup: 648mm
With Koni setup + 2l motor and gearbox: 640mm
So I basically have a 18mm drop courtesy of the bigger stuff fitted in front, and a corresponding 8mm drop in the rear. This could explain the touching.
Be warned, if you're an "oomph-type-of-a-product" and require a lift, I may just ask you to jump on the back in future
I find it very odd the heat shield is making no difference with the foam inside...
gavsadler
///Member
Jan 2014 - Time for some more updates.
Things were fairly quiet on the Ute-front, as I was busy sorting out mommy's car, and doing all sorts of other things including studying for an exam in the middle of December.
Anyway, during the holidays, I decided I wanted to refurb my Armadillo, so stripped it down, sanded it and painted it. Nevertheless, I wasn't happy with my painting efforts, so I sent it off to a local contact who said he would assist me with the painting. Well, what was supposed to take 2 days, is now sitting on 14 days, and I have no idea what is happening, each time I enquire, I get a different story. So let's see what happens this week. More updates to follow regarding this.
Then 2014 got off to a busy start. After a loooooooong search, I became the proud owner of these:
For those who don't know, these are Recaro seats out of the first Astra OPC which came to SA (around 2004). Thanks to the previous owner for the sale (he will remain anonymous to prevent stalkers attacking him in future,lol).
Fitting them was quite a job though, I am fairly meticulous about doing things right, so needless to say the seats (23kg each) went in and out of the Ute a good few times. I was pretty buggered after sweating the whole weekend on these. But they are in, there are just a few small things to sort out (custom handles for the seat jack, and I need to customise my kick panels a bit). More pics on this will follow in due course.
I'm still getting used to them, they are very "supportive" and as such, not as comfortable as my other Ute seats. Time will tell if I keep them, but for now I am going to try my best to get as comfortable as possible.
Then in other news, I just gave the Ute a service last week, so the motor is ready to sing sweetly for another 10000kms.
That's all for now.
Things were fairly quiet on the Ute-front, as I was busy sorting out mommy's car, and doing all sorts of other things including studying for an exam in the middle of December.
Anyway, during the holidays, I decided I wanted to refurb my Armadillo, so stripped it down, sanded it and painted it. Nevertheless, I wasn't happy with my painting efforts, so I sent it off to a local contact who said he would assist me with the painting. Well, what was supposed to take 2 days, is now sitting on 14 days, and I have no idea what is happening, each time I enquire, I get a different story. So let's see what happens this week. More updates to follow regarding this.
Then 2014 got off to a busy start. After a loooooooong search, I became the proud owner of these:
For those who don't know, these are Recaro seats out of the first Astra OPC which came to SA (around 2004). Thanks to the previous owner for the sale (he will remain anonymous to prevent stalkers attacking him in future,lol).
Fitting them was quite a job though, I am fairly meticulous about doing things right, so needless to say the seats (23kg each) went in and out of the Ute a good few times. I was pretty buggered after sweating the whole weekend on these. But they are in, there are just a few small things to sort out (custom handles for the seat jack, and I need to customise my kick panels a bit). More pics on this will follow in due course.
I'm still getting used to them, they are very "supportive" and as such, not as comfortable as my other Ute seats. Time will tell if I keep them, but for now I am going to try my best to get as comfortable as possible.
Then in other news, I just gave the Ute a service last week, so the motor is ready to sing sweetly for another 10000kms.
That's all for now.
LuranchtE90
Member
raise:Awesome thread & build..
gavsadler
///Member
Quick update:
So in between parenting and doing stuff around the house, I have been working on the other bits and pieces to complete the seats installation.
The handles on each side of the seat to jack it up and down were catching on the door panels. So I managed to source a spare set of handles, and got busy with the hacksaw and bench grinder
I shaved them down to about half their thickness, and then had to make a new skin to cover the area I just removed. I decided to try my hand at some fibreglassing, but in the end decided to use material instead of the matting.
Here's a pic of my new skin for the handles:
Then here I had sanded it down, put a couple of layers of filler on, and sanded that down too. Pretty much ready for paint at this stage:
And here's the completed product (next to the original handle):
I am quite happy with the results. Now all I need to still to is my kick panels on the door sills.
Then in other news, I got my armadillo back from the paint shop. Looks much better than my first efforts. They've used a metal etch primer, in a satin finish. I also re-taped the slats, so now it doesn't shake, rattle and roll as you drive down the road. (I have yet to test the buffeting at 200km/h+, but I'm sure that will be sorted too)
That's all for now, more updates coming soon....
So in between parenting and doing stuff around the house, I have been working on the other bits and pieces to complete the seats installation.
The handles on each side of the seat to jack it up and down were catching on the door panels. So I managed to source a spare set of handles, and got busy with the hacksaw and bench grinder
I shaved them down to about half their thickness, and then had to make a new skin to cover the area I just removed. I decided to try my hand at some fibreglassing, but in the end decided to use material instead of the matting.
Here's a pic of my new skin for the handles:
Then here I had sanded it down, put a couple of layers of filler on, and sanded that down too. Pretty much ready for paint at this stage:
And here's the completed product (next to the original handle):
I am quite happy with the results. Now all I need to still to is my kick panels on the door sills.
Then in other news, I got my armadillo back from the paint shop. Looks much better than my first efforts. They've used a metal etch primer, in a satin finish. I also re-taped the slats, so now it doesn't shake, rattle and roll as you drive down the road. (I have yet to test the buffeting at 200km/h+, but I'm sure that will be sorted too
)
That's all for now, more updates coming soon....
gavsadler
///Member
Just a few small updates, been sorting out a couple of long-overdue "small jobs" on the Ute:
Finished off the sandwich holder in the dash:
Then for sh1ts and giggles, I got round to making this. My armadillo never had it's label, so I thought it would be fitting to do something different on my Ute (copyright pending, hehe):
And then more recently, these landed fresh from the UK. Some Veyron OPC pedals:
I also sorted out my cluster lights, so I no longer have the Engine light and other warning light burning constantly.
The Ute is also doing very well ito fuel consumption, the last 2 tanks I've managed over 500kms :banana:. So I have a low 10's / high 9's car (maybe it's those pedals.....)
That's all for now.
Finished off the sandwich holder in the dash:
Then for sh1ts and giggles, I got round to making this. My armadillo never had it's label, so I thought it would be fitting to do something different on my Ute (copyright pending, hehe):
And then more recently, these landed fresh from the UK. Some Veyron OPC pedals:
I also sorted out my cluster lights, so I no longer have the Engine light and other warning light burning constantly.
The Ute is also doing very well ito fuel consumption, the last 2 tanks I've managed over 500kms :banana:. So I have a low 10's / high 9's car (maybe it's those pedals.....)
That's all for now.
Very Nice work :thumbs:
Damn I miss mine
I suggest you shorten the mudflaps front and rear as well, my ute was also lowered and the hard plastic mudflaps kept on touching and eventually it knocked off the wheel arch beading.
I shortened them to around 4cm, just round off the edges so it looks neat :idea:
Damn I miss mine
I suggest you shorten the mudflaps front and rear as well, my ute was also lowered and the hard plastic mudflaps kept on touching and eventually it knocked off the wheel arch beading.
I shortened them to around 4cm, just round off the edges so it looks neat :idea:
gavsadler
///Member
Time for a couple more updates.
Whilst tracing an annoying oil leak, I also found that I had a bit of a water leak where the hose attaches onto the thermostat housing. When I pulled the hose off, I could see that it was looking a bit tired, so with safety in mind, I decided to replace it. You won't believe what a mission it is to find a water hose, could not find it at any local spares shops. GM also did not have in stock (had to be ordered from factory). Strange as there are 1000s of Ute's on the road, and I would think that this is a fairly common maintenance item.
Anyway, here is a pic of the old hose vs the new hose. You will see the old one is a bit swollen and not in the greatest condition where the hose clamp attaches.
Then I also decided to try out something else. I managed to source a set of Omega bonnet lifters from my local scrappy, and got around to fitting these. I first cleaned them up and gave them a coat of satin black paint. Then I had to whip out my Bosch 700w drill and turn my bonnet and fenders into pieces of swiss cheese. Big thanks to Wave for the top tip on mounting the lugs in the bonnet.
Some pics:
Overall, I'm happy with the outcome. The only negative is that the bonnet now opens a bit lower than before, so my head may be in for a few bumps in the future. I could remedy this by redrilling holes everywhere, but I chose to use the mounting locations already pressed into the bonnet.
My brother is currently using my Ute, so I have not had a chance to check things since fitting them, but I am confident everything is fine.
That's all for now, I have a few other ideas and tricks in the pipeline, but time will tell how those pan out....
Whilst tracing an annoying oil leak, I also found that I had a bit of a water leak where the hose attaches onto the thermostat housing. When I pulled the hose off, I could see that it was looking a bit tired, so with safety in mind, I decided to replace it. You won't believe what a mission it is to find a water hose, could not find it at any local spares shops. GM also did not have in stock (had to be ordered from factory). Strange as there are 1000s of Ute's on the road, and I would think that this is a fairly common maintenance item.
Anyway, here is a pic of the old hose vs the new hose. You will see the old one is a bit swollen and not in the greatest condition where the hose clamp attaches.
Then I also decided to try out something else. I managed to source a set of Omega bonnet lifters from my local scrappy, and got around to fitting these. I first cleaned them up and gave them a coat of satin black paint. Then I had to whip out my Bosch 700w drill and turn my bonnet and fenders into pieces of swiss cheese. Big thanks to Wave for the top tip on mounting the lugs in the bonnet.
Some pics:
Overall, I'm happy with the outcome. The only negative is that the bonnet now opens a bit lower than before, so my head may be in for a few bumps in the future. I could remedy this by redrilling holes everywhere, but I chose to use the mounting locations already pressed into the bonnet.
My brother is currently using my Ute, so I have not had a chance to check things since fitting them, but I am confident everything is fine.
That's all for now, I have a few other ideas and tricks in the pipeline, but time will tell how those pan out....
gavsadler
///Member
So it's been a while since I updated, things have been quiet on the fiddling front.
Then I managed to get a puncture in one of the rear tyres, and didn't notice until I got home. Anyway taking the tyre to have a plug fitted the next day, I found that the whole inside of the sidewall was chewed up from driving under-inflated (not sure for how long though).So this sparked a whole lot of planned activities, and overdue maintenance, so the Ute went into the garage and up onto trestles.
First on the list of jobs to do - I had an annoying clunk coming from the front suspension, and also had a weird feeling when driving around on the cement floor in the basement parking at work. What I noticed was that the driver shock seemed a bit loose and moved around in the turret a bit. I stripped it out, and also noticed that the shock bearings seemed a bit worn and noisy. So off to buy some new shock bearings. These also included new rubber shock mounts, so got round to fitting these to both front struts. I also cleaned up everything. Pics below:
Then the outer CV boot on the driver's side shaft had also seen better days - it had a couple of small splits in it, which I had successfully repaired before, but enough was enough.
So I decided to replace that as well. Shaft off, CV off, old boot off. Cleaned up everything and then refitted.
I then got round to giving the insides of the arches and all the other bits a thorough clean. That you will see in the pics below.
You'll remember a while back I found a Hen's tooth that I fitted inside my Ute (Meriva OPC steering wheel)? Well I also have some more hen's teeth from the same vehicle, which I decided to fit.
I present to you, original Meriva OPC calipers and caliper carriers. These were sent across by Pas-chill, and I've appropriated them on some favourable terms. These calipers have less than 3000miles (<5000kms) use on them.
Rear:
Front:
The front setup is still work in progress. TBC...
I also had a bash at treating the edges of the brake discs and disc bells with some high-heat paint - to get red of the nasty rust. Let's see how that works out.
You would've also noticed the arches and fender wells are looking a lot cleaner - not show-n-shine clean, but better.
I had some issues with the rear calipers though. The bleed screws had rusted solid in the caliper, so they stripped on removal. I ended up having to get helicoils fitted to accept the bleed screws again. Thankfully it worked out fine. Then had some issues with bleeding the brakes and having a soft pedal, but I think I've sorted that after bleeding them for the 3rd time lol.
Part 2 coming up in the next post....
While the Ute has been on trestles, I thought it would be best to get the rims checked out as well. I suspected most of them would be buckled, as there tends to be a bit of shake, rattle and roll as you go down the road.
So I took them to Hi Tech Mag Repairs in Alrode. Always have good service and experience from these chaps. 3 of the 4 rims were buckled. One had a couple of random dents in the bell of the rim as well, as well as a poor repair job (this was from when I bought the rims 2 years ago – “fully refurbished”).
I gave them the go-ahead to do what was necessary, and also change up the look a bit with something I have been wanting to do for a long time already. The rims were repaired, and over the weekend I went to collect. Pics below:
The effect is called black chrome / hyper black depending what you read. It can be done in different shades and after lots of debating, recommendations from Hi Tech and thinking aloud, I chose the look you see above. Once again – superb workmanship!
Oh – I also bought a pair of new Hankook Ventus V12 Evos for the front (you see how a puncture repair spiralled out of control?!?!) Hahahaha
Here’s some pics of them fitted back onto the Ute, and after a quick wash:
That’s all for now. These updates were proudly brought to you by Standard Bank, in close association with MasterCard :flyfun:
Then I managed to get a puncture in one of the rear tyres, and didn't notice until I got home. Anyway taking the tyre to have a plug fitted the next day, I found that the whole inside of the sidewall was chewed up from driving under-inflated (not sure for how long though).So this sparked a whole lot of planned activities, and overdue maintenance, so the Ute went into the garage and up onto trestles.
First on the list of jobs to do - I had an annoying clunk coming from the front suspension, and also had a weird feeling when driving around on the cement floor in the basement parking at work. What I noticed was that the driver shock seemed a bit loose and moved around in the turret a bit. I stripped it out, and also noticed that the shock bearings seemed a bit worn and noisy. So off to buy some new shock bearings. These also included new rubber shock mounts, so got round to fitting these to both front struts. I also cleaned up everything. Pics below:
Then the outer CV boot on the driver's side shaft had also seen better days - it had a couple of small splits in it, which I had successfully repaired before, but enough was enough.
So I decided to replace that as well. Shaft off, CV off, old boot off. Cleaned up everything and then refitted.
I then got round to giving the insides of the arches and all the other bits a thorough clean. That you will see in the pics below.
You'll remember a while back I found a Hen's tooth that I fitted inside my Ute (Meriva OPC steering wheel)? Well I also have some more hen's teeth from the same vehicle, which I decided to fit.
I present to you, original Meriva OPC calipers and caliper carriers. These were sent across by Pas-chill, and I've appropriated them on some favourable terms. These calipers have less than 3000miles (<5000kms) use on them.
Rear:
Front:
The front setup is still work in progress. TBC...
I also had a bash at treating the edges of the brake discs and disc bells with some high-heat paint - to get red of the nasty rust. Let's see how that works out.
You would've also noticed the arches and fender wells are looking a lot cleaner - not show-n-shine clean, but better.
I had some issues with the rear calipers though. The bleed screws had rusted solid in the caliper, so they stripped on removal. I ended up having to get helicoils fitted to accept the bleed screws again. Thankfully it worked out fine. Then had some issues with bleeding the brakes and having a soft pedal, but I think I've sorted that after bleeding them for the 3rd time lol.
Part 2 coming up in the next post....
While the Ute has been on trestles, I thought it would be best to get the rims checked out as well. I suspected most of them would be buckled, as there tends to be a bit of shake, rattle and roll as you go down the road.
So I took them to Hi Tech Mag Repairs in Alrode. Always have good service and experience from these chaps. 3 of the 4 rims were buckled. One had a couple of random dents in the bell of the rim as well, as well as a poor repair job (this was from when I bought the rims 2 years ago – “fully refurbished”).
I gave them the go-ahead to do what was necessary, and also change up the look a bit with something I have been wanting to do for a long time already. The rims were repaired, and over the weekend I went to collect. Pics below:
The effect is called black chrome / hyper black depending what you read. It can be done in different shades and after lots of debating, recommendations from Hi Tech and thinking aloud, I chose the look you see above. Once again – superb workmanship!
Oh – I also bought a pair of new Hankook Ventus V12 Evos for the front (you see how a puncture repair spiralled out of control?!?!) Hahahaha
Here’s some pics of them fitted back onto the Ute, and after a quick wash:
That’s all for now. These updates were proudly brought to you by Standard Bank, in close association with MasterCard :flyfun:
gavsadler
///Member
About time for an update.
I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do much, or post the updates of the bit I have done.
In October, I had a couple of hours, so decided to tackle my headlights - attempting to remove the fogginess and minor scratching which has taken place over the last few years.
I used a few different grades of water paper, Meguiar's Plastix and plenty of elbow grease, probably 1.5hours per side.
Here's a pic of the before and after for the RHS headlight.
Before:
After:
Then I took a pic in process of doing the LHS. This was after tackling the headlight and some deep scratches with 1000grit:
I then moved onto 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit. At the end I did 2-3 rounds of polishing with Plastix and a cloth. This was the end result on the LHS:
And the front end complete:
That's all for now, let's see what the silly season holds in store in terms of updates :hammerhead:
I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do much, or post the updates of the bit I have done.
In October, I had a couple of hours, so decided to tackle my headlights - attempting to remove the fogginess and minor scratching which has taken place over the last few years.
I used a few different grades of water paper, Meguiar's Plastix and plenty of elbow grease, probably 1.5hours per side.
Here's a pic of the before and after for the RHS headlight.
Before:
After:
Then I took a pic in process of doing the LHS. This was after tackling the headlight and some deep scratches with 1000grit:
I then moved onto 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit. At the end I did 2-3 rounds of polishing with Plastix and a cloth. This was the end result on the LHS:
And the front end complete:
That's all for now, let's see what the silly season holds in store in terms of updates :hammerhead:
Sabretooth tiger
///Member
you sir, deserve a bells
Amazing work man :clapper:
Amazing work man :clapper:
car_fanatic
Member
Great work! :clapper:
UpNcOmiNg!
Events Organiser
Kaaaaay so my UTE needs some work done......
Just saying..Ha! Ha!
Just saying..Ha! Ha!
