[Abs-Zero]

The technical home page of Ian Till

Project Cars

Old Project - Vectra GSi in Jungle Green

A very nice car, bought at a bargain price from an online salvage auction.  I expected the worst based on the auction photos, which deceptively looked as though there was damage in the drivers footwell...

James McBride drove me up there with a rented trailer to collect it, and the site certainly looked typically rough for a salvage yard, in the shadow of a power station near Newcastle.

After paying my dues, I was the proud owner of two keys (a good start), a book pack (better still) and a pink sheet of paper that I handed to the fork lift driver waiting outside the porta cabin office.  He bounced off through the pools of mud, roaring between rows of sorry looking cars before lifting mine up and driving no more carefully back to the gate with it.  It was unceremoniously dumped down, the fork reversed out and with a thumbs up, the driver was on his way, leaving James and I wondering whether I'd bought a wrong un.  Having the keys in hand and seeing it was locked, I pressed the unlock button, the doors unlocked.  So there was some life in it then.  Next was to open the bonnet and check for vital fluids and missing bits, all present and correct, so I started it up and drove it onto the trailer.  If I had taken a roll of gaffa tape and a headlamp I could have driven it back home.

Back at home I got a couple more pictures for the album...

The damage was confined to the front wing and bumper, with a slight crease in the edge of the bonnet that I might have been able to get away with.  Luckily I found second hand panels (a bonnet and OSF wing) already in the right colour and in great condition, so these were bolted on easily. 

Next a bumper came in silver for £100 with some minor damage to the lower offside corner and I set about fixing that.  Only one photo of the bumper although there were lots of operations to get it right, starting with pop riveting a sheet of aluminium behind it where it had cracks, then fibreglassing over it from the inside to get a strong repair.  Finally, filler and primer on the front and it's starting to look OK again.

I painted and lacquered the bumper all on a hot day, then polished it a week later after it had hardened off properly.  The results look good in the photos, but I'm pleased to say it wasn't the camera being kind, it looked good close up too.

Here are a couple of photos taken just before I sold it to someone on VVOC.

This was one of those cars I should have found a way to keep, it had obviously been loved by its previous owner and came to me immaculately clean inside, with no mechanical or electrical faults whatsoever.  It drove like new and was probably just as tight as a new one would have been, despite it's 80k miles.  Definately the best Vectra B I ever drove.

Now sold obviously, and I've neither seen nor heard of it since.