Hey.

Thought it about time to share this project with you all along with the eventful story that goes with it.

First off i'll introduce you to the old girl as she was and as she is now...




Thats what she looked like long before I got my hands on her... IIRC about 5 years ago? at run to the sun.

THIS is what it looked like when I found it for sale on evilbay-






So me an the missus decided after lengthy discussion which went-
Me- I'm buying it. ;D
Her- You are NOT!!! >:(
Me- I am! >:(
Her- I'm leaving! >:(
Me- It's got hydraulic suspension...
Her- When did you say we're going for it?

that I would buy it. Only problem is it was in Truro, Cornwall and we are in Wrexham, North Wales. SO we decided we would embark on a road trip the next Sunday morning with a hired trailer to collect the thing.
We set out at 7 to first collect said trailer and juice up the motor (2000 A4 1.8 Turbo Quattro Sport) Making good time it took about 4.5 hours to get there and we thought it wouldn't take much more to get home too...

On arrival there appeared to be a bit of an issue with the cars Hydraaulic suspension as the dude who owned it was in the boot tangled in a set of jump leads connected to his old mans P38 Rangerover trying frantically to get the batteries to give their last to show me that the system did actually work... First PHAIL!!!

A couple of hours of head scratching and melting numerous jump leads I managed to raise the chassis out of the grass enough to coax her onto the trailer. Cash changed hands and we were good to go.

This leads us onto the second PHAIL of this story... As soon as we set of up the road away from the farm it became apparent there was something SERIOUSLY wrong with the towing setup. ie anything near 45 MPH and the trailer would swing wildly from side to side, first chance I got I stopped and tried moving the weight on the trailer forwards, tried it again- still the same, stop, move the weight back, try again, even worse now! In desperation I rang my old man to ask his advice as he tows a mini digger for work, he suggested upping the tyre pressures so we pulled into the services and blew them all up to 60 PSI and off we went again... STILL NO BETTER!? By now Clare is having kittens and pannicking which does nothing for confidence does it babe?! Resigning myself to the fact this thing is gonna have us upside down if we try anything over 45MPH we plod on in 3RD FRICKIN GEAR as 4th is too low with the weight at 40. If anyone knows the motorway we were on will know it has a lot of long rolling hills and if I let the speed creep up to 43/44 on the way down the triler again started snaking which I learned to correct by counter steering whilst braking ever so gently back below 40... However! One time after cresting a hilltop the thing again had us up to 45, realising and checking the mirrors it seemed pretty straight, nothing to worry about I though, sorted. WRONG!! All of a sudden we were across 3 lanes of motorway with the thing BADLY snaking and heading for the armco! I tried for what seemed like forever to catch it as before but it was hell bent on bending something. In desperation I thought crap or bust and stood on the brakes, thankfully the Audi having ABS didn't lock up but the trailer did, as it hit hard the brakes locked all four wheels with an impressive amount of smoke and screeching tyres the trailer once again was back in my control. PHEW. Change of pants please!

Needless to say at 40 MPH it took a hell of a long time to reach base, we arrived home about 3.30 AM and we both had work the next day... The original idea was to drop the car off at work and get the trailer back to the hirer the same night as if it was back after 9 am I would incur another days hireage fee @ £40... after the night we'd had that went out the window and we abandoned the whole outfit on the kerb outside our house. I planned the next morning in my head as my eyes shut on the pillow, I would get to work for 7, unload the car and whizz the trailer back. Sorted! THIS was the ONLY part of the WHOLE plan that I actually pulled off without a hitch...

Soon after getting it here and actually poking around the old girl it became obvious that the MOT this thing had which was only 2 months old was NOT to VOSA standards-



That should be the passenger side sill?!

After much searching and buying any part that cropped up on ebay I have ammassed quite a selection of parts both NOS and used stuff too so with summer aproaching I thought it about time to start the resurrection... Deadline was to be Performance Vauxhall show at Santa Pod, 5th/6th/7th June... ::) Yea right!

This THING got in the way of that happening. However it was a paying job!






Which allowed me to buy this>>>

Which came with a shed load of NOS panels and some very good used stuff too. Also it is fitted with a 350 Chevy motor and TH400

This was a couple of weeks ago when I decided to get it in the garage and rip the wings off-






Thats about the jist of it and the pile on the floor was what fell out of the inner wing!n Out with the grinder to find some solid steel to weld to...




The finished article-


While I was in there this area was rotten and holed so that got the treatment too-


Just for some added mojo I treated meself to this>

;D Which goes here> HA!


Next I thought i'd check out the rear end so started having a poke around at the bottom of the drivers arch and at the lower roof area which of COURSE turned out to be all filler!?





This is where this comes in handy>



Pillarless Cresta coupe with an 8 inch chop anyone? ;D MWAHAAHHAAHAHAH.

And that is about as far as i've gotten with it up to now...

Anyway... The NEW deadline is supposed to be the VBOA show at billing on 11th/12th July........................................................ Please do NOT hold your breath! ROFL.

project..looks like its coming along nicely...i hired a trailer from gaetwen trailer hire once ,and it caused me nothing but hassle anything over 40 and it would snake like a basturd,did you hire your from the same place?

Yea it was from him fella. You're the second person thats told me that now...

We used the same trailer to fetch the second car from Gloucester but my old man towed it with his Jeep Cherokee, it was slightly better but not much and that weighed nowhere near what the first one did...

I noticed you're from Wrecscum... Where abouts dude? I live in Llay.

brillant write up and pictures ive just bid on a vauxhall same shape done 38000 from new but not got it yet great looking cars best of luck

hi mate im just off the cefn road,queens park,near ysgol morgan llwyd..were abouts in llay are you..bought my first BIG bike from llay(z650)bout 20 yrs ago..

Cheers mate, HOPEFULLY i'll get me finger out and do some more on it this week. Yea i've seen that one, it's down in cornwall is it not?


Oh aye, I live right on the Llay new road fella. You goin to the meet next week?

hi m ate ill try and go if my car passes the mot and i get it finished...are you going to caerwys show?

you should write something up and add a few pictures to it so doug could add it to the website

Yeaaahhhh, great write-up, email it to me with some piccies and I'll put it on the website, just what we need,
some new stuff on the website. Looks like a helluva project, but seems to be coming along nicely. By the way,
I don't want you to come to the meet this week, not because you live in Wrexham, but just because it was last week!

Hey Doug, cheers, see i didn't forget... You asked for project write ups.

Yea i realised that i may have been a tad late for the meet. Hopefully i'll make it to one soon...

It's the first Wednesday of every month yea? Need to update the calender.

the vauxhall i found is in prestatyn

yes the 1st Wednesday of the month
I love the write up but could do with it on the actual web site as well as the forum so potential new members can see what the club is all about.
If you could give me a copy and the picks or maybe Gareth could move it over to the web site from the forum...Ohhhhh I don't bloody know, I'll have to ask him.

I have copyed it to the main site i am trying something new i have found keep an eye on it as the pictures might disapear if they do let me know .
i might have to have pictures emailed to me so the can be uploaded to the site,s picture hosting section

here's hoping

hi, not to be fussy or anything but i think you could do with either making the images smaller or making up a sub-link in the members ride section so when you click on it, in the side where all the links are it comes up below with geoff wrays austin A35 van and then under that in another link it will carry on with all the other rides if that makes any sence, i found that making everything nice and tidy really helped me to increase my eportfolio from a gcse grade C to a very high B in ict