I posted this on VXRO and decided to post on SN too. I'd been itching to give my car a full winter-prep detail for the last month but finding a day off work and a nice whole day with weather I can rely on proved very difficult. Anyway, Friday 22nd November, starting at 9am, finished by 3pm. I did the wheels, engine bay and interior on Thursday during my lunch hour and in the evening.


Before:







After:
























Cleaning Process:

THURSDAY
- All wheels taken off, cleaned with Meg's wheel brighter, sealed with poor boys wheel sealant.
- Callipers cleaned with Meg's wheel brighter, sealed with poor boys.
- Arches scrubbed with APC, dressed with AG rubber and bumper.
- Engine bay tackled with Gunk degreaser, cleaned with APC, dressed with AG rubber and bumper.
- Interior wiped down with Werkstat Satin Prot.
- Door rubbers dressed with AG rubber and bumper.

FRIDAY
- Car rinsed down to remove as much dirt as possible.
- Cleaned 2 bucket method using lambswool mitt and Megs shampoo plus.
- De-tarred with AF obliterate.
- Iron fall-out removed with AF iron-out.
- Bodywork clayed with bilt-hamber soft clay, water used as lube.
- Car quickly cleaned again using 2 bucket method and dried.
- Werkstat Prime applied to bodywork including windows and doorshuts.
- 2 layers of Werkstat Jett applied to bodywork.
- Final layer of Werkstat Gloss applied to bodywork to give it an unbeatable shine and last stage protection.
- Windows quickly buffed with AF crystal.
- Tyres dressed with AF gloss.
- Wipers dressed with AG rubber and bumper.


Just a bit about the cars spec:

FACTORY EXTRAS
- Full leather heated seats
- CD70 Built-in SatNav
- AFL xenon lights
- Sight and light pack
- Bluetooth mobile connectivity
- Cruise control
- Climate control
- 19" Alloys
- Privacy glass
- Chilled glovebox (great for ham sandwiches) :roll:

TASTEFUL MODS
- Cobra 2.75" downpipe
- Cobra 2.5" non-res catback exhaust system
- Pipercross cone filter + Courtenay direct route hoses
- Whiteline RARB
- Full blue SMD conversion
- Insignia washer jets
- Heko wind deflectors
- White LED numberplate bulbs
- Gloss black alloys
- Custom centre caps
- Debadged boot
- 3D gel number plates
- Carbon wrapped interior parts
- Carbon wrapped window strips
- Black gloss painted wing mirrors
- Black gloss painted Diffuser
- Body coloured boot strip


Thanks for looking and reading. Comments welcome

 

looks great matey,i do like vxr's

get yourself to midpoint garage for some bhp upgrades

http://www.midpointgarage.co.uk/home.php

 

Never seen the Werkstatt kit used on a deeper colour before, normally it's the weapon of choice for whites and silvers. Looks smart though!

 

What are these like to drive?

 

Very nice, my wife has a 59 plate design and I was offered a nice VXR last week and tempted to chop the design in for a vxr

 

Difficult but fun In standard form there is quite a lot of oversteer, but an adjustable rear anti-roll bar and high performance tyres sorts it out, which is what I have. Another £130 on lowering springs and it's even better apparently. There is also quite a bit of torque steer which took me about a month to get used to, so now it doesn't bother me.

The map on the car is aggressive as well. The turbo will suddenly kick in at 3000 all the way up to 5500 and does feel very fast to drive. I bought it because I love the look of it and it was the fastest car in a straight line I could find within my budget and without insurance ripping me off. Official 0-60 in 6 seconds which isn't bad at all.

I was close to buying a Ford ST instead but if you want something dull and refined, then it would have been a good choice. If you wanted more a drivers car, then get the VXR

It's not a dark blue to be honest, it's very light if you could see it in person. I used to own a silver 206 so bought the kit for that, but when I tried it on this car I was blown away still so kept on using it. Polished bliss which is where I buy the Werkstat kit from recommend using it on either white, silver, and light metallics

 

I thought this car suffered from understeer?

 

Looks very clean although your technique was different to mine yesterday.

Hose car down
Snowfoamed
think to myself that stuff smells good
rub car with fancy mitt
rinse
wash wheels with cleaner & brush
dry car

done in 1 hour but i did miss a few bits

 

Quite like these Astra VXR's, there's a white one with white wheels that comes past my house everyday, He seems to give it a squirt as he drives past and it sounds awesome!!!

 

Sorry I meant understeer


That would be a Nurgburgring edition; they come standard with a remus exhaust + sports cat

 

And Burburry baseball cap

 

**** off!

 

Cheers

 

So you can polish a turd!

Looks great I've thought for a while that Vauxhall have upped their game with the build quality of the more recent models. Do you find your car reliable?

 

I've owned her for a year and 8 months and nothing has gone wrong. I've had it serviced twice so far at the cost of £150 per minor service at the main dealers (I'll be paying about £400 for a major service next year). 2 front tyres at about £150 each. I've had it MOT'd twice and passed both with no advisories so can't complain really. I have spent £300 at the body shop getting the side skirts, spoiler and a couple other little bits resprayed because the paint lacquer started peeling (very thin paint). The gearboxes are a little known issue and if not looked after you'll likely have to fork out for a rebuild at some point which'll cost £450. I treat her with mechanical sympathy and have the box oil changed every year when it's having its service to be safe.

For a car that does 0-60 in 6 seconds, 240bhp, 2 litre turbo, the insurance is very reasonable. I'm 23 with 2 years no claims and currently pay £750 for the year. Fuel consumption isn't horrible either; I average 31MPG on Tesco Momentum 99 fuel and it can reach 38MPG on motorway journeys cruising at 70-75mph.

 

My mates burg. Running a 2 stage map with about 330bhp at a push of the sport button! Hurt a little when the other half said it sounds better than the WR1. A downpipe will sort that though!

 

Must be very, very, optimistic rollers to read 330bhp from a stage 2 map You'll see 300bhp from a custom stage 3 map with an intercooler, and 280bhp for stage 2 is the norm. Ah well

 

No, my bad. I meant it runs 2 stages. Think it's stage 2 or 2.5 normal, then stage 3 on the sport button. Think it's thorney stage 3. He hasn't had it long so he's still in talks with the previous owner about what exactly has been done, but apparently he's got a a 332bhp printout that he's sending over. I'll find out how it goes when we finally get a run out together, but it's certainly had a lot of work done. Think he's on vxro.

 

I find it hard to believe it only costs you £750 for insurance. I pay that for my £1300 old banger and I'm in my 30's.

 

I pay about that for the WR1 and I'm 34. Do you have loads of points? I'm not exactly in a good postcode.

 

Very reasonable costs indeed, nice car. I think I had a 900cc VW Polo at your age

 

Im 38 and pay £225 for a MK2 RS

 

Probably because of my postcode and job I do have my Father on the policy as a 2nd driver which brought the price down.

Thanks all for the comments

 

Yep, that looks great!

 

I paid £700 on the FRS for me and the missus when I was 25 and neither of us had any no-claims at the time!!

 

You must live in a rough area tbh.

I'm paying £750 at 26 for a modded STI. Had a 130bhp SEAT Ibiza when I was 19 and cost me about £600 I think...

 

Very nice car the OP has there

 

Looks very nice but god, those brakes look small with those 19 inch rims