Not Exactly A Bike...

[CDoherty95]

Hey y'all!

I know my presence here over the past couple of months hasn't been great. I've had some big changes in my life. From my Granda dying, to finishing school, to a nasty breakup and lengthly fight with my ex. Anyway I'm back now with my latest crazy invention!

Well when I say invention I really mean this :

This was my Granda's car, which he gave to me just before he left us. It's a 1997 Opel Corsa, which is a fairly popular small European car. It's popular largely due to its small fuel efficient engine, and it being relatively cheap to run and modify.

Granda was a relatively heavy smoker, and smoked a couple of cigarettes per day in the car for 16 years. So as you can probably imagine the smell was horrendous. And if that wasn't bad enough all the trim pieces were stained yellow ( they were meant to be light cream). And just in case you don't believe me, here's a picture of the roof lining.

You can see how discoloured and stained the roof had become after 16 years.

My initial plan was to clean the interior with an industrial based cleaner. After spraying and wiping down the dash 4 times this was the colour of the waste water...

And of coarse no car is complete without the Dixie horns!

[Roth Potter]

I know my presence here over the past couple of months hasn't been great. I've had some big changes in my life. From my Granda dying, to finishing school, to a nasty breakup and lengthly fight with my ex.

I'm sorry to hear that.

But what is a granda? Is that short for grand dad?

Nice to see a Dixie horn in it. But where is the grill?

I don't want to rush things but when can I expect the video or other stuff you talked about. You know, from when you met Tom Sarmento?

[CDoherty95]

After removing the roof to try and clean it, I turned my attention to the seats. As you can probably guess, having someone smoke in a car for 16 years will leave a bit of a smell. I tried several times to clean the seats using industrial strength cleaning products and a steam cleaner, but it was no use. So I decided to throw out the old seats, and buy secondhand heated leather ones. While the seats were being changed I went out and bought some carpet cut offs, and laid them down over what was left of the original carpet. I know it's probably not for everybody, but I'm personally happy with the outcome.

While I was out buying the carpet, I also bought some cream and black leatherette to cover the doors and boot shelf and roof. The original material in the car was fabric, so I was able to just spray glue on the leatherette and corresponding piece and bond them together. Here's a before and after shot of the boot shelf.

I then decided to cover the roof in black leatherette. I was a little hesitant as to how it would turn out, due to it being such a large surface, but I think it came out very well.

I then decided to move onto the exterior of the car. Namely the faded plastic trim and windows.

When the car rolled off the production line in 1997, the wheel arch trim was black. Yet somehow in the last 16 years, the trim has somehow managed to go from black to pretty much white. Spraying them was a very quick job, and definitely made a huge difference to the car.

[CDoherty95]

I'm sorry to hear that.

But what is a granda? Is that short for grand dad?

Nice to see a Dixie horn in it. But where is the grill?

I don't want to rush things but when can I expect the video or other stuff you talked about. You know, from when you met Tom Sarmento?

Hey Roth. Yes that's just what me and my cousins called him. I guess it just came from when I was a baby and could only say stuff like "momma" and "dadda".

The grill is off because I mounted the horns and compressor to the metal bumper piece behind the grill and in front of the radiator. Don't worry though it's back on now!

I've got the Tom Sarmento video on my laptop for a while now, but the version of windows movie maker I have won't let me add pictures over a video. If people want me to upload the whole video as one unedited video I will, but I originally intended it to be a bit more professional.

[Roth Potter]

I've got the Tom Sarmento video on my laptop for a while now, but the version of windows movie maker I have won't let me add pictures over a video. If people want me to upload the whole video as one unedited video I will, but I originally intended it to be a bit more professional.

Adding a picture in a video ir really hard. The only way to do this is by cut the film in 3 pieces. 1 part before the photo, 2 part you have to cut out for the timeslot (display time of the image), 3 part after the photo. then you add the photo in the space and set how long the display time mus be. Like if you cut out 6 seconds in the video the picture needs to be displayed for 6 seconds.

To make the video sounds run over the picture you need to import the video twice, ones for the movie and ones as the audio.

BTW, as i'm reading all of that from the car I notice you don't like smoking if i'm right? That wheelarch looks great! though I think to make the car look better you need to place new hubcaps on it or new rims. Dent on the back ain't so bad, see how trashed some Generals were on the show.

[CDoherty95]

To make the video sounds run over the picture you need to import the video twice, ones for the movie and ones as the audio.

BTW, as i'm reading all of that from the car I notice you don't like smoking if i'm right? That wheelarch looks great! though I think to make the car look better you need to place new hubcaps on it or new rims. Dent on the back ain't so bad, see how trashed some Generals were on the show.

Thanks Roth Ill try that tomorrow!

I don't smoke, and probably never will but I still don't mind the smell of smoke. The problem with the car was that the smoke smell was stale, so smelt really bad.

I might try and get rims from a newer model corsa, but for now my budget is down to zero haha so the wheels will have to wait!

[HossC]

And of course no car is complete without the Dixie horns!

I seem to remember you wanted to fit those horns to your bike. I think this makes more sense .

That wheelarch looks great! though I think to make the car look better you need to place new hubcaps on it or new rims.

Too much?

[RogerDuke]

LOL Very nice!

[Roth Potter]

That actually looks really good Hoss, the low profile tyres just finish the picture perfectly!

[CDoherty95]

Too much?

Hoss you really shouldn't show me things like this. You know I'll just try and do it!

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but I tinted the side back seat windows because a) it's meant to lower the insurance rate, and keeps the car cooler in hot weather and gives a sense of privacy to people in the back seat.

The tint comes in a big roll, sort of like aluminium foil or something you might use to cover food in the kitchen. It was really easy to do, and cost a quarter of what professionals would charge.

I've also become a frequent visitor to the local wrecking yard. I've picked up small things that didn't work or that were stained by the smoke. One of the things I bought was the interior light. You can see the difference between the old and new light.

[CDoherty95]

The carpet in the boot / trunk was well worn and had started to cave in around the spare wheel. I decided that instead of trying to find one from a scrap car I would build a false floor out of plywood. This was fairly easy for me, as I did woodwork in school for 6 years, and this build is only going to require glue and screws.

I started out by emptying the boot of all the stuff I'd managed to collect for this project. I know it's a huge boot...

I then pulled out the carpet and made a template for the wood out of masking tape.

I then got a few lengths of wood from my grandparents neighbour. The car hasn't got insurance, so I'm working on it at my grandparents house.

I cut the wood and loosely fitted it into the boot space.

That's all I managed to do. I'm going to try and get plywood this weekend so I can tick off another thing on my "To Do List".

And finally...

I love taking panoramic photos on my phone, so decided to get one of the interior of the car.

The sun visors are new as well. They came with the seats. I had to wire them into the same circuit as the interior light.

That's all for now! I'm hoping to get to a large wrecking yard tomorrow to get a load of small little bits that should make a big improvement to the car.

[CDoherty95]

I didn't get a chance to get to the wrecking yard today, do instead I decided to wire up the Dixie horn with help from my uncle who knows a lot more about electronics than me. We have to drill into the firewall (the bit of metal between the engine and cabin) to run the wires for the horn switch into the cabin. We plan to use bathroom sealant to fill the hole that we drill. Unfortunately we didn't have any bathroom sealant and it's meant to rain for the next few days, so we decided to just wire up the horn to check that it actually worked.

Lets just say I'm not going to be the most popular neighbour because the horn is unbelievably loud!

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g368/GeneralLeeBike/Corsa%20Project/534658DB-AB17-4136-B7FC-B0751EF58289-25377-000011E8A98042AD_zps03f0b63c.mp4

[HossC]

We plan to use bathroom sealant to fill the hole that we drill. Unfortunately we didn't have any bathroom sealant and it's meant to rain for the next few days, so we decided to just wire up the horn to check that it actually worked.

You could also use a gromit:

Sorry, I mean grommet :

BTW. The horn sounds a little fast. Can you change the speed?

[Meadowmufn]

This is a very cool project, CD. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[CDoherty95]

You could also use a gromit:

Sorry, I mean grommet :

BTW. The horn sounds a little fast. Can you change the speed?

Haha trust you to come up with something like that Hoss! I'd imagine if the hoses were longer it would go slower, purely because there's a greater distance from the compressor to the horns. Would that be right?

[CDoherty95]

This is a very cool project, CD. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks Mufn! It's one step closer to a Dodge Charger!

[HossC]

Don't know if you saw 'Mock the Week' this week, but they had a round something like 'Unlikely things to hear on a motoring show'. Andy Parsons came up with "This car has a fail-safe anti-theft device: It's a Vauxhall Corsa".*

* For non-Europeans, Vauxhall Corsa is the UK equivalent of CD's Opel Corsa. Vauxhall and Opel are the main European brands owned by GM. A very limited range of Chevy's is sold here, but we don't get Buick or GMC. I'm not sure if Cadillac is officially sold here anymore.