The White Wonder

[colonelk]

Yes.... My raging.... err.... Gerbil of a carlton best been shown here I suppose!

So I shall start with a quick chronology....

After crashing my Cavalier, I dipped into some savings and treat myself to an Omega.... now the plan was to get an average nick Ex Police Meggy, that I wouldnt mind messing around with and didnt have to worry about too much. However, I ended up with a pretty mint Elite Manual, with no Company car background!

After a while driving this car I decided I couldnt give it the love it needed, so I sold it. Plus the driving experience was too cushioned, to remote.

Here she is....


Anyway, duly sold, and the money put back into savings, I still wanted Vauxhall, and I wanted RWD, and I wanted CHEAP!

So I found this car....


A reasonably sound (so I thought!) Carlton with some untidyness to the panels. Perfect for me to go hooning around in and not cry too much if I damage it.

First niggles came through were a holy exhaust system, and a leaking heater Matrix.

Moving on, thought it was time I actually did some mods (thats why I bought it!) but I was skint..... so I drilled the Airbox!

I know it doesnt make it faster, or any more power, but it makes a nice noise when you put ya foot down

Then I was wondering about rims. I was still skint, but someone offered me some dirt cheap Calibra Turbo alloys. Ok they are the wrong offset, but I knew of some spacers to bring them out ok (STILL havent bought them yet! lol!)

The car looks jacked up here as it had just come off the Jacks.

Then I set about the task of my Ice Install. Still had a bit in my room that I had taken out of the Cavalier but I never put in the Omega.....
I didnt want to mount the Amp in the boot, as currently being a Tiler by trade, its always full of large heavy objects! So a little head scratching came up with the rear shelf as another mounting location!
A little bit of work with MDF / Filler / Carpet and hey presto!








A WORD OF WARNING: Anything on the rear shelf that could come loose in an accident most likely WILL kill you. I fastened everything down with stupid amounts of bolts and large washers to try and make sure this wouldnt come away, but thats still no guarantee it would work in an accident..... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I knew the amp was on show, but made a cover for daily use. This is all coming out of the car now...

Here it is at the Reading Jap Meet....


Anyhow, after a while, it was due its MOT (which I forgot! DOH!)
This showed up a couple of problems.... but the main one was RUST!


Thankfully a friend welded it up for me


Now the tyres on the Cally Rims were borderline legal, I had to take them off and put the steelies on.
Thought Id have a crack at lowering it, and had hatched a plan to get it mega-low with Cally Turbo suspension parts. This is fine on the back, but the suspension is incompatible on the front! DOH! Course... I did the back first didnt I  BAH!


So its now back to standard.... with the standard rims on, and looking a bit sorry for itself

There you go! Brief history of my Car!

[colonelk]

Apologies about some of the file sizes BTW.... only have acces to MSPaint at the mo, doesnt seem to have any control on JPEG compression 

[Pedro]

So it's a rusty white Carlton - but that's miles batter than a rusty old Granada!

Fair play for keeping it alive, matey!

I had an ex-plod white 2.6 Li (basically, no toys at all, not even leccy windows!), but it was a great car to drive to the point of NYPD's (North Yorkshire Police Department!) finest trying to stop me............the twat even had the cheek to point out that it was once his car whilst writing out my speeding ticket. Oddly enough, I was done for doing 93, but the speedo was reading 80...............

[colonelk]

Is there any Carlton that ISNT rusty? (Apart from one immaculate CD on here that it!  )

[DTM-racer]

Nope! All rusty. Next question.........??

I hope mine won't be soon!!!!


And yours is not that bad any more either!!

[Pedro]

Is there any Carlton that ISNT rusty? (Apart from one immaculate CD on here that it!  )

Mine's not rusty now!

Give it a coupla years though....................

[carltonsteve20]

what offset are the cav/cally T rims? et49?

[carltonsteve20]

and the carlton are et33? so wouldn't they make it a narrower track? they do look good on it tho!

[colonelk]

Yes this is true, Im going to buy some spacers for them when I have time.

When you pushed the car you could feel the suspension hating them without the spacers however! You have been warned!

[colonelk]

UPDATE!

Pics of new parts fitted.....



Pics of SH bits fitted on suspension.....


(yes I know I need to tidy the garage! )

Casualty of war....

Thats what happens when you use an 3/8th Drive cheap rachet with a 6ft breaker bar!  Its survived 5 or 6 years of semi regular breaker-bar action though, so it still gets respect from me

Carlton with front suspension bits fitted (back looks lower than normal due to lots and lots of tools in the boot.)


MMMMMMMMMMMM Carbon Kevlar for £60.....


Amazingly the width of the rails was perfect for the carlton mounting points! The rear holes needed ovaling slightly, but otherwise..... booom straight in! haha!  And what a difference to the drive! Makes the car feel soooooo different. its untrue. Healthy 15kg saving over the standard item also 

And diff semi-cleaned up.....

Now dropped off and ready to be welded.

Spacers ordered for alloys, although now Im tempted by a set of 8x18's for £200! Do I? Dont I? Was contemplating spending £100 on refurbing the 16s. But they are weaksauce 6.5 width. Gah gah gah!

[Murph]

Want a set of Omega 2.0 springs?
Should beef it up!
PI springs 35mm lowering dropped the omega about 70mm at the back.

[chrismec]

A set of 18s for 200 squid!!!!!!!!! thats 4 nuffin m8.
Cant see all the pics, ones with red cross in corner[could be me tho]

[colonelk]

Nah Ive got springs for the back right here

And chris.... all pics working ok here!  + they are without tyres...... theres a set of s/h 17s on egay which are much closer to my budget. Im keeping an eye on them

[chrismec]

Chronology, what a great word!!!!

Can see all the pics now ta

[colonelk]

Weight removed so far....

Spare wheel:- 17kg
Tar from boot:- 5kg
Front seat:- 23kg
Rear Seat (not inc bench):- 12kg
Rear bench:-
Rear trim:-
Seatbelt mechs rear and 1 front:-
Tar and heavy sounddeadening material from cabin:- (gonna be a fair few kgs in that one I reckon)

Weight added.....

Bucket seat:- 5kg
Harnesses and mounts:- 3kg

So in total Ive definitely lost around 49kgs, and thats only what I have weighed! the arse is firmly in the air, it pulls better, stops better..... and generally Im loving it 

Just been out for another drive since todays work. Its either rather slippy out there or Im going to have to learn about sideways very very quickly  Wheelspin into 3rd! Wheels lock on downshifts! Sideways everywhere! I FRIKKIN LOVE IT 

Oooh, had a lovely little "I didnt know they rust THERE" moment today as well. Was pulling the carpet up in the front passenger footwell, and one of the little lugs thats supposed to hold it in flicked out.... "hmm makes my life easier" thinks I! Then I spot the rust on  the end of it..... "Hmmm, thats not so good"..... poke finger where is came from..... finger goes straight through into front wheelarch.... "Hmmmmm..... BUGGER" Its only a small hole to be fair, about 2 inch square, will have to get it welded ASAP. Good job I found it now though! Was wondering why my car was always so wet inside!   




Anyhow, removed headlining today, did the final 'adjust' on the bucket position, its perfect now. Removed some more tar pads. Didnt get HUUUGE amounts done due to waking up about 1pm  oh well.  Oh yeah, played with the adjustment on the front shockers.... think they were on maximum soft so were a tad wallowy.... now on max hard seems to have eliminated wobblyness. Anyone know which way is harder on a Koni adjustable strut? Clockwise / anti?




Sitting even higher at the back now!

Oh yeah, my dad knocked my digicam off the table    but in a strange moment of luck it fell onto the bag of tar pads next to the table which cushioned its fall perfectly   

Oh yeah forgot to say.... can even still hear the radio @ 70+mph quite happily, so thats good (hey this is my daily driver dont forget! Need choons every now and again!)

[Pedro]

Chronology, what a great word!!!!

It is if it's in the right order!

 

OK OK, I'll go quietly.........................

[bstardchild]

Proper Job........ And you are weighing stuff too!!

I just ran the whole car to a public weighbridge with a full tank of fuel and me in it

Paid my £6.50 and go a print out and a voucher for the second weigh in (I don't think I mentioned it would be 4 months before they saw the car again - no date limit on it tho!!!

That way I ain't got to worry about how much each bit weighs

[colonelk]

Wouldnt have a single clue as to where my nearest weighbridge is TBH! 

[bstardchild]

Wouldnt have a single clue as to where my nearest weighbridge is TBH! 

Bowen M C & Son
Tel 01494 529968
94 Abbey Barn Road, HIGH WYCOMBE, Bucks HP11 1RW

Operate a public weighbridge

Isn't that what the internet is for 

[colonelk]

  Ive been out-googled! 

Cheers dude, may go see what the situ is down there....

[colonelk]

not much done today.... fitted fire extinguisher.... thats about it!

[Matt]

Looks great mate - proper track car!

Will you be taking the sunroof out too? that will save you lots of weight dude.... (OK it won't look great when you weld a plate in, but it will save you lots of weight....)

Take the rear door cards off too....

Why don't you fit another bucket seat too, get rid of the heavy passenger seat!

[colonelk]

Looks great mate - proper track car!

Will you be taking the sunroof out too? that will save you lots of weight dude.... (OK it won't look great when you weld a plate in, but it will save you lots of weight....)

Take the rear door cards off too....

Why don't you fit another bucket seat too, get rid of the heavy passenger seat!

time and money dear Matt, time and money! 

The sunroof is coming out to "hopefully" be replaced by a fixed Polycarb item, sunroof assembly weighs in the region of 18kgs in a FWD vaux, so Im guessing it will be the same for me too. Thats a lot of weight up that high!

Doorcards will be coming off too.

Will be slow going for a bit though, as Ive gone dashless (I must be mad!), so to make it look tidy there will be a fair chunk of re-wiring to do, and before I start on that I wanna drive it for a couple of days   till then everythings held in with zip ties! 

Glad you like it anyhow. 

[Matt]

I suggest you keep your dashboard, it weighs nothing anyway, and it's got a nice flat panel where the radios go for fitting switches etc.

Are you thinking about removing the glass too? that would save you lots of weight... you only really need the windscreen to be glass..... if you lose the glass you would also be losing the winder mechs too...

just out of interest, why are you doing this? is it to make a great track car? Cos if you are, why are you doing it to your daily runner?

Only wondering really... surely if you remove all the weight form your daily runner then it will become impractical?

[colonelk]

Yeah, may put the dash back in, we'll see how it goes

LOL @ the glass. There isnt that huge a weight saving with polycarb windows so not going to do that (I know thats not what you meant )

Im doing it because I dont really do THAT many miles TBH, so it never gets tiring (its not really that much noiser TBH) I love the way it drives, and how it feels a lot faster than it really is in a stripped car (thinking about license safety!), in fact just loving it when stripped in general. I never have more than 3 people in my car ( a partial quick release rear seat may be making an appearance). plus I love to see peoples confused / bemused / amused faces when I show up in it! Always fun! Also because its the last thing most people expect, a stripped carlton 

Im sure Ill get bored of it eventually, but itll probably be a big heap of iron oxide by then, and Ill move onto something else. At the moment I find it fun as a car, and I have fun doing stuff like this to it. At the end of the day thats all that matters to me. Not really fussed if no one else 'gets it' so to speak