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Arden Blue CDX Daily Driver

59K views 737 replies 71 participants last post by  Hardcore 
#1 · (Edited)
Then......


Now.




Current Modifications & Maintainance carried out

Interior
SMD white LED Led boot light
SMD white LED interior courtesy bulbs
SMD White LED bulbs behind heater console
SMD White LED bulbs in MFD
Cheapo MP3 player with remote
Corsa C sunglasses holder
Alloy black tax disc holder

Exterior
White number plate bulb
Angel Eye headlights
Osram Cool Blue H1 for dipped / main beam
Osram Nightbreakers H1 for main beam
6500k SMD 501's for sidelights.
SMD White LED reverse lights
Smoked side repeaters
SMD LED Red tail lights
Lucas red brake light bulbs
Coloured bulbs in remainder of tail lights
Crystal clear / white rear lights smoked
Removed rear wiper
De-badged
Slatted debadged grill
Front mud flaps removed
Heko wind deflectors
Aero flat wipers
Beesting arial (not alloy!)

Engine modifications
Custom stainless steel exhaust from downpipe to back box with centre silencer & CAT removed
Custom stainless steel performance backbox
De-restricted and modified airbox with K&N panel filter

Chassis modifications
Jamex -40mm lowering springs with sports dampers (30% stiffer)
Vauxhall Cesaro alloys powder coated Titanium with Toyo Proxies 195/50/15

Maintainance carried out
Oil & filter change x 3 (40/10 semi synthetic)
Diesel fuel filter replaced x 2
Pollen Filter changed x 2
Timing belt & tentioner replaced
Brand new battery
Reconditioned alternator
Brand new N/S driveshaft
Gearbox oil drained & replaced
New rocker cover gasket & engine jet washed clean
Hole welded in rear spare wheel well
About 70% of underside of car undersealed (Hammerite)
Rear wheels / axel / drums / front O/S wishbone / ARB / Stub axel all painted Hammerite direct to rust hammered black
Coolant change & new header tank
New thermostat

Planned Modifications & Maintainance


Interior

Full Cavalier or Calibra black leathers
Cover door cards in black fabrick
Matt black door / window pillars and roof
Boost gauge
Fit speedo SMD White LEDS, Chrome ring surrounds & orange needles (got)
Fit Alpine speakers front and back (Coaxial) (got)
Fit black leather gaitors with blue stitching (got)
Vectra door handles

Exterior
Get all rusted areas treated / filled & painted
Source a better condition Arden Blue bonnet
Stone chips filled
Machine polish
Red reflectors on rear mudflaps to cover vauxhall badge (got)
Finish smoothing wiper hole.
Colour code door handles & bootlock surround
5% limo tint on rear windows
Fit 5 door roof tip spoiler (got)

Chassis
Fit Cesaro centre caps (got)
Fit new drum brakes and all internal components and handbrake cable (got)
Check & adjust rear drum brakes
Adjust brake bias controller
Some welding to be done underneath.
Replace all brake fluid
1.4 16v Calipers so can use vented disks
Cross drilled & grooved vented disks
Camber bolts fitted (got)


Engine & Transmission

Full detail with alloy components polished up and stainless steel jubilee clips & bolts where possible
Fit Pipercross Viper Carbon induction kit (got)
Increase boost to 1.1bar
White ring mod
Increase fueling (hopefully around 90bhp achieveable with other mods)
Replacement gear linkage from lower milage corsa (got)
New alternator and power steering belts

*********************************************************************************************
I was looking for a Corsa 1.5TD, but trying to find a decent 3 door nearby was next to impossible. Wanted cheap tax, cheap insurance but just a lil more power.

Found one and although it was a 5 door and not my ideal buy, i got it for a good price and it had been well looked after.

Never planned to modifie it but one day i wanted to see what it sounded like with the air box off. As soon as i heard the turbo whistle and felt the grin on my face things started being changed

Here is a picture of it all standard



And a few of it about a month ago (no present pictures)











So far work / mods include

Undersealed all underside of the rear of the car and rear arches
Hammerite black on rear wheels, rear axel, anti roll bar, drums ect
lowered 40mm all around with Jamex springs & shocks
Debadged front grill
Beat USB MP3 player
Clear side repeaters
Wolfrace cone filter
Custom downpipe back exhaust removing centre silencer and diesel cat and baffless back box (sounds like a tractor)
Expensive phillips headlight bulbs
Re-dyed all of the black plastic on the outside pernament black
Full service..all known filters and oil replaced

My build thread will be slow for many reasons from working too much to being really lazy.
This car has to be both practical and reliable so mods will be subtle and nothing major looks wise.

Stuff still to do
Repair cooling fan (never overheats but let it heat up on purpose and noticed it never came on)
Full coolent change
Top up gearbox oil
Full brake fluid change
Replace rocker cover gasket and reshim vavle clearances if needed
Remove rear seats
Limo tint back windows
Remove rear wiper and fil in hole (has to be done due to lots of rust there)
Install blue lights throughout dash
Modifie stock air box and replace
Find a set of suitable wheels (TD Jets most likely)
Fit a MCB and increase boost slightly
Perform white ring mod to diesel pump and increase fueling slightly.

Still debating if it's worth fitting an Frontera intercooler. Unsure if i can fit it behind the front bumper to keep it hidde and still a bit unsure where to buy and what pipes are needed.

This car won't be everyones taste, but thought i'd share :)

Paint / under
 
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10
#2 ·
Awesome mate, i saw your help thread talking about this and was hoping to see you get a project up! Sounds good so far, really want to see how she stands at the moment though!
 
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Reactions: Hardcore
#3 ·
Cheers man

As soon as i find where i put the SD card for my camera i'll get some more recent pictures. Pretty much looks the same just now apart from some new number plates and the pernament black dye on the bumpers.

I think the if i can get some videos of how the old diesel sounds with the exhaust and filter at work at full throttle, they'll do it more justice than the pictures ever will. :thumbs_up:
 
#5 ·
Part of my first stage to lighten the car ;)

Seriously though it came like that and it's gonna have to go 100%
By time i repair the massive bit of rust around the wiper arm on the boot it'll be easier to fill n the hole at the same time.

+ with the limo tint on the rear i probably won't see much out the back window at the best of time. Not practical i guess but means if i pick up a couple of ugly girls in the back, my mates can't laugh at me :D
 
#11 ·
Done a few more things to it the last few days.

Took off the cone air filter and modified and de-restricted the standard airbox. Rather than drill it i removed the entire park that's normally drilled and installed a K&N panel filter.

Fitted 2 x ultra bright 501 sidelight bulbs to the headlights. Noticed a headlight bracket is broken so need to replace that.

Installed blue LED's in the MFD and at the same time tried to do the heater controls. I fitted them but they are really dull tbh and i think the standard bulbs looked better. I managed to break one of the switches as well because some retard decided to glue the knob end to the shaft (lol) so when i pulled it out it snapped a bit off it.

De-badged it as well which took a fair bit of elbo grease.

Some pictures and a video just shortly. Waiting on my new Camera to arrive first..should be here in a few days. The bright LED's look good in the sidelights, but i fear they would get me a pull if i had them on thier own. Nice Xenon look..bright but the blue tint is a bit too blue, despite them advertised as "super white"

Embaressingly as well i went a short sprint up the main road in my area thinking it would be funny to try and leave my mate in the dust up to about 60mph....
He managed to own me though embaressingly in a Suzuki Jimny 1.3 jeep.

I think i'll be upping the fuel and boost much faster than i first thought at this rate
 
#12 ·
Hello mate,

I had a 1.7TD astra van Isuzu engined. One thing you want to do is fit yourself a boost guage. Those little engines can handle stupendous amounts of boost. heres a couple of things to consider;

Buy a 1,7TD engine or

White ring mod, up fuel one full turn, get a rubber hose with a larger diameter than what you have on yours present and replace the pipe from turbo to actuator or fit yourself a manual bleed valve. Get a turbo from a 1.7 TD or 3.1 Isuzu trooper TD, front mounted intercooler and then the fun starts. Only thing is because it doesnt have an ECU remapping is impossible :( but my van used to beat corsa 1.6 16V and Cav 1.8's and ran high 17 seconds on quarter mile at crail.

:) Isuzu power is the way forward and those engines LOVE cooking oil. Free/Cheap motoring!

Ill keep an eye out loved my Isuzu,

Matthew
 
#13 ·
Hello mate,

I had a 1.7TD astra van Isuzu engined. One thing you want to do is fit yourself a boost guage. Those little engines can handle stupendous amounts of boost. heres a couple of things to consider;

Buy a 1,7TD engine or

White ring mod, up fuel one full turn, get a rubber hose with a larger diameter than what you have on yours present and replace the pipe from turbo to actuator or fit yourself a manual bleed valve. Get a turbo from a 1.7 TD or 3.1 Isuzu trooper TD, front mounted intercooler and then the fun starts. Only thing is because it doesnt have an ECU remapping is impossible :( but my van used to beat corsa 1.6 16V and Cav 1.8's and ran high 17 seconds on quarter mile at crail.

:) Isuzu power is the way forward and those engines LOVE cooking oil. Free/Cheap motoring!

Ill keep an eye out loved my Isuzu,

Matthew
Hey man,

Gonna get a boost gauge fitted as soon as i get a spare day to myself...constantly working or occupied with fixing other stuff :(

I decided not to too mental with this. Just some cheap / fun mods. I've got a bike project i'm working on as well. Car for daily driver and bike for fun / speed.
I'm gonna do the white ring mod and the boost gauge and bleed valve along with what i have but not gonna go for a bigger turbo or intercooler.
The old engines done 155,000 just now. Not much on a diesel really but i don't want to end up fixing the car constantly (shouldn't have got a corsa then eh ;) )

What mileage was on yours?
Did you ever adjust the valve shims or blow the turbo ect?

When you done the white ring mod, did you still get black smoke whilst on boost?
 
#14 ·
If you leave the fueling and do white ring mod that wont produce smoke as its only going to give more derv once your boosting, but I loved my black reak! lol and My van was reliable as it was standard with 210000 miles on it and no heater plugs lol I loved it! Didnt adjust shims at all!
 
#15 ·
Right, i'll need rto post up some pictures tomorrow or the next day of what i've been up to recently with it.

Fitted SMD leds (4 x brighter than normal LEDS) to the headlights. Nice and bright, but a tinge of blue on them so not too fond of that...draws too much attenton from the local police...had a few funny looks so far.
I might put them in the interior light, as i've ordered new super bright white ones.
8 x brighter than normal LED side lights apparently..we'll see

Ordered some philips cool blue headlight bulbs. Filtered blue takes away that nasty yellow tinge that the headlights have and makes it almost jet white...as close to HID as possible on H4 without being illegal.

Fitted SMD's behind the heater console as well...jet white again and fitted regular blue's led's in the MFD.

I've still to fit my clear rear clear crystal clusters (not lexus)
Almost got all the coloured bulbs i need but i realised i'll need to try and put reflectors somewhere on the back of the car so it doesn't fail the mot / get me pulled.

Bought the wrong bulbs for my tail lights...ordered white instead of red.doh
Using them in the reverse lights now
Nice cool HID look in reverse (obviously no where near as bright)

So pictures and videos to follow
1 video so far

Shame the camera picks up too much noise from the engine where it is and you can't hear the turbo whistle / growl from the modified airbox / exhaust

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWIGZ4XN6Y"]YouTube- 0-60mph - 1999 Corsa 1.5TD CDX 5 door.[/nomedia]
 
#16 ·
New SMD LED's for the headlights. Not 100% happy though. Advertised as white, but very blue when it's really dark. Look ok in dusk / dawn. Gonna find another place to use these
This is 1 x SMD LED bulb (very bright)
New ones i have ordered are 4 x small SMD's per bulb and should be pure white



I've got clear rear light clusters to fit as well and have been ordering coloured bulbs for them (non lexus)
I ordered 2 x 5watt LED's to use as the tail lights...thought they were red, but my bad...
Using them as reverse lights just now untill i get red's for the new clusters. Being 5 watts as apposed to 21watts normally, not quite as bright as stock but when you compare it to the number plate light they're much whiter / cleaner looking



Couple of videos as well, but nothing impresive.
One giving it some beans off a round about and the other just showing a quick look at the car

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmhS7COvHMw"]YouTube- 1999 Corsa 1.5TD CDX 5 Door Walk Around[/nomedia]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmVxa8FPizY"]YouTube- Corsa 1.5TD Flooring It[/nomedia]
 
#17 ·
Just a small update.
Fitted Philips blue vision bulbs, but although they have been white in previous cars they are still kinda yellow in the Corsa B

Fitted super bright LED clusters for the rear reverse lights. 24 leds as apposed to 5 in the previous pic. I fitted an LED type bulb (5 leds) in the number plate light as well. Takes away that horrible yellowish colour and no nice HID style white with a tinge of blue

Ordered a bullet arial as well.

Because of the severe rust around my rear wiper arm i'm deciding to remove the wiper arm and fill in the hole completly.

I know this is Arden Blue and has a coat of Laquer over it. What's the chances of me filling in the whole, spraying it and getting the spray to blend into the rest of the tailgate?
Or would i need to spray the entire tailgate to get it to look ok?

Does anyone know the primer colour to use to get the right shade from the Arden blue?

Comming soon should be gloss black painted & Laqured centre console (to modernise but keep it subtle)
New black leather gearstick gaiter
Spray wiper arms & new blades
Gloss black steel wheels - temp untill i can source some half decent alloys
Replace rocker cover gasket
Get hole in boot floor welded
Rear windows tinted

Hopefully get that done fairly soon. I have the money sitting there, just finding time between work and chores around house on days off...

What do you lot think on the boot surround?
With a smoothed tailgate should i leave it black (no other plastic will be colour coded which isn't already in pics)
Or should i paint it Arden blue & laquer it as well?



Just managed to obtain a larger turbocharger from a 1.7td Cavvy with apparently only 90,000 on it
For £90 delivered, i felt worth the gamble.
 
#19 ·
Spent some time recently trying to sort out the lighting on the car. I hate that horrible nicotine yellow type look from lights, so spent a fair few ££ on some LEDs where i could to change that yellow tinge for a nice HID style white glue with a tinge of blue

SMD Whtie LED's for the boot light



Number plate light, hoping it will look better when i get some meths to clean the lens with. (None SMD's)


Side repeaters


Brighter ones for reverse lights now
 
#20 ·
Regular 501 bulb vs 501 fitmit with 4 x SMD white LED's
Not as bright due to the bulbs focus forward to the right but bright enough]


2 x SMD White's behind centre console (almost impossible to get into the 3rd one on post 97 models it seems, it's in a sealed unit.


The sealed unit which i can't open to get into the 3rd cente bulb.



Fully de-restriced and modified airbox (done a while ago, but first time getting pictures)


K&N Panel filter


Some pictures of the car after a wash

 
#23 ·
Sure the buld is ABOVE the unit, I hav chnaged ine, I'm sure I sat there in same situatiuon as you at one point
 
#24 ·
It's not as big as a deal since i put white LEDS in the other 2 positions, but i'll give it another try and use a bit more force...after all no loss if i break it.

Picked up a set of Cesaro's as well recently. They're a horrible yellow just now and 2 need tyres so hoping to paint them gloss black and modernise some of the dashboard as well whilst i'm at it. Might take a while though as some need to replace rocker cover gasket and finish undersealing & paining the underside of the car whilst the weather is good.
 
#26 ·
Just small update just now with pics to follow later and maybe a video

Smoked side repeaters have arrived. MUCH better build quality than the clear ones on it the now and they're E, marked which is always nice (clear werent)

Some people are really gonna dislike the next mod today...not sure if i'll like it tbh!
Crystal clear rear light clusters. Not lexus ones, just frosted clear. That with LED tail lights and reverse lights.
I've ordered smoke spray as well so hopefully gonna smoke the froster clear plastic to get a nice finish (only gonna apply very light smoke)

In other news the "pernament" bumper dye has turned into a fail @ my wallets expense :(

Heard good reports on Volvo forums about it but keeps flaking off the front bumper. I think it's the motorway driving at 70mph in the rain that's killing it. Rear end is fine...
Gonna remove it all and try the heat gun method and see how i get on

Pics soon
 
#27 ·
Got side repeaters installed now. The non E-marked clear ones were duller with the chrome bulbs, the new smoked ones with orange bulbs (too dark to see the orange) are much brighter. Can;t get the rubber gaskets behind them to sit nice behind them. Need to sort the small part of rust on the door as well.

New repeaters are E-Marked as well which is always good.

Old clear ones (this is them actually flashing btw..


Tbh, most are a fair bit brighter to the real eye. Think smoked is better with the bumpstrips left on.


This is a bit gutting. When i had the clear repeaters i thought they looked good so got clear clusters as well and coloured bulbs. Fitted today and well, could be a contender to be more horrific than Lexus ones (sorry Lexus lovers!)
Arden blue and black clashes severely and they look so cheap. Some black smoke spray should help them out (although i need to leave smoke off top to keep reflectors clear!)



Flash on (shows reflectors at top)


Flash off. Shows how nicer the led number plate light is as well. Using led tail lights here as well.


I'll hopefully work some magic with the smoke spray With magic, i mean miracles haha :shocked:
They're rank imo at the moment.

Sand down, few coats of smoke, light sand down then few coats of laquer then a polish
 
#28 ·
Need some help and opinions on this one guys.

After i realised how horrible these were (current)


I found these.


I've got some black smoke spray as well on order.

1. Do you think i could get the same type of look from my lights with the smoke spray?
Nice black smoke, but still really clear at the same time. i,e not black.

2. If i do, what's your opinions on it looks wise (if i got the same finish as the dark ones)

3. I'm either gonna have to install red rear reflectors somewhere on the back of the car and try and find tastefull ones at that.
Or else should i smoke the stock rear lights and use them daily and keep the smoked clears for shows?

opions and advise appretiated :thumbs_up:
 
#29 ·
Found this whilst watching your 0-60 vid lol Yumm

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAojbgBMwLg&feature=related"]YouTube- OPT Corsa 3.0 V6[/nomedia]
 
#31 ·
Just small update today.

Matted the surface of the lights with some 1200grit

Got one light almost perfect to the amount of darkness i want, but sadly went a bit too OTT on the nearside one. Welcome to any suggestions to remvoe some of it? Thinking polish or more 1200grit. To "lighten it"

Pictures speak better than words

From this



To this



 
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