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[Sam Burton]

Hi Guys here is my picture story starting from 23rd June 2009

A Good friend of mine had a very battered and bruised MK3 1.7TD LS Van His trade by day was a plasterer so you can imagine the state of the inside as well as the outside :S.

As well as being a Plasterer he was a keen Footballer so since i live opposite a football field and do the odd bit of car valeting on the side i got to know him quite well so one day whilst sitting at the bar in the Football Clubhut he came in from outside dripping in sweat
"Blimey i feel light headed, need some sugar i think?" he said
"How about a Mars Bar Barry" i said
"Yer thats a brilliant idea but i don't want to mess up my stock taking!"
"Oh shut up Barry ill buy you the bloody Mars Bar"
"Oh thanks mate much aprrieciated, I Tell you what do you still want my Van"
"Yes why?"
"Ill swap you!"
"OK Deal!"

And from that Day i purchased a 1996 Vauxhall Astravan LS 1.7TD(Low Blow) for a 55p Mars Bar

From that day nothing but pure effection (and Money) has been spent on the van and since i was only 15 when i got it i didnt have a very large budget to play with so i Brought a half decent set of Hubcaps from Halfords for £15 and cleaned it up with loads of T-Cut, Wax and good old Henry Hoover




After about 7 months i finally left school and started as an Apprentice Mechanic so had a regular income, So i started treating the van to some luxuries including Chrome faced Angel Eyes and 15" Sport Wheels

next in line was a locally sourced CDX Front bumper with Fogs and splitter (In gold :S)


after hunting high and low i could not find a CDX Estate rear bumper so had to resort to a paint LS rear bumper (in gold again - weird coinsidence) so after collecting i decided to paint both bumpers together so here is me and my otherhalfs little brother prepping the bumper ready for paint


primer done and dry basecoat was next, Basecoat done and dry clearcoat was next and then ... Heavens opened

luckily the clearcoat was in a dry enough state that it didnt leave any water marks in the final finish so when the rain eased off we removed the prep material
(and also turned van around)

not bad for an aerosol Job
the following day weather was much better so a few pictures were in order


Pretty nice if i dont say so myself

i left modifying for a while untill about 5 months later when i invested ina set of 16" MK4 SXI wheels


i then removed the side strips

Unfortunatly this was the last picture i took before i sold it...

[Sam Burton]

Untill the 28th October 2012 when i brought her back!!!
this is how she spent our year apart she had a spoiler fitted got LOW!! and sat on god awful wheels



then she was sold to the owner about 5 months ago and for that 5 months sat in a barn looking very sorry for herself

then last friday 16th November 2012 she was back in my hands OMG SHE WAS UNBELIEVABLY DIRTY

so then onwards and upwards 5 stud conversion so the 18" vectra c wheels can fit on snuggly

it turned out to be tighter on the back than i thought but may have been because i fitted MK4 Rear Hubs without realising so this weekend coming MK3 rear hubs will be fitted so hopefully pull it in a little more



Update 24/11/12

Spent Saturday in the lovely damp and drizzily weather sorting the fronts out so now is mobile again but still havent had a chance to sort the rear hubs out a task for next weekend as i run out of hours in day light and dryness so just ended up sorting the frong legs out


then finally dropped it back down on to all 4 and it starting to look the part now


So Currently with rusty arches and an embarrasment state to her MK3 Astra Brothers and Sisters, Ive decided to focus my attention on the old girl So hopefully going to be running a C25XE 2.5 V6 Engine from a Calibra/Cavalier so will have a bit of grunt to go with the looks.... Hopefully 
[/B]

[Sam Burton]

Here is the Van on the first weekend of me buying it back ABSOLUTLY COVERED IN FILTH and thats just the Van  (Oh and the stupid headlights have been put back in) I cant think where i've put the Omega in this video

http://s1273.beta.photobucket.com/user/may2011omega/media/astraCleanday_zps6631cb00.mp4.html

[x25dt]

Had one myself, love the astra 

[symes]

Wow nice Astra Van My old man's got one he's never cleaned inside or out it rust is held together by the dirt But in all the years he's owned it Pity vx never did Omega van