Pipamish's black Vectra 2.0 Turbo SRI progress thread

[pipamish]

Hello and welcome to my progress thread, I purchased the car back in July 2010, it was a standard 2.0 Turbo SRI other than the Irmscher door pins and the 19" Snowflakes.
I did intend on keeping the car standard and not doing anything with it but I started looking on the net at various Vauxhall sites and just could not help myself, here are a few pics the day I got her. This day was special as I had to get to Derby to look at her, I asked my cousin to take me and he agreed, this was a good drive as i went up in an E46 M3

Sorry about the quality of the pictures most of them was taken with a phone camera and the I Phone 3GS did not have the best camera lol.




Spec to date


Engine

Stage 1 remap producing 210bhp 300nm
Green cotton air filter with de-restricted air box mod
Powder coated rocker cover

Exterior

Full VXR body kit
19" VXR rims
35w 5000k HID,s
LED number plate bulbs
De-badged

Interior

Irmscher alloy door pins
Irmscher Steering wheel
CD70 Navi upgrade
Insignia alloy sport pedals
Rear electric window conversion
Blue & White SMD upgrade
VXR Gear stick











I was going to keep it standard but as I said I started looking on Vauxhall clubs and the modding bug soon kicked in the first mod I did was de-badge the griffin









I think it makes the rear end look so much nicer, I must admit I will be taking of the rest of the badges this summer.
I had a crack in the top of the plastic on my gear knob so I started looking on Ebay for a VXR stick which I found an Astra breaking so messaged the chap and met up with him at the Toby Carvery up Burntree







Here is the stick fitted







The stick makes the car feel a bit more special rather than the bog standard SRI stick.
One of the things that I did not like about the car was the awful headlights so i looked on HID's direct and ordered myself a set of 35w 5000k canbus free HID's, i went for this spec has I wanted a more factory xenon look.






Unfortunately I do not have any before and after pictures of my install but the Ebay trawling did not end, I was hunting for parts and I come across an Irmscher steering wheel, Stock clearance straight from Germany and it was in the colour of my dash so I just had to have it.







Here is the wheel fitted








This wheel combined with the VXR gear stick make the driving experience a more sporty feel and just completed the interior in looks and feel.
Soon after I was looking on Ebay again and purchased myself some Insignia alloy sport pedals







The car stopped like this for a short while, here are a few snaps of her after a clean.










After I took these shots I thought the car lacked something, I know it needed lowering but I saw a progress thread of somebody else's Vectra with a VXR body kit and I just had to have it, so I posted a thread on a well know Vectra site of this kit i wanted and not long after I was PM'd with a front bumper, so a nice drive to Luton to collect and here it is, complete with fogs and grills and also sprayed for me too

[pipamish]

After the bumper was sourced I just had to get the rest so I started trawling Ebay again and there i found the VXR sideskirts, rear spoiler, valance and boot spoiler, once acquired I saved for a couple of months and booked it into Vauxhall for it all to be sprayed and fitted.


Here is the finished product













After the huge sum of money that had escaped my account I had to start saving again, a couple of months later I came across a CD70 Navi which I fitted and Pecky re-programmed it into my car






LED interior lights also fitted

[pipamish]

The car needed some attention so I took it around my friends and he attacked it with the DA and Autoglym UDS. We also de-badged the SRI badges from the front wings.










After this some more saving happened over the months because my next big purchase was going to be the suspension set up, I got myself Bilstein B6 front/rear dampers and 40mm H&R springs also complemented with new gaitors, top strut bearings and top mounts, new drop links and front/rear Powerflex ARB bushes.









Here is the front struts assembled







I took my car down to Ely Cambridgeshire to see a chap called Ian who helped me fit my new suspension and we also gave the car a detail using Poor boys black hole on the front wing and Autolym UDS on the rest.



Here is the car after being lowered and myself giving it the going over








When I got back to Wolverhampton I gave it a quick detail and cleaned up the engine bay










I gave the car some time to settle on the new springs and shocks and gave it another detail with Demon shine and took some snaps

[pipamish]

The progress dropped off big time has I got bored and was looking at changing cars, I was looking at Astra CDTI 1.9's and also Astra GSI's ect I was just bored and fancied a change, my heart was ruling my head, after a serious talk with myself and how much money I spent on this car I decided to keep it and keep spending money on it improving the looks and performance.
I have not done much since but I have done a few things over the past year so here are a few more up to date pics.

I must add the car is in desperate need of another detail but I am going to have to wait until the summer comes back.



First of all I started looking on Ebay for a spare rocker cover has i wanted to have one powder coated in Gloss black


Here it is in prep.





And here it is finished








I then popped it over to my friends who helped me fit it











Here are a few more pics after a quick detail










Not long after these photos i was driving along the Milfields Rd and I hit a monster pot hole which bent my top mount

[pipamish]

After a while I was fed up with the Snowflakes so I started looking on Ebay for the 19" VXR's, I came across these fully re-furbished







Here they are fitted









And last but not least my latest purchase but not yet fitted, my VXR brake upgrade 345mm painted in Halfords blue.










Well this was the last purchase and i am dying to get them fitted, i hope you have enjoyed my progress so far here is a list of my future plans.






Full custom exhaust with sport cat
Front mount inter cooler
Bigger Turbo
Bigger Injectors
Upgraded fuel pump
Upgraded water & oil feeds
Maptun ECU software
Window tints
VXR Rims refurbed in Gun metal
Engine bay dressing ( Carbon dipping and blue silicone hoses )
Maybe Coilovers

[pipamish]

Can't believe I forgot 2 mods in this lol, I have also had a full SMD conversion in blue & white and i have also done a rear electric window conversion


Here is a before and after on the SMD conversion sorry about the quality


BEFORE










AFTER

[frostyburg]

stunning fella , love these cars , we owned a silver lightning one a few years back , lovely car to drive , good power output too .

it looks uber clean , credit to you

[pipamish]

stunning fella , love these cars , we owned a silver lightning one a few years back , lovely car to drive , good power output too .

it looks uber clean , credit to you

Thanks Phil alot of time and effort and money has gone into this and I'm still yet to keep going, I am hoping to eventually get a Total Vauxhall feature in the distant future, I reckon along with a full custom leather interior re-trim and a boot build it should look very nice

[Jay-GSi]

Lovely motor mate! Very good progress too love it! Shows how far its come no wonder you was annoyed yesterday after losing that lot lol i just spent ten mins reading through it all so god knows how long it took you to type lol

[ANT-VXR]

Looking good m8 its come on a bit aint it I remember you when you wanted to change , good progress thread to