Astor Grey Phase 3 XS

[hbomb1905]

Bought my XS in March 2011 (my 4th 306 and second 1.8 16v) got it for £750 and the gearbox packed up a mile down the road - gutted. After 100 miles on an AA truck, 2 weeks of it sitting outside the house, a trip to Oxford for a gearbox and a local garage picking it up it had cost me an additional £400 - wheeey! lol

Never mind.. here's how it looked when we went to get it..



A good clean and polish, Gearbox sorted, decent service (non cambelt) and driving it down to my new home in Devon - May 2011






Since then, just been driving it! Had two new tyres, an MOT (brake lines) and a cat! Put my sub and cd player in, sprayed the badge matt black, removed the XS badges from the doors...

Took it to the Devony meet, pictured here with a few Devon/Cornwall yocals that you may recognise...





Winter started to set in, these pice are taken not far from the above ones but in October!





Quick and silly vid from the same day..



So, getting coilovers verrry soon hopefully (they're on my christmas list for santa)

Hopefully be able to go nice and low at the front (at least to the bottom of the coils) then stick on a Gti-6 Splitter and probably some 50 profile decent tyres!

In the future.. airbag gti leathers, black masks, rallye blanks, decent induction system and possibly a 4-2-1 mani! Oh and a fresh cambelt (done 152k with no history...

[hbomb1905]

Tomorrow i'm gonna get up and give her a bit of TLC! Shes filthy, grille and hockey sticks are in the boot, doorcard is on the back seats and theres loads of trim in the passenger footwell - been abused for the last month or so poor thing!

Majorly, i'm gonna take pics of what I get upto and actually update my thread for once!

Thanks for reading

[hbomb1905]

Right, managed to spend a few hours on her beginning of last week!

Started off by getting up and taking the missus to hand her project in and finish uni for christmas - took a few snaps of the car looking a bit grubby outside Plymouth Uni!





Since I bought the car the passenger electric window hasnt worked. It opens fine but wont shut again on the switch. I've replaced the drivers and passenger switches and checked all the fuses. Everything else in the door works (central locking, alarm system works properly and the leccy mirror works fine) and like i say the window will go down with the passenger side switch! (but not the drivers side). The motor works as i can operate it up and down using a piece of wire from the cars battery - im now at a dead end!!

So, pulled the loom out of the door as best as I could to try and find a split...





All looks ok to me? Really struggled to find anything wrong - apart from it all being a bit grubby... do they look rough to you or does it all look normal! Anyway starting to lose patience with it having had the door card on and off about 60 times!

Anyway, stuck it back on and all is neat and tidy again and the footwell is devoid of trim now haha...

Next up was a random act of violence upon the rear wiper - had a few goes at taking it off over the last 6 months and kept pussying out at the thought of a smashed window haha... Gave it a good tug and sort of snapped the spindle so thought 'f*ck it' and got the junior hacksaw out!!!







Nice bit of sticky tape! (Later went to Halfords and bought a 19mm Aerial Grommet which is a perfect fit and looks quality! Will get pics next time i'm out playing with it!)

STICKERS!! I'm such a gaylord when it comes to stickers... i'll suddenly decide I want loads and go a bit mad on ebay then decide I want the car to look clean... Which is what happened the other day..

Bye bye to...



(FCS ones just relocated to top of drivers side windscreen)



Hated that green one!

Still clinging on... haha



Ahh tidy



Rossi can stay on the back!



Next up - time to give it a good clean in and out, try and get rid of the fag stench and the brake dust!!

Grille off for about a week after trying to get the fans to work (no luck)







aaaaannndd.. nice and clean!











and my new air freshener from Halfrauds!



Highly recommended! Cheap (2.99 iirc) and is still stinkin' after a week, but they have been known to last about a month!

[hbomb1905]

N/S Rear tyre has since been pumped up!!

Forgot to say - ordered Pressed plates and a G.E. Quickshift kit the other night as well so looking forward to them (even though they're xmas pressies from the missus technically haha)

The coilovers are also getting ordered just after xmas so should be lowwww real soon Can't wait!

[spawn]

Looking good so far.

[hbomb1905]

Cheers bud!

More updates in't new year! Hopefully get new pics at the Meadowhall meet on Tuesday|!!

[4WayDiablo]

looks lovely!

[hbomb1905]

Cheers mate

So!

The missus got me some pressed plates for christmas..





Much smarter than the nasty old ones!



I then went to the Northern Meadowhall meet on the 27th...



And got talked into buying Padge's old Challengers!! haha (Well chuffed though)





Quick pic from when I was up in't peaks last week - very dirty and HIGH!!!



And a quick one before I drove back down Plymouth after the new year!



Car aint gonna be lowered for a bit cos im so skint!! So cyclones are back on for the time being! Still for sale though if anyones interested!

Last little update - GE Quicky arrived so will be getting fitted in the next couple of days when I can be arsed!



Thanks for readin'

[declantg]

How do you fit the quick shift? And how much did it cost you?

[padge]

Woop car looks well on challengers!

[Ed Doe]

How do you fit the quick shift? And how much did it cost you?

Apologies to INXS for spamming your project thread (you may also find this info useful though!)

How I fitted the GE Quickshifter:

1. Its best to get at the linkage from behind the battery; you can pull it directly up and off the gearbox spigot far easlier than going in from the front, past the vac pump.
2. Pop the linkage off, get hold of some solvent-based degreasant and a couple of old rags and clean the spigot up. If it's oily its far more likely to slip!
3. Put quickshifter over the spigot and wedge as low as possible (for the shortest shift)
4. Tighten the pinch-bolt to buggery!!
5. Apply liberal amount of loctite (or similarly branded superglue) to area around spigot where quickshift is pinched.

Wait to dry then enjoy!
Its a bloody great mod tbh; took a little getting used to but now its just great; I couldnt go back to a normal throw now!
Makes me wonder why they gave the box such a long throw to start with!

**As a point of interest, by altering how the shortshifter is mounted, you can change where neutral is. To move neutral back, have the ball on the ge quickshifter tilted on the gearbox spigot more towards the nearside front wheel, to move neutral back, tilt it towards the off-side front wheel. Best to do this bit before applying the loctite!!**

Sorry I didn't take any photos; I couldn't be arsed with getting my phone shit-high to document it! there are a few pretty handy photo-guides on the '6 forum though if you google it...

[hbomb1905]

Cheers mate! ^ Didn't know there was so much to it! I'm probably just gonna go out and poke the gearbox with it til it sticks somewhere tbh

[lewisdmz]

Typical Dartmoor weather, bet it was sunny when you left Plymouth

Looking well though, what coilovers are you getting/have you got?

[hbomb1905]

Haha - on that note.. how epic was the weather today!!

It's just gonna be ebay specials mate! Cant justify the cost of anything else on a sub £1000 car! Hit 154k today

[lewisdmz]

I didn't notice I was at work all day :cry:

I think I might have passed you on the A38 a few weeks ago when I was coming home after New Years. I remember seeing an Astor 3 door with something yellow on the bumper.

[Ed Doe]

Cheers mate! ^ Didn't know there was so much to it! I'm probably just gonna go out and poke the gearbox with it til it sticks somewhere tbh

LOL! Sounds like a far more technical method than the one I employed

[Kezzieboy]

Still looking sweet bud, definitely needs lows before putting 17s on though

Did you ever post your pics from the Dartmoor meet anywhere?!

[hbomb1905]

Cheers mate! ^ Didn't know there was so much to it! I'm probably just gonna go out and poke the gearbox with it til it sticks somewhere tbh

LOL! Sounds like a far more technical method than the one I employed

still havent got round to it! gonna give it a go tomorrow and employ your guide! ta!

Still looking sweet bud, definitely needs lows before putting 17s on though

Did you ever post your pics from the Dartmoor meet anywhere?!

haha funny you should say that.. errr no lol. theyve been on my photobucket for ages though so will make a thread on 306.net!

I didn't notice I was at work all day :cry:

I think I might have passed you on the A38 a few weeks ago when I was coming home after New Years. I remember seeing an Astor 3 door with something yellow on the bumper.

Hmm I dunno, I came back from up North on Saturday 7th? If you'd passed me i'd probably have chased you haha

[Foxy-jim]

Looks nice and tidy mate! Preferthe clones if im honest!

[Dum-Dum]

On the subject of ebay special coilovers I have recently ordered the cheapest ones but theyer £159 BINOBO so i stuck in a best offer of £139 and after a bit of haggling got them for £149 delivered. PM me and ill likny you

[silverzx]

Priceless epic video there. Loving the puddle..

[hbomb1905]

Priceless epic video there. Loving the puddle..

Haha say cheeese! lol

[hbomb1905]

On the subject of that puddle, went up there again yesterday and sped through the puddle only to find that in the last three months somebody has re-dug a tin mine and then covered it discreetly with water. Nearly put my shocker through the bonnet i'm sure of it

[lewisdmz]

Check out this thread mate http://www.306oc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1171

Much better roads than those farm tracks you were driving down in the video I promise.

[ginge191]

Really nice car this pal, i think something which would really finish the exterior off nicely is perhaps some white outline on the alloys. would suit it nicely i think, perhaps a photoshop time?

Is hard to find wheels which sit nicely on astor in my opinion, not saying yours dont work!

a lilttle but more lowerage and your sitting nice

[hbomb1905]

It wasn't a planned video we just decided to randomly do it! Hence the poor quality lanes lol - i'll be at the meet - need more info though!

Ginge, the Cyclones are now sold and the challys are on, also masked my headlights so it looks a bit better.. still not sure about the wheels though.

Will probably do all the other stuff i want to do to it (lowerage etc) and then come back to the wheels at a later stage! I don't think i'll be doing outlines though not really my thing!

Thanks for the post!

[hbomb1905]

Finally got the lights masked and some new pics of my quick run up Dartmoor yesterday afternoon after we heard rumours of snow!

Still no lowerage!

[Foxy-jim]

Looks nice, but not sure on the wheels. Not a fan of them in general and too much black for me haha.

[hbomb1905]

I'm going all black and grey with a few yellow highlights (306 stickers when they finally get here, maybe yellow fogs)

I'm still not 100% on the wheels either, would like something a bit smaller and wider ideally but i'll wait til its lowered before I make a final decision!

[Foxy-jim]

Yellow will look cool as a second colour! Ye see what it looks like. When's it being lowered?