# Basket case 1998 Astra (56K – 67 Pictures, but well worth the wait!)



## Jules

Some of you will recall that my most common complaint is that I am not experienced enough at this detailing lark. So far I've only cleaned mine and my wife's' car and these are in pretty good nick, so there is not much to challenge me…..

….. and then along comes this basket case.










This is a 1998 Vauxhall Astra 1.4 Expression in Flame Red. This car is not just sun-faded, it's been abused. It's absolutely filthy inside and out, has probably only been washed 4 or 5 times in it's entire life, has scratches and dents all over it as well as bird-lime burns and the wheel trims have severe kerbing. The interior has some pretty awful staining and the car has bits hanging off it.

This is my Bro-in-laws car, and after 10 years of faithful service, he's decided to PX it in for something newer……..only any garage will probably laugh him out the door if he were to ask for a PX value on it. To be fair to him, he has been living on a building site for the past 3 years and cleaning the car is just not a priority for him, neither is it practical when the car is parked on sand and is used to take all sorts of rubbish down to the dump every weekend.

So how did I get it? Well allegedly during an excellent barbeque when the weather was good earlier in the year (remember then?) after one to many Stella's, I volunteered to sort it out for him.

So, for a period of 2 weeks whilst my Bro-in-law in on his hols, I have the car to try and get it back to a half decent condition, whilst using it as a test-bed to practise new techniques on that I have read about but don't dare try out on the brace of BM's that we have.

I have a lot to learn.

Lesson number 1. Never offer to do stuff when you are drunk.

As the car arrived

Notice then algal build up on the window rubber.



















Badly kerbed wheels










Interior





































Broken NS Front indicator










Broken OS repeater










Missing NS Wing Mirror (allegedly caused by a car wash!)










Missing Aerial (note the rusty coat-hanger!)










Oxidised paint.




























Note the dirt build-up in the crevices


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## Jules

So first things first, the wheels. Following on from mattm's excellent thread on alloy wheel refurbishment, I decided to see if the same principles would apply to plastic wheel trims. Firstly they were soaked in Megs Wheel Brightener cut 4:1 and given a damn good scrubbing.

On the car










Cleaned up










After they had dried out I attacked them with my power-sander and 100-grit glass-paper to remove the kerbing. Once all the kerbing was removed I moved to 600 grit and then 1000 grit and finally 1500 grit wet and dry using Megs NXT Quick-detailer as a lube to remove all the sanding marks.










They were then washed again and wiped down with CG's New car solvent. Then sprayed with Vauxhall Star Silver paint (The closest match I could find) and lacquered over. This photo shows the trim being a bit orange-peely. This was an early attempt and I had applied the paint too heavily, but I soon learned to be a bit lighter and was quite impressed with the final finish.










Here are all 4 hanging in my garage drying.










Lesson #2, ensure all sanding marks are completely removed prior to painting. I had to re-do 2 trims because there were a couple of 600 grit sanding marks left that the paint did not fill.

Lesson #3, lots of light, even coats are preferable to a couple of heavy ones.

So on to the interior. All rubbish, mats and child seats removed and the interior thoroughly hovered out. I removed the front seats to get better access to the interior and then started on the headlining.

Pretty much all the interior was treated the same way: Megs APC cut 10:1 (or 8:1 on really bad areas) sprayed onto the headlining/fabric/carpet with a pump-spray, agitated with a soft brush and then extracted using the vax. I had clean, warm (not hot!) water in the reservoir with a dash of Lilac fabric conditioner, just to help remove the odours and condition the material.

Headlining

½ done










This was the dirt removed just from the headlining. Hot chocolate anyone?










So on to the seats.

As you can see, the seats were in appalling condition…..










An action shot of the dirt being removed (God alone knows what was spilt here, I 'd rather not think about it…………….)










Front seat ½ the back done…..










…..1/2 the seat done……










……completed.










4 buckets of dirty water later and then on, dear friends, to the carpets…










Boot mat (50/50, well more like 60:40, but you get the idea…..)










Boot arches before and after



















Drivers footwell before……










…hoovered out…










…shampooed (twice!) and extracted.


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## Jules

Door cards.

Before.









This was a leaked pen in the drivers' door pocket. Megs APC a brisk scrubbing and extracted - all gone.



















This is what I really love about Megs APC. Spray it on, leave for a minute or two, agitate and you can see the dirt being lifted off the surface.










Note the green coating on the inside trim…










…gone










Finished door card (Speaker grill repaired)










Then on to the 'hard surfaces', starting with the boot, wiped down with Megs APC (still 10:1) and then finished with Megs NXT Tech Protect. (Sorry, no pics, I was racing to finish)

Door shuts and sills next and lesson #4. Do these before the rest of the interior, as the dirt flicked off them means you have to do the interior again. Megs APC cut 4:1 and agitated with a variety of brushes.

Befores and afters.



















So that's the interior finished, all that remained was for the seats to be put back in, some air freshener to be sprayed liberally around (CG's new car scent) and the windows to be cleaned with AG Fastglass.


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## Jules

On the exterior I started with the wheels, arches and under-sills. The amount of dirt build up was so great that I just jet-washed the arches to remove all the dried on dirt, and then sprayed with Megs APC (4:1) and scrubbed down, then jet-rinsed again.





































Hmmm, looks like cleaning up the drive is my next job……..










Next I soaked the lower half of the car and all the cracks and crevices with APC (4:1) and agitated with a paintbrush. The car was jet-rinsed and washed with Megs NXT shampoo. I don't have many pictures of the wash process as the car is parked in an easterly direction and I was washing it at 6am in the morning to get it done before the sun breached the houses opposite and made washing impossible.

I did not adhere to the 'ideal' wash using the 2-bucket method and I wasn't going to let my wash-mitt anywhere near this heap, so it got a good scrubbing using a sponge wrapped in fluffy terry cotton. I figured that this car had so much damage on it a couple more swirls would be infinitely preferable to a buggered up mitt……










With a clean body I was then in a position to go around and assess the damage. All paint defects were marked with a black pencil. There were loads of stone-chips, a couple of scratches and this:










To anyone that wonders what damage Birdlime does to your paint - here is the evidence. I originally thought this was dried on bird droppings that would wash off, but soon realised that it was birdlime that has actually burned through the paintwork to the undercoat (SHOCK) so I filled with touch up paint and flatted back.










All stone chips and severe scratches were treated the same.





































Lesson #5 - Halfrauds touch up paint is not an exact match to the rest of the car. You don't notice it on stone chips, but it does notice on large areas of repair.

Flatted back and ready for polishing.




























The car had visible bonded contamination so I knew that it would have to be clayed. First I had to remove the tar build up from the lower flanks, so for this I used CG's New car body solvent, which worked a dream.










For claying I used CG's clay with Megs NXT Quick Detailer as a lube. This was just after the front NS wing.


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## Jules

After this I decided to replace the missing parts on the car (combination of eBay and the local scrap-yard)

With a fully decontaminated and complete body, it was time to start polishing. I used a Cyclo Polisher. But first, paint depth readings:










After some experimentation I found that Megs #83 on orange compounding pads removed the oxidisation quite well and then to refine the finish I used Megs #80 on white finishing pads. Some of the really badly oxidized paint required an intermediate step, which was #80 on a green light cutting pad. I used Pinnacle XMT pad conditioner as the spritz.

Front NS wing










Bonnet, some nice reflections of clouds there.










50/50 on the roof










Really bad scratch on the bonnet which took a couple of attempts to get out.










This is a 50/50 of the whole car, one one side a shed…..










…on the other quite a respectable car, actually.










For the trim I used Megs trim detailer (which I now hate as the rain washed it all off - CG's Trim detailer on order!)

After paint correction I used CG's Blitz sealant, topped with Megs #16 Carnuba wax, I really love this combo as the blitz gives an awesome sharp reflection, but the Megs adds warmth and depth.

Wheels were also blitz'd and tyres done with Megs Endurance, Glass cleaned with AG Fast Glass and windscreen treated with rain-X, wipers treated with 303 wiper cleaner

Here are some of the finished car.














































And finally the gratuitous reflection shot










The night that I finished it rained quite heavily, so here are some beading shots for those of you that suffer from Beading fetishes…



















I had this car for 2 weeks; I spent 3 whole days on it and a couple of hours most evenings.

Last lesson - Never volunteer to do stuff when you are drunk…….

Comments, questions and correction to any errors that I have made are, as always, welcome, but any errors that I have made are intentional and for your amusement only.

Jules


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## Craigo

thats a great turnaround mate, u must have worked damn hard on that! must have added hundreds to the value of it, i bet your friend will not believe its the same car when he sees it!


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## Skodaw

I love this kind of detail -- you can have all the nice new cars you want - you can spend a day and they dont look that much different -especially to the untrained eye.

But get an old basket case like this and you can immediatley see the difference - cant wait to see the paintwork when thats complete.

A little tip for the algae on the seals -- P21 Autowash - spray on, agitate with a trim brush and rinse off - will come up like brand new, did just this on my last Astra.

DOH!! -- Should have given you the chance to finish uploadinf the pics!!

Looks absolutly fantastic - your brother in law should be gob smacked when he see's it.


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## nsanity

Amazing turnaround mate, excellent work DD


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## Tyke

Fantastic, your bro-in-law owes you more than a few Stellas!

Supercar details are great, but it's these kind of turnarounds I like to see, well done :thumb:


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## Detail My Ride

Superb Turn Around, Looks Fantastic!!

Might you mind me asking what Wet Vac you use?

Gaz


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## InSPiRE

Cracking, one of the best turnarounds I've seen here!


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## Bulla2000

WOW. That blows me away, really well done!!


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## astra-bertone

got to be up for the monthly competition


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## Liverpool-Lad

Excellent, love these transformations on every day cars!

Well done.


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## Multipla Mick

Now that is superb! I was looking at that and as I was scrolling down thinking 'please replace those wheel trims' but you went one better and got a brilliant result. You know the paintwork is dull and lifeless when you can draw on it with a pencil! Amazing turnaround, all that hard work has really paid off. Top job indeed :thumb:

Monthly comp contender for sure!


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## Summit Detailing

cracking job fella:thumb: 

definately a monthly comp entry


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## Jules

13yearoldetailer said:


> Superb Turn Around, Looks Fantastic!!
> 
> Might you mind me asking what Wet Vac you use?
> 
> Gaz


It's an old Vax, no idea what the model number is.


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## 182_Blue

looks superb that mate


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## MickCTR

Thats awesome. :thumb: Seriously good detailing!


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## Fat Audi 80

I am smiling from ear to ear. AWESOME turnaround. Really well documented too! I love see an old banger returned to almost new condition! 

Love it. 

You will walk the monthly comp 

Cheers,

Steve.


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## mouthyman

excellent job, nice turnaround


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## ken m sport

top marks from me.

The best turnaround I have ever seen.

Well done mate.


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## Ian666

:doublesho What as state at the start. Fab finish:buffer: :thumb:


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## mattm

I agree with ibizasport16v, a definite competition winner!

I guess gone are the days when people think "a bit of T Cut on a rag'll do it!"


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## Mars Red Mike

Absolutley heffing amazing turnaround!! I love the basket case to respectable car details. Top stuff mate. Incredible work.

mike


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## Ben H

really enjoyed reading that, that is an awful lot of hard work you put in. Hopefully he'll have a change of heart and want to keep the car now as it seems a shame to p/x after all that work!


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## blueshoe

well documented ( nice to see you took the time out to remove the seats). Excellent turnaround fella. It's so true.. you really can notice the difference when ur detailing older cars. New cars will look just that.


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## PootleFlump

Great work. This is the sort of work I like to see. Seeing expensive cars pampered is great but I find this far more enjoyable, seeing a real hard graft and a superb transformation well worth the effort. You must have trippled the value of the car....maybe even more.


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## Dave KG

Thats a cracking turnaround there, seriously impressed with that and the effort you put in - and certainly increasing any potential trade in value I would imagine too. Top work. :thumb:


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## panholio

Love these sort of details. A definite competition winner there matey!


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## dynebaruk

Same as what everyone else has said, great work! Seeing a completely battered car get worked on is great reading.

Super job mate.


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## Mister-Jimbo

ditto to what they all said, a cracking bit of work there! :thumb: 

can't beat faded red to work on, always satisfying as hell when it's done! :buffer: 

monthly comp winner for sure!    

jim


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## V8burble

A great read and an awsome amount of effort on your part. It's hard to believe that you can achieve all that from a complete shed! This has got to be up for the comp this month. :thumb: 

Thanks for sharing it with us, top job :thumb: :buffer: :doublesho


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## Nica

Just read this and that is an incredable detail. Really enjoyed reading through it, wow very nice.

Thank you for sharing.


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## AndyC

Jules mate - awesome work; I can't believe you were wanting tips from me; you really, REALLY don't need any and I might need to come and watch you at work to pick up some hints myself :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## 190Evoluzione

Amazing turnaround fella, maybe's your bro-in-law should try
for a quick private sale! Prolly get him 20-30% more than a trade-in


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## SimonW

Great Work!! Stunning turn around, especially on the interior!

Keep it up

Si


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## HeavenlyDetail

Dont ya just love Vauxhalls pink cars..:lol: 

Fantastic turnaround jules and bet your well chuffed!!


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## adb

Excellent. Top turnaround mate, well done :thumb:


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## scooby73

Great write up really enjoyed it, and a fantastic turnaround:thumb: I reckon after that amount of work he should keep the car.


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## S-X-I

Great turnaround and fantastic attention to detail!


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## Malcolm44

Awsome:doublesho 
You should definately concider going into the monthly comp


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## Red 5

Great write up & superb turnaround :thumb: ,

Makes a nice change to see some-one featuring a full on interior detail.

VERY well done, one of the best I've seen


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## Deanoecosse

Cracking turn around there mate. On the subject of alcohol, I suppose it's better to wake up after a night on the beer to a minging car than a minging burd, at least you can improve the appearance of the car with a rotary, not so easy with the burd!


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## ROB WOODHOUSE

Trade in value should be alot more now exceelent turnaround there you wouldnt believe its the same car!


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## Ronnie

WOW.. simply stunning turn around I must admit I would like to find a bit of a pig like that to test my skills on .. Very well done!!! If u enter it in the monthly competition gawd help ne1 who is in against u!!!


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## karl7900

Fantastic job. Maybe it is possible to polish a turd after all!!


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## Guest

Excellent work!!!!!!!

I remember the days when I use to clean them at the Vauxhall dealership, I only got £50 for a full valet in those days...  

Kind Regards
Paul
Miracle Detail.


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## impster

Nice one mate. I too have a Flame pink - sorry flane red astra 1995 and know how quickly the paint dulls if you don't keep protecting it.

Very nice job - i bet you've cleaned a few bob into the value of the car. 

What did the owner say when he saw it????

Impster


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## SimonW

Ronnie said:


> WOW.. simply stunning turn around I must admit I would like to find a bit of a pig like that to test my skills on .. Very well done!!! If u enter it in the monthly competition gawd help ne1 who is in against u!!!


I want to do the same, but for a business point of view. By a car worth £400 and polish hell into it and up the value to say £600-£800! profit of £400 for 3 days work :thumb:


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## Phil H

excellent work!!


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## Jules

Wow, what a response, cheers guys I am very flattered by the positive comments, especially from the likes of Miracle, VXRmarc and Andy.

In answer to some of the questions, value is a hard one to call, it's worth what anyone will pay for it, but trade in value is now £500, private sale would be closer to £700/£800. Still it's a damn sight more than the £100 he would have been lucky to get.

I don't think he will be keeping it, reliability has become an issue recently and despite it looking good, it's still the same car underneath.

I'll let everyone know what it sells for eventually.

Thanks again for all the comments, quite embarrassed really........


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## dodger

stunning work, worth a competion entry


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## Trist

Brilliant turnaround :thumb:


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## wfenix

this has got to go in as a contender for detail of the month this guy deserves it that is an amazing turnaround to a completely abused car, hats off to you fella awsome work.


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## Katana

Brilliant job, love seeing tired red cars brought back to life :thumb:
I'm surprised an old Vax works that well, going to have to use a relatives old one to do mine now.


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## Elite2.2DTi

thats turnt out looking like new, i hope your brother in law appreciates all the hard work you've put in.

Good Job ! :thumb:


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## Auto Finesse

That is a proper job, well done, i bet you nearly doubled the price of that car doing that,


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## NornIron

I've said it before, this is what DW is about for me...seeing a tired, everyday motor revived :buffer: 

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## John74

Stunning work.


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## Fursecul

OMG one of the best turnarounds ever,the car went from 0 to hero cracking job :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## xlfive

Love the basket case details you can really see the end results


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## mattjonescardiff

excruciatingly painstaking but immensely satisying at the same time!! congratulations and thankyou for posting.

Can I ask where you got the small head for the vax cleaner from? I have a vax carpet cleaner and I'd love a small head attachment to do the car seats.


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## ahaydock

That is an excellent job mate well done! What a turnaround on what most people would have taken to the scrappy!

A very strong contender IMO!


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## Andyuk911

stick it in the comp this month, gets my vote !


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## Wozza

I think everyone else has already summed up your efforts :thumb: Nice work :thumb:


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## mouthyman

ive done a couple of vauxhalls with red paint and both were like this, i dont know why they are so prone to oxidisation but they both came up very nice, good work


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## Mikey_Bwoy

Amazing turnaround!

There was an R-reg red Astra almost identical to this, same state, parked in my street this morning, really wanted to get my hands on it!

There's always a red Focus parked just round the corner that is almost as bad too


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## rich75

Wow, you wonder how many other cars have been given up for a lack of elbow grease...


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## Schnorbitz

Wow! Amazing job, not many people would have put all that effort in to it but it has really paid off.


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## Guest

Amazing Work There Mate Well Done


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## Finerdetails

great job, well done


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## dominic84

That made me smile reading that  Fantastic stuff :thumb:


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## silver bmw z3

Excellent story,detail,write-up. Hope your bro-in-law appreciated it!? Any idea how much it increased the value?


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## stewarty.c

looks like a new shell on the car now lol 
top job u have done there

stewarty


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## Brazo

Well maybe you weren't experienced but I think its fair to say you earnt your stripes here!


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## streaky

Excellent work and write up. :thumb: :thumb:


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## gillywibble

Just saw this in the competition. Awesome work!


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## Ali

Simple amazing!


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## dirk

very impressive turnaround


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## 9868

I couldn't believe what I was seeing!! Excellent work dude!


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## DE 1981

And people say you cant polish a turd. Great work mate


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## djohn

Agree with all that's been said, excellent work and I hope he paid you even if the original offer was to do it free. You have put too much work into this car just to receive a thank you. :thumb:


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## matt_mph

truly amazing, might have to steal this and post it on mk3oc ( astra mk3 owners club )


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## Kadir

All that has needed to be said has been said. Brilliant write up and pat yourself on the back. Awesome work and results to match. Definitely what DW is all about.. :thumb:


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## Markyt001

Big pat on the back for you mate. Lovely to see and older car revived like that.

He ows u big time....

Markyt:thumb:


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## stevil

Good turnaround!


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## e60mad

Good turnaround! Jeezzz, understatement of the century. That was pure art at work. Not only did you do a fantastic job on every aspect of the car, you took the time to take quality pics for your write up allowing all of us to get some kind of idea what the journey was like. It's already been said, but this is what DW is all about. There is something far more satifying in seeing an older everyday car bought back to life like this. If the monthly comp is decided on by votes, you'll be getting mine. You should upload a pic of the Bro-in-Law's face when he sees it.
:doublesho :buffer: :doublesho :buffer: :thumb:


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## PandaMan

Truly Inpirational ! 
(Great write up too, given me some tips on which product to use)


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## visor

thats an amazing turn around :thumb: :thumb:


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## Tiauguinho

Thats what Detailing is all about! Awesome job!


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## AndyD

That is a truly amazing detail!! Well done! :thumb:


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## stalmans2005

very nice job:thumb:


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## leistrum

Pure inspiration! If only every neglected car could receive that sort of treatment!


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## touchingthevoid

Superb Job


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## Gandi

Amazing thats all i can say, also very good write up being a newbie detailer iv learned a hell of a lot form that


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## Guest

Brilliant, truly brilliant. I imagine your brother-in-law was gobsmacked by the transformation!


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## Jules

Evening everyone.

Just to update you all, my Bro in law kept the car until a couple of weeks ago when he traded it in and got £900.00 for it in the end.

Cheers

Jules


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## geert dr

Amazing turnaround! I bet it did'nt look that good even when it was new!:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## chrisfoster1971

jesus christ, I can't believe the difference,,,,so much so that I showed the wife and even she said WOW. ( believe me that is something as she isn't the most observant ) 

I have the utmost respect in this, it gives me the inspiration to keep trying and see what I can do with my "SHED"

Could I asj what you used to clean the interior as in which cleaner "George" ??


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## h9scw

Excellent job, done a few Vauxhall flame pink to flame red jobs in the past year....its amazing how good the results are considering what you start with.

Top write up too, my hats off to you sir:thumb:


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## danw

now thats really impressive, thats what its all about in my opinion. definitely and entrant into the competition section i think?


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## newannaive

bump....

not bad Jules...not bad at all..


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## shrek

So it is possible to polish a turd.


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## impster

It still amazes me each time I 'come back' to this write up. 

The ubiquitous red astra is still the detailers' favourite!


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## MadOnVaux!

Blinding work, a complete transformation


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## HAWKEY_SKYLINE

love it !! the satisfaction from that has got to be worth every minuite of the detail !!!!:thumb:

good job matey :thumb:


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## Ollie_Escort

This thread is the reason I got into detailing! Thanks to whoever bumped it!


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## Planet Man

shrek said:


> So it is possible to polish a turd.


Blimey Shrek. You dug this one out of the archives


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## simon_23

fantastic!


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## Modmedia

Worth a dig from the archives this one, fantastic work!


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## Rabett_Rover

I Bow down to you!! The quality of your work is simply fantastic!


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## Mini One Cabrio

What a fantastic turnaround!! One of the best I have seen for a long while!!

Paul


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## megasuds

wow thats a job very well done


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## robxr2

great turnaround a+


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## EthanCrawford

wow thats an amazing transformation

good work 

:Thumb:


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## stangalang

Dude that was one thorough job with a fine write up you should be proud. Hats off to you


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## Maxym

Excellent job. It's amazing how those horrid old Astras can be made to look quite nice...! Quite remarkable, mate; top work.


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## james_19742000

JUst read this thread, can we not have a detail like this as a sticky or something somewhere, as threads like these are an inspiration to all of us, an old workhorse like this bought back to life, spot on!!! Really enjoyed that and well done for the hard work and effort.

Am hoping to get a car in a similar state in about 12 months or so for my daughters first car, will look at getting an old dog and transforming it for her!!


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## Mirror Finish Details

Love these threads, I did a cavalier recently as a project to buy a pink Vauxhall and sell a red one, here is the link- http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=156584 if anyone is interested.


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## jonmac73

holy thread resurrection batman !!!!!
great work though


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## sammyt

what a nightmare to go through that.


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## IYRIX

Love it!!


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## Alquimista

Some of the best stuff I've seen yet, and I've already seen quite a lot already...
Congratulations.


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## geert dr

Thats what i call an Extreme Makeover !!! Respect :thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## jason2612

superb job and a great finish :thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## swest0223

WOW!!! Reminds me of a 1989 Nissan pickup I did once...


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## n_d_fox

Excellent work and what a turn around !!

I couldnt help but think when i was looking through the finished pics that your brother in law will probably think twice about chopping it in now... i bet he couldnt believe the difference in the car.

Well done :thumb:


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## pete5570

Great job! Car looks completely different!!I had one identical as a work hack, did a similar job on it, but nothing like that. I used to buy cars lke this for a living and turn them around then put them through the auctions, It's bloody hard work but very rewarding.


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## adlem

Great turnaround! I'm currently in the process of going through this on my sister's 10 year old polo (test hack :lol

I hope i can get somewhere near you're level of finish :thumb:


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## SimonBash

Great thread, just realised how old it was. Haha


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