Trax 2010
So Trax has finally turned around, and what a great day it was! 
I have to say, I am proud to be a member of Astra Owners Network. It is more than just a car club, everyone is so friendly, chatty, willing to help out with pretty much anything. They are a great bunch of people, a huge credit to them. The club stand looked awesome as usual, and was pretty big. We had a total of 66 cars on our stand. Yes, sixty six. 
Of the Astra Owners Network awards, MissyR quite rightfully won the Car of the Show award for her massively modified arden blue Astra OPC. One of, if not the, best cars on the forum. Best H went to Coxey for his moonland sporthatch, best G went to X_Steph_X for her Astra Coupe and Richgsi2 won the award for best detailed. As always, there is the wooden spoon event for the stupidest mistake of the show. This went to none other than the mental Scot, Wee Mac. She had such a great time at the hotel on the Saturday night that when it was time to leave on Sunday morning, she was still far too drunk to drive her van to Silverstone! Someone else, someone sober, had to drive it there for her 
Congratulations to all those prize winners!
I’ve taken a fair few photos, feel free to browse them here: Trax 2010
Preparing for Trax ’10, pt. 2
Big thanks to Adam (Stampede) today for sorting out an awesome SMD conversion for me while he was down this way, and a big thanks to Ash (Phatashki) for letting me come over his way to have the conversion done with his
I’ve seen so many people say that they’ve had an SMD conversion done, taken photos and said the photos don’t do it justice, but I’ve been sat there thinking “That looks great, how can it be any better?”
I now understand how, as what Adam does is truly awesome and completely transforms the interior
As we all know, this is the lovely dull interior we all know and love…
Here’s Adam hard at work
And here’s the result 
This definitely has to be one of the best mods. I love how much better and brighter it is, and I’ve had trouble driving home this evening, as I can’t stop looking at it rather than the road I’m glad I went for a mixture of blue and white, rather than just blue though. I think all blue would have been a bit much. 
The pics I’ve got aren’t great, but when it’s more dusk-ish tomorrow, I’ll grab some better, clearer photos
A great job well done by a top bloke. Cheers Adam
Preparing for Trax ’10, pt. 1
Only one week until Trax 2010 now… so I’m doing a couple of final touches this week…
Started off by giving it a damn good clean… I’ll be doing it again before Trax next weekend, but it really needed doing anyway…
I took my angel eyes off today, as they were letting it down a bit… especially after I lost the rear rubber cover to one, and in the wet weather, it half filled with water
So… I cleaned it about a month ago, and promised myself I would not clean it again until I moved house… which was supposed to be in like, two or three weeks of when I said that… Well, we kinda only set the move date last night in the end, so I broke my promise, as it really did need a clean… This is the state it was in:
So yeah, pretty filthy… Especially after the wet weather we’ve been having recently and being forced into a very deep and very muddy puddle down a country lane the other night 
I started with the interior, which in the twoish months of owning it, I um, haven’t ever done… So that was needed, especially after my Dad gave me a few bags of soil and rubble to take down the tip and one of the bags split in the boot 
Gave it a good hoovering out…
Followed by going over all the dash and door cards with TurtleWax Platinum Cockpit Shine
Once finished with the interior, I closed everything up, and got the pressure washer out to start going over the exterior…
That lasted a very prompt 30 seconds before the hose connector on the tap shattered and the hose fell out… So I had to quickly run down the road to the DIY shop handily placed a 3 minute walk down the road and get a new one…
Came back and started over again… Once I’d rinsed it all over… attacked the body work with some of this:
Drying off with a microfibre towel & some Meguiars QD as I go
After that, I attacked the wheels… Normally, I do this before the bodywork… but for some reason that I still can’t work out, I didn’t this time… But either way, I used Meguiars Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner and Autoglym Instant Tyre Dressing I tried to clean up the calipers a bit as well, as they’re already caked in brake dust since I painted them, and they’re a bit better but I couldn’t get at them very easily without taking the wheel off, which I couldn’t be bothered to do today… I’ll do it one night in the week I think…
So here is the car all nice and clean:
Can you spot the difference between that picture, and this picture?
Time to bring out the polish… Used Autoglym Super Resin Polish, and I’ve got to say, I used a microfibre applicator pad today for the first time and it was really good… much better than using the polishing cloths. A much more even spread in much less time…
Also applied some Autoglym Car Glass Polish (Really rate this stuff ), and then buffed off with another microfibre towel
Out with one of my favourite waxes that I’ve used so far Really love the smell of this stuff 
Typically, just as I was finishing off the waxing, it started to rain Just my luck… but it was only a light shower that lasted about 3 minutes
The final product of a few hours work
And for those who couldn’t work it out in the spot the difference… or for those who did, but want a closer look… It was a bit of a nightmare to fit as it just kept sticking to the backing paper It went on really easily once I got it off the backing paper though 
I’ve got something tomorrow, so will get some pictures of that when that’s sorted, also got one or two things on order that I’m hoping will be delivered in time for Trax.
Will update as soon as I get things