I reckon I've done enough to it to warrant it having it's own little project thread. I've got to keep the fans happy!
A bit of background; my Astra:
I really wanted something that would be a bit faster and that was a bit better on fuel than my Astra had been. I'd done a lot of work on it, and I was really upset when I looked outside and saw an empty drive.
I was looking ideally for an Astra with the Isuzu engine, but no-one seemed to be able to tell the difference over the phone, and I was almost tempted by some very ropey (in hindsight) GM-engined ones!
Eventually I found a Cavalier on the auto trader website. It looked very nice in the photos, and as it was only in Burntwood (literally 5 minutes away), I decided to go and have a look. It was abslutely spot on, bodywork wise, which is what I was worried about.
The Cavalier as I bought it, for the princely sum of £600.
Full service history, good tyres, and 128'000 on the clock.
Like any second hand car, it needed a few things doing to it to get it to Jack's High Standard of Awesomeness.
It was losing coolant very slowly, and we eventually narrowed it down to the water pump, which meant a new one was sourced and slid on. Ignore the axle stands.
Ignore them. 
Pick a pump! It wasn't technically new. It had been bought new, and used on a car for a few weeks. He sent me the new one, and the old one he took off. What a gent!
That one will do. It's the shiniest, therefore the best.
Needed moving along the shaft a bit as the belt didn't run true, so out came the bearing puller, and we managed to get it looking like this:
The better side, due to having dented doors on the other side! Doh!
Ooops!
In Long Eaton with Chav after I'd picked up my new £16 ebay alloys (that I have now found out at BSA 801s) and had my old tyres swapped over! Some mental wheel wobble meant I had to drive back along the A50 at 45mph.
Got it up on the ramps and discovered one tyre was completely deformed, I needed spigot rings badly and they all needed balancing with adhesive weights.
It took about three weeks of new tyres, balancing and faffing around to get them acceptable.
Poor Cav.
A rare shot of the "dark side", showing the dodgy doors.
An equally rare "just washed" shot.
The two diesels preparing to see once and for all who is the manliest Mig member.
My nice boost gauge that I tried very hard to get it to look like a standard part. It's all interferance fit too, so I can put it back to how it was without damaging or marking anything. Reversible mods are where it's at.
It took months to find someone breaking a Cavalier in my colour, as there are two colours that share the same paint code. I eventually found some near the coast in Wales, which was an ideal oppurtunity for a trip out and show my girlfriend where I'd been on holiday a few months previous.
Spot the new doors! Very nice! The front one has some peeling lacquer and a small scrape at the bottom, but it's much better than the old one. I paid £10 for both doors, and the tat man picked up my old ones off the drive.
New seat frame for the MOT, as the seat belt socket was crap.
Scrap yard tip #1: Take all the bolts with you that you take off, as I'd have been stuck without these little beauties.
MOTed and beautiful once again.
Maximum speed! Cover the eyes of small children...etc!
My new white LEDs behind the dash. They were cheap and nasty, and not as diffusional as the ones I had in my Astra, but they look good at night. Sublety is the key, and I prefer white to camel piss yellow.
Called some imaginative use of a breaker bar to get the bolds undone with only two hands. I know, I'll brace it against the wheel and cable tie it to the tow bar.
Slid off easier than I thought it would, and no rust in sight!
Beautiful. A quick slide over with a damp sponge and it looks good enough to eat off!
Ghetto panel straightening courtesy of Mr Nigel "I can fix anything with a rock and a toothbrush".
SRI goodness.
And the front.
Spot the colour coded mirrors!
