Project: Mexico Red Cavalier SRi

[_Joycey_]

There used to be a hatch back one of these round th corner from me, no idea if its still there or not tho

[Nova_Tek]

Not many about of these now. Actually saw a SRi saloon whilst in a supermarket car park, same model but in a Burgundy Red. Wasn't in great condition but still a surprise when I see one

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

After a bit of breakfast I popped to the body shop to hand in one of the door handles which had a broken spring. Managed to find a spring that was suitable (infact exactly right) and fitted it on. One of the lads was busy mopping the Cavalier when I got there.

Here are some more tease shots :lol:









Mirror, mirror on the wall...


Made a start on the bonnet


Then after some lunch, we went around/rang local tyre fitters to get some prices on some new rubber and also prices on getting the two tyres we already had fitted. Some fitters wouldn't fit tyres that weren't purchased from them and most charged around £15 just to fit them. The cheapest we found was budget brands like Arrowspeed, Wanli and the like starting from £55 and up to £120 for brands like Good Year, Michelin. I was amazed at how much tyres have gone up in price. Back about 5 years ago we got 4 new tyres from a place - BF Goodrich Tourer G 195/60/15 all in for £94. So we went back to that place and found the equivalent BF Goodrich tyres (G-Grip) in the same size but £68 each. After a quick search on the net, I found out that the G-Grips were highly rated and had better wet & dry grip than the equiv. Michelin Energy Savers and Good Years. We then asked if they fit our own tyres and for how much. Answer was 'Yes, we'll fit them' and the price was £8.40 all in :mrgreen: That was a done deal.

After £157 we had 2x BF Goodrich G-Grip + 2x BF Goodrich Tourer G's - balanced with sticky weights, new valves, inflated with Nitrogen... RESULT!

Took them down to the body shop



Will be popping down to the garage tomorrow to get a few things done myself while the lads finish up on the Cav. Bought some water proof cloth tape which a few of the forward area looms need as the old fabric wrap has completely disintegrated. That needs to be done before the headlamps and things get done just to save time and reduce chance of damaging the new paint.

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

Not had much of a chance to update the thread in recent days due to work. I have had a few things arrive in the past week which should all add up to make the Cav look FRESH!

Some nice new crystal clear side repeaters complete with rubber seals and orange bulbs.


We still have some mint orange repeaters incase we want the car to return to a more factory state for what-ever reason but I just think that with the clear repeaters it cleans up the look of the car seeing as the front indicators are also clear.

Brand new left and right front indicator lenses. We had a spare which we replaced as one had cracked but due to the different ages of the lenses one looks slightly darker than the other. So to even things out I got two new ones to make sure they match.


GSi smoked rear cluster for driver side as the current one had a slight crack which got bigger and will eventually just fall off. Can't have that!


Again, we have the original unsmoked lenses that were fitted to it from factory, the GSi items being darker/redish tinted suit the car so much more. But if the car needs to return to factory they're available.

This next bit I got just so I could use the rubber/plastic mount (bit that plugs into the rear wing) as the old one was cracked and letting in water. the whole thing cost £6 and comes with a new earth, new antenna cable and plastic mount. So it will be used to help freshen up the electric one we have.


Also got some wiper refill rubber blades to fit on to the headlamp wipers. Got a good 2 feet or so of it for £4, cut them down to size and fitted them on.

And finally I got a light grey carpet and under dash cover for the driver side (Thanks to a chap on cavmk3oc.com) Couldn't get pics of the carpet as it was too big to take a picture of in the room :lol:


As far as I know the Cav should be ready for tomorrow. If it is then I should be able to make a start on getting stuff fitted but that's weather permitting. It'll probably take a good few days to get everything back in properly and give the inside a good clean. cannot wait though!

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

Bit of an update, some from today and some from last week when we picked up the car, but didn't have much time to do anything/post on here.

So, yes, we got the car back... hooraaah!

The day it came back I managed to get things like the padding, carpet, rear seats, rear shelf and rear quarter interior trim sorted. I also managed to clean up the insides of the passenger doors so I could get some waxoyl in there.

Seeing as I was off today, once I had the important stuff sorted I was able to put in the driver seat, get the CD changer wires fed down the inner sills into the boot, fitted the rear wing aerial mount, removed the glove box to re-route the wires round properly, sorted the dodgy central locking wire which had come off the plug, put back the sill trim and footwell trim, cut out and replaced the side repeater wires as they were a bit too corroded, fitted the new side repeaters and put the rear head rests back in.

I then decided to get a couple bits in the bay sorted seeing as it wasn't going to rain and now was my chance.

Quick shot of before


And after a bit of messing around


Spot the difference!

Managed to clean up and spray the manifold with very high temp. paint and let it dry. I then, as best I could, cleaned up the rocker cover and head and gave that a coat with very high temp. paint aluminum finish. A few little areas could do with the same treatment but it was dark and getting a bit too cold to be doing this, so I called it a day.

Left to do - passenger seat, driver side doors to be cleaned and waxoyl'd, fit the rest of the dash and centre console, wire up the oil & volt gauges, fit the rear wheel well trim/carpets and other boot trim, fit headlamps washer/wipers, re-paint the wiper arms and fit the new blades, fit door cards and that's about it. Only issue I have is that I've seemed to have misplaced a few of the nuts and bolts that hold the rest of the interior trim in place. Soon as I find it then it'll be sorted... hopefully tomorrow.

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

Not done anything since the last update except for try look for missing bits that have seemed to have vanished and scour the web for new parts.

The little sealable bag with the passenger seat bolts and centre console nuts have gone missing, so I've put it down on Thursday's to-do list: 13mm x M8 bolts x4 and an assortment of nuts.

I did however find these little beauties on ebay


Window winder retaining clips x 10 (should come in handy for the Nova too) :lol:

I also need some plastic twist lock clips for the dash under trays and a few plastic screw type clips for the boot panel and the padding behind the dash. All minor stuff but I don't wanna hear rattling trim... it's a pet hate!

Once these have been sorted it will mean the Cavalier is done!

[pie]

looking good fella

smart looking cav now

[GaryVaux]

great work as per usual! Paint job looks lovely!

[Nova_Tek]

Thanks lads, if the weather holds tomorrow I'll be finishing it off. Bit of a bummer that the tyres on the passenger side are loosing air... probably a bad seal on the bead but no biggie will be going back to get that sorted and the exhaust is blowing around mid section.

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

It's been a while...

The Cav is almost on it's way to be back on the road and enjoyed.

Since the last post, the interior has been fitted back, carpet shampooed together with the seats and fitted a genuine new GM coolant temp sensor (gauge).

All that there is left to do is fit a new water pump with a cam belt:


^ £23 for a genuine GM pump - thank you vauxhall-car-parts. No plastic impeller on this one!

Fix a blowy exhaust and do a MOT.

This'll prob be done by the next week... would be a good time too as it's the old mans birthday. Speaking of birthday, I had to get these as a gift so the interior can have that finishing touch.

Gear stick and handbrake gaiters

Leather does smell gooood

Will get a few shots of the interior when it's all sorted as I'm yet to put any pics up of it.

[Benn]

Glad to see you're still cracking on...

[Nova_Tek]

Had to pause a bit to catch my breath lmao

[GaryVaux]

Cant be far from complete now

[Nova_Tek]

Nope... not long left now.

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

Been spending bits of my spare time finalising the Cav. I managed to find the missing bag of nuts/bolts/washers/clips etc.

I've pretty much put back most of the interior bar the passenger dash footwell cover as I don't have enough clips.

As yesterday was a very sunny day I managed to do some final finishing touches. The wiper arms were in a right state. All flakey, corroded and not black anymore. So that was on the list.

As they came off


A lot of rubbing down and cleaning


Few coats of red primer


A good rub down then many coats of satin black (just remembered that I didn't take pictures of the finished article lol)

As they were drying in the sun, I had a peek under the scuttle cover and gave the whole area a good clean, removed the wiper linkages, gave them a clean and lubing up with some grease. I found the wiper motor was loose and is what probably caused the bit of rough running when the wipers were engaged. So, somehow, I squeezed my hand and a spanner in there and tightened up the screws.

I then set about trying to tackle the leaky boot. Always gets some water either side, directly behind the light clusters. It could either be it leaking down from the rear screen or the clusters them selves. There is a bit of corrosion just under where the glass would be [inside the boot]. I took the easier route and removed the clusters. I decided to give the mating faces a bead of clean silicon sealer to totally make them water tight. There is rain on the cards tomorrow so we'll see the outcome.

Fitted the leather gear & handbrake gaitors as well. Took a shot of the interior, excuse the absent window winder


Just really waiting for my dad to have a clear schedule in order for the Cav to get it's pump and belt fitted and get an MOT.

[Astra Dan]

Ooh I like that aftermarket window kit!

[Daz H]

Great work on this it looks mint

[Nova_Tek]

Ooh I like that aftermarket window kit!

You mean the clips?

Great work on this it looks mint

Cheers dude

[Astra Dan]

No on the arm rest bit on the door, isn't that an after market window switch?

[DansCorsaSXi]

Just read it all mate,done a really good job on that,nothing better than a good condition Cav.

[Nova_Tek]

No on the arm rest bit on the door, isn't that an after market window switch?

Oh right, err apparently the guy I bought the cards off said it was a dealer extra. The Cav doesn't have leccy windows but they were the best doorcards I could find.

Just read it all mate,done a really good job on that,nothing better than a good condition Cav.

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

It's been a busy week.

The Cav got it's MOT on Thursday afternoon (last week) and it's tax too. So it is officially on the road! Woooo!

It's been having a few things done. Fitted the sill plates, a new O/S engine mount was put in on Tuesday and tomorrow it's booked in to get some new gaskets/clamps/springs/bolts for the exhaust as they've rusted away and it's now blowing at the join. We're also awaiting news from a friend to see if we can pop into his garage and borrow his 4 post to lift it up and clean/underseal areas that were missed.

The Cav is under classic insurance so will need to send photos to get an agreed value. Gave it a wash yesterday and went over it with some AutoGlym Super Resin and then sealed it with Extra Gloss Protection applied with microfibre cloth. Polishing new and clean paint is so easy... love it!

Had to take some pics:









The SR got a wash and a polish too :d



Only thing left really is to find these damn door strips.

So that's it I guess... the actual restoration is done (bar the door strips). I'll still be keeping the thread probably by turning it into a WIP and any small improvments that we do to it.

[Astra Dan]

Damn that's shiny!

[Nova_Tek]

It's shiny on it's own. It's even shinier when you Super Resin and Extra Gloss protection it. Great thing is that polishing the whole car only took like 40 mins, whereas before it got painted, getting half the outcome from polishing took 3 hours lmao.

Just on the hunt for some door mouldings.

[Nova_Tek]

UPDATE

I have been spending much time and my priceplan minutes ringing around and trying to find out where I can find bits for the Cav that are almost non-existant.

After spending about 7 - 10 days doing the above I managed to find these brand new GM packed and pretty much the last known ones left.

Hoping to get them fitted in the next week.


Rear doors protective moulding


Front doors protective moulding


All for under £100 posted. Just a case of cleaning the cav bodywork to make sure it sticks down properly. One of the strips has very slight creasing of the metal strips so I'll need to fettle it to sit totally straight (only drawback of the moulding is the damn metal backing).