humbucker's satin red cavalier turbo WIP

[humbucker]

get it locked mr humbucker save alot of problems

yes that's the plan, have already spoken to mike h about obtaining one of his locking kits. watch this space! is your gsi box locked?

what a beautiful example

thanks pal

[humbucker]

Small update. Had some time spare before a pal came over on Sunday so set about a detango of my rear lights so that the indicators match the appearance of the reversing light as well as the clear tint of the Cavalier Turbo boot panel reflector.

BEFORE:


DURING:




AFTER:


They look a million times better now. Will get some 'before and after' shots when I've put them on the car, hopefully a bit later today. In case you're interested in doing the same I wrote a guide which can be found here (you might need to register to view it): Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club | Login

[Jambo]

What a cool idea. That looks spot on.

[humbucker]

And now, a history lesson!

After a fairly low mileage and uneventful life in the hands of four previous owners, my Turbo was tucked up in dry storage somewhere in deepest darkest Saahf Laahndaahn. In seven years the new owner did an approximate 5k miles and in this time decided to SORN the old girl. This long period of dry storage is surely the reason the chassis is in such amazingly solid condition (touch wood!).

After buying and replacing parts ready for its release back into the wild (all OE parts including clutch, cambelt, waterpump, donut rubbers, as well as a Regal downpipe, Koni adjustable shocks, Avo lowering springs and a Scorpion full exhaust) it seems there was a change of heart and the car was advertised for sale. The car’s exterior wasn’t in the best condition though with a surprising amount of lacquer peel and parking dents caused by its previous owner(s). To add to this, the driver’s door was missing the Turbo trim panel, the door itself was the wrong colour, and the front bumper was hanging on for dear life! Keen to find a donor car for his own Cavalier Turbo project, our very own BennyMac bought the car to use as a breaker in the summer of 2010.

After the long trip home from London to Scotland (hauling the equivalent of a GM parts warehouse full of spares behind him) Benny decided to replace the car’s handbrake cable. It was while he was working under the car that he was amazed at just how solid she was underneath, despite the impression given by her ropey paintwork! With this in mind, plans to break the car were shelved and it was used as Benny’s runabout for a few months. Some pics after he got the car home:







The ever enterprising Benny had a cunning plan. Some shiny wheels! Nobody will notice the dodgy paintwork then! Mwahaha!



(well, providing they don’t go round to the driver’s side hehe!)



Benny drove the car to Billing and back in the weeks that followed and it featured in the owner’s club Rolling Road day where it made bang on 205bhp. Not bad for a stock setup which is supposed to have left the factory with only 204 almost twenty years ago!

So the drivers door was sorted but a few months after the initial run ‘north of the border’ it was time to part company. The car, now well known in the owners club and on some OE Turbo alloys, was bought by club members Heath & TurboNic who set about righting a few wrongs:



The car wasn’t running quite right, and so after initial investigation a strip down and rebuild was in order for the head. Cue replacement lifters, valves, skim and pressure test, metal head gasket, reworked helicoils and a TX Autosport alloy radiator. The engine is now ridiculously quiet, no tapping whatsoever (even from cold) and she really purrs.



Then after some minor repair work to a spot of rust on the rear panel it was time for some prep and a long overdue visit to the bodyshop!



I think this qualifies as air conditioning:





Off to the paintshop!



By this time some 17” Dare alloys had made their way onto the car (which are currently for sale if you’re interested):





















Lacquer peel? What lacquer peel?!







Reassembly begins:



By now the car featured a Renault Laguna front splitter, some blue Samco / Roose Motorsport silicone hoses, all door locks and handles replaced with Vectra B items, a nifty DVD player, Mongoose decat stainless exhaust system, repositioned boot badges, a near mint replacement Turbo leather interior, Magnecor leads etc etc... all set for another trip to Billing! Hoorah!

...and that’s pretty much where the history lesson ends. I had been casually looking for a Turbo for some time and this one became available, ticked all the right boxes and had the vote of confidence from everyone in the owner’s club who knew her. So after a horrid three and a half hour train journey up to Stoke-On-Trent I was driving the car home!

She’s more or less the best example I could have wished for, but like all second hand motors she’s not without her niggles/teething problems. I’ll be picking up bits in order to work on her and pick up where others have left off in the coming weeks (expect to see some progress in the not-too-distant). I’ll be keeping her as near to standard as I can while I play with my V6 project.

Here’s some more snaps taken when I’d got the car home:





Looking back at the pics at the beginning of this project thread it’s amazing how small the tyres look compared to the new ones that I’ve fitted (the new ones being the correct size). Anyway, there you have it! A brief history of my Turbo! Thanks to Benny and Nicci for the pics.

On with the show...

[daddy cav]

[humbucker]

So a manic few days to say the least; earlier in the week, Practical Classics magazine made contact with a few owners clubs looking for cars to feature for a forthcoming issue. The theme of the article will be ‘Tight Budget Turbos’ and as the name suggests it will focus on a number of different cars that readers might be interested in purchasing if they have a few quid burning a hole in their pocket and are looking for some turbocharged fun. Fun that also happens to be practical. And classic. Crucially, each car had to be standard (or as close to unmodified as possible). This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when they approached the MR2 Owners Club who virtually laughed them off of the internet. With a resounding “good luck” ringing in their ears the Practical Classics boys continued their search.

Having narrowed down their lineup of potential feature cars to just five, I’m pleased to report that the Cavalier Turbo had made the shortlist. I had a good chat with Ross from Practical Classics and before you could say “transfer box? what transfer box?” he was forwarding over details for the shoot. It was all a bit short notice as the meet was taking place on Saturday just a few days after our telephone conversation, so I booked a day out of the office for the Friday and started to work on a plan of action.

Now charged with the daunting task of getting my Turbo in shape for a magazine feature I realised that I was going to have to get the V6 out of the garage so that I could wheel the Turbo in for its makeover. Notwithstanding the fact that the V6 was on axle stands and with no brakes, there was the small matter of fitting the new exhaust! A fun filled few hours followed where I lay on the floor cursing a great deal, but out she rolled (if a little dusty and a little lacking in the stopping distance department!). Work will resume on this car later.

Not a happy bunny:



Having got the Turbo in the garage it was ‘mission accomplished’ for one night, however, the following evening saw me dust off the AutoGlym and start on the interior. This ended up being a five hour job. Quite aside from the deep clean and moisture restoration that I forced upon the unsuspecting leather, there was a good eighteen years worth of grubby paw prints to contend with. It’s not until you start wiping down this stuff that you realise just how mucky your car is! The windows, carpets, mats, head lining, pillars, sunvisors and grab handles were all given a long overdue scrub once the leather had been treated and then it was time for some shuteye.

A couple of snaps after the event:





Fitted that all important tax disc holder hehe:



It was now the day before shoot and work on the car resumed at 8am sharp. I finished off the interior (yes there was still more to do) and fit the headunit out of the V6 as I didn’t want there to be a gaping hole in the dashboard for the photographer to include when the feature goes to print! I then turned my attention to the exterior of the car.

Having a lovely gleaming Cavalier Turbo complete with its sparkly polished new-ish paint was always going to be let down by the badges on the rear end. These were showing their age and had lost the silver lettering, instead showing a dull black. With the assistance of Mrs Humbucker’s hairdryer and some tried and tested advice from the chaps at Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club these were removed to make way for some brand new badges. I also managed to source a brand new front grille badge as well as those for the bootlid:

Old:



New:



Bootlid debadged:



Having sorted that it was time to attack the exterior with every shampoo, conditioner, polish, wax, glass, bumper and wheel treatment known to man. All in all I started at 8am and finished at 1am the following morning. This was a megaclean. Every bit of the car got blitzed. Even bits of the car that didn’t even know they existed got blitzed! I didn’t take many pics to be honest as I was working flat out and didn’t really stop unless I was waiting for some polish or another to dry. Or the kettle. Besides, I’m sure you don’t want to see the car in the various stages of being cleaned. Oh, you do? Well these two snaps are just for you then hehe:





The recently detango’d rear lights in place:



The rear lights are a massive improvement, and it’s amazing how a new set of lights can freshen up either end of the car. One light in particular that needed some attention was the rear number plate lamp. With age it’s gone all yellowy. I ordered a new one but what arrived was just the bulb holder. Thinking the part must have come as two separate pieces I then ordered what I thought was the lens, which ended up being the complete unit. That’ll teach me for trusting a ‘useful’ part number guide online! Anyway, the new rear license plate assembly was fitted and it makes a big difference. The light is bright white too!



Let me know if you need one of these as it is now surplus to requirements:



Apparently I’ve ordered the last two of these at the factory and “they won’t be getting any more in” so you have my apologies if you’re now having difficulty tracking one down! :







I then turned my attention to the engine bay. It is in need of much more of a clean than I had time to give it but I did what I could in the time available. It is caked in a layer of crud so I got shot of as much of it as I could and will attack the rest at a later date.





The engine bay also features a mix of blue and red silicone hoses, Samco and Roose respectively. I’m going to replace all blues and blacks with red Roose hoses so started with the AFM to turbo pipe:





Much better. Will get the cam cover and timing belt cover sprayed nice and silver in the not too distant. In the meantime I threw a battery jacket on and took a quick snap of a much cleaner looking lump. I’d now been at it for 17 hours straight and decided to call it a night:



The next morning I had a few hours spare before I needed to be at the shoot so I darted out into the garage and finished off some engine bay bits and bobs. I was also going to fit the new boot badges but disaster struck. I had the wrong Griffin badge for the spoiler! The one listed on the ever-so-useful parts guide was for a non-spoilered Cavalier. Arrgh! I had to reluctantly refit the grotty old badge in the hope that it would go unnoticed.

Having given the wheels and tyres a final going over I tried to wheel the car out of the garage so that I could get ready to leave but the battery was flat. I couldn’t believe it! I’d spent a total of 24 out of 36 hours on the car and it didn’t look like I was going anywhere! Thankfully the V6 battery wasn’t quite dead so I robbed that and started the ol’ girl up.

The pics don’t really do it justice but she didn’t turn out too shabby. Not too shabby at all!

[humbucker]

Throwing all my cleaning products into the back of the car turned out to be a shrewd move. Having spent 24 hours cleaning the car I arrived at the shoot and was led down a dirt track into a mudbath. Hoorah!



I was able to wipe the crap off of the outside of the car but the interior proved a little more tricky. Anyway, as soon as we came to a halt I got out the cloths and started cleaning the mud off!

The location was a wind farm at Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire and the turbines for the windfarm were the perfect backdrop for a fleet of turbocharged cars. The cars in attendance were my Cavalier Turbo, a Fiat Uno Turbo, a Mk3 Supra Turbo and a bonkers Citroen CX Gti Turbo 2 complete with a humungous louvered full rear windscreen spoiler. A bit of an odd mix of motors but I guess that was the point. There was also supposed to be an MR2 and a turbocharged TransAm but the latter wasn’t available in time and there didn’t appear to be an unmodified MR2 on the road at the time of the shoot so it ended up being just the four cars.



I only took a few pics on the day as the light faded fairly rapidly and most of the shots were taken at night with us driving down the dual carriageway in hot pursuit of one another. They’re going to make great ‘action shots’ so I look forward to getting the DVD of images and popping a pic or two up here.









It was a great day and the photographer took some amazing snaps which I can’t wait to get hold of. The feature (and cars) should be on the front cover of Practical Classics at some point in the first quarter of the new year. I think it’s a six page feature so it should have plenty of room for the detail on each car, especially as so many photos were taken inside, outside and under the bonnet. It wasn’t until I looked back at the pics that I noticed that my 18 year old Cavalier Turbo was the newest car there!

Got back late Saturday night and hit the sack. First thing Sunday I went out and washed the car again(!), this time just to release it of all the cak that had built up during the shoot and on the way home. The Meguiars Techwax stuff that the kind folk down at Total Vauxhall had sent me a little while back made it easy enough to wipe clean, but that didn’t stop me from spending another three hours out there.

Beads mutafukaz!





Dried the car down and put her back in the garage where she will now be tucked away for the winter. I’ve got a list of jobs to do in the coming weeks so will crack on with those during the cold snap. Will report back soon.

[Lowrider Dave]

Great write up - looking fantastic!

[humbucker]

Thanks for the feedback Dave.

[rc]

fantastic read, just been through the 'history' and 'feature' updates, all looks amazing great work all round

[humbucker]

Thanks Ron. Plenty of updates to follow now that the car is tucked away for the winter. Just need to find the time to get a few jobs done. Hopefully she'll be making an outing or two at the shows next year.

[humbucker]

Not much of an update but as the car is likely to be making the trip to Billing, PVS and the AutoJumble this year I thought it was probably a good idea to take the ol’ bus for a run as she’s been sat still since the mag shoot in December. Sunday provided a great deal of sunshine in our neck o’ th’ woods so off we went for a spin.

Stopped off for a nose at a scrappie that I passed while I was out and about but it turned out he only sold BMW 3 Series parts. It’s a goldmine for anyone with a 3 Series restoration as he had cars of all ages there. Oh, and a Frontera. And a Mondeo. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to take a quick snap or two.



I have quite a few niggles to sort but the car pretty much ran like a dream. It is currently in FWD mode due to the transfer box not being a happy bunny but I’ve got one of Mike H’s locking kits to fit. I decided to take it a step further so I have a replacement transfer box coming this week, just in case mine is fubarred. Not sure when I’ll get to fit it yet but I’ll add it to the pile of bits I’m accumulating ready for action!

I spoke to the editor of Practical Classics magazine to ask when the cover story featuring my car will be featured (I was told it would be out in February) but was told that “it hasn’t been planned in yet, summer probably”. I guess I’ll just have to wait until it appears on their Facebook page/the supermarket shelves then! Ho hum! Onwards and upwards!

[rc]

looking good

[humbucker]

I thought I'd posted this update earlier but I must have forgotten. Oh well!

A really exciting weekend for the Turbo recently (which I have no doubt has resulted in some stone chips/war wounds!). Despite not bringing myself to inspect the paintwork in any great depth, these are battle scars that I won’t be losing too much sleep over; the cause of them will keep me smiling for a long time to come.

A while back I suggested a feature on legendary DTV racing car Baby Bertha for Total Vauxhall magazine (I write for a number of motoring magazines). To cut a long story short, the shoot took place a few weeks ago and my Cavalier Turbo earned it’s right to be called ‘photographer’s assistant’ and perhaps establish the Cavalier as a Multi Purpose Vehicle!

Having taken over one of the runways at a local airfield, I strapped our trusty photographer into the boot of my Turbo so that he could obtain the action shots we needed. Seeing Baby Bertha roaring up behind in my rear view mirror as we hurtled along the runway was incredible and the resulting photographs look fantastic. You can check them out in the latest edition of the magazine but in the meantime you’ll have to settle for my paltry efforts below hehe!

Humbucker’s Vauxhall Cavalier Turbo 4x4 MPV aka ‘The Photographer’s Assistant’:



It was a fantastic day and a dream realised to play with this legendary racing car. The thrill of drifting at warp speed in this thing is something I certainly won’t forget in a hurry, let alone the deafening noise of that V8 from inside the cockpit. Here’s a pic I took of the two cars together. Mine's the one on the right in case you were wondering

Enjoy!

[humbucker]

Incidentally, for those who have a copy of the latest issue of Total Vauxhall already, check out the static shots of the Baby Bertha feature and you'll see just how bad the surface of the airstrip was that day. Landing on there with a microlight must be terrifying!

I'll hopefully have more of an update after the weekend as I’m aiming to make a start on the ‘pre PVS’ work now that I’ve amassed a lot of the parts I was after. In the meantime, I was flicking through some old copies of the magazine for a friend who was interested in a SAAB turbo conversion for his car. I remembered a feature on the different SAAB engines and the merits of each so I said I’d dig it out for him. Purely by coincidence, as I flicked through the mag in question, I noticed that the rolling road feature was a Cavalier Turbo Owners Club outing. Jumping out of the page at me, and proudly boasting 205bhp, was my car (then in the possession of the "fabulous" Bennymac )!



I found some other older snaps knocking about too so I'll amass a proper update soon. Wheels, cam cover and timing belt cover are at the powder coaters for an acid bath, remedial work and colour at the moment. I look forward to seeing them when they're done.

[humbucker]

Well in the run up to PVS I thought I had better make a start on some of the bits that I want to get done in time for the show. I’m not exactly rushing things, so the major jobs (transfer box and engine overhaul etc) will be done at some point later in the summer. For now I’ll be concentrating on service and cosmetic jobs. In the meantime, the weather cleared a bit enabling the car to leave the garage where it has been hibernating for the past few months. She’s been out once every few weeks or so (the Baby Bertha shoot for example) but that’s about it. Nevertheless, that was enough for a nice coat of dust and muck to form and so I’ll be getting busy with the AutoGlym over the coming week or so!

As if I needed any more prompting, PVS tickets and the Total Vauxhall ‘Rare and Iconic’ stand pass arrived at the back end of last week. I believe this qualifies as some kind of deadline:



The tried and tested caravan dehumidifiers have been working well while the car has been under cover and tucked away. I couldn’t recommend these enough and use them in all my cars. They fit perfectly in the storage compartment behind the handbrake of a Cavalier too:







Like all good Cavalier Turbos, mine came with a number of niggles that are in need of some attention. As the car has been a ‘garage queen’ over the winter, and as I’ve been busy on other projects, I haven’t troubled myself with getting around to sorting any of them out. Nevertheless, as the MOT was due I thought I might as well run it up to the test centre to see what I’m duty bound to look at in addition to the non-MOT bits I want to play with. As it transpired, the car needed headlamp adjustment and a small patch of welding on the back of the passenger side sill. Thankfully it was a small area that was in isolation and didn’t cause too much of a headache:







And a liberal coating of sealer/guard:



We then nipped back up to the test centre and the car passed. Hoorah! I would say the car ‘got a green ticket’ but obviously these days the MOT certificate is more like something your mate knocked up in Excel than an important piece of paperwork from the Ministry of Transport. This must be the easiest document in the world to forge. Oh well.

So we were now road legal for another twelve months and what better way to celebrate than a trip over to my mates bodyshop to sort out a couple of minor annoyances (with the car, not him!). At some point in the recent past the car has had a very light knock on the back end; perhaps the ol’ reversing-into-a-post routine, or maybe one of those irritations referred to as ‘other drivers’?! Who knows, but I noticed it when I first went to look at the car. It’s nothing major but unfortunately the knock had resulted in a slight dink at the top of rear panel behind the bumper. You can probably see the slight change in shape in the gap between the bumper and boot opening on the driver’s side in the pic below:



Now ordinarily this is entirely hidden from view, but the resulting dink meant that the driver’s side rear light didn’t sit as flush with the Turbo boot panel as I would have liked. It looked like the boot panel was sitting slightly proud, but in fact it was the light cluster slightly further back than it should have been. Furthermore, the boot panel reflector had a slight crack in it and the light cluster itself was marked, presumably both as a result of the now infamous dink. This was one of the reasons I got hold of some new rear lights (the ones that I promptly de-tangoed in an earlier post):



Original lights:



With the panel straightened, the light cluster lined up perfectly which put a smile on my face. After a quick adjustment to the bootlid our work on the rear of the car was done. Next up was a small dink on the front end near the headlight (forgot to take picture of that). It was barely noticeable but was worth sorting anyway. With that completely gone, we turned our attention to the bonnet which has been removed at some point or another but not put back on 100% straight. We soon found out what was causing it to feel sloppy when it you dropped the hood haha!



I also had another good look at the condition of the inner arches and boot floor to see if they were still sound and was pleased to see you could eat your dinner off of them (well, almost...). Will give this a proper clean at a later date:





I bought a replacement Turbo boot panel from our friend Cavalier-C20LET which I think originally came off of Cavhopper’s car before it went to the great scrapyard in the sky. There isn’t a single mark on the reflectors, not even the suggestion of a hairline crack, and it is already Satin Red so this makes the ideal replacement for my original panel without me having to use the brand new one I have reserved for my V6. This will be going on the car shortly:







With the car back in my garage it was time to get her up on axle stands and prepare some bits for a trip to the powdercoaters. I picked up a bargain LET timing belt and cam cover on the ‘bay, complete with plug cover and oil cap. The cam cover had a very bizarre paint job, as though it had been mock-polished and then someone had tried to paint a gradient of colour around the edge. It was ideal for stripping but a baffling choice of finish:







‘Muppets’ may well be appropriate...



...especially as one of the breathers was actually sealed shut with paint!



Having removed the blockage I thought I’d strip it and apply the SBD insipired breather mod before it goes away for media blasting:









...and remaining part ready to be cleaned up and refitted:



With the wheels off I checked the condition of the discs and wishbones etc, mainly because I’d just had to fit new arms to the V6 so figured the Turbo might be in need of some attention in that department too. Thankfully the discs looked healthy enough and the CV’s and suspension arms look like they’ve been replaced in the recent past. Bingo by jingo!



The wheels are also off to the powdercoaters where they will be receiving an acid bath, a media blast, remedial work and colour etc. The one thing that foxes most of us with Cavalier or Calibra Turbo alloys is the centre caps as the centres are an odd size (not quite the 55mm found elsewhere iirc). As I had some spare Astra Mk4 centre caps I thought I’d play around and see if I could combine the two.

I’ve amassed quite a few of these so dismantled the worst four:







The Astra griffin emblem is clipped into place, whereas the Cavalier centre is glued on. The Astra item is also smaller and the bit of the centre cap that shows through the badge is unlikely to be completely smooth on the Cavalier so I decided to order some alu-vinyl centre cap emblems off of the ‘bay and see what I could do with them. I will report back when they turn up.



The Cavalier centre caps were thrown in the box with the cam cover and timing belt cover ready for some rubbing down and colour. I did try and fit the Astra Mk4 centre cap as it is but it’s just too small. A shame as it looks pretty neat:



I recently bought a spare set of wheels so these are on standby to help roll the car about while the ‘proper’ wheels are at the powdercoaters. These are Cavalier Turbo alloys again, but have been painted black. One had a slight air leak so I whizzed it down to the tyre centre and had it repaired. The tyres aren’t brilliant but for what I need them for at the moment they’re just the ticket:



I came across some red strut tops in a box of bits which were intended to be placed on the V6. They were nice enough but not what I want for this engine bay so they’ve been sent to the powdercoaters too and will be put on this car instead. I also removed the bonnet stay and threw that in the box! All the parts, including the wheels, are being powdercoated in the same bright silver with a slight sparkle added to them. They should look pretty good.



Anyway, next up it was time to drop all the fluids starting with engine oil and the F28 transmission oil... and not before time:



The contents of an F28. Yuk:



In the process my ratchet's directional switch thingy broke, so off to Halfords for an exchange. Keep your receipts folks; this one was four years old! Apparently ‘lifetime guarantee’ means exactly that:



..and the shiny new replacement!



A box of joy arrived; lots of gearbox oil, diff oil, gaskets, bulbs, new header tank, screws, bolts etc and a LUK clutch kit for the F28. My release bearing is starting to complain a bit so that’s one of the jobs destined for later in the summer:



More to follow as I'm suffering from tea deprivation right now.

[Astra Dan]

Nice!

You might wanna look at the ABS sensor on the pic above. See white corrosion forming between the ally bracket and the leg? Just found that on my GTE, except the white corrosion has blossomed to the point it'd moved the ABS sensor quite a bit and smashed it into the ABS teeth on the CV joint.

[humbucker]

Thanks for the tip Dan, I'll be sure to keep my eye on it.

[daddy cav]

Awesome updates
Love this Cav , I'd get another Satin Red one again .

[humbucker]

Awesome updates Love this Cav , I'd get another Satin Red one again .

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm with you on the colour; imho Satin Red is the best colour they came in as standard.

[humbucker]

I was hoping to have posted an update sooner but it’s been a bit of a topsy turvy week... I had the best of plans laid out in front of me and was aiming to split my time between pre-PVS work on the Turbo and undertake work on some other projects I’ve got on the go. Everything was going to plan until we had a day where the electric was out due to overhead power cable problems in the village up the road. I might have lost 24 hours but spirits weren’t dampened enough to stop me cracking on again as soon as we were back in action. Unfortunately, it has been hammering down with rain ever since and yesterday it was so intense that my garage flooded. This wouldn’t have been as bad had it not been for the fact that I was out working all day which meant I didn’t find out that horrid rainwater had spread across the floor until it was too late. Mrs Humbucker and I ‘enjoyed’ mopping up until 1am last night. Not impressed.

This was my driveway. Not sure how easy it is to see how deep it is, but take it from me, it was deep... waaay too deep:



On a lighter note, earlier this week I popped up to Classic Coatings in Grantham to pick up my freshly powdercoated bits and bobs. In addition to the wheels, rocker cover and timing belt cover I threw in the strut tops, bonnet stay, centre caps, and some recently acquired Eibach lowering springs. They were on Adam’s Cavalier Turbo until shortly after his Total Vauxhall feature, and here is his car sitting pretty on them:





I love Eibach springs; they provide such a great ride (especially when paired with some adjustable Konis) so these will be going from Adam’s car on to mine to replace the lowering springs I already have. As they’d seen better days in the looks department they went in the box to Grantham destined for an acid bath and media blast.



While all the bits were at Classic Coatings I asked head honcho Andy to take some snaps while he was doing the work. Here are a few of the ‘in progress’ shots (not every stage of the process is covered in the pics; after all, he had to get on with the job at hand rather than faff around taking photos for me all day!). Neat pics though. He’s got a stack more to send once he’s downloaded them from his phone so I’ll update the thread later with more snaps:











All done, Toyos fitted back on and wheels perfectly balanced:



Fortunately the sun was shining when I got home so I took some snaps of all of the parts. I had them all finished in exactly the same colour with a very light sparkle effect applied to them. Earlier in the week I had panicked as I saw a Range Rover with what looked like glitterballs for wheels, so I called Andy and he used a finer metallic content for the sparkle effect just to be on the safe side! I needn’t have worried, but here are the finished items ready to fit on to the car. As the sun was so bright you might be able to make out the sparkle effect in each pic.

Yes, that’s the same cam cover as shown in the previous update! Amazing transformation!







I also picked this up a few weeks back; a freshly powdercoated metal spark plug cover. The red is a bit deeper than usual and the letters are nicely polished. Against the bright silver of the cam cover it should look ace.













And the main event...













The colour was applied front AND back (other than the hub mating surface):



They’re going to look amazing when they’re on the car. Cavalier/Calibra Turbo alloys are such a classic design, bringing them back to life with some new colour was definitely the right thing to do. Any kerbing or blemishes have now gone and two of the wheels had a slight flat spot on the inside rim which Andy has also fixed. They’re as good as new! No, wait... they’re better than new!

But what of those Eibachs...?! Well a chemical strip, media blast and various stages of colour application later...





Huzzah! With the timescales involved I’m not sure what I will get to fit before the weekend but we’ll see... I’m looking forward to seeing these bits and bobs on the car, that’s when they’ll really come to life.

Today has been a pretty busy day (once I’d finished cleaning up the garage) so I’ll fire some more snaps up tomorrow.

[Astra Dan]

Brilliant work there.

[pie]

powder coated goodies

covers n rims looks brand new dan

[kiyl1986]

gorgeous car, great work fella, will this be at billing?

[gsi92]

She looks good dan.