Last years mk2 cav project

[Frisco]

Ive had this car a few years now and since 2011 was the 30th anneversary of the mk2 cav I figured it was about time to do something useful with it.

The condensed project

How it started (well it had wings and a bonnet but you get what I mean)





Original sills




Bulkhead thankfully without cracks or major rot even though the sound deadening rot sponge was absolutely soaking




And the chassis legs which are a well known to rot out on mk2s. Have a look at what turned up later!





There is always bad bits though so time to start the actual work

[Frisco]

And on and on





WTF is this supposed to be. Im sure someone got paid to do it too!



Done properly




The rest of the arch was solig and original though









It went on like that for a while with lots of small repairs although the car was pretty solid

[Frisco]

Then the proper stuff started

Seam welded the engine bay





1.6/1.3 engined cavs have a shorter subframe setup than the 1.8/2.0 so I wanted to change over to the stronger setup. Easier said than done though.

The smaller legs use one bolt and a locating lug



While the bigger ones use 2 bolts.



So not wanting to chop the car apart I modified the bigger legs to suit the car





And on

[Frisco]

To go with the longer subframe the 2.0 has a bigger front crossmember and radiator mount. Now I could have fitted a standard one but because of the way its made it ends up being much bigger than it needs to be and I wanted to fit an intercooler in there.

So I made one




Strong enough to jack the car with and plenty of space.

Off to the body shop




Engine is an LET with a few basic bits done



And a shiney F28




Manky 5 stud setup



Cleaned up a bit




Mk4 astra PAS to try to tidy things up a bit



Dechromed rear lights

[Th0m45]

nice solid shell you have there!

[thedondy]

nice project

[Frisco]

I always love it when they come back from paint. Sorry about the blurry pic



And starting to go back together






After all that I go to under seal it and find that although the chassis leg looked solid turned out to be far from it when the spring seat was removed



So on with fixing the damn thing

[Frisco]

It was about a week before Billing at this stage so stopping to take pics became a bit less of a priority

I didn't have time to take the car to have an exhaust made so i ordered buts from Jetex and made it myself which TBH is much easier than fitting an off the shelf aftermarket system since they never fit right.

Engine ended up like this (click to watch)

[Frisco]

Finished bolting it together on the Thursday before Billing and we had the ferry booked for 8am on Friday morning so when I say it was tight I mean it was tight.

It made it though even if it had a few teething troubles on the way and considering the rush at the end I think it turned out ok if I do say so myself









And the interior



The steering wheel was a proper ebay bargain at £50 brand new in the box














There is still the issue of it sitting 2 miles high dispite trying three sets of lowering springs so that needs to be sorted.

[Cavalier-C20LET]

looks superb mate

i think it looks sound at that height you dont want it too low or itll rattle it to death, great work tho buddy

[GaryVaux]

Stunning car!

Such a clean shell. Nice work with all the small repairs, and the cross member all VERY neat, love seeing a bit of pride and high quality workmanship in a project

[Benn]

Stunning car, great job with cutting all the old rest out and welding new metal in.

Needs to be on the Mig stand.