New workhorse - 2.5 V6 Hatch.

[steven240374]

Wish i could have a 2.5 v6 just as a workhorse

[Squig]

Re the LPG... most of the costs are labour and setting it up correctly. Well worth it though

[jacko-lah]

Mite be a lil of a silly question but what are Morettes and Angel Eyes? I gathered they are headlights bt beyond that totally lost.
J

They don't make your car faster, handle better, more reliable, or stop shorter. Neither will they improve comfort, but some might argue that they might improve the looks. It depends on your oppinion, but mine follows the belief that function leads form. If some thing works right it will look right.

Morrettes are twin round head lights and they might improve how far you can see at night, or they might not. I've no evidence.

Angel Eyes, appear to be a ring of clear plastic such as acrylic with a bulb at one end, which look like rings of light, like a halo, inside the lights, and are effectively the side lights. As I've never used my side lights, believing that you either need your lights or you don't, I can't see a practical use for them.

That said, it's a matter of personal taste, but mine is that phase one lights and grill look best on any cavalier.

I am liking the V6 lpg idea !!!

[Envoy CDX]

You can buy the LPG kit of ebay for around £600, fit it yourself and get it certified by the same company if you have the inclination.
Something I'll be aiming for in the next 6 months hopefully, need to bring my fuel bill down.

[himselfunknown]

Awesome! So many replies!

Gary, it's definitely not the dispack, as it's brand spanking new! Perhaps wiring to the dispack then? I've looked at the fuses for the windows and all seem OK. I think it could be the switch contacts as the car hasn't been used for a while and they're probably corroded or something?

I already have the LPG kit bought in. As said, the kit cost me around the £500 mark, as I bought it mostly off ebay in bits and pieces. I'll be fitting it myself and getting it safety checked at my local LPG garage, which I have done in the past with no issues.

The angel eyes came for the right money and I fancied doing something different, and might help with the HID conversion I have planned. I'm not expecting the car to go any faster because of them!!

Offhand, does anybody know where I could get a new petrol tank from?!

[Gaz]

mine came off ebay as it was new local and cheap, but an auto factors, panel suppliers and something daft like £300 from vauxhall on trade!

[himselfunknown]

mine came off ebay as it was new local and cheap, but an auto factors, panel suppliers and something daft like £300 from vauxhall on trade!

No, £300 - I don't think so! I'll have a look around the 'bay.

[Envoy CDX]

Awesome! So many replies!

Gary, it's definitely not the dispack, as it's brand spanking new! Perhaps wiring to the dispack then? I've looked at the fuses for the windows and all seem OK. I think it could be the switch contacts as the car hasn't been used for a while and they're probably corroded or something?

I already have the LPG kit bought in. As said, the kit cost me around the £500 mark, as I bought it mostly off ebay in bits and pieces. I'll be fitting it myself and getting it safety checked at my local LPG garage, which I have done in the past with no issues.

The angel eyes came for the right money and I fancied doing something different, and might help with the HID conversion I have planned. I'm not expecting the car to go any faster because of them!!

Offhand, does anybody know where I could get a new petrol tank from?!

buypartsby.co.uk - about £67 or come and get the one of my silver cav, never leaked in the time I had it.
I probably have a spare set of window switches too somewhere.

[humbucker]

what about your ht leads? might be time for a renewal?

[himselfunknown]

what about your ht leads? might be time for a renewal?

Also brand new. As are the plugs.

[Robsey]

Awesome! So many replies!

Gary, it's definitely not the dispack, as it's brand spanking new! Perhaps wiring to the dispack then?

Just because it is new, doesn't mean that it will work. not common but it does happen.

Start simple - plugs and wiring - check for cuts, or corrosion.
or what about trapped moisture causing shorting etc...it has been very wet recently.

[himselfunknown]

OK, finally managed to make some progress on this, even though it's only a little bit (but getting it into the garage was the main thing!).

Prepped and painted the new towbar:



and the trusty LPG filler bracket off the old CDX saloon, and ballhitch:





Then I got looking at the car itself. While it has been laid up, one of the sills has gained some surface rust. I gave it a good poke with a screwdriver and it didn't go through anywhere, so although I think it might need a new sill sometime in the future, for now a tidy up will suffice. Before:



And after a good clean up and Kurust:





It is my intention to nip back to Wolves this weekend and get some stonechip onto it, so it can dry fully for the following weekend, and get some black paint on the towbar.

[Squig]

can I get some more pics of that towbar?

[himselfunknown]

can I get some more pics of that towbar?

Yes mate. Any particular bits you want to see? I can make sure I photo the bits you want once it's got some paint on it!

[Envoy CDX]

I do like a good session with a grinder, some flappy discs and a bit of metal

[planetc]

I do like a good session with a grinder, some flappy discs and a bit of metal

...and goggles, made that mistake, couldn't look at anything brighter than a set of cavalier heater controls for nearly over a week once the infection set in!

[himselfunknown]

Bit of an update. A couple of weekends ago I cracked on and got the sill prepped and stonechipped:



despite an incident with crappy Hammerite stonechip and spraying good stuff on too soon and having the whole lot melt off like a Dali painting!
Then last weekend I painted the sill, and fitted the LPG tank, tow bar and LPG fill line:





Then this weekend just gone, I changed the centre pipe, which had rotted through on a low point where water had obviously pooled while the car was shored up, replaced the rear shock absorbers, then I sorted the interior out, got it all valeted to a reasonable level, then took it for and MOT:











..which it passed, despite bursting a brake line on the way to the MOT! Managed to get it there, and they delyaed the MOT and put a new brake line on for me. It's very clean underneath (going to catch it with some shultz or underseal ASAP), including the brake lines, ironically. The only bit of rust on brake lines was where it broke, where it loops over the chassis leg before making its way across the bulkhead to the ABS modulator.

Next weekend I'm planning on fitting the LPG fuel line, routing some cables and sorting out the central locking, taxing it and driving it for a while.

And here's some extra photos of the tow bar, for squig (I have a spare saloon towbar up for grabs, btw )

[Envoy CDX]

Excellent progress Tony
So, what paint are you using for the towbar anyhow?

[specks]

at last on the road,whats the cav in the background though,a gsi?

[Lowrider Dave]

Great progress!

[himselfunknown]

Great progress!

Cheers!

at last on the road,whats the cav in the background though,a gsi?

Well, not quite on the road, as I have a few other jobs like making the central locking work and suchlike, and taxing it, but nearly there! Yes, that is my GSI in the background, which is my long term project. If it hasn't rotted away by the time I get to it, it's having a full resto back to original.

Excellent progress Tony
So, what paint are you using for the towbar anyhow?

It is just bog standard synthetic paint, apparently for truck chassis'.

[himselfunknown]

Finally got this on the road this weekend after being SORN for about 4 years!

On Friday evening I fitted the LPG fuel line, then on Saturday I cleaned up the brakes that weren't as good as they could be after not doing anything for years. I also started the wiring for the LPG tank, thus finishing all the under the car jobs. Started the cars first maiden voyage to Nottingham, but only got as far as junction 9 on the M6 when the alternator belt gave up, resulting in a tow back home by the RAC, and Saturday evening being spent removing all traces of the old belt and checking that there was no damage to the timing belt or other stuff.

After buying a new belt this morning, and getting it fitted, I drove home without incident, and also took it for an hours drive around my local country lanes to see how it fared. All seems good, although it's nowhere near as quick off the mark as the 3.0 V6.

Plans are to drive it round for a month or so to shakedown any other issues, then finish off the LPG conversion once I've built up a bit of trust that the car's not going to break down every 5 minutes!

In the meantime I need to fit a stereo (if I can find it!) and sort out the central locking (as soon as I can find out how to wire it up).

[Robsey]

It's all good progress though Tony.

Good to see another Cav back on the road... 4 years is a long lay-up period.

Obvously I know you know your Cavs inside out, but I would say that as long as you've already done the timing belt as part of the engine rebuild / prep work, then there should be no worries with regarding damaging anything major.

But, personally, I would check over all the rubber stuff... fuel lines, vacuum pipes and coolant hoses etc, as it is the rubber parts that will become brittle and split / burst at the most inoportune times.

[himselfunknown]

Yes, it's taken slightly longer than planned getting it on the road!

Luckily, it had new coolant hoses all round just before it was laid up, so I'm pretty confident that they're going to be OK, but I'm going to be having my head under the bonnet regularly to double check. It had a new belt on the last time I attempted to get it on the road (about 2 years ago!), so I know that is all A-OK.

Getting it running on LPG is probably the next step as I just know the fuel bill isn't going to be small for it!!

[Envoy CDX]

Good news Tony!
Has it been 2 years since I was down picking bits up