Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Finally got the old girl home on Saturday 24th about 2 months after we bought it, I'd almost forgotten what it looked like!

Some of you already know this car from my introduction thread here or from the recent Eastern region meet on Sunday.

Anyway, She's a 1990 CD auto with Rome velour interior, finished in colour code 87L which is Rembrandt silver I believe.

She's barely broken in with only 38,200 miles on the clock. Only one previous owner, a man called Gordon Jackson, who bought the car when it was on display at the showroom at Renny's Vauxhall in Tonbridge Wells. Gordon recently gave up driving at the age of 96! So the car was put up for sale in the Friday ad where my Dad saw it and the rest is history.





Despite the low mileage, she does have her bad points:







However, generally she has held up pretty well for a pre-facelift in terms of rust:









Rather interestingly, it has colour coded soundproofing like my Diplomat, though our CD manual has the usual black stuff:



She is a bit of a minter if I say so myself. From the interior you could be fooled into thinking it's never been used. All the switches feel new, the seats are still very firm and supportive, she drives like a dream, the suspension feels so tight and responsive and best of all no water leaks.

Anyway, a parcel arrived for me today from Dan (Chip Pan Dan), thanks again for this :



So I instantly went about fitting the aerial.

Before:



After:



I also managed to refit the headlamp rubbers properly:




More pictures to follow, in the meantime, enjoy this short clip of the headlamp wipers in action!


Link

That was a great find James, love the look of the CDs. I hope the headlamp protector guide was of use. That exhaust looks fairly recent too. It's strange how many mega low mileage Cavaliers are creeping out of the woodwork at the moment. I don't think Colorado's CD has any more than about 50k on it, and there was a 22k again last week. Time warp stuff!

Cool vid btw. Made me realise that I'd never actually gone out to check to see if mine are operational lol

Yeah, you're right. I think there are 3 Cavs on eBay at the moment all under 50,000 miles, all pre-facelifts and all 1.8s.
Mad, especially as now isn't a particularly good time to sell, market forces being what they are and all. Great time to buy though.

I'm going to try to fit the headlamp protectors tomorrow, I hope they will fit on now that I've got the headlamp rubbers in place.

I couldn't resist, hardly any Cavalier videos on you tube thought I'd make a start.

Fan-smegging-tastic!

brilliant news! well done

Happy for you!

Looks brilliant, can't believe I haven't seen this thread sooner.

Looks lovely, liking the black chrome aerial too.

Was that rust on the sill not an MOT fail then? Or has it been done?

retrogeezer wrote:Looks lovely, liking the black chrome aerial too.

Was that rust on the sill not an MOT fail then? Or has it been done?

That's a scab, will clean up for the most part.

The end of the sill is missing.

down this way, as long as it has gaffer tape on it will pass..

retrogeezer wrote:The end of the sill is missing.

Hmmm, Most of my arch on my G reg cav was missing and sharp edges were ground back and covered with gaffer tape.. I can't comment.

Not having owned a Cav for that long I just wondered if it was o.k like that, it has to have a suspension mount or seatbelt mount within 30cm or something for a fail I think which is why I asked.

I'd love a pre-facelift CD like this..as much as I like my 94 LS I do look at the trim levels of these and think how nice they are.

Thanks for the positive comments guys!

The sill was welded just before the MOT as I knew it would fail but the arch/dogleg still needs doing, it only cost £60 to do. It hasn't been painted though.

I'm getting some bodywork done next week including, both wheel arches, bonnet resprayed, new wing mirror fitted and sprayed and various other blemishes on the paintwork spayed.

I'm also going to have it undersealed with Dynax S-50 at the same time.

This is what the sill looks like at the moment awaiting to be painted:





In the meantime I've smeared some Vaseline over it to protect it just until next week.

I've only just dropped it off for the bodywork today and of course I forgot to take any before photos again.

It's having the bonnet, all four wings and a couple of doors resprayed along with the front and rear bumper and wing mirror casings. Both rear wheel arches are being welded also. Should all be finished by Wednesday.


Anyway, I managed to source a genuine new wing mirror adjuster switch and fitted it accordingly :




Looked pretty good back there, probably the first time the door card has come off since it left the factory:




Original manufacture date, 1st May 1990!




Of course some of the brackets had to come off! So here's a big advert for Loctite! I used the same stuff when I did the LS's door cards:




All back together and mirrors working perfectly, hussar!




The glass in the driver's wing mirror was coming away from it's backing and needed to be replaced:




So I got myself a Genuine primed wing mirror casing ready to go on along with a genuine replacement mirror glass which was salvaged from the CD manual's old mirror:

well worth spending the money, its a lovely car. Mine is in today for respray to drivers side wing, door, bumper and two new mirror covers, and i have the authentic pin stripe transfer courtesy of gps

I got her back last Wednesday evening but the weather is been so rubbish I haven't been able to take any decent photos. I don't think the weather is going to change any time soon so here are some rubbish photos instead!

Luckily I managed to find some before photos:
















After:

I have to say I'm very impressed with the quality of the work done on the wheelarches, they turned out very well indeed.







The other wheel arch turned out just as well:



Mark removed from below petrol flap and dent taken out:



Scratch taken out of front wing:



Bonnet resprayed:



Both front and rear bumpers and wing mirrors refurbished:










All in all I think it turned out rather well.

I also managed to get hold of a genuine Vauxhall back box which shall be fitted in the coming weeks. The old one is rattling as one of the internal pipes or whatever has fallen off.

That's some difference!

Just watched the video... Makes a bit of a racket doesn't it???

LMFAO only just saw that video was funny

arches cam out well

Video is good. Must admit, how many cars do you actually see nowadays with functioning headlamp wipers? It's a useful thing and looks great on the classic pre-facelift models.

Impressed, that work thats been done makes a world of difference James.

Thanks guys!

I'm very happy with the way it turned out myself.

She's going to get the exhaust fitted and then a new fan belt if I can find one. After that she will be packed up for winter and hopefully I'll be taking her to a few shows next year.

James McGrath wrote:Thanks guys!

I'm very happy with the way it turned out myself.

She's going to get the exhaust fitted and then a new fan belt if I can find one. After that she will be packed up for winter and hopefully I'll be taking her to a few shows next year.

Sounds good!

very nice. well worth the money, nice to see a cd getting some money spent on it, have also took mine off the road following its drivers side respray.