Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

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tonyo
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Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

A bit of history..

In the late 90's I owned a really nice Satin Red CDi. It was the first 'Nice' car I'd owned - I'd had a rotten Sierra and an Epic Mk2 Cav GL, but the CDi was the first that felt solid.

I had it for about 3 1/2 years before trading it for some horrid french thing.

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I'd always missed it, and felt that I made a huge mistake getting rid of it.

Anyway, over the years, I came back to Vauxhall, and although I didn't like the VectraB, I loved the C's of which I had two..

Firstly a Preface 2.2 SRi.

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Then an awesome CDTi 150 XP.

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Which was replaced a couple of years ago by an Insignia.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, a Satin Red Cav Diplomat appeared on the bay for not a lot, I decided to go for it. After discussions with Peter (DiplomaXE), we thought it would go above £1k - which I wasn't prepared to pay.. One day before closing, it was still at £520, and thinking there would be a few last minute snipers, I put in a cheeky bid.

I was more surprised than most, therefore, when a day later, the snipers had not appeared and I was the owner of a Cavalier once again for just over £800..

With the Help of Peter she was collected and delivered to my drive before I went away, and had very little time to look at it.

Until last weekend.

SATURDAY



Thought It would be only right to do a few introductions..

She was washed along with her Grandson (and illustrates how big the Insignia is against the Cavalier - as a direct descendant).

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And then introduced to her older sister - my other little vice that sits in the garage unless it's dry...

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Of course, there are a few similarities..

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Astra is a 20NE, opposed to the Cav's C20NE, but there isn't too much difference.

Introductions done,I thought I'd get down to a bit of tinkering..


The list of things to do was (and still is) quite long and extensive, such as making electric windows work and investigating the non working central locking on the boot. For now, I thought I'd start by giving it a little bit of TLC under the bonnet.

The Throttle lever was sitting at a really horrid angle, down to (as I'd discover soon) the plastic washers behind the arm being in lots of pieces.

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Throttle bodies on NE's always get gunky. This one is no exception, and was really rather crusty.

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A bit of cleaning, and it looked altogether more presentable..

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Bolted it all back together along with a temporary metal washer until I can replace the plastic version.

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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by James McGrath »

Looks fantastic! :love

Glad to see it's gone to a good home.
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

OK.. On to Sunday.

First target was the Central locking on the boot. The boot didn't centrally lock at all, so I wanted to get that sorted. Thankfully had spoken to Peter before I blindly started ripping the servo out and randomly testing wires, he suggested that the problem may be a broken wire around the boot hinge - after 20 odd years of opening and closing, a wire can break, and stop everything from working.


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The rust behind may also lead me to the source of the damp boot carpet, a job I need to look into.

Anyway, released the loom, to get a better go at repair.


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The Brown was the only intact survivor!

So, a bit of time with a soldering Iron and some heatshrinks, and the Central locking dutifully sprung back into life on the boot..

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Next on the list was a bit of removal.. I'm not a fan of dragging things around, so this was certainly going to be unneeded..

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So, I started to strip the boot out.. And discovered the most hideous spare wheel in the well, along with the comedy permanent live that had been threaded through the car to the battery..

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As I stripped out the trim, I realised that this had been a really 'professional' fit when installed..

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All within an inch of the pre-wired plug that Vaux had put in to make trailer wiring easy to connect - Butchers!

So, after some unpicking and careful insulation of the nicked sheathes, I had this..

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And this..

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I could now start releasing the towbar, which consisted of 3x17mm and 2x 19mm nut and bolts.


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As I was stripping the boot trim, I'd also found another example of just how careful the installation had been, finding this tucked behind the plastic trim..


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17mm Impact driver, brilliant this was gonna be tight..

After some skin removal, and with a lot of persuasion from my 3ft breaker bar, I finally released it from the floor.

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Whilst I was in the area, I thought I'd pick up on more of Peters advice, and take his wise words after the demise of the sorely Missed Blue Diplomat XE. So, lets have a look at the metalwork behind the rear bumper.. Removing the rear bumper would also allow the bodge loom to be withdrawn easier. Also, the N/S bumper has always say at a bit of a weird angle, so maybe I could work that out too..


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Not too bad.. Looking at the N/S (Left in the picture) bumper mounting hole, you can see the reason why the bumper was sitting a bit off, it's had a tap on the rear at some point, and no-one had bothered to sort it out.

I also had this finally removed..

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So, a bit of a clean up, and a couple of swift taps with a hammer, and the rear was looking altogether better.


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Checking the rear flanks, they need a bit of preventative, but are in relatively good shape..

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Gave the ol' tube a bit of a clean, and put it all back together. Bumper sits perfectly now.

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I finished the day by removing the one time lash up that had been what I can only guess was a carphone install. It had a live and neutral directly off the battery, and I chased a coax up into the rear of the headlining. All removed along with the towbar permanent live and trim replaced.

I really need to look into the water getting into the boot, the sunroof drains appear to be fine - the rear ones are poked well and truly down through the floor. There's quite a lot of crust in and around the N/S boot floor..

Next plan of action is to try to tackle the interior lights - the front is totally non-functional, and the rears come on when the doors are shut. The boot light is not functioning either.

The other thing is to try and figure out why neither of the N/S windows work either.
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by DiplomaXE »

Gosh have we got some fun spring weekends ahead!

Luckily I know a man with a house and 3 sheds full of Dippy parts!
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

DiplomaXE wrote:Gosh have we got some fun spring weekends ahead!

Luckily I know a man with a house and 3 sheds full of Dippy parts!

Great, let me at him . I still look at the picture of the scotchblocks in the boot and wonder how someone can butcher a loom like that when there's a purpose built plug an inch away..
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by DiplomaXE »

it's a little square 9 way one IIRC. We found the mating half at a scrappy and wired mine in properly.Can't remember what it was off of though. Sure there was probably a 40£ kit one could purchase at the time, but I never had that. Found you 2 rads and 3 condensers today, and 5 aircon pumps. should be good to go....
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by iangsi »

tonyo wrote:Image
My saloon leaked around this vent ^ until I popped it out & sealed it back with some plumbers silicone leak sealer, thought it might help you track down your leak.
tonyo
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

iangsi wrote:
My saloon leaked around this vent ^ until I popped it out & sealed it back with some plumbers silicone leak sealer, thought it might help you track down your leak.

Thanks Ian, I'll give it a good hard looking at.
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
tonyo
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

Little bit of a win today..

The Dash has done what I'm told is a relatively common thing, and peeled behind the speedo. Not only does it look ugly, but the car is doing 18mph standing still..

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So, with no direct replacements available on e-bay, Peter advised me that the speedo face from a Mk3 Astra is a relatively easy swap.

So, picked I picked this little gem up for the princely sum of £2 + £2.95 P&P.

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Not a mark on the face either..

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The biggest bonus is that it still had a good few quids worth of bulbs plugged in the back..

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1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by Envoy CDX »

I likes it alot.
Check the Rules!

Raw 8v Power! - Bad Cav, Naughty Cav... Cav want's to do 90!

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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by kirsty »

looking good mate
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by Lowrider Dave »

Excellent work Tony. That toebar looks like it weighed a bit! Pete knows where I am, so if you need a extra pair of hands let me/him know.
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tonyo
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

lowrider dave wrote:Excellent work Tony. That toebar looks like it weighed a bit! Pete knows where I am, so if you need a extra pair of hands let me/him know.
Thanks Dave,

I'm sure as an old Vaux, it's gonna need a few two/three person jobs at some point.. I'm just trying to get it up and everything working, so that I can switch attention back to the GTE for a couple of weekends - I've got to replace the factory Vinyl roof with a Mohar one I bought last year- I'm not looking forward to it if I'm honest.
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

OK, a bit more done towards getting it running properly today..

I had a bit of a lightbulb moment this week, realising that the non functioning interior lights were on the same circuit as the radio that sometimes tries to work, and the clock that doesn't work. Chatting about it with Peter and Dan (from Migweb), ift seemed to us that it was a grounding issue.

That was correct, sort of..

I started out by taking the door switches out in turn. They were so green and crusty that there was very intermittent continuity across them, added to which the passenger side one was completely disconnected. Also, the ground on the front lamp itself was so weakly clamped, the spade moved around. Cleaned the contacts and plugged them back in, reconnected everything, and plugged the fuse back in.. Result..

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Working interior lights! the delay on the front still functions. and the rear lights work as they should, refitted the hanging gaffer taped boot light, and that works too.

Next I tried the radio. I'd never been sure about it, as it sometimes tried to work, and sometimes didn't. A tap on the knob, and it sprang into life.

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Next issue, with any kind of volume, the Drivers speaker sounded like it was full of stones, so I decided to investigate.

Nothing better than opening a doorcard up and finding no-one has been any further.

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Why the speaker didn't sound so hot.

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Next was the door lamp. They have both worked even whilst the rest of the interior lamps have been non functioning. The Drivers door one had always seemed a little dimmer than the Passenger, and sometimes flickered. So I popped the passenger one for reference, and looked back at the drivers.

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OK, someone has monkeyed around in here.. The contacts are all bent and the whole long contact has been shifted outwards. I guess the reason is that whoever replaced the bulb didn't have a long 10W one, and rather than spending a couple of quid, the bent everything around to accept a 5W version.

Anyway, straightened it out and found the a matching sized bulb to the passenger one. Here next to the 'botch'..

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Much better.

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And glowing nicely.

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On to the passenger side to check the speaker and also, whilst I'm there see if I can figure out why the window doesn't work.

Uh Oh.. I'm not the first visitor here..

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Speaker is fine, but will get replaced anyway. On to the motor.

Oh dear, the wiring is fine. When I push the button in the centre console, I get voltage across the right pins, so the only conclusion here can be that the regulator and motor are dead. I can pick up a secondhand unit for less that £20 on Ebay, so not so serious a problem.

If I get any dry weather tomorrow, I'm going to remove the rear card and see if the rear motor is knacked too.. These appear to be rarer, there are a couple on line, but I want to make sure I'm replacing with he correct unit.
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
tonyo
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

Little bit of time today before it poured with rain.

Lets have a quick look at the rear window motor..

Oh dear, once again, someones been here already - not a good sign.

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As with the front, the wiring checks out fine, so we have an issue with the motor. This may be a little harder to get a replacement for than the front. It has rather a large 'box-o-tricks' attached to it, much like the front one which I presume is to do with the one-touch windows and self closing with the key. May have to investigate alternatives, like just replacing the motor.

Then, just before rain stopped play, I had a little revisit to the boot. When Peter and I picked it up, the bloke said he'd kept the carpet in the shed as the boot gets wet on the N/S.

Peter had already checked the sunroof drains (apparently the usual culprit). Of course I found that rather large patch of rust up under the seal, so I decided to start there..

It sure looks quite crusty there in that seam..

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Turn off the flash, and whats this?

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A small fracture in the seam.

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I've put a small piece of waterproof tape over the outside of the seam, and will see if it dries out over the next couple of weeks. If it works, then I'm going to have to let it dry out really well in the spring, and then I'll just grind back run a weld over the outside of that seam which I hope will solve the issue.
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by dazzlersri »

Thats a nice base for a project, nice and clean. Whats your plans with it then ?

The XP150 vectra looks lovely ! A prettier car then the insignia in my opinion.
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tonyo
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

dazzlersri wrote:Thats a nice base for a project, nice and clean. Whats your plans with it then ?

The XP150 vectra looks lovely ! A prettier car then the insignia in my opinion.

Thanks. Plans are to keep it OEM with maybe a few upgrades like cruise, without making it 'modified'.

I know what you mean about the Vectra, the XP kit made it look very different to standard. The Insignia should really be the successor (it a VX-Line), but the kit is so subtle you have to look quite hard to notice. It doesnt feel as quick either - sure it has 10 more horses, but is carrying a LOT more weight.

In the defence of the Insignia, it's awfully better screwed together, and with more sensible wheels - 245/40/19 against 235/35/19, it rides smoother too, without the worry that it's going to crack the rims (Snowflakes on the Vectra were notorious for it).
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
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dazzlersri
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by dazzlersri »

Good plan, theres fewer and fewer cavaliers about now so thatll be a good save.
Ive not driven an insignia yet but like the look of the new facelifted ones, i bet its like night and day stepping out of that into your cav or gte ?
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

Had some time to do a bit more towards getting the Cav on the right path..

First off was this..

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Not a genuine VX part, but at least it didn't look like this one..

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Down to some proper work..

Thanks to Peter, I was in a position to make this correct to the 90's..

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And here is the replacement.

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All fitted. Now I'm partying like it's 1999..

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Next, a Job Peter had talked me through, so I decided to give it a try..

The car was suffering from 'dial peel' which resulted in it being able to read between 18 and 38mph regardless of actual speed.

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So, disassemble the dash and remove the instruments..

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Take the instrument front off..

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Remove the speedo and take the small stop out that holds the needle at 10.

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Now, wiggle the unit around and let the needle settle in it's totally natural resting state. Mark this point - as the speedo needle is not keyed, it'll have to go back on in exactly the same position.

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Shake again, and make sure you've got the point just right, and remove the speedo needle, followed by the face itself.

Now, disassemble the doner unit in the same way (although no need to mark the resting place of the needle) and remove the face.

Put the two together, and mark the EXACT same position on the donor unit as that on the one you are replacing.

Image.

Start to reassemble, replace the needle, and do not remove the marker until you've given it a few shakes and ensured the needle rests xacly on the same point.

Replace the stop, and put it all back together..

Bingo, 'new' speedo..


Last job of the day sort of happened in a blur, so I got no photos other than the old part laying on the bench.

Image

The Passenger front window now goes up, down, self closes, and closes with the key.. Great! Only the rear passenger window to go..
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by Cavalier342 »

Very good progress there mate! I've never seen or heard of the speedometer face peeling away like that! :shock: Wonder why that happened....

Shocked at the bodged wiring in there, glad you got to the bottom of it before something caught fire.. Looks like another one is being saved. :thumb

Top effort mate, looking good.

Andrei.
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by James McGrath »

Cavalier342 wrote:Very good progress there mate! I've never seen or heard of the speedometer face peeling away like that! :shock: Wonder why that happened....

It's a fairly common problem. I've seen quite a few like it for sale here and there.
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by Cavalier342 »

Really? Wasn't aware of it after seeing countless ones for sale, etc. never having that issue...
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by Lowrider Dave »

Great progress Tony. I should get Pete to come and look at my aerial (no comments) as it's not working. Luckily I plan to have a purge on the electrics that need doing on the V6 before hassling him!
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

Cavalier342 wrote:Very good progress there mate! I've never seen or heard of the speedometer face peeling away like that! :shock: Wonder why that happened....

Shocked at the bodged wiring in there, glad you got to the bottom of it before something caught fire.. Looks like another one is being saved. :thumb

Top effort mate, looking good.

Andrei.

Cheers, I'm still reliving that 'oh my god' moment when I took the rear panel off an found that liot in there, along with the sheer bafflement that they took the time to run a permananent live from the battry through the car to the towbar, when they could have put a fuse in slot 28 and livened the wire on the loom at the back..
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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Re: Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

Post by tonyo »

Decided to brave the cold and have a couple of hours working to get the doors back together so that I can use the car tomorrow..

But First, I need to put straight the lack of evidence of the finished dash.. Here it is..

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So, down to getting the front doors sorted..

These really had seen better days..

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So I pulled some adaptors out of storage, and with a £20 pair of Pioneers, I was ready to rebuild..

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Fitted the Drivers side easy enough

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Before I tackled the passenger side, I wanted to address the lack of vapour barrier. I had no clear plastic, but handily had a roll of similar thickness home vapour barrier. Shame it's green, but I'd rather it was there than miss it because it's not clear. A bit of cutting and marking later, and I had this..

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Fitted the speaker and then set about refitting the doorcards..

First off was to transfer the switches etc from this .

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To this..

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Although not perfect, an awful lot better. The wood is also a lot darker on the replacement, I'll swap it at some point so that it matches the rest of the doors.


Anyway, they are all fitted and ready to roll..

Image

Image
1992 Cav 2.0 8v Diplomat - RIP
1990 Astra 2.0 8v GTE Cabrio
2018 Jaguar XE 180 R-Sport
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