Return to a Cavalier - Satin Red Diplomat.

[Mk3alan]

Nice work! Best colour for the CDi/Diplomat, although I might be a bit biased!
Getting it all working as it should must be quite rewarding, and for not a lot of money.
Had my CDi for 19 years now and still enjoy it as much as when I first bought it.

Alan

[tonyo]

Nice work! Best colour for the CDi/Diplomat, although I might be a bit biased!
Getting it all working as it should must be quite rewarding, and for not a lot of money.
Had my CDi for 19 years now and still enjoy it as much as when I first bought it.

Alan

Thanks, Yeah, it has a real 'wheeler dealers' feel to it each job I do. It really feels like had it been left for another couple of years to carry on deteriorating, it would have ended up being scrapped.

[tonyo]

Another big day of work today..

Ever since I've had the car, it's been loosing water, and I've never heard the fan cut in. A couple of weeks back Peter pointed out a puddle underneath in the carpark at work, and I've noticed a few whisps of steam.. So, big job this weekend was to swap the rad out with one from Pete's deceased Dippy..

Of course, as it has air, the rad is bigger than a standard Cav unit, and it's pretty boxed in by the Steering pump and air conditioning pipes..

Remove the fan unit, disconnect the top and bottom hose, and remove the thermostats to give it enough room to come free, as with them in place, they foul on the Power steering pipework





Whilst it was out, I tested the fan across the battery, and it dutifully sprang into life, so if it didn't run in the car it had to be the switch or wiring.

Whilst there, I gave the crossmember a wipe.. Still in factory fresh-ish condition. Didn't clean it up properly, as we're likely to be back in there shortly to replace the A/C condenser, and it can be better cleaned then.





Replaced the rad, reconnected, and filled with water. Then took it for a nice long drive. No water lost, no steam, and better still, leaving it ticking over when I got back induced the rad fan. Bonus!

So, for the rest of the day, I decided to attack the interior. When I picked it up it hadn't been cleaned for some time, there was foot marks all over the place, and it generally had crud and muck spread around. All the seams and creases were full of 22 years of accumulated dust and bleurgh. I haven't been worried all the time I've been repairing it, but now that had to change.

First job was to have a look at the rear parcel shelf, after the state of the front speakers, the rears may be in the same condition.



That's the state of them both, eugh! I think another pair of £20 Pioneers are on the way.

The grilles seemed to have seen better days..



To disassemble, just bend the metal tabs on the back..



Pull the grill away from the frame..




Note how bad the speaker cloth is..



Speaker cloth ordered and on it's way. For now I'll run around for a couple of days with the grilles off. Also going to give the metal mesh a blow over with satin black before they go back together.

When Cleaning up the rear shelf, I noticed that the carpet was missing the three little black push clips on the vertical face behind the rear seats. Went to the bag of goodies I picked up at the VBOA spares day, and rectified..



I know it's really small, but it's so satisfying to see it correct.

Next I set about taking various bits out and cleaning them off the car, stopping short of the front seats when I removed the trim and saw the seatbelt pretensioners. I can clean it just fine without running the risk of setting them off. Strange.. No airbags, but pretensioners - I thought they came in at the same time.

Disassembled the centre console, removed the old stuck cassettes in the cassette bin, and cleaned it all up..



Whilst cleaning under the seats, I found all the clips for the floormats



Also discovered this..



I know a lot of Cav's will have had non standard ICE over the years, so for those of you who don't remember the 90's, this was the way of making sure some scum didn't relieve you of your precious factory fit stereo without having to take the whole thing or even the face with you.



Here follows the fruits of my labour. An interior looking about as good as it can at 22 years old..







The Gearlever and Handbrake gaiters are so far gone, they'll get replaced soon..

[Lowrider Dave]

Great progress Tony and I do love posts with photos!

[Robsey]

Yes looking very nice

The seat pre-tensioners need a fair crack to set them off.
Also - if in any doubt, simply fit the little red plastic fork in the rear end of the explosive ram.
I have had the seats out a few times, and managed not to set one off.

I have even thrown a spare pre-tensioner onto a paved floor and it still didn't go off.

What I am saying is that you would need to be very unlucky or clumsy to set one off,
so getting the seats out should not cause any problems.

With regard to the display holder - I still have this and the complete Grundig SC303 that it came from.
Sadly the pixel display itself is faulty.

Surprised to see an analogue clock in a diplomat. Would have expected a digital dual info display (time and temp).

[dazzlersri]

Thats a lovely clean Interior, very inviting ! Some new gaitors will make it look like new

[tonyo]

With regard to the display holder - I still have this and the complete Grundig SC303 that it came from.
Sadly the pixel display itself is faulty.

Surprised to see an analogue clock in a diplomat. Would have expected a digital dual info display (time and temp).

The pixels are going on mine.. Mine has the Phillips SC804 - think it is more or less the same as the Grundig, I cant see any real difference in the manual.

Regarding the Analogue Clock - This will be rectified shortly as long as I can find the yellow plug up behind the dash.. Pete has already identified which of the Digital displays in his stock is calibrated for an NE, and the analogue clock will be swapped out shortly if possible.

[tonyo]

Thats a lovely clean Interior, very inviting ! Some new gaitors will make it look like new

Cheers! It really is quite remarkable how well it has cleaned up, she really does wear her 22 years well (well, inside anyway).

Looking back at the (very comprehensive) history, the car started out life as a BT company vehicle, and in 1996 was sold to a Gent in Abingdon, I have the receipt, it cost him £7595 in 96! He appears to have kept it until he died, at which point his wife registered it in her name and sold it to a guy in Farnham almost immediately in late 2012. I then bought it in early 2015.

There are gaps.. Some MOT's are not there, but I do have it's first MOT cert from 1995!

[tonyo]

Another small but satisfying find..

The boot lid never really felt like it was correctly sprung, it would open and hold in position but with a gust of wind, it would try to eat anyone leaning in the boot.

So, after a 99p bay win copy of the later issue Haynes (I've already got an early version, but wanted a later issue for the 92 wiring looms etc). I sat and thumbed through it last night. I came across a section on the boot spring tension, which has three positions:

1 (slackest) for a standard boot lid.
2 (mid) for a boot lid with either a rear trim panel OR spoiler
3 (strongest) for a boot lid with a rear trim panel AND spoiler.

So armed with that little snippet, I went to the boot and had a look.

O/S - All looks well. Hook is in the mid hole (the slack is the horizontal hole, and the strong is the hook position at the back edge of the bracket).



N/S - Oh, Hello.. Once again someone has been in here and not put things back properly..



Sorted..



Brilliant, it's quite remarkable how much difference 1/2 inch makes to the tension and the 'hold' when the boot lid is open.

[James McGrath]

Surprised to see an analogue clock in a diplomat. Would have expected a digital dual info display (time and temp).

They introduced them a bit later, at the very end of 1993 I think.
I have an analogue clock in my diplomat.

The pixels are going on mine.. Mine has the Phillips SC804 - think it is more or less the same as the Grundig, I cant see any real difference in the manual.

Regarding the Analogue Clock - This will be rectified shortly as long as I can find the yellow plug up behind the dash.. Pete has already identified which of the Digital displays in his stock is calibrated for an NE, and the analogue clock will be swapped out shortly if possible.

The SC804 is a fair bit better than the SC303.

They may look the same but the SC804 has 20watts per channel and the SC303 has 7watts. Also has controlls for automatically adjusting the volume depending what speed you are doing and the better Dolby C noise reduction for getting rid of hiss on tapes.

All round a much better radio in my opinion.

[tonyo]

Another evening and more progress..

So far this week, I've had a couple of deliveries each night..



Seemed a shame to just have it sitting around, so I cracked on..

Firstly, I got on with the rear speaker cloth but making a paper template from the best of the old, disintegrating cloth.



Ready to cut out.



Both sides cut.



Ta-Dah!



Next up - The Gearlever. WARNING! Huge Double Entendre alert!

The gearlever on the car is peeling leather around the Knob - Fnar! Pete had already included the lever from his Dippy in a box of parts that had come my way. It isn't peeling, and is in better shape..



However, the Gaiter is nearly as bad as the one in the car..



So, roll back the leather, and snip the cable tie..



Remove all the staples from the plastic base..



In Haynes fashion, refitting is the reverse of removal.. But first, I thought I'd tidy up the knob. had a quick bash at it with black shoe polish, and was really surprised at how well it brought the leather back..



Put it all back together and admired..

[Lowrider Dave]

I thought I'd tidy up the knob. had a quick bash at it

arf, arf!


Seriously though, good work Tony, nice to see regular progress and the old girl is in fab condition for her age!

[tonyo]

More..

These arrived yesterday..



So, try to replace the rear speakers.. Easy job.. Err.. Maybe not. Ended up removing the rear parcel shelf to get to the screws, which meant removing the headrests and folding the seats, and moving the rear window trims, and the headlining trim..

Finally got the rear shelf out, and it looked a bit worse for wear..




The foam strip across the back literally disintegrated as I touched it. So with lack of foam, I improvised for the time being with Speaker cloth stuck with carpet adhesive to the underside of the shelf.



It does the job for now, and doesn't actually look that bad.

Whilst it was drying I changed the speakers over..



So after an epic re-assembly session, I finished at 10:30.





So to today (Saturday).

Quick job to start off with.. Replace the very second hand (and completely rigid) rubber seals on the side repeaters.




Then I thought I'd have a look at the rear shocks.. The air adjustable suspension doesn't. when I pump air in, I get a corresponding noise of air flowing straight out from the drivers side. Jacked the car up and went to have a look..

Pipes all seemed fine, no holes, and in good nick. However, as I worked forward, the issue soon became apparent.



The Entire shock has rotted - the sleeve at the bottom should be holding the air in the top half of the tube. and it has actually caused the whole thing to rust and drop. So the prognosis is that it is totally goosed. The Passenger side appears to have been changed - Who changes just one shock? Wrong idea in my book..

So I now have a choice. I either try to hunt down rocking horse do-do and find some replacements, I've found Carlton rear air shocks on e-bay, but they are £40... Each! If i can find the Cavalier equivalent at a sensible price, I'll do it, but it seems to be a big IF. Otherwise, I'll just put it on Standard shocks, the air height adjustment would be of so little use to me (anything heavy goes in the Insignia Hatch), I'm not paying a silly price when I can put standard shocks on for £30 - £40 for a pair.

Anyway, canned that for the afternoon, and went to play in the front.. Changed the dash bulb behind the fuel and temp gauge - It blew two days after I put the instrument panel back in GRR..

Then I set about the glovebox, pulled the cubby, and the glovebox itself. And found what I was looking for, tucked right in the loom behind the ashtray.. So located it just where its going to be shortly needed..



All systems go for that little plan then..

[DiplomaXE]

winner winner

[dazzlersri]

I didnt even know you could have air adjustable shocks on these !

[Envoy CDX]

Rather impressed with the level of detail going into this.

[tonyo]

I didnt even know you could have air adjustable shocks on these !

My father had them on a Mk2 CDi, but I didn't realise it carried over to the Mk3 either. Having said that, I dont think the dippy is keeping them for too long. Replacements are looking like £200-£300 - OK, it would be correct and original, but at a quarter of the value of the car, just too rich. Unless I can find a cost effective alternative, its going onto std shocks.

[tonyo]

Rather impressed with the level of detail going into this.

Thanks, I cant beleive how much better the fit is on the cav over the GTE. Theres only two years in it, but the trim and parts seem so much easier to fit together. Then theres the NE.. Simple, robust, and great to work on. Its gonna need a new timing belt and waterpump, and the headgasket is going to need doing soon I think.

All in, I think I got a decnt car with a few issues for a decent price. There, thats cursed it.. Bet that'll come back to bite me soon!

[tonyo]

Thought I'd get into the engine room today..

First off was to investigate the exhaust gasket.. It chuffs quite nicely at tickover,so I went out armed with a bit of tissue to see if there was any sign of a blow.. Put it between No 1 and the thermostat housing and it nearly took the tissue out of my hand!

Spray the studs in plenty of release oil.. Work methodically across the top..



And back along the bottom.. Oh, hello whats all this?



Guess I've found out why it's blowing.. Once again, someone has been here before me and not done a proper job.. Looks like the accepted method for snapping a stud is to say sod it, and just leave it on 7 studs.. It'll be OK wont it?

Err..No it won't..



That's what happens when you don't have all the studs in the manifold, strangely some hot gas appears to have blown the gasket out.. Hot gas from an exhaust, it's hardly a quantum leap is it?



Just for good measure they'd matched it with a sheared bolt on the manifold connection too. Just left it for the remaining three bolts to hold it together.

Anyway, drill out the sheared bolt on the downpipe connection and re-tap the thread - check.. Pilot drill the stud to attack it with an easy out - not check! Lets just say the bit broke, and in the ensuing battle my finger came off worse against the sheared tip of the bit..

Canned it to try and stop the bleeding for the night.

[dazzlersri]

Oh the joys ! Might need to drill the bugger out providing the snapped off easy out comes out. Just mark the drill bit off for depth in next hole along

[tonyo]

Oh the joys ! Might need to drill the bugger out providing the snapped off easy out comes out. Just mark the drill bit off for depth in next hole along

Luckily it wasn't the easy out that snapped, it was the drill bit I was using to enlarge the hole to get a bigger easy out in. Went really nicely into my finger too with all the weight of the drill to really drive it home. Finger will heal, easy out snapped would be more of an issue. Got to get the priorities right...

[tonyo]

Pushed a bit further on today.

I came to the conclusion that my drill bits were not going to cut it (literally) with the sheared stud.. So decided to bin that job until I get some new HSS in the week.

Whilst the manifold is off, it seemed like a good (and accessible) time to have a look at some of the other issues here.. It's increasingly marking its territory in the car park at work, when it's standing next to Pete's epic 1.2 (according to the badge) auto and is letting the side down, it's just not cricket. Gearbox side of the engine is very wet with oil. Also the rocker cover gasket is leaking, well, it is an NE.

So, lets get going. I wanted to sort this very badly kinked hose out..



To get the crankcase breather off, the dizzy needed to be removed to give access to the bolts.



Hmm, I wonder if this may be the source of some of my oil problems? Maybe it's not the HG leaking oil as I suspected.





Everything off, had a look to see how restricted the breather was.. Yuk! Not quite closed up, but it couldn't have been doing it's job properly




Pipe wasn't that much better..



Filled it with White Spirit, and left it for an hour to try to break the crud down and loosen it. Seemed to do the job, if the black lumpy soup that came out was anything to go by.

So, I decided that if the crankcase breather was that bad, then the cam cover filter probably needed urgent attention. Pulled the cam cover off, and found an almost blocked filter.



I know they can be soaked to clean them, but it was so bad, I just pulled a spare that I got at the Parts day, and binned the old one.




As the dizzy had got oil in it, I also pulled a rear camshaft oil seal from my Box-o-bits. Haynes, in usual fashion says that it's a matter of gently levering the old one from the housing with a screwdriver. Err, yeah, right. Set about it with increasingly large screwdrivers, levering away until you think you're in danger of bending something else, and swear a lot..



So, now down to refit the breather. Gave it a quick clean, prime and satin black..



I didn't have a replacement breather hose in stock, so time to get inventive. The kink is on the really short unsupported gap between the camshaft vent and pipe, with about 50% of it slid along the pipe, so, if I turn it around, then the joint is in the lovely fresh part that's been held into shape by the pipe for 22 years, and the kinked part has now got the rigid pipe inside to support it.



I will replace it at some point, but for now, it's fine. Got it all back into place, and finished for he day - I had some concrete to lay..

[Lowrider Dave]

Good job Tony!

[TurboDan]

Superb work!

[tonyo]

Thanks for all the votes of confidence gents, it's really satisfying to be saving it from a slow demise, which is enhanced by the good vibes.


Tonight I had a success..

After a few hairy moments and some deep breaths, I got the old Stud drilled out and tapped an M8 thread back in there..

It's now got a full compliment of Studs..



Gasketed and ready to go..



All done.. Thought it would be time for a photo of it all non-leaky round the rocker cover, I'm sure being an NE, it won;t stay like it for long.



It gets it's first outing with the Migweb SC collective tomorrow, where it will be prodded, poked and generally given the full once over by gents with far better Vauxhall eyes than mine. It'll be getting some ramp time, so I'm hoping to report back good things and have some ideas of where it's likely to need work.