Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

A nice simple modification.

A stalk, a relay and a simple wiring job and all is done.

As for the indicator stalk, I have used mine to control radio functions, hands free phone kit, and all being well I am planning to fit cruise control.

The wiper stalk buttons I have wired up for the fuel computer. Previously it provided further audio functions on my radio. (CD70 Navi).

There are plenty of little gadgets that the stalks can be wired up for.

Rather old news, but here we go. Gave the old 14-inchers a coat of matte white and some brand new Chinese winter rubber. Just 40e a pop, surprisingly grippy and predictable on wet ice. The road to my parents' place is 18km of fast and twisty road with a speed limit of 80 and a seemingly perpetual coat of thick ice, and the tires have no problem doing 60-70 around most corners!

Some pictures of the wheels fitted would be nice to see.

I like the colour of the instrument cluster illumination, however the lighting conditions do not show it off to it's full potential.

Aye, I'll take a pic as soon as I get her washed. She's damn filthy right now, you know how it is with slush and long holiday drives. I love the color too, I can just never seem to get those bulbs working. That's why I'm replacing them with that RGB strip soon enough, that'll be a fun post.

That's more fuel than I've got looks nice though and the wheels look good too. Same interior trim as my 1.8, will be good to see a pic when they wheels are on.

Trust me, that's rare for me too. I got some fuel gift cards for Christmas, wouldn't be above half a tank without.

Paid my brother a visit at work and borrowed their pressure washer for a pack of cigarettes. Nothing like workshop lighting to really flatter a car's paint job.


I did a little shopping for a small project I'll be doing tomorrow. Any guesses?

Looks good on white alloys!

I love white wheels with that colour blue.

DiplomaXE's Cav had the same combination and that was always one of my favorites.

Yes looks very smart.

Cannot quite work out your plans involving magnets, plate nuts and epoxy resin.
Hmm - it will be interesting to see where this goes.

Interior mirror perhaps? That epoxy is the only thing that will stick the little metal mounting thing back on the screen. Magnets might be to keep in place until it sets?

Sod it, I'm doing it tonight!

I'll mix up some epoxy and glue plate screws to half of the magnets in alternating polarities. The angle is important.



Cutting up an old gift bag to use as a template. That's right, I'm making a fancy wind blocker! Decided to make something a little more refined than the usual banana box duct-taped to the car's face. I'm only using the plate screws as clips, so everything will be easily removable come summer.



Test fitting one side. Half a square meter of this plastic sheet only cost four euro at the industrial store. Took a lot of little cuts and I'm still not perfectly happy with the area around the badge, but it'll do for now. It'll be easy enough to trim with a pocket knife.



The badge is open, I'll need to figure out a way to block it from behind. Cut a circular piece of plastic, slice two slits on each side, push plate screws through and attach to the badge.


Sorted, looks good.



A dab of grease on the grill magnets helps find the spots for their corresponding magnets. I'll mark the spots with a knife, clean off the grease, scrape up the area with a screwdriver for adhesion and epoxy them on.



And it's done! A super cheap and convenient set of wind blockers that might even pass for OEM from a few meters away. This winter has been milder than usual, so I'll leave the bumper vents open and see how much this helps with heating. As weather varies, these will be a breeze to take off and throw back on, and I alternated the polarities so they'll even click together into a neat little package. Granted, this probably took twice the work of a cardboard patent, but I had fun making it and it looks quite nice!

Liking that & good fabricating skills, not a problem we have over here prolonged cold weather good antifreeze levels usually take care of it, what temperature does it get down to in your part of Finland ?

I would never have guessed that from your parts picture.

Really nice idea.
Looks very tidy too.

Like I said, mild winter. We've only had a low of -19 this winter, and right now it's just a few degrees of frost. The weather has been fluctuating like mad lately, over ten degrees a day. That's what gave me the idea to use magnets. This will still help the engine heat up faster, which means hot air for me faster. Dealerships sell these things for newer cars for 40-60e a pop, and even those are only bits of plastic cut to shape that you attach with zip ties.

Nice idea - just keep an eye on temp gauge! Fitted similar to my old Triumph but in brushed stainless steel I even stuck strips of black insulation tape on so it looked like the original grill.
As long as the journey was less that about 7 miles it could stay in.
Many (many) years ago on my first car, a Morris Minor side valve with no water pump/thermostat, I bought a kit which consisted of a blind which could be pulled up/let down from within the car. Only problem was when traveling at any speed the blind would be pushed against the rad and wouldn't go down, so I had to drop the speed!

Alan

Nice work there buddy.

I like the keyboard by the way, it's a Cooler Master Trigger am I right?
I caught the mechanical keyboard bug a few years ago and now I can't type without one.

Thanks. Correct! Huge difference from that mushy and inconsistent membrane garbage, best hundred and twenty euro I ever spent.

Just tested out the blocker in -2 degree weather. I get hot air in five minutes instead of twenty now!

Inspection failed for two rust holes and a loose handbrake. Guess I'll need to help my brother with some buses again.

Just a few small items.
Your brother will soon have it fixed.

Welp, it's been quite a week. I got a tow truck job on Saturday and had to set off on Monday. With the deadline looming and my mother on holiday, we decided I'd borrow her car for the week and leave Veccy at my brother's shop so he can fix it on his own time. Cute little thing, pre-facelift 2001 Citroen Xsara. Little small for a man of my stature and girth though. Racked up a thousand km on her this week, ran like a champ.

I've got her back for a couple days now. The handbrake is fixed now, as is one of the rust holes. The other one requires the gas tank to come off, so I'll drive to work with her on Monday, take it back to the shop that evening, then drive his V6 Omega until she's done. I think I made a very... "excited" sound when I yanked the handbrake as I've grown used to doing, only to have it actually work! Just a few more days until I can get her a fresh inspection stamp.

Rust holes fixed, Veccy got her new inspection stamp for another year of driving.
So yeah, I've finally got a job. Boss shows me around the area and looky what I found, a wrecker Vectra-B! Time to grab some tools and get salvaging...

Couple hours later, I've got a set of door handles, a remote locking unit with separate remote, a cool tinted ceiling light, a spare mirror adjustment switch, and a round gear knob and some screws and covers from that Astra in the background.

This will give me plenty of stuff to do during the plentiful off hours when everything's in order and I'm waiting for a call. Has anyone here fitted this model of central locking box to a Cav? It looks different to those in the How2.

Congratulations on a new inspection stamp.
It does feel good to know that you can now operate the car legally for the next 12 months.

Rolling project time!!

Regarding the remote unit.
I am sure it will probably wire up the same as a standard Kiekert or Megamos unit.

I am not aware of any significant wiring differences in the Vectra-B wiring diagrams.
I can only assume that it is for remote central locking without immobiliser transponder key.

New ceiling light shoved in. Looks damn good!



Aaand looky what I have. Took some fiddling to find the proper pin to feed 12V to online, then hunt down a pin and wire from the crap Vectra's loom. Couldn't get the window closure working and didn't find a wire for the deadlock, whatever that is, so I left those out. I've got the one touch window switches anyway, so I don't really need that feature. Turning the key to accessory and pressing both buttons on the remote reprogrammed the locking box.


Link

Time for a low-budget polishing job.



Left side untouched, right side scrubbed with Paint Renovator.



After four hours of shoulders-breaking labor, she's done and it's time to head home. Not too bad for 23-year old paint. It's far from perfect, but at least it doesn't look like someone's used mud for shampoo anymore, and you can actually see the metallic fleck!





Just got back from a call, very polite British guy had key troubles with his rental car. The battery was low and the alarm would blare when you opened the door, but we found a trick online to press the key against the start button to make it recognize it and start. This job makes me love my car more every day.

Nice results there. Looks marvellous!

Yes, I can't help but snigger every time I hear a story like that about a new car.
Seems the more complicated cars become, the more susceptible they are to simple problems.