M Plate 1.8LS Saloon

[cavalier1990]

I spent a couple of hours removing what loose tape I could and taping up the loom with the new stuff. no doubt, sods law and cavalier payback will dictate I have to remove it to fault find something lol! I need to do a bit more work on the loom including fixing that feed wire for the central locking.

I now have my engine crane and load leveller so the next step is to whip out the engine. I think I'll do it engine only and leave the box in, I've never removed a cavalier engine so think this might be easier to drop the box out on it's own.

Once that's out I can get the steering rack and servo unit off as well as the bulkhead foam and fix all the rust. I think the rack has some play in the pinion shaft so will probably get it sent away for recon. Also need to replace the master cylinder seals as I seen the end of it is leaking a little bit. Plenty to keep me busy then!

Obviously you'll have to do it the way you feel best, but I found it easiest on my astra to drop it out as a complete unit through the bottom, personally I then used a forklift to lift the front of it up over the engine but there's no reason an engine crane couldn't do the same. I never did manage to release the one drive shaft out the box, so left it attached.

Funny you mention the driveshaft, I can't seem to get the N/S one to move. There is a what looks like a locating lug above the shaft held in with a 10mm bolt. Took that out and it still won't budge. Need to refer to mr Haynes see what he has to say!

[cavalier1990]

Today's job was to get the ruddy engine out once and for all! Thinking on it now I could have planned this a lot better, as there was a few really hairy moments. First of all I didn't really have a helper, although I did ask my neighbour for a hand holding the engine crane so it didn't roll back, I'm on a wee hill at end of drive.

So yesterday I got the gearbox out, and that was a scary one too. I really should have had the engine crane linked up to the engine to lower it for removal. Instead I was using 2 jacks, one to hold the engine, and one to then lower the box down. The box needs to come outways first and then down to release the input shaft, so had that, jacks wobbling all over the place, the box stuck on the input shaft, and the driveshaft - the one I couldn't get out - digging its heels in to every attempt I made to move the box out the way.

once that was out, the engine was like a jack in the box, so I had to put a big block of wood at the front to stop it falling forwards, as that was the way it was trying to go. I then made up the engine crane, that was last night, made sure I could get it in and out the garage when it was folded up, it's a heavy buggar, and given the right situation I think you could knock your front teeth out with the top of the frame if you weren't careful when moving it!

So today the challenges were to get one of the lifting straps under one O/S of the engine, past the jack, which was the only thing holding it up, that and the last engine mount. I got round this by putting a large block of wood (railway sleeper size but not the length of one) upturned, and another block of it on the other side to sit the engine on when I lowered the jack.

An issue here was the flywheel was resting on one block and was threatening to let the bottom of the engine roll forwards, flywheel acting like a wheel, so it would end up in a slant position. luckily it held in that position and I could get the jack out the way and get the strap in.

I got the jack in a rough position and started to put the strap loops in the hook. Another boob I made here was using the thicker lifting straps so both ends were a squeeze to lock on and under the hook spring lock, but I got them on just. Then the heavens opened up so I had to lower the lift and shut the bonnet down a bit, as well as clear all my tools and bits of car away, only for it to stop chucking it down.

Once that was done, I set up again, got the engine up a bit on the lift, started to take off the last engine mount, then out it came wihout any fuss. I was going to leave the alternator and inlet manifold in, but decided to take them out. I remember doing engine outs before and the trick was to remove as much ancilliary stuff to stop it catching on stuff on the way out. The alternator bolt was almost seized, so once I had inlet out, I got some spray on it and got the buzz gun on it till it was spinning round freely, then just gently pulled the gun back and the bolt reversed itself out.

Think I need a holiday after that!

So the next job is to remove the steering rack, the master cylinder and servo and then start taking the foam off so I can get in to do any repairs here, and of course start doing all the other bodywork that needs done. thisis the point of slack tide, when things start turning, well I live in hope but you know what I mean!

[Robsey]

Wow, it sounds like you had a hard time there.

At least the engine and box are out now.
Maybe I should not remind you of the inevitable Haynes phrase -
"Refitting is a reversal of removal...."

For me it was easier to fit than remove.

[thomas]

Thought Andy you might like to see a portion of this map, showing the SW side of Paisley.

It's newish, from the nineties I'd guess, but on it someone has added back many of the lost railway lines including those that ran through and round Foxbar, and also ran into the Pressed-Steel side of the Linwood Rootes/Chrysler site at one time.

I have the other half showing central and NE of the town too. Railway Mania there too.
Someday I'll scan it all properly and piece it together again, but the resultant file would have to be massive to do it justice.



Hope you enjoy this.

[cavalier1990]

Wow, it sounds like you had a hard time there.

At least the engine and box are out now.
Maybe I should not remind you of the inevitable Haynes phrase -
"Refitting is a reversal of removal...."

For me it was easier to fit than remove.

It was one of those jobs that you've done before but when you do it it feels like the first time you've ever done it! Guess like the cavalier I'm getting a bit rusty not having done major engine work or engine outs for a while, now at least I know for next time (hopefully not too many more next times!)

Steering rack and servo out and all the wiring looms kind of out of the way, I was panicking as it felt like one of the servo allen bolts was slipping, but I never had the tool in it far enough. Fiddly wee buggars to get at, but you can see them if you shine a torch in the side of the servo. One of the bolts on the rack felt the same like the captive nut inside was going to pop off, but plently of pre-lubbing (ooer) helped it along.

i've now got a portion of the O/S chassis leg off that was patched so many times, also the top of the chassis leg where it runs into the bulkhead has had it and the O/S jacking bit came off in my hand literally. That was also patched up so many times as well. Other side I replaced a few years ago and still seems ok apart from some scabs of surface rust.

[cavalier1990]

Thought Andy you might like to see a portion of this map, showing the SW side of Paisley.

It's newish, from the nineties I'd guess, but on it someone has added back many of the lost railway lines including those that ran through and round Foxbar, and also ran into the Pressed-Steel side of the Linwood Rootes/Chrysler site at one time.

I have the other half showing central and NE of the town too. Railway Mania there too.
Someday I'll scan it all properly and piece it together again, but the resultant file would have to be massive to do it justice.



Hope you enjoy this.

That's quite interesting Thomas I always like a bit of railway history. I guess the only line there now is the main Paisley/Glasgow to Ayr line bottom left which runs past where the old hillman imp factory was, and the Paisley to Gourock line in top right, most of the spurs for all the factories will be gone now. I was trying to think where the old Paisley canal line went. I know it would have ran through Johnstone, maybe it used part of the Glasgow to Ayr line then spurred off to Kilmacolm. That line ran right through to Greenock docks and was used for troop movements during WW2. The line ran right behind my folks house in Port Glasgow. The line from Greenock to Kilmacolm was closed in the Beeching cuts, and Kilmacolm remained until the 80s then that was shut to Paisley Canal station. Pity they shut all this down it would have been a fantastic railway for all the towns along it, and a scenic one at that!

[thomas]

I thought somehow you'd enjoy it. I intend to scan it properly and stick it online as it'll end up in the skip. Not all the lines were all ever there ever at the same time. I'm interested probably more in the area further west and around Johnstone, which was quite a profusion, with the Glasgow/Ayr line forking at a junction just past Elderslie, various chords around Thornhill in Johnstone too, then that forking again at Cart Junction, heading for Houston, BoW, Kilmacolm, Port Glasgow. Another line too ran through Kilbarchan to Lochwinnoch, and linked with the Port Glasgow line to form a loop. It was quite a hairy looking conjunction of rail-lines at Linwood Rd. End, and long ago a type of junction called a burrowing-junction (I've never figured it what this means or why it was thought so dangerous, but add too rival companies lines crossing each other) on the Canal Line/Ayr line intersection that gave train-drivers nightmares and was the last of its kind in the country till upgraded.

The present-day Canal Station wasn't the station when that line closed, it was already the old station, the then still active Canal Station was on the other side of Causeyside St. The Canal never went beyond Johnstone Basin westwards. From Johnstone to Paisley was built first (opened 1811), as lock-less then went on from Paisley to Port Eglinton in Glasgow in a later stage. It really was the Johnstone to Glasgow Canal, rather than the Glasgow to Ardrossan Canal. I can remember the kerfuffle about the Canal and Kilmacolm lines closing, rails lifted, and various bridges soon after being taken down.

Enjoy the map, it helps put it all together, all you see today are odd lost looking bridges, parts of them, mysterious curves, kinks, dips and humps in the roads.

[thomas]

So as not to disrupt the project thread here, if Andy and the mods are in favour it would probably be best to to move this to the General Chit Chat Choo-Choo section, to continue it.

Thinking on what you said Andy about the Canal Line and Largs/Ardrossan/Ayr line sharing that section past Elderslie Main, they didn't always, but might have later (as too once run by rival companies); the Canal Line ran parallel to the Ayr Line, on the inside, later the factory side. I can remember seeing only rusty looking rails, a coal-merchant's premises/yard and stationary coal-wagons transferring to lorries on that side, while service to Kilmacolm was still running, seen from trains on the Glasgow-Ayr line. That parallel section ripe for rationalising, probably remained, but cut off, became a stub, when the dodgy junction/crossover was eliminated.

Coal and getting it from pits to ports was all that mattered. For all the lines through Foxbar and Ferguslie, you won't find many (even any) passenger stations on some lines. At the very top left of the picture is a private line that ran into Bishopton. The middle line through Johnstone that ran past the Millbrae at the foot of the town, to Kilbarchan then to Lochwinnoch comes closest to the route the Canal probably would have taken from Johnstone in the direction of, but stopping short of, Ardrossan, for transfer to a short railway down to harbour. Avoiding port costs, pilotage and an extra couple of days navigating the Clyde into/out of Glasgow an important motivation there. In the end it was easier to just run rails the whole route, and another rail-company beat the ex-Canal, now railway company, to it.

I had a large and raggedy vintage os map of the railways of this part of Renfrewshire, only sparsely annotated as it was old enough for most of the lines to still be there and running. I threw this out fully intending to obtain a new unworn, mint version of the same map, and some surrounding sheets to work out where lines went after they vanished off the edge that map, but never got round to it, regret not keeping that one.

I know there are lots of digital equivalents and you can overlay old and new and such things now but before then, big huge paper maps were better than nothing. That one I photographed was a surprise when it turned up as I thought that was long gone too.

[cavalier1990]

Wee update on the work so far. Put in another shift tonight, I was out till about half 6, although I was thinking to go till about 8 I was done in, all that cutting, drilling and wriggling about on your back with ear muffs and safety glasses getting wrapped round your head really takes it out of you

So managed to slice out a few more pieces around the jack point bit, I tell you that bit is stubborn as hell to move, it is like 3 layers of metal all converging at the front of the floor, with spot welds and everything else. I didn't just want to cutit all out with a grinder/cutter as the subframe mounting point is here and wanted to see what I was working with under there.

Turns out the section of metal that the subframe screws into was starting to rot a bit at one side so will need to build that back up and out the way to the chassis leg edges. The drivers side was/is a mess of rust and different patches where I'd repaired it before. Luckily the N/S doesn't look that bad, and I won't need to take out the jacking point as that's all already done, just a bit of welding at the bottom of the bulkhead/floor area there (Famous last words).

So here's a few pics of said work:

This is the subframe mounting bolt bit I was talking about, where it' rotted away. The lower crossmember panel sits over this, I have a repair panel for that side but will need to build this bit back up as that's not part of the repair panel, this sits under that.


This is the floor section I ended up cutting away. Yabbadabadoo anyone?



This is the outer chassis leg, this had been patched up numerous times, so cut it all off up to a repair bit I done not that long ago that was still ok.



This is the inner chassis leg area. I had to cut the top of the leg layer off, it's double layer metal, and the bit under it has a bit of crust too so no half measures for me!



This is a picture I took back in June of the start of the strip down:



This is a picture of the engine bay minus engine and box. Keen eyed amongst you might spot the previous repair around the elephant trunk and the wee hole below it. at the time I couldn't really get down any further than this with all the gubbins in the way (Like the engine!) so had to put up with leaving rusty metal in there:

[cavalier1990]

I thought somehow you'd enjoy it. I intend to scan it properly and stick it online as it'll end up in the skip. Not all the lines were all ever there ever at the same time. I'm interested probably more in the area further west and around Johnstone, which was quite a profusion, with the Glasgow/Ayr line forking at a junction just past Elderslie, various chords around Thornhill in Johnstone too, then that forking again at Cart Junction, heading for Houston, BoW, Kilmacolm, Port Glasgow. Another line too ran through Kilbarchan to Lochwinnoch, and linked with the Port Glasgow line to form a loop. It was quite a hairy looking conjunction of rail-lines at Linwood Rd. End, and long ago a type of junction called a burrowing-junction (I've never figured it what this means or why it was thought so dangerous, but add too rival companies lines crossing each other) on the Canal Line/Ayr line intersection that gave train-drivers nightmares and was the last of its kind in the country till upgraded.

The present-day Canal Station wasn't the station when that line closed, it was already the old station, the then still active Canal Station was on the other side of Causeyside St. The Canal never went beyond Johnstone Basin westwards. From Johnstone to Paisley was built first (opened 1811), as lock-less then went on from Paisley to Port Eglinton in Glasgow in a later stage. It really was the Johnstone to Glasgow Canal, rather than the Glasgow to Ardrossan Canal. I can remember the kerfuffle about the Canal and Kilmacolm lines closing, rails lifted, and various bridges soon after being taken down.

Enjoy the map, it helps put it all together, all you see today are odd lost looking bridges, parts of them, mystery curves and humps in the roads.

Alwys interesting to hear how these railways were set up back in the day, I think from watching Portillo and his ""Bradshaw's guide" (along with his flamboyant dress sense) he mentioned a lot about these competing companies vying for trade transporting coal and materials, that's the reason they were all set up in the first place. It wasn't profitable to carry passengers and still isn't today!

I'd really wished they would have left the 9 arches railway bridge at Port Glasgow, that's basically where I grew up and played, the Bridge was blown up in the 50s by the TA, the old track is now a psycopath, sorry, a cycle path! All the stones from it were lying in the burn below, and the stumps of the pillars are stil there.

[thomas]

From the air, rather than through dirty outside and steamed-up inside bus and train windows.
The Canal lines run off to the bottom left corner in the first and second pictures.

The Canal Line and Ayr line did eventually co-operate, unite, even before BR, as the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway.

Pictures of trains don't move me at all, but the mind-boggling routing possibilities that were theoretically available a hundred years ago seem almost utopian now. Yet they can't figure out yet how to reach the airport.

Dense housing sprung up constrained and shaped by these rail lines that pre-dated them by a century, but were ill-served and cut off as much as connected by them, then abandoned completely.

Elderslie station has been open again for a few years, not sure if for goods only as too isolated for much passenger use, but no-one missed it, most forgot it was ever there, and have or will again, it seems something of a curiosity, a blast from the past.

[thomas]

Hope you savour these, but also save them as my web hosting for this sort of stuff and my car images turns into a pumpkin at the end of October.
Need to find alternative host for http/https. There will be lots of broken image links.

The earliest closed bit of the Canal line was the line through Johnstone Low station (Thornhill was High), to Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch and onwards.
It was cut off, no train could ever get onto it, long dead, with brambles enroaching on either side. Only skinny kids on bicycles bumping along rail-less sleepers, paying no heed to the still impressive signals on sturdy posts, could tunnel through. It lost all that charm once an actual cycle-track.

Once the whole Canal line closed, the stretch, still with its rails, between Cart Junction and Elderslie Junction was fair game, but it was too close for comfort to the still running lines at the top of the incline, busy lines on which trains could be heard and seen, to dare approach.
So that stretch past Elderslie remained to me unknown. Old maps plus these pictures found on the web filled in the blanks.

There would have been a great view from trains on the Canal line, on a clear day you might have been able to see from there trains running out of Gilmour St heading towards Port Glasgow and Greenock. It all seems like very short-sighted destruction for its own sake. What potential and what a waste.

[thomas]

Here is the other fragment of the map showing those Foxbar/Glenburn lines linking up again with Barrhead/Stewarton lines.



May not stay up I've bundled up roughly 90MB of cav/viva stuff, for possible re-hosting. Pre-emptively clearing it out.

I'll need to suck it and see for hosting, it's un-zen and the timing wicked. The word Service in ISP, once meant services like ftp/http(s), it doesn't now. The tuppence saved, the hidden losses will get someone a bonus and promotion.

[cavalier1990]

Hi Thomas

There is the cycle track that runs just down from the Royal Alexandra Hospital, which is the old Canal line link to the Kilmacolm section. If I had the means and the money to buy a bike (plus the consideration that I would become one of those 2 wheel menaces that I always curse at ) then I may take a spin along the track and see if I can spot the old junctions and stuff, or I could just hoof and it get some exercise minus the sore bum!

That's a lot of pics/images if you are losing your hosting. I tend to save my images on Google, ones I've taken with my phone anyway and some uploaded to Amazon S3, both of which cost you when you hit their storage limit.

Andy

[cavalier1990]

Some Friday night entertainment!

Managed to take advantage of the (sort of) decent weather today, and get another pile of grinding/drilling/grot in my eyes done!

First job was to get the side plate thingy that sits on the N/S front chassis leg at the front. Probably most of you don't realise there is a panel in there, I know I didn't until I started to really look at the diagrams. In all honesty it's probably a section of the car no one really ever takes any notice of or ever works on.

I'd taken the one off the O/S and now it was the N/S 's turn. I had to go round the spot welds as usual. This panel includes the hole that the bumper bolt goes through, and it was rotten at this bit, in fact this was really one of the big reasons for replacement. So it slots right up to the very front of the inner wing bit in front of the battery try and is sandwiched between that and the side of the chassis leg (CL). Makes for an interesting bit of fiddlly work to get that to let go of it. There is a couple of spot welds hidden right in the sandwiched bit behind the light area that no drill or anything was ever going to get to, so had to get inventive again!

Had to chisel open the gap a bit until I could get a cutting disc in and gently slice through the spot welds without drubbing the inner wing and/or CL.

I've held up the panel here below where it came out, you can see the rusty bit at the bumper mount bolt hole. The edges of the CL top right are a bit crusty but nothing I can't tidy up. all the bits I drilled spot welds out, and where I am going to put the new panels, I have gave a coat of weld through primer to stop the metal flash rusting:



Next up was a rusty bit on the O/S CL, just at the towing hook. towing hook itself was fine just the metal at the back of it was a bit crusty and starting to hole, and a few bits up from it, so cut a full section off and had to cut along under the tow hook to get the metal off. You can see the section I cut off on the left, and the tow hook that looks like it is floating in mid-air!



I then attacked a bit more of the bulkhead/O/S Inner CL bit. Cut off a chunk of the bulkhead that was rusty, above the CL, and more inside, sometimes it was easier to work inside and sometimes outside. There is a sort of layered bit on the CL that is a bit crusty but a royal pain it the nether regions to get off, and it's right under the bulkhead section and I don't want to cut anymore of it off. Got a nice clean edge on the floor section behind this and got a wee bit more to do here to get to a point where I would be happt to start making up template bits for the final panel repairs. This bit is going to be fiddly and annoying to repair. The bit where the steering rack mounts looks decidely rusty but it's solid enough. Once I buff it down it'll be nice and clean.

Keen eyed amongst you might be able to spot the other panel that came off the front chassis bit lying on the ground, it just looks like like yet another bit of rusty bulkhead!



I've started to chisel the edges up the slam panel fixings in preperation for drilling out the spot welds, but don't really want to get too far ahead of myself here. I'm going to do a mock up of the new panels see where everything sits and if anything needs hammered/ground down to help the panels fit nice and neat.

Here is the way it looks now, not long till I can walk right into the engine bay!

[Robsey]

Yikes that looks scarey...
You are a brave man... or a crazy geezer.

Not sure about the weather letting up for you today.
It has been virtually non-stop torrential downpours all day, here in the rainy city.

That weld through primer looks like the same stuff we used on James' V6 Cavalier back in the spring.
It does help massively to hold back the post-weld flash rusting.
Fortunately my front end had a lot less corrosion when I looked at it back in 2020.
But that was three years ago - eeek!!

[thomas]

You'll be handy for the hospital, if it all goes wrong.

I used to bike a lot, when purely for leisure, my ideal run was a hard slog climb into the hills, having to walk/crawl up some bits (like past Skiff Woods), for the outbound, then a snack, drink, a rest with an epic view, before an effortless downhill charge, mile-wide grin, for the return.

Where the Canal lines cross Elderslie Main at the golf-course -if you make it that far, my recollection is that there were not one but two separate bridges of different vintages, almost against each other, crossing the road at slightly different angles. Those two and the spindly looking (but it wasn't) one above the planes wing-tip in the earlier pictures, were taken down all at once, it seemed like over a single weekend, late eighties or early nineties.

[3cav3]

That does look pretty severe, but just keep chipping away at it and I'm sure you'll get there.

[cavalier1990]

You'll be handy for the hospital, if it all goes wrong.

I used to bike a lot, when purely for leisure, my ideal run was a hard slog climb into the hills, having to walk/crawl up some bits (like past Skiff Woods), for the outbound, then a snack, drink, a rest with an epic view, before an effortless downhill charge, mile-wide grin, for the return.

Where the Canal lines cross Elderslie Main at the golf-course -if you make it that far, my recollection is that there were not one but two separate bridges of different vintages, almost against each other, crossing the road at slightly different angles. Those two and the spindly looking (but it wasn't) one above the planes wing-tip in the earlier pictures, were taken down all at once, it seemed like over a single weekend, late eighties or early nineties.

True ! I think if fell off a bike I don't think I would bounce so well now as I did when I was 8 Years old! Think I would rather walk it, I enjoy that more, even with a bike you're whizzing past everything. Had to look that Skiff woods up, never really been out and about up that way, walking anyway (Howwood). I just noticed as well that it was sold as a woodland area back in Dec 2022, I just hope whoever has it isn't planning on felling any natural growth there and planting trees for wood, or maybe even more houses! Pity areas like around there don't fall under things like the Clyde Muirshiel park where I think the whole area is protected.

https://search.savills.com/property-det ... mper210005

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

Yikes that looks scarey...
You are a brave man... or a crazy geezer.

Not sure about the weather letting up for you today.
It has been virtually non-stop torrential downpours all day, here in the rainy city.

That weld through primer looks like the same stuff we used on James' V6 Cavalier back in the spring.
It does help massively to hold back the post-weld flash rusting.
Fortunately my front end had a lot less corrosion when I looked at it back in 2020.
But that was three years ago - eeek!!

Probably a bit of both Robsey!

Yeah, any bits I am going to be welding too, really where the spot welds were, I clean it back to get the rough edges off then give it a clean with thinners to get any drill oil off, then give it a spray with the weld thru primer. I know this stuff won't hold back rust for too long, especially if the weather turns, so need to keep topping it up and get on with the job. I was surprised the amount on the front bar thing the rad sits on. I only changed the rad maybe just over a Year or so ago, might have been more like 2, and don't remember it being that bad. Maybe I didn't really look or poke about too much, but when I took rad out this time, a big section off it came off with the rad lol!

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

That does look pretty severe, but just keep chipping away at it and I'm sure you'll get there.

I try not and think about it all just pick an area and get on with it, I'm trying to get all the cardboard templates made up for repair panels, the bulkhead bit, there are 2, the chassis leg there are 3, 2 at back and one at front. The rest is OE panels, I do need to drill holes in them for welding, so if I breathed a sign of relief when most of the spot weld drilling was over, I then though about this! Should be much easier just drilling pilot holes though.

Cheers

Andy

[Sean986]

Crazy amount of work going into this, I've just started tackling the rear end of mines today, wanted to do it all in one go but seeing all this at the front of yours seems really scary lol

Keep going your doing a great job, where do you get your repair panels from ?

[cavalier1990]

Crazy amount of work going into this, I've just started tackling the rear end of mines today, wanted to do it all in one go but seeing all this at the front of yours seems really scary lol

Keep going your doing a great job, where do you get your repair panels from ?

Hi Sean

Thanks, appreciate the comments. I've just dug around in various places and sourced most of them, for this one I got one from Norway, a couple from Germany and Anthony Drosos on facebook. The front slam panel was a difficult one to find on usual places as well as the little light panel strip that goes along under the headlights, so Anthony came to the rescue.

Be interesting to see what your doing on the read end of yours, is is patching/welding you got to do?

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

Robsey could you do me a favour, I'm trying to find a replacement master cylinder, the number seems to be 90348213 for ABS and ATE make, could you confim with your TIS?

I checked on Delphi online catalog to confirm the number against the delphi part number (LM50056) but if you check on autodoc with 90348213 it says it's this one (LM40282), which is listed as AC Delco, the other one 056 is Teves make. I know mine is ATE but I think Teves is ATE branded.

I just went on a bit of dig with parts and manufacturers so may as well share it:

Alfred Teves (ate) is the company that makes those original brake systems, but I can't seem to find a Europena/UK branch. The one below looks like south Africa, they have an opel listing but not Vectra, and part number doesn't come up LM50056.

https://www.ate.co.za/

[Sean986]

Hi Sean

Thanks, appreciate the comments. I've just dug around in various places and sourced most of them, for this one I got one from Norway, a couple from Germany and Anthony Drosos on facebook. The front slam panel was a difficult one to find on usual places as well as the little light panel strip that goes along under the headlights, so Anthony came to the rescue.

Be interesting to see what your doing on the read end of yours, is is patching/welding you got to do?

Cheers

Andy

I really need that panel for under the headlights too, I can't find one anywhere?

Mines needing a lot of welding on passenger side boot floor, rear cross member and chassis leg. The rear arches on mine were not holed yet but I've started replacing them as well whilst I was doing the rest.