TD Daily Hatch

[Metallicav]

I thought it was time to make a thread, after owning the car for over a year I thought it to be right to do it now, the car is currently on SORN in a lockup where its being kept nice and dry, after the work done by HAIRIBO it's a great car that was a pleasure to drive and guaranteed to be mechanically sound, well cleaned and most importantly really fun.

This is where I bought the car, after taking about a years break from driving lessons (I really don't know why I had such a big break) my dad started to look at a couple of smaller engined cavs I'm guessing to peak my interest back to passing my test, we looked at a couple of rougher ones for around the £350-400 mark when I spotted this up on the forum with smoke grey paint and the Isuzu TD engine being a couple of my favorite things in a cav, it was bought to replace my current TD project at the time, one trip to Sunderland and a nice chat with HAIRIBO, dad and I headed back home in my first journey in a cav in about 6-7 years (not including the 1/10mile struggle without a clutch journey that i had when bringing my original derv down the hill road I live on)

This was our much needed break after around half of our late night journey back home



Think I spent around half an hour looking through the car when we got back that night like a little kid with toys on christmas, also due to the multiple no shows who bought the red TD on ebay I managed to get a photo of all three of the cavs together



It was around the 29th September that we got the car home and got it insured and taxed early in October until the 15th of December I think, over that time I managed to due just over 1,500 miles in the car, dragging poor dad out nearly every night to get the driving practice in, with the longest journey I had in that time being the 40 mile each way trip to Llandudno and back, with the problem of seeing a strange white object fly over the windscreen at some point in the journey which later on turned out to be the front L plate



Luckily we had a spare L plate in the car so we could complete the return journey, which unsurprisingly suffered the same as the one before it a few weeks later


A couple of photos of both of my cavs together freshly washed after someone finally picked up the red TD saloon




Finally here is my plans for the car, i'm currently driving the 1.6 Cavalier L and insurance is to be renewed in December I will then insure it for 12 months marking the date that I plan to get this diesel back on the road if I can complete everything I want to do, this is including removing the carpets and as much of the interior as i can, probably the roof lining and dash being the only things to be undisturbed so i can check for any rust, surface or otherwise, from there I will sort out all of the rust that I can find, grinding and welding in new metal where possible, visible from inside the car or underneath, where I will strip completely in preparation to paint the complete underside of the car and the parts that bolt up to it, I've given the car a few good look overs where i can so far and nothing jumps out as being serious, but I want to make sure that i can get it as clean as i can and get it painted to protect it for the next few years and keep on top of maintenance and metalwork i'm currently (and have been for nearly a year now) thinking about using Epoxy 121 to paint underneath and the components , this is including the front sub frame and struts.

For the exterior of the car aside from the underneath won't be touched as the few little dents and marks add to the aggressive look that the car gives, for the suspension when I go through the work of redoing the underside I ideally want to go with a full polybush kit front and rear, I managed to get a full set of good condition yellow Bilstein B8 shock absorbers and i'm debating between Eibach, quality -40 springs I can get a good used set of and -50 or -60 Spax springs.

A few of the miscellaneous bits that are in the plan that I've been thinking about for the car since day one is to swap the window glass for the Gls and higher tinted glass, I've currently got the full door glass and rear quarter windows, due to the tailgate glass I've thought about adding a slight tint to the already tinted window glass from the rear doors back and blending the original rear window with tint instead of sourcing glass and having it replaced, Just leaving me with the task of finding a windscreen.
For the inside of the car I'm going to fit a full electric floor loom and adding rear electric windows and electric mirrors, I've already got all the parts to do the conversion so is just the job of going through the wires and replacing the loom, I've also thought about replacing the window motors on the mech with compatible ones from an omega or similar later vauxhall just as they can be quicker due to being newer, also between a friend and I we are planning on making a full custom exhaust system for the car.

[HAIRIBO]

Really miss that car. Bit better on the juice than the pickup truck that replaced it.

[Envoy CDX]

This could get interesting

[Metallicav]

Spent most of my time this weekend at the unit with my mate Dylan, finally getting some work done on the car, got nearly everything out of the car bar the dash, doorcards and the passenger side footwell foam/sound deadening.
The hardest and most time consuming bit that we encountered was clearing the car of all of the spare, miscellaneous and to be fitted parts out of the car which took about the same time as everything else.

Before I get to the rust and holes that are in the car here's a couple photos of the mock of how back box that is planned to be fitted onto the car looks. Some modification including new hangers welded to the car but its an unused backbox that I've been given that I really like.
Three of the wheels on the car are the ones that I had on the 1.6 since i couldn't stand the astra wheels or the speedo inaccuracy during daily driving.



Now that the topic of welding has been mentioned it's time to get down to the problem areas, even now that I've seen what needs doing i'm still undeterred from aiming for my November completion as I need more fuel efficiency, some more power and some boost definitely isn't something I can complain about either! Especially as I know about 5 cav owners in the area and the three modified ones are all Isuzu powered.

This is also the time to mention or repeat that the car wouldn't have had a problem going through an MOT or worry me if I were to drive it daily, I just want to try and remove any rust and weatherproof the car as best as I can.
After removing the sideskirts, the passenger side just needs a cleanup and paint as extra protection but the drivers side needs the end removing and a new piece welded in, waiting on a message about a replacement panel that a mates going to get me for around £15.


Here are the photos of the car after about 5 hours on Friday after managing to get the day off work.


Most of the time on Friday was spent clearing out the car and finally getting it started after not having the time and charged battery to do so after about 7 months... before this weekend I've not really done anything to the car since parking it inside the unit, with most of my time there being spent doing all the little odd jobs to the 1.6.
Dyl was really surprised after it started up almost as if it had only just been turned off after the first turn of the key, leaving a little bit of itself behind.


Me and Dylan managed to get back to unit for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday as well leaving with a better understanding of what needs to be done and how well the car is overall with no big areas of rust just a few mild patches in the usual places, the boot next to the rear wheel arches, rear floor water drains as a couple of areas that I can think off apart from one other area that i'll come back to later some people with a keen eye might have spotted another area in the photos.


The passenger side boot floor looks like a pretty simple repair being only a little bit worse then what the 1.6 was in the same area.

The drivers side being in much better condition with only one small hole

also removed the rear bumper to get a good look at the wheel arch areas from the otherside


Now to the biggest part that I need to resolve was found when lifting up the sound deadening on the drivers floorwell where I found the dreaded foam soaked in water, after removing it from the drivers side it revealed a small hole in the bulkhead just about visible in the photo showing the car without seats or the interior carpets where I've removed the hard black sound deadening stuff, I wasn't too off put or shocked by it but this is the exact reason why i wanted to go over the car and sort anything out.
Although with this discovery I think the best plan is to remove this big lump and to remove the sound deadening covering the bulkhead under the bonnet to sort it out properly, and to add extra non porous deadening material behind the dash and under bonnet as its replacement.

I've got the main idea of what I need to do and have friends and family who can help and work with me to remove the engine but any input people can give me if there are any extra or different areas that the isuzu is mounted to compared to the normal vauxhall engines and I'm thinking about dropping the engine under the car as this way I can also clean and paint the subframe and also due to the size of the engine it seems like the safer option for the engine bay.

Here is where I've got to with the car, the majority of welding is going to be completed by me with help for the more involved bits.