My Little 1.8LSi

[thomas]

Hello all again, you'll no doubt have seen my intro post, this will be the thread for progress (if any) on my Jungle Green 1994 LSi Hatch.

Today was the MoT test, a major milestone and potential show-stopper, it aced it.

I then set to the really difficult work -sticking those rubbers under the headlamps fast with evo-stick, and the two rubber bits on the grille. Replaced the vac hose to the EGR valve, fiddled, fettled and cleaned, not much really.

I photographed the inner rear arches, compare and contrast this cars arches --the second picture, and the same place on my last one (the late lamented 1.6L).





thomas

[Robsey]

Firstly, congratulations on the MOT pass.
Always a good feeling to hear that magic phrase "it's passed".

You can look at your "Work In Progress" as a kind of diary.

As one of the longest threads on the forum, my W.I.P. thread is probably no more than 30% progress and the rest being about the usual "Cavalier demanding more attention" type waffle.

As for the "not much" jobs.
Doing little bits now will often prevent the little job deteriorating and becoming a big job in the future.

I can see clearly the difference in your two arches.
Although looking more corroded, the first one still appears to have it's underseal.
It makes me wonder if the second one has had it's arch replaced in recent times.

No doubt waxoyling or undersealing will be a potential job before the cold wet autumn takes a proper hold.

[thomas]

Thanks Robsey, wish I'd photographed sticking the pesky headlamp rubbers. Once you've acquired a large bag of Bulldog clips in a range of sizes, there's no end of things you can do with them!

There's hardly any, actually no underseal or wax, when they must have been well aware of the issues. I can't say if this is better -the smoother they are the better for keeping them clean? There's hardly much in the way of paint either, which is not good.

In that photo of the old 1.6L, the replaced in around 2006 new arches are still solid, but the inner-arch is parting company from it. When you think of the water that is going to spray up and into that void and where it is going to go from there, down into the sills and into the bilges of the boot, it's futile to jet-wash them at that point as your pouring in gallons of water to wreak the most terrible unseen damage.

It's going to a place PreserveandProtect in Renfrewshire, early October, who will after some gentle underbody washing and scouring, dry it all then apply by high volume spraying something like Kurust, to be followed by Dinitrol underbody wax, and application of various viscous waxes to any cavity areas that are accessible without completely stripping the car bare. Process will take a week. I'll see how it goes, it's the only alternative to the weld-athon martyrs that all my cars inevitably become, doing something even if only palliative gives me a saintly feel-good glow and halo. I tried.

Rain and fatigue stopped play but I attempted to more comprehensively photograph the wheel arches. I hope to do a high resolution stitched panorama of the engine-compartment, as it is now as future-reference.

All is not so rosy on the rear arch front there have always been signs of filler both sides noticed immediately on its arrival, but there one part on the N/S which if it isn't tackled soon, however painful to contemplate, will be right through. I'll let the pictures speak.

The O/S is all clean and good as far as I can see:



The N/S, well as you can see there is a dodgy looking bit:


Far better than I could ever have expected.

laters, thomas

[ilovedmymantas]

Am I going mental or did your car have a reg no earlier

[Mk3alan]

Looking good/sound, tackle the corrosion you have found and a nice wax covering in and out and should help preserve things. I swear by bilt hamber wax, not particularly cheap (£50/5 litres) but have been impressed - it doesn't seem to dry out like some.

Alan

[thomas]

Matt (ilovedmymantas) re: moody plates, It was an optical illusion, 'cos it's pearlescent. I try to find ways to do it without spoiling the picture itself, sometimes not always successfully.

I'll be getting out to explore that arch more thoroughly first brutally with wirebrush, and with solvent on a rag to clear off old waxes, sealant etc. To attempt a holding operation until it goes to get treated when I will look into having it repaired with new metal there and then if even pin-holed or if inner and outer arch are parting. It's possible the car had a minor repair in the arch area for reasons other than rust. There is an armful of receipts with the car for past service work, going back 'til the car was just a pup, some quite expensive e.g. for head removal, crack-testing and skimming very recently, but nothing at all pertaining to bodywork.

Though on both sides of the car the outer arches are flawless -they're completely without blemish or sign, it'll likely involve part or all of the outer-panel n/s 1/4 needing repainting. This is why I want to resolve the missing fuel flap, which is keeping me up nights; from what I can gather, I haven't checked the part number on it, the flap on it is from a Mk2 and the fit and paint awful, I must acquire a Mk3 flap sharpish and if not Jungle Green then it can be painted in the process of work on the other side of the car.

I'm trying not to dwell on the rear arches and enjoy the whole of the car, which is stunning, rather than be despondent (in Cav terms they are outstanding). The Cavalier was greater than the sum of its parts. It's not as if there aren't lots of other places on the car body needing tender care and minding. There's always the rear subframe mounts I've had them go, and the scuttle/gills it seems, though on my last one I recall no problems there, but I might just have been oblivious to them.

I'm trying to assemble a rogues-gallery of Cavalier rust spots to bring to the attention of the rustproofers, and point them to this presentation and discussion. So may (with permission -Mods) post some pics of others' known Mk3 rot-spots.

Stressing that these aren't photos of my/this 1994 LSi.
One I snagged perusing the fine pages of this here site, of the inner arch structure naked:


And another -it's of a dodgy scuttle corner/A-post top, under the plastic flappy bit:


I found this car quite by happenstance when looking in earnest for a modern Ford Transit Van. Swooned and when I came round again, it was outside my door. Still viewing it as temporary and being somewhat heretical, I might perhaps Opelise or Asconify it, stopping short of converting it to a left-hooker. Of course it's not an Ascona but a Vectra, but Vectra always seemed a name suited more to some white-goods domestic appliance. I'd always thought the rare over here Opel models, the Kadett/Mk1 Astra and Ascona/Mk2 Cavalier, whether left or right hand drive had a certain extra sparkle and edge. Swap could be in order but then what then of the sometimes desirous load-carrying capabilities of a van, dammit!

[Robsey]

A van? !!
The load area in a Cavalier hatchback is quite substantial.
For temporary "van work", you can flip the rear seat forward and remove the parcel shelf.

I have carried all sorts of stuff over the years from camper-van doors, complete rear subframe, Cavalier engine, Camper van flat-four engine, a single bed, various white goods and even a fully assembled electric wheelchair.

It really is a very versatile vehicle.

As for the model name "Ascona-D"?
Perhaps.

Looking up names and meanings.

Vectra :- has no meaning.

Ascona :- "Thanks" in some dialects.
Also a municipality in Switzerland.

Cavalier :- To have little worry or concern (often used to describe an uncaring attitude towards others).

[thomas]

A van, a mobile shed. I'm thinking more for messy things bulky things that would soil the deep-pile like engines, motorcycles. I might have to break a Viva and cart anything moveable into storage (under the bed).

I'm adding another gory rust photo, I think it's from Cavalier1990's Lsi thread - a tour-de-force of wit, intelligence, erudition and can-do welding - and hope it's ok to use. The whole thread it comes from would serve but I want to keep the list succinct. My bonnet on my last one never went anything like that and I had a battery explode literally which sent acid everywhere including largely up and into the bonnet frame.

We have rear arches, scuttle area, rear spring seats, any significant members, trailing lower edge of front arches where the splashguard stops, sills ... the list goes on, I'm probably trying to teach these rustproofers how to suck eggs. But if I don't mention some of the out of ordinary nooks and crannies and ways of accessing them from all angles and they're missed, I'll feel somehow at least partly to blame.


Not knowing any better, Catalysts being alien technology, I guess these emissions test results are ok:

[cavalier1990]

Thanks Robsey, wish I'd photographed sticking the pesky headlamp rubbers. Once you've acquired a large bag of Bulldog clips in a range of sizes, there's no end of things you can do with them!

There's hardly any, actually no underseal or wax, when they must have been well aware of the issues. I can't say if this is better -the smoother they are the better for keeping them clean? There's hardly much in the way of paint either, which is not good.

In that photo of the old 1.6L, the replaced in around 2006 new arches are still solid, but the inner-arch is parting company from it. When you think of the water that is going to spray up and into that void and where it is going to go from there, down into the sills and into the bilges of the boot, it's futile to jet-wash them at that point as your pouring in gallons of water to wreak the most terrible unseen damage.

It's going to a place PreserveandProtect in Renfrewshire, early October, who will after some gentle underbody washing and scouring, dry it all then apply by high volume spraying something like Kurust, to be followed by Dinitrol underbody wax, and application of various viscous waxes to any cavity areas that are accessible without completely stripping the car bare. Process will take a week. I'll see how it goes, it's the only alternative to the weld-athon martyrs that all my cars inevitably become, doing something even if only palliative gives me a saintly feel-good glow and halo. I tried.

Rain and fatigue stopped play but I attempted to more comprehensively photograph the wheel arches. I hope to do a high resolution stitched panorama of the engine-compartment, as it is now as future-reference.

All is not so rosy on the rear arch front there have always been signs of filler both sides noticed immediately on its arrival, but there one part on the N/S which if it isn't tackled soon, however painful to contemplate, will be right through. I'll let the pictures speak.

The O/S is all clean and good as far as I can see:
[ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ]


The N/S, well as you can see there is a dodgy looking bit:
[ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ][ Image ]

Far better than I could ever have expected.

laters, thomas

Arches look really good Thomas. I've heard of that preserve and protect outfit, I'm in Renfrewshire as they are, so I twigged you may be from around here but I see you are from Roxburghshire. I've not been over that neck of Scotland for quite a while, but all around it; promise I'm not trying to avoid it!

Keeping the cavy free of rot is more or less a full time job, although that's not to say they weren't well built, however the ravages of time and Scottish weather does take it's toll, especially after 25+ Years. The front of the rear arch where it meets the sill is one of the first place to get rot, I'm sure that's where I used to see most VXs start to crumble back in the day, actually most cars.

As soon as the arch starts splitting the water gets in and flows down to the back of the sill. There is also a little annoying join in the arch just half way up that seems to be a particularly bad bit and hides rot and holes quite well. It is double skinned for a certain portion of it.

Other rot spots that are well hidden are the bulkhead and this takes out the lower floors as well as the strengtheners, but those also get used a a jacking point by many people (Kwik Fit I'm looking at you!) so get crushed and sealer squashed off them, so if water from above doesn't get them first the spray from road will. I could go on and on where I've found tin worm, probably best to not look too much and just keep the out of sight out of mind mentality!

Hope the undersealing goes well and you get that front part of the arch sorted.

[thomas]

Hi Cavalier1990, hope you don't mind me pinching your bonny bonnet picture.

I am from Renfrewshire being born in the late-sixties in the same town as this firm of whom I had never heard till a few weeks ago, though an acquaintance from Lochwinnoch down here for a funeral a few years ago mentioned an acquaintance of his who was starting up in that line near him, and I assume this is the same people/persons.

I had hoped when I had the latest interminable bout of work on my Viva finished (see my introduction thread) to take it to Thomsons of Morpeth, Northumberland, aka the WaxWorks, but I contacted them recently and was told from the horse's mouth they'd stopped doing it (the rustproofing) so desperation drove me to search and find this lot. I have been down here in Hawick fifteen years, don't miss J and haven't been back. I'm travelling up to P&P on Sat October 12th in the morning and leaving the car till early in the week beginning 21st October, have wangled a lift back home as I still have family in Houston. Might have to get a train from Carlisle to get back to collect it.

I'm going to enquire with them about fixing this wheelarch, a small bit on the n/s sill mid-way along and maybe to have a poke where the splashguards end at the rear of the front-inner wing, to test for soundness -they look ok, but they all do, right up until they're too far gone.

I expect everyone is sick of the sight of this wheelarch of mine and my great anguish.

I scrubbed it up a bit, didn't poke too severely could well have expanded (downwards towards the arch, and rearwards connecting it to the tinier hole behind the blob of old cataloy) the hole that emerged if I did. I can just get my pinkie-tip in the largest hole and touch the panel behind, the inside of the outer-quarter. The gap is so small between layers there that I wonder if the outer-arch wasn't dented in a bit towards the inner, under a skim of filler, or it's just that they do run THAT close together there.



The actual hole is no greater in size than my thumbnail, but if left unsorted or used in heavy rain as it is, it's curtains. It has already gone black quickly from stippling in phosphoric acid gel.



I've left it for the night drenched in Kurust, will attempt to finish a temporary repair tomorrow.


It's such a small defect, not enough to justify a welded repair, paint etc.right now. I think with the flagrant rust 'cured' I'm just going to stick some chopped -strand P40 stuff in the hole, and try to seal it up again, encapsulate the edges, and not with a guilty feeling of unclean bodgery. A fuller repair will follow, will at some point become inevitable, but I think it's good-to-go for a bit yet. In a few weeks it should have a coating of Dinitrol wax both from without and from within.

As mentioned in another thread I didn't need another project, the Viva is causing me more than enough grief through corrosion, but cars must be used, they're not for me play-things, this Cavalier just has to perform, to serve, weather the storms, to eat the miles and take it, for now, but I do want it to endure and to have its days in the sun, now, not caring what happens to it after we're all dust!

Night all, thanks for all the info, tips and support. There's nothing really I can do now but use it, cherish it and if nothing breaks or falls off, so much the better. This'll be a dull(er) thread though.

[cavalier1990]

Hi Cavalier1990, hope you don't mind me pinching your bonny bonnet picture.

I am from Renfrewshire being born in the late-sixties in the same town as this firm of whom I had never heard till a few weeks ago, though an acquaintance from Lochwinnoch down here for a funeral a few years ago mentioned an acquaintance of his who was starting up in that line near him, and I assume this is the same people/persons.

I had hoped when I had the latest interminable bout of work on my Viva finished (see my introduction thread) to take it to Thomsons of Morpeth, Northumberland, aka the WaxWorks, but I contacted them recently and was told from the horse's mouth they'd stopped doing it (the rustproofing) so desperation drove me to search and find this lot. I have been down here in Hawick fifteen years, don't miss J and haven't been back. I'm travelling up to P&P on Sat October 12th in the morning and leaving the car till early in the week beginning 21st October, have wangled a lift back home as I still have family in Houston. Might have to get a train from Carlisle to get back to collect it.

I'm going to enquire with them about fixing this wheelarch, a small bit on the n/s sill mid-way along and maybe to have a poke where the splashguards end at the rear of the front-inner wing, to test for soundness -they look ok, but they all do, right up until they're too far gone.

I expect everyone is sick of the sight of this wheelarch of mine and my great anguish.

I scrubbed it up a bit, didn't poke too severely could well have expanded (downwards towards the arch, and rearwards connecting it to the tinier hole behind the blob of old cataloy) the hole that emerged if I did. I can just get my pinkie-tip in the largest hole and touch the panel behind, the inside of the outer-quarter. The gap is so small between layers there that I wonder if the outer-arch wasn't dented in a bit towards the inner, under a skim of filler, or it's just that they do run THAT close together there.

[ Image ]

The actual hole is no greater in size than my thumbnail, but if left unsorted or used in heavy rain as it is, it's curtains. It has already gone black quickly from stippling in phosphoric acid gel.

[ Image ][ Image ]

I've left it for the night drenched in Kurust, will attempt to finish a temporary repair tomorrow.
[ Image ]

It's such a small defect, not enough to justify a welded repair, paint etc.right now. I think with the flagrant rust 'cured' I'm just going to stick some chopped -strand P40 stuff in the hole, and try to seal it up again, encapsulate the edges, and not with a guilty feeling of unclean bodgery. A fuller repair will follow, will at some point become inevitable, but I think it's good-to-go for a bit yet. In a few weeks it should have a coating of Dinitrol wax both from without and from within.

As mentioned in another thread I didn't need another project, the Viva is causing me more than enough grief through corrosion, but cars must be used, they're not for me play-things, this Cavalier just has to perform, to serve, weather the storms, to eat the miles and take it, for now, but I do want it to endure and to have its days in the sun, now, not caring what happens to it after we're all dust!

Night all, thanks for all the info, tips and support. There's nothing really I can do now but use it, cherish it and if nothing breaks or falls off, so much the better. This'll be a dull(er) thread though.

Hi Thomas

No problem at all using bonnet pic, it's a good example of how the rust can take hold. I do have a replacement bonnet same colour, but have not got round to fitting it yet. I will have to soon though or one day I'll go to lift the bonnet and my hand will go straight through it!

So you are from Renfrewshire, interesting, I stay in Paisley (foxbar you might know it). 2 of my cars are at my folks in Inverclyde and some here ("some" he says!) yeah I like my cars! I do pass through Hawick now and again, usually go for trips down to Newton Stewart and around that area. I think I have seem a cavy or two down that way now that I think of it.

Looks like you've got a handle on the rusty arch, It doesn't look too bad. Pretty annoying when it's at that stage of not quite bad enough to weld, and arch area is a proper Pain to weld because it's already so thin metal and an odd cuvature shape to get nice and neat. I think that's probably why most just plum for new arches. Myself I try and treat as best I can and patch up before considering replacement.

[thomas]

Cheers for that Andy, tips noted. I know/knew Foxbar, probably much changed now there was a lot of demolition going on around the Chain Road end last I recall and at the Elderslie end a lot of new housing too where Stoddart's Carpets once stood (they made the carpets for the Titanic you know). I sort of knew an Andy from Foxbar, who attended Paisley Tech, and would be about 48 now. I miss the countryside around that part of the world the hills I roamed as a boy and the proximity of the west coast seaside towns. Cavalier was made for a summer evening run for fish and chips in Largs.

I've omitted my initiation to the car, trial-by-washer-jet The blasted washers, the jets for which which were completely blocked, one cleared after a dunk in some hot water and a blow through, the other remained defiantly a feeble trickle. I tried the trick of removing the other jet again and plugging its hose, actually clamping it in loosely in moleys, to send the full pressure to the single (twin) jet, then some more blowing, hot water, carb cleaner and a poke around with needles and pins and eventually some black gunk came out, and it submitted. Then the was the reservoir bottle, there was in there a such a whole aquatic ecosystem, adapted, evolved to live in homoepathic strength screenwash, that I didn't know whether to pour it away or send it off somewhere for analysis. This might sound like a product endorsement, but along with some bottle-brushes some flash Flash spray bog-cleaner with bleach made it dazzle, it also made some little cuts on my hands nip too, the half-healed tip of my thumb sliced in a knife battle with a turnip especially, but since then people have complimented me on how white my washer-bottle is and it still smells fresh too!

[thomas]

So a quick update on the holding operation (bodge) on the n/s arch to see it through the wax treatment in a week or so and see it through the winter, keep the water (esp. the salty kind) out. I left it Friday with just a dusting of zinc-aluminium primer to keep flash rust at bay. Back at it after the weekend and the rain graciously abated I was able to get a few hours both Monday and Tuesday.


(Just Don't! Kids). With access through the hole I squirted a few cc of milky kurust in the hole, car facing downhill and car facing uphill, most of it would ran towards the sills nothing dripped out down below.

Buffed up with a little brass-bristled wire brush in in a drill, later another wipe with phosphoric acid then spirit-wipe ..lovely smell, quite intoxicating, went quite doo-lally! Recovered with cups of tea and Congress Tarts (no pictures).


The bodgers accoutrements. I didn't actually have any p40, and didn't have a disguise readily to hand so as to avoid being seen buying some, so improvised. Vile stuff this sticks to everything but that you intended it for:


First and second drafts. I had tried to squeeze the splayed out layers of metal back together with some rubber cushioned pliers.


The lip of the arch was curled round excessively from some external force at one point. At another, it was too thin and needed reinforcement, thick reinforcement, 5mm or more or it will be too vulnerable itself. Think again due to the deformation present that it's likely this arch had a repair for a scrape or dent, with all the rest of the arch, bar this one bit, and all of the opposite side's arch being in very good nick.


We'll skip a lot of uncomfortable action with 40 and other grits rubbing this vile vile stuff down, with my head up inside the arch. Skip to masking. I can't avoid a detectable step, but can mitigate it, see later, and don't want to affect the rather nice, exquisitely sculpted filler, and nicely painted outwardly visible parts of the arch.

This was no way near enough masking, the whole car could have done with covering over as the wind was picking up the offspray and blowing it back towards the car, even the n/s front window caught some specks. I'd removed some light surface rust from some other areas inside the arch, treated them and had them to paint, so a much larger area, all inside the arch was covered.


Laid on the primer heavy, it got briefly warm early afternoon and the car and work area caught some sun, I'd also been walking around with the paints I was going to use down inside my jumper for a good hour, to warm them up. A few more coats primer went on after each had flashed off nicely.


With temperatures falling, sun waning, a chill wind, and the light not so good either, me back killing me ... it was time to get some colour on this and get in for some grub and my feet up. With a large area of silvery primer to cover, I done everything everywhere firstly with few coats of black, restoring the 'factory' look of the black underseal,


I had lots of green paint not even remotely resembling the correct shade for this car (for the Viva, for which it is no way a match either), so made a few lazy coats of this on the repair area and on some of the other little areas I'd been busy with; it was starting to run a bit in places with the temperature drop, but harmlessly.





I had one puny little already part used (I'm thinking that blasted Mk2 fuel-flap) can of VX Jungle/Velvet Green pearl basecoat that came with the car and had used some of that too myself to tidy up the battery tray base, so did not have much of it. But enough. With all the masking removed, with no safety-net, I hoped now to 'lose' the masking ridge line, and sprayed the nice green over more lurid green in the places, you dear reader of this site, or a passing Jack Russell would notice, with the precious few last spurts.

Job done. I have no pics of it after this final stage, it's still drying now in rather damp and cold conditions. Further pics possible another time.

night

[Robsey]

It is far from a "Bodgit and Scarper" job.
Okay, not 100% to your O.C.D. liking, but good enough to give a lot more protection from the elements.

I am sure it is more than adequate to see you through until the spring.
Which as the naff weather moves in, is the main aim.

Besides - how many 25 year old cars look perfect when viewed up close.
Mine definitely does not, despite a partial resto and full respray 2 1/2 years ago.

[thomas]

Cheers, or rather Ascona! Robsey. It'll do, it's a bit of emergency first-aid, knowing the consequences of doing nothing about it, now, and not confident of wax or underseal filling the hole and keeping it sealed. Even one wet trip's use with an opening there would be most cavalier. Clean and painted a light colour rather than under a thick slurry of schutz type stuff, so having a chance to spot any problem areas before they get out of hand, festering out of sight is preferable. I think black dinitrol down the central spine of the car and clear (probably more a bit cloudy) stuff beyond that on either side and in other parts that need watching will do nicely.


If I get time before it goes for undersealing and some dry not too cold weather - there was a decided frost this morning - I'll maybe clean up the insides of the o/s arch too and give it a thick coat right around of whatever paint I can rustle up. I want to get the side trims inside the boot space off, parcel shelf side supports etc., or whatever is in the way and try get some waxoil down into the critical seams both sides from above. I think the odd bow-tie shaped hole through the side panel is for the rear seatbelt and might serve for hitting the spot with $product right on the bend of the arch; the rear door lock striker too might give access. I want to fill that void between inner and outer quarter with something thin and runny first to work its way into that seam and down to the sill, and thicker stuff later to endure. Will be a nuisance when the inevitable welding jobs come around. It's nice there are repair sections, I cut the arches off two whole new quarter-panels, back in 2006 and discarded the unused far larger part of the panels.



laters, thomas

[Mk3alan]

Good work! I injected wax when I got mine (back in 1996!) must have used a couple of gallons!
Every year come summer and we get the odd hit day it mobilises it and it will drop!
I did all the injecting myself which is obviously can be a very messy job but so rewarding, I wash and repeat application on the underside every year/2 years when it's hot and it's still as solid as a rock!
I use a long lance spray head for inside wheel arch panels and box sections which is also long enough to reach the entire length of the sills.

Alan

[thomas]

Thank you Alan, for your kind comments and insights, experiences. I agree with you it's a process, lasting the life of the car (or ownership), not an event. I applaud your most worthy sounding efforts and the sure and sweet results are just reward. I just hope it's not too late in its life for this car of mine, yours I think will outlast them all, mine has just rolled through 55,555 miles.

Bilt Hammer stuff sounds good, it's certainly not cheap. I'm looking into waxes and potions for self appplication further down the line, and your recommendation counts. I already have the Waxoil hand-pump pressure sprayer, and cheesy extension probe, I could do worse than use that and for refilling it once the initial contents are gone, but also have the chance to experiment with other commercial products and maybe some home-brewed concoctions. You can't go far wrong too in preparing something handy in a trigger spray bottle if it will pump it, thinned (must check what's suitable and cheap -turps/white spirit maybe?), and some just handy in a jam-jar with paint brush for spot application wherever.

I had got that pump kit for the Viva, but had a 'pro' 'waxoil' the car, using I know not what, after replacement sills were fitted, and while lots of it was lavished on the easy to reach or to see places, none of it really got where it really mattered and after a few winter seasons it was looking the worse for wear down below. Tough on it too, kept outside. T'was though, and is still, jaw-dropping, and ever the utterly reliable bimbling around town car, eager enough too and lots of fun let loose for the occasional A-road blast, but not the best choice for longer distance travel. The Cavalier's element, now as in its heyday is still the longer runs and the major roads, powering in comfort and grand style past the ugly, angry cars, the newer lesser cars that follow.

Whereas I got used to people coming coming up to me with the Viva and saying 'My grandad/uncle/dad/granny ... had one of them ... loved, it but it broke down!' with the fwd Cavaliers it's '... had one of them and it NEVER broke down!'.

Having seen enough of the duller innards and underside of the car, it's time for some of the shiny side, and why all of the above is worthwhile. Like the HB, as with the Cavalier, Mk3 especially, it's all about doing the business, and doing it in style. Mere bystanders should consider themselves lucky to behold such splendid, once everyday, sights. Pearls cast before swine.

[James McGrath]

Nice work there Thomas.
Should pay dividends in the future.

[thomas]

Quick update on progress with the rust-seeking process.

Outside the rust-proofers.



The only serious bit of corrosion found after some action with a needle descaler (the other -nearside, in the same place is solid). Should be getting welded up soon, if not done already.
It's in an absolutely predictable and typical place, this was the first bit that ever needed welded on my K-reg 1.6L hatch too.

[Robsey]

As you say, totally predictable, as that is where all rain and muck is thrown by the front wheels.

Almost like being shot blasted...

It also follows the profile of the bottom edge / fold line of the vertical skin.

One of the many places that all Cavaliers suffer - including mine.

Is that an odd bit of photo-shop action going on.
I looked shortly after posting and it was right hand drive. When I look now, it is left hand drive

[ilovedmymantas]

Nice entertaining write-up
What a shine!

[cavalier1990]

The only serious bit of corrosion found after some action with a needle descaler (the other -nearside, in the same place is solid). Should be getting welded up soon, if not done already.
It's in an absolutely predictable and typical place, this was the first bit that ever needed welded on my K-reg 1.6L hatch too.
[ Image ]

Pretty common area that on almost any car from that era, make sure it's plastered with sealant and underseal as it's high impact area. Seen me fixing that area only for the bits round it rusting away a few years later, cut a good bit round the actual rusted area to catch all the infected tin-worm. Motor looks dazzling!

[thomas]

Cheers, Matt, James, Robsey, Andy & co.

No progress to report, in-fact a step back, found out just today that bit hasn't been repaired. Heard nothing for the last week, no contact. Assumed all was well. Was looking forward to a period of no more car issues for the forseeable other than the saga of the Viva, now have to get this one welded locally too and from past sorry experiences, such plans oft gang agley horribly. Been a bit of a 'mare with the travelling involved and only halfway done. Will collect it tomorrow and probably resume my search for a decent Transit.

[thomas]

Yippee got it back, got it back home. Results exceed my expectations, it looks fantastic. Their welder is a bit poorly and I'll probably take it back quite soon for that front inner arch when he is fit. That bit is sealed up incredibly well and invisibly just now with Tigerseal and of course waxed over too. Just some sample pics, for now I'll add some more later and some of my own too no doubt when I can get out and underneath it.







It feels really good to be doing something pro-active, and not reactive after the rust has already taken hold and gotten out of hand. This is like a brand new 25-year old car. I had the engine compartment and the scuttle area done with clear wax and there too it looks great and looks a thorough job. Minted!

Knackered, long but good fun day was had, night all!

[3cav3]

Looks like they did a good job. Hopefully will ensure the old girl lasts another 25years.