James' megathread of ongoing insanity

[James McGrath]

I've found it very difficult to post anything in any of my WIP threads lately. Most of them as so miserably out of date that if I were to post anything I'd have to write up a year or two worth of updates in order to keep continuity.
I do intend to one day get them all up to date but as it stands I can't see myself getting motivated anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the list of things to add is mounting and the task getting up to date is getting ever further away.

So, as a way of getting myself motivated into posting again and stopping the backlog building up too much, I thought I'd start a thread for general stuff relating to any of the cars in the family fleet. Nothing too big or specific, that will be reserved for my WIP threads, but anything related to Cavalier ownership or my life in general.

So there you have it.
I'll be adding to this thread fairly regularly, hopefully it won't be too dull for you all but it's more so I can keep track and get motivated to do more interesting stuff elsewhere.

[James McGrath]

Right, explanation over, time for some content.

Some of you may already know, I'm a big fan of eBay. I pick up loads of stuff from there, not just car parts and I'd say that it was my most used retailer, if you can call it that.
I have quite a few saved searches for stuff, especially car parts, just in case anything I want/need comes up.
Allot of the stuff I get is not really needed, they are bought just in case I need them in the future.
I thought this was a good place to post them as unless I use them, they won't otherwise be talked about.

This was last months eBay haul:

Genuine outer cam belt cover for a C20NE:



Genuine cam belt cover for a V6:




A pair of genuine electric areal masts:
These are a vital addition to the stairs bin of anyone who lives in the country. Plenty of nasty overhanging foliage around here which is generally not friendly to aerials.
Interesting one made in Germany the other in Japan




Genuine speedo cable:




Genuine electric passenger mirror housing:




Genuine used front grille badge for a facelift, was going cheep so thought it would be useful.
Thinking it might go on my Dad's CD:






There were also a few parts I bought for a reason too:

Bosch knock sensor for the V6:
Been meaning to replace these for ages and mine are a bit dodgy and I occasionally get a fault code for them.
I already had one of these ready to go on, but I thought I'd replace both for good measure, so here's the second one.




I thought these could come in handy:




I've never had a decent means of looking under my cars, all I've ever had is the jacks that come with the car.
Hopefully these will motivate me to do more stuff myself.


Lastly, I've some very good news. I'll soon be moving house again!
I'm buying a house formerly belonging to my Grandparents and I'll be moving in on Monday 7th October!

Here it is, note the garage and plenty of driveway space




I'm crazily excited about it, it's a huge step up for Lizzie and I going from a one bedroom flat to this.
Also slightly daunting. You don't realise how much stuff you have until you move!

[iangsi]

Good news on the house you can get all 6 of your cars in front of your house with room to spare we will have to have the next southern meet & bbq at your place. re the ramps they can be a little narrow for modern tyres, the 205’s on my GSI barely fit on.

[Mk3alan]

Good news on the house front James! Hope the move goes to plan.
I have kept my ear to the ground regarding spare parts - but you definitely win hands down!
That a decent looking sized loft - wonder what you can put up there?

Alan

[Robsey]

I love to buy lots of goodies for the car from ebay.
Although my main supplier has always been GPS, until James bought all of the decent stuff.

Nice big house.
The problem with houses is that the bigger the house, the more you try to hoard / fit in it.
I have car stuff in every room, the outside shed, and the full commercial size outdoor dog kennel... oh and a spare wheelie bin full of various wiring looms.

I did wonder if Lizzie was going to share the load of posting about the family fleet.

I am sure that you are too busy between now and New Year with non-motoring stuff to have time for anything but essentials on the Cavaliers.

[James McGrath]

Thanks guys! It's been one hell of a mission but we got there!

We moved the first things in on Sunday 6th and the last run was completed on Friday 11th.
All transported entirely by Cavalier of course!




It's taken so long because we've been sorting and moving my grandparents stuff at the same time as moving our stuff in. We've still got to sort out the spare bedroom, study and dining room but the kitchen, bedroom and living room are all pretty much there and feeling very much like home.
Unfortunately the garage has had to be sacrificed and used as a dumping ground. Only temporarily though.

Good news on the house you can get all 6 of your cars in front of your house with room to spare we will have to have the next southern meet & bbq at your place. re the ramps they can be a little narrow for modern tyres, the 205’s on my GSI barely fit on.

Not quite 6. I can fit 3 on the drive and one in the garage so that covers more than half of the fleet anyway.
I've found that out too, they need to be a good couple of inches wider for 195s even.


Further news; these arrived:




Needless to say, another price list update is on the way...

[Robsey]

We've still got to sort out the spare bedroom, study and dining room but the kitchen, bedroom and living room are all pretty much there and feeling very much like home.
Unfortunately the garage has had to be sacrificed and used as a dumping ground. Only temporarily though.

I can fit 3 on the drive and one in the garage so that covers more than half of the fleet anyway.

You really have not thought this out...
spare bedroom, study and dining room.
By this you surely mean...
"Spare Parts Room", "Cavalier Library" and dining room. I admit that you need to eat every now and again. Tee hee

As for the Garage - indeed you will need to clear this to make adequate space for an access pit and low-level lift, spray booth and so on...

All good stuff.
I bet you are glad that the main move is complete. Amazing how much stuff you gather in such a short time.

I could never move house, with 25 years worth of accumulated possessions.
It would probably take three articulated lorries.
Although allowing for my junk... five skips.

[Mazza]

Congratulations on the move...

I too had a same in the past few months... and the headaches. I went one step further, by shipping a good number of parts directly to the workshop.

Needless to say, I still got a garage full. I managed to tag and sort them into boxes - still can’t find the parts.

Just to add, I had more boxes then the family altogether... and I was all good until removals guy pointed this out!!

[Mk3alan]

Congratulations, your in!
Looks far better with your fleet in position.
First job I wanted to do with our first place with garage was dig a pit! Never did though!

Alan

[James McGrath]

Just wanted to say thank you for all the support and well-wishes everyone gave us during our wedding in December, it means a lot to us.

We had an incredible day, everything worked out perfectly and the honeymoon was the most welcome rest after a very busy year.

If anyone wants too see them, here are all our wedding photos, you just need to put in an email address and they are free to view:

https://lucyhalpinphotography.shootproo ... /11516228/


Here are a couple of car orientated photos for you too which aren't in the official album:

Outside our wedding venue:


Our overnight stop in the lake district:


Outside our cottage in Fife:




These were all taken at various locations around Scotland:






















These last two were taken on the famed Buttertubs pass in Yorkshire on our way back home:
It's a bit overrated if I'm honest and a lot of the roads in Scotland were much more fun.





The honeymoon was everything we'd ever want from a holiday. It really was perfect for us; full of castles, amazing driving roads, great food and plenty of us time in our little cottage retreat.
The photos make it look like it was dark and rainy the whole time but it was actually great weather for the time of year and only rained on a couple of days.
You can see the car slowly getting more travel stained as we when though. We drove something close to 1000 miles while we were in Scotland.

[Robsey]

Not sure if it is me, but the photobucket images are not working.

I recall an image of you both on "Face Cloth". Looks very much like a 1940's / vintage theme.

I do like monochrome photography.

[Mk3alan]

James, I also can't see the photobucket photos!
Although your wedding photos are great, picture perfect and a wonderful venue!
Lizzie (and you!) looked fantastic!

Alan

[James McGrath]

It's a problem on photobucket's end.
They have uploaded ok, just photobucket hasn't precessed them yet. I'm hoping that they will come to life soon.
In the meantime, you can view them by clicking on them.

Photobucket has really got to get itself together. It's become unbearably slow over the last couple of years.
After making people play for subscriptions I thought that their service would improve but quite the opposite has happened.

Anyway, thanks guys. It really was a perfect day.

[James McGrath]

I'm completely fed up with photobucket. I've taken the plunge and made an account with imger.
I have now updated the links accordingly.
One of these days I'll make the switch fully and changeover all my old photo to another image hosting site, all 2500 of them!!

[Cavalier342]

Really nice photos James my man. I've also ditched Photofucket years ago, it's just not worth the hassle. Plenty of other options out there.

[James McGrath]

Thanks mate.

I had a paid subscription to photobucket before all the trouble started in 2017. I pay £20 a year for extra storage (an offer they no longer provide).
For some reason, I was able to keep all my photos and privileges even when they said they were going to cancel my package and that I would have to switch to one of their new plans.
I never actually did switch to a different plan and I'm still only paying £20 a year.

[Cavalier342]

Ye, like I said there are plenty of options out there. I suppose if you have so many photos, then it's a bit tricky having to sort all of it out, I wouldn't even have the patience for it lol.

[3cav3]

I also found that certain links etc on their site used to have viruses embedded in them.
One wierd thing is after they started holding everybody to ransome, by blocking your images unless you paid, mine stayed working for nearly a year before they got blocked, then s few months later they came back.

[James McGrath]

Right, time to work through a bit of the backlog.
Some of you may remember that back in January, Kevin Bricknall from the Cavalier and Chevette club had a sell off of Vauxhall parts that he lost storage for.

Well, my father and I decided to make the trip up to Milton Keynes to see if there was anything we wanted.
We ended coming back with a boot load to goodies!




When I arrived I was reduced to the mentality of an 8 year old boy in a sweet shop (not far from my regular mentality perhaps).
There were tables stacked high with hundreds of parts, shelving units brimming with various panels, exhaust components, service parts and trim pieces.
I spent about 4 hours there looking through everything. It really was the Vauxhall enthusiast's version of Aladdin's cave!

I found loads of stuff I wanted. Eventually went to Kevin with a small mountain of stuff and asked how much he wanted for it.
He got out his calculator and started adding it all up while I waited with baited breath... then he said £500!!
I admit, it was a tad more than I was expecting.

After whittling down the mountain of parts a far bit and a bit of haggling, I got it down to £150.

Anyway, here's what I came back with:
If anyone wants part numbers for any of this, just send me a PM.

Firstly, various boxed GM parts; heated mirror glass with blind spot section (Nice OE upgrade for something), 4 way electric mirror switch for the V6, rear electric mirror module for the Diplomat, rear light cluster circuit board for the CD manual, reading light cluster for the CD auto and an inductor relay for the CD manual:




Next are a few bits that are useful to have around:
Water pipe for a 20NE/C20NE (I have 4 of them so I'm sure it will come in handy one day), both engine temp sensors, a reverse light switch, exhaust mount rubber and a pack of 5 rear anti-roll bar bushes:




Those who know me will know I'm always on the hunt for this kind of stuff:
Both front wing side mouldings and a chrome strip for the front bumper. These will fit pre-facelift Cavs like my Dad's CD auto:




Interior trim bits for the Diplomat:




These should sort out both of these problems:

This was cracked when I had that accident in my diplomat a while back:




This has been broken since I got the car:




Next up some spare pipes:
Two power steering pipes just in case and an air-con pipe for the Diplomat.
I'm hoping this enable me to finally get the air-con working on my Diplomat.




Part numbers for reference:




Next up, Kevin gave me these:
Both a 901 and a 902 alarm, complete in the box! I think the 902 may be making its way into my LS in the near future .
Cool to see a MK3 Cavalier on the box of the 901:




Lastly, this really odd item. It's an air filter kit for a Mk3 Cav, something I've never seen before:




The part number is 91141009.
It looks like a pretty old part from early on in the life of the MK3.
If anyone has ever seen one of these or remember them from back in the day, let me know, I'm intrigued.
Kevin and I thought that it may have been either something that was available when the Mk3 first came out and then quickly dropped.

So not a bad haul in the end. Mostly stuff that will be used and a few backup spares just in case.

Lastly, here are a few other parts I've managed to track down recently:

This is an SRi steering rack that I'm going to get fitted to the Diplomat. I got it from eBay fro very cheep:




Lastly, a genuine wiper linkage:




I bought this from my V6 but chickened out of using it and got a used part instead.

I'm hoping to get some of these parts fitted over the next few weeks, especially those destined for the Diplomat.

[Robsey]

Excellent find.

Especially the wiper linkage and the rack.
Well over £500 worth just for those two.

[James McGrath]

Excellent find.

Especially the wiper linkage and the rack.
Well over £500 worth just for those two.

Both were eBay finds.
The rack was £35 and the linkage was only £30!

[James McGrath]

Lockdown Update

Since the dreaded C word hit back in March, I think many of us have gotten back into tinkering with our cars again.
The extra time at home has given lots of us time to tick off some jobs off of our lists.
It has actually been good to see something of a revival in activity on the forum in the last couple of months.

Personally I've been rather later to the game.
I started lockdown no knowing what I'd be doing. I'd hoped that I would still be able to work and crack on with countless over due conservation jobs at Bateman's while it was closed to the public.
In reality, I worked at Bateman's for just one day before I was told I'd be working from home.
Meanwhile Lizzie was furloughed.

It transpired that because I have on call security responsibilities, I would not be furloughed.
So I have, until three weeks ago, been working from home most days on the National Trust's CMS system.
Slight digression - CMS is a database which has a record for (almost) every single item owned by the National Trust. I've been going through all of the records for Bateman's and updating them.
At the same time as that I was doing daytime security checks at this lovely place:




For those that don't recognise it, It's Bodiam castle (In the same portfolio at Bateman's).
I've also been put in charge of the conservation there while all the regular staff have been furloughed.
It's a bit out of my comfort zone as I'm used to houses but the same principles apply. I've just been keeping it clean and keeping pests at bay, in this case weeds growing in the walls!






Three weeks ago, I returned to working 5 days a week but I've not been doing my usual job but rather helping out in other departments.
So I've not had as much free time as others but more than some.

One of our main priorities has been to get the house straight. It's a 1970's house which has seen some questionable DIY over the years so it's been a bit of a struggle. We've been stripping wallpaper, plastering, generally wiping things into shape and making the house feel more like our home.

Here are some of the results:

Before:
The whole hallway and living room were painted in this horrid marshmallow pink:






The kitchen/dining room wasn't much better, a bland 'cappuccino'. Sorry for all those who have off white walls. It's just not for us:




During:
Even with a rather nifty wallpaper stripper, this still took us two weeks to prep. it was full of bodge jobs and bad workmanship in the past:










After:

















I'm chuffed to bits with what we've achieved over the last few few months.
Not just the decorating but just living together. It's been bliss being just the two of us at home. You really know you're with the right person when, after 3 months of lockdown, you don't want to leave the house!

Anyway, I didn't really get round to doing stuff on the cars until the beginning of June but more on that in my next post!