Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Bit of an update after erm, 6 years of ownership now.
Still plodding along merrily, long over-due a service and I have various panels to fit.

Passenger side wing, and rear door, and the front door to re-align whilst the wing is off.
Internally, need to sort out the headunit, and find a better solution for the DAB aerial. otherwise, just need a bit of cleaning up and some TLC, seem to have worn a hole in the front carpet and sound deadening :/

Seems amazing how time has flown.

I still have pictures of your damaged bumper and the subsequent repair.

But this is your recent bit of tlc.

Ah yes, Madza MX5 alloys need to design & print some hub cap covers.

As discussed today...
My pictures of the initial repair in late April 2019, after some twonk hit your car at work.







And reattached.



And then - New headlamps and front bumper in late April 2021.
Must have a special 'bumper week' at the end ofApril each year. - lol.





Looks nice and tidy, even if it isn't colour coded - it is a nice contrast of colour.

Not quite sure where the lacquer peel came from.
It must have happened quite quickly after you got the car.

Aye, lacquer peel has been high on the list of things to sort but always gets bumped down, once the new panels are on, it may get repainted so i can match everything in.

Some pre-crash shots



New door on

So, today, I stripped down the old door, now have some spare parts, maybe they will sell, maybe they will be kept for spares..
Next weekend, weather permitting, I will fit the rear door too.

That will just leave the rear wing to be tidied up.

Good to see the old girl is beginning to lose her battle scars from a colision with a concrete bollard in Morrison's car park in Denton, Manchester - back in early 2016.

What can I say, not many of these in breakers. had to do 180 mile round trip just to get these.
Normally I wouldn't complain, but fuel prices rocketing and the state of the roads has taken a lot of the fun out of driving lately.

And another knackered panel (I couldn't be bothered to try and straighten) replaced.

I see you managed to get the back bumper to sit properly on the near-side wing.

That looks like you have got all the scars sorted.
Definitely good progress.

I must admit, that I was happy rattling around in it for those two months in 2016. The battle scars meant that I didn't feel too precious driving around town, and the fuel economy was brilliant.
Only the dodgy radio, and that back bumper popping off it's plastic support peg gave me any niggles.

The two-tone look works, most drivers nowadays will think its meant to look like that
Did you get all the doors?

ilovedmymantas wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 2:30 am The two-tone look works, most drivers nowadays will think its meant to look like that
Did you get all the doors?

2 doors and a wing, just under £100 + a drive to UPullIt in York.
I do like the newer blue, and as there is some paintwork to do in the future... so who knows.

Robsey wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 9:46 pm I see you managed to get the back bumper to sit properly on the near-side wing.

That looks like you have got all the scars sorted.
Definitely good progress.

I must admit, that I was happy rattling around in it for those two months in 2016. The battle scars meant that I didn't feel too precious driving around town, and the fuel economy was brilliant.
Only the dodgy radio, and that back bumper popping off it's plastic support peg gave me any niggles.

Happy accident that one, but it seems to work.
Not all, need to fettle the sill and rear quarter at some point, and the front wing needs swapped over, but that ties into another whole set of issues (bumper off again job, and most of the fixing points for the undertray have rotted off, and such. need to think about how to replace the rotten studs etc. or switch to nutserts / rivnuts or something - not something I am keen to do in or around the chassis legs.. watch this space..

She is a little beast when driven right, just a shame that to get anywhere near the 86 ponies strapped under the bonnet I have to be at 4400rpm

Onto exhaust number 2 in 6 years too, oh, and a bearing to replace on the front now too, one left after this

So, another MOT on this, after a spring, and exhaust. £240 all in for another years motoring.

Excellent - congrats on the pass.

Robsey wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 8:40 pm Excellent - congrats on the pass.

Cheers.

Been a bit lax on sorting stuff on the car lately, it's just run and run and run. bearing has been abused somewhat, should have been changed a year back but I pushed another 10k out of it :/

So yesterday saw a 11 hour shift of getting the front drivers side bearing swapped out, and boy am I out of practice (and shape..)
Ended up having to change the wishbone, and drop link 5th time in 6 years now for the drop link)

Need to replace the dust / debris guards for the disks, and I wish I'd left it off now since its misshapen and now rubs.

For the drop links, have you tried making your own with M8 threaded bar and using Cav Mk2 drop link bushes?

If my memory serves me well, you could possibly use some 8mm Sela washers (8.5mm bore and 25mm outer diameter) and 1/2" diameter steel tube for spacing.
Double up the washers if single washers are too thin and weak.

Probably last a lot longer than those Yaris drop links.

Bearings can be a bugger, unless you have a proper workbench and tools like a press to push the bearings in and out.

Drifting out with a hammer and pin-punch can be a pain.

6 tonne press struggled, ended up having to grind a slot into the bearing to get it to go. May have to get something bigger.
As for making my own, its possible, its the rubber that is crap, the links themselves seem reusable. I just cut them off for ease.

At this point.
Blueprint, some other brand (qdrive I want to say) are off the list for rubber components,

Latest one is Lemforder. see how this lasts, at £30 a side it wants to last a while.

Lemforder are usually a good brand - used a lot on proper heavy-duty VW parts. As long as your packaging does not have "made in China" in fine print on it, you should be good to go.
Even some of the best makes have out-sourced to China or India with very poor results.

If these fail, then let me know, I am sure I could "make up" a kit as I have described above.
All I would need are the "set-up" dimensions.
Mainly the distance between the anti-roll bar and the wishbone.

Aye, used on BMW etc too. fingers crossed it lasts.

And cheers for the offer too

I watched a few videos on replacing the Yaris drop link rubbers.
To be honest, them rubbers look little more than grommets - far too thin.
No wonder they perish so quickly.
A good 13mm / 1/2" to 16mm / 5/8" thick rubber bush is what is needed.

Yeah, and yet sadly I can not squish them in my fingers like I used to. (issues with grip / strength, but that's another conversation )

So, the Yaris has been sporting an ill fitting battery for about a year (literally wedged in with a 25mm bit of dowel).
Anyhow, today whilst at Costco, spied Bosch batteries.. £58.87 later and I have the correct sized battery on the way.

It's a small job, but a job off the list all the same.

Cannot grumble at that price.
Just in time before the proper cold weather arrives, to kill off any old or tired batteries.

In years gone by, I have run the Cavalier on electric wheelchair batteries. Not ideal, as they are more like "leisure" batteries, but they have got me out of a fix a few times.