1994 Vauxhall Carlton Estate

[garthalgar]

Right, so the thread begins...

I feel like this thing has been passed around retroride members like the village bike. It seems to have been everyones banger and that not a huge amount of care has gone into owning it. A real mechanics car, I suppose. Anyway we paid £150 each with a decent MOT.

So it would therefore seem a poor choice such a fine automobile as a cross country traveller... But thats exactly what i'm doing with it. Me and my friend Andrew will be manning this vessel to Rome and Back on a 14 ish day banger rally (rust2rome) in June. 

The car needed to be big enough to store our tat as well as spares etc. Comfortable enough to be able to withstand 4500 miles of cruising, reliable and easy to work on, and lastly be something a bit off the beaten track in terms of car choice. The Carlton fits all of these with great ease. Well done vauxhall. I've never liked vauxhalls, and I never wanted to own one, but at least this one is RWD and a bit quirky.

Shes got an 8v cement mixer under the bonnet and its god awful slow. But I think this will be beneficial as it's quite an understressed engine so should be reliable enough. 

So today marked the beginning of actually getting stuff done. Gave the whole car a good clean, inspected the underside, checked brakes etc. and figured out why the exhaust would blow whenever it feels like. Whats a thread without pictures anyway...

I picked this up at the start of January and it sat looking like this:






Today I freed off the handbrake (note to self, do not leave cars parked up for long periods of time with handbrake on. Fail) and stuck it on ramps.





Found the exhaust problem... Will probably weld this up at a later date.



Noticed these funky tubes coming from the rear shocks.... Was really stuck as to what they would have been. So I followed them back into the boot.





Awesome! Rear shocks are "Gabriel Hijackers" which upon research is an American company that makes shocks to deal with heavy loads. There were no pressure in these when I checked, explaining the super floppy suspension. I stuck the compressor on and pumped them up to about 80psi (25-200 is the range) and they now nice and stiff! You can literally take the valve out, dump it on its , then reinflate with the compressor and watch it raise again. +7 cool points for this I had way too much fun mucking about with it. The gauge on the underside doesnt work unfortunately but any digital tyre gauge works. The car does sit much nicer now.

More cleanliness:






And how the rear sits now. Quite different compared to the photo at the top^


Anyway, i'll be updating this as progress creeps along. On the list of things to do are exhaust, smaller belt for the alternator as it's not running the viscous fan, rewire the electric fan to a more sensible switch, Possible clutch and I'm sure there will be other things that crop up. Stay tuned for vaguely interesting GM bargain basement motoring.

[sridgett]

Wow,I haven't seen one of these for ages. My parents had one so I've all ways had a soft spot for these! And looks like you got a good one there?!

[garthalgar]

Mar 15, 2015 19:14:39 GMT sridgett said:

Wow,I haven't seen one of these for ages. My parents had one so I've all ways had a soft spot for these! And looks like you got a good one there?!

They are rather cool looking. Have a good presence on the road nowadays too and I have a strange thing for the squared off arches. I joke about how bad it is but in reality its actually quite good Few niggles as per any 21 year old cheap car but i'd say its a pretty sound example. Cleaning it changed my opinion on it instantly.

[bstardchild]

Mar 15, 2015 17:22:35 GMT garthalgar said:

Shes got an 8v cement mixer under the bonnet and its god awful slow. But I think this will be beneficial as it's quite an understressed engine so should be reliable enough. 

They are 130 bhp if it's a 2.0 and it's easy to over drive them - they are nice and torquey and if you rev the nuts off them they feel slow.

They are also cracking on fuel if you don't hurry them - easy to get near to 40 mpg on long runs at sensible speeds.

[pistonpopper]

Love it!

[bazzateer]

Great cars! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised/impressed.

[Geordie]

Always liked these. Nice comfy cruisers I reckon.

Good luck with it.

[grifterkid]

That looks really very nice indeed... It is amazing what a difference a thorough washing can make to a car!

I think that these look superb and the estate is a really nicely proportioned shape, it has presence... The interior looks ace also, very luxurious!

It sounds like you're going to have one heck of an adventure and it looks like you've chosen a great car to do it all in...

Brilliant!

[darrenh]

like !

those pneumatic dampers were quite common on 80s/90s estates. cavaliers, astra had them too

8v engine is a slogger for sure, not so sure i would agree with "under-stressed" yanking 2 tonnes gvw around though

[garthalgar]

Cheers for the comments everyone!

You're right about the clean. It's made such a difference that I actually quite like it now, much to the OH's amusement. Next step is to get a carpet shampooer over the seats to get rid of the 21 years of gunk. And you're right about the interior it is spectacularly 90s sprinkled with the odd bit of plastic wood for a nice luxurious, yet middle class feel. The telescopic pole for adjusting seat height is also comedic. Practically died laughing when I pulled that out of the side. Its about a foot long! Hoping our choice was a good one!

Darrenh, I have heard of them before but never actually come across them. Really neat things though! Perhaps the better word would have been 'over-engineered'. I believe it's the kind of engine that has internals with the potential to have much higher hp than it currently has. Understressed in engine terms. I do fully understand that the carlton is not a lightweight after having to push it all over the drive haha!

Tested out the wipers for the headlights tonight and its just about the funniest thing i've ever seen a car do! They arent even in time with eachother they just go mental hahaha. Must get a video at some point.

[garthalgar]

Also, i've found a mid section on fleabay brand new for £30 so that will be the plan rather than weld the current exhaust!

[bstardchild]

Mar 16, 2015 21:44:13 GMT garthalgar said:

Cheers for the comments everyone!

You're right about the clean. It's made such a difference that I actually quite like it now, much to the OH's amusement. Next step is to get a carpet shampooer over the seats to get rid of the 21 years of gunk. And you're right about the interior it is spectacularly 90s sprinkled with the odd bit of plastic wood for a nice luxurious, yet middle class feel. The telescopic pole for adjusting seat height is also comedic. Practically died laughing when I pulled that out of the side. Its about a foot long! Hoping our choice was a good one!

You need to be sitting in the seat for it to work properly and be very carefull - if the mechanism is seized and they often are the pole will shear off the adjuster and then it's stuck wherever it's set sometimes it's best to remove the seats - turn upside down and lubricate all the mechanism first (only 4 bolts hold the seats in) and you can unsieze the height adjuster by carefully gripping the main shaft and moving it with mole grips (not wound too tight because you can crush the tube)

That's all of course if you care about the adjustment working at all

Mar 16, 2015 21:44:13 GMT garthalgar said:

Darrenh, I have heard of them before but never actually come across them. Really neat things though! Perhaps the better word would have been 'over-engineered'. I believe it's the kind of engine that has internals with the potential to have much higher hp than it currently has. Understressed in engine terms. I do fully understand that the carlton is not a lightweight after having to push it all over the drive haha!

A lot lighter than modern estates and 130 bhp was a good output for an 8V 2 litre 4 pot

Mar 16, 2015 21:44:13 GMT garthalgar said:

Tested out the wipers for the headlights tonight and its just about the funniest thing i've ever seen a car do! They arent even in time with eachother they just go mental hahaha. Must get a video at some point.

Nice to see they work - many don't and are removed esp on auto's as they share a fuse with the autobox

[nisfan]

Had a drive of this, was a comfy cruiser, not THAT fast but still a decent turn of pace

[garthalgar]

Cheers for the info BC you know your stuff! When the seats come out i'll lube all of the adjusters. Andrew and I are both very different heights so it would be beneficial for that to work!

nisfan I think once you eventually get up to speed it barrels along quite nicely

[bstardchild]

Mar 17, 2015 10:44:22 GMT garthalgar said:

Cheers for the info BC you know your stuff! When the seats come out i'll lube all of the adjusters. Andrew and I are both very different heights so it would be beneficial for that to work!

Architecture is very similar to the Senators and many parts are shared - so far I've owned 6 Carltons (2 x 3.0 estates, 1 x 1.8i saloon, 1 x LC and 2 x GSI3000's) however that's small beans compared to my Senator ownership which is probably closer to 20 to date.

And then there are the earlier Senator A and Monzas where I'm not at MonzaPhil levels it's a few of both

So anything you want to know just ask - thread is bookmarked so I shouldn't miss the question

Replace the Dizzy cap and rotor arm (if you have any doubt at all about it's age) - utter cow of a job where it is but if it's not been done for a long while it makes a big difference to running

[ToolsnTrack]

Mar 17, 2015 12:23:59 GMT bstardchild said:

Replace the Dizzy cap and rotor arm (if you have any doubt at all about it's age) - utter cow of a job where it is but if it's not been done for a long while it makes a big difference to running

Its been done recently

Stunned at the hydro rear end. I never even looked there.

[bstardchild]

Mar 17, 2015 13:16:56 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

Mar 17, 2015 12:23:59 GMT bstardchild said:

Replace the Dizzy cap and rotor arm (if you have any doubt at all about it's age) - utter cow of a job where it is but if it's not been done for a long while it makes a big difference to running

Its been done recently

Good news then - I still have scars from the last one I did and that was 25 years ago

Mar 17, 2015 13:16:56 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

Stunned at the hydro rear end. I never even looked there.

Many (saloons and estates) had it as std but when the shocks fail it used to be easy to buy aftermarket air assists and then just change the fittings

[MonzaPhil]

I do like a useful estate car.



I should get one.

Great idea.



Sent from the stealth Senator using proboards

[stealthstylz]

Can you let me know if you decide to sell this please?

[envoycdx]

Looks pretty clean! Always fancied an Carlton Estate.