My MK3 Cavalier (93 LS) Restoration / Mod thread.

[envoycdx]

So, I picked this cav up in 2010 - it seems solid in the right places, and I only ever really intented on using it as a run about whilst I worked on my other cav (sadly, it never got started let alone finished) and as I drove this wee thing, it just sort of grew on me..









It started out life in 1993 as a L reg 1.8 Auto LS which came with 10 months MOT and 6 months tax needs a few patches here and there and the odd bit of work but should be a nice little runner for the foreseeable future.

Soon drafted up a list of things to do that looked something like this:

List of things to do so far though is:

Weld up the bottom door hinge on the passenger front door
Replace the seats with something a little better
Colour coded electric mirrors (and required wiring)
See if theres fuel computer wiring and get a chip re-programed for it
Replace the shockers (maybe drop it 30mm if I can find the springs cheap enough)
Clean up the paint work, sort the arches before they rot out
Drop and replace the fuel tank as it weeps ever so slightly (donated by my 2litre scrapper)
Sort out the rattley cam

Which then turned to this:

2litre discs and pads up front
Rear disc conversion on the rear
Replace fuel lines (still not done it yet, though I have just about everything I need now, I think).
Replace worn cam and purge and refill lifters, replace thrust pads
Drop the oil out, it's looking like caramel now - it's not pleasant.
Fresh oil, run for a week. drop, fresh oil, run for a week then drop and then replace filter and stick some Mobile 15w40 semi synth in (yes, it's that bad 20w50 from Morrisons seems ok for use as a flushing agent).

Locate spare injector and send it off for refurb and cleaning, see if I can get any lost power back.
Locate spare inlet air hose (can't find any in the breakers )
Clean up and Polish up the craply painted rocker cover - it looks hideous currently

Then it's getting dropped on 40's and some Corsa C SXI alloys (should be collecting on Friday

Swapped the cam over, to find the cam housing had worn - luckily noticed before fitting the new seal and promptly dug out a spare cam housing and then decided to use a different cam (using an 18SE cam over the c18NZ, which has a slightly sharper profile)

Did a bit of paint correctly - which came up fairly well for a first effort.

[envoycdx]

More general maintenance stuff, lambda sensors, repairing exhaust manifolds (read: retapping the original one as all the spares I could find where in just as bad condition..)

Replaced / cleaned up the injector, ICV, a sticky tappet.

Then work sort of took over my life...

Stock piling of bits started. Picked up some SAAB rear hubs and calipers (5 stud conversion).
Made some replacement fuel lines reclaiming newer plastic lines of an Astra.

Bought some new badges:


Some MOT style welding and work pre MOT

Mid way through the dash rebuild...



Ooops thats a hole...


Erm, curse word...


Next mod


Yey! new tyres

[envoycdx]

Alternator fried itself, which led to me routing round a scrap yard sourcing bits - 100amp jobby off a Vectra found its way onto the cav.. Funny how these things happen.

Started a sub project to improve the Cavaliers heater panel lighting (funny, I still haven't finished that yet!)

More parts hording..

Replacement wheels, only been after a set for years (nearer 4 at the time to be honest)






Cam cover - cleaned up, coloured in, and awaiting (apparently) heat resistant lacquer.



Coat 1


Coat 2 and 3.

[envoycdx]

Cav went away to get a sill and arch put in. Wasn't as bad as it could have been, but worse than I thought.

[envoycdx]

Cleaned up my spare front legs for the cav



The beginning of the strip down for the rear beam / disc conversion.


Rear disc beam removed from my old Cav (temporary measure)

I had a few sets of rear pads, so out with the old, however, discs had to be cleaned up, unfortunatly no pictures of me getting happy with the wirewool..



And we have lift off beam lowered, dropped and removed





I'll try and get some pictures of the finished assembled bits as it had started to get dark by the time assembly had begun.

[envoycdx]

So, I got 2 more pictures after the calipers were fitted and it was bled up.

[envoycdx]

Been humming and haring about powder coating for a while now, A friend suggested looking at the Frost catalogue, and I recalled someone mentioning them also, so..

Next on my wee shopping list is the following:

POR15 Starter Kit (Prep, Cleaner, and Primer
POR15 Chassis Top Coat

Does anyone have any experience with this stuff?

[envoycdx]

Ooops..



Then this..


One leg fitted


Then the other..


And then the wheels



Disaster struck 4 times in 4 hours.

Firstly alot of the bolt holes on the replacement struts were a bit rotten, probably lost an hour or two just cleaning those up. A wheel bolt snapped in the hub as it was being tightened, so I have that to contend with sometime in the next couple of days

And finally, the pedal isn't all too good

Also, bearing in mind the new springs are supposed to be 35mm and I can't get my fingers in between the arch and the tyre.

However, the tyres are 205/55/16's so I'll have to see what 205/50's are going to be like.

[envoycdx]

A sort of daylight picture of the front - she isn't sitting right too low (but tyre profile isn't helping.


Smokey, my old cav looking rather sorry for herself

[envoycdx]

Tried my hand at bit of painting again - going for an pre-facelift SRI grille look.



Did some more digging about to see what the car was actually wired up for.. Damn rusty old bolts too..

Bumper off.. finally


Doesn't look bad under there really - nothing that won't clean up anyhow.



Larger washer bottle fitted


Foglights tested and working.. bumper to be chopped next week

[envoycdx]

Anyone tried this electroslisys process to remove rust?

[envoycdx]

The 18Se engine I started working on (years ago.. still in bits)




After a bit of brush tickling.

[envoycdx]

Just plodded on trying my hand at different things

Started removing the crud before I took the first photo - but you get the idea


Bid more rubbing back - got to clean metal in places


Since one of the grommets has got walkies, I decided to give that a bit of a going over too - but couldn't get into the pitting, so along with the other 5, I'll slap a flappy disc on the grinder and see if that touches it.


Coat of etch, looks miles better already in my opinion.


Another dusting of etch waited 10 minutes then gave it a primer coat (no pics of that)


First coat of colour


After the 3rd coat of colour.


Most of this will come back off in a couple of weekends time when I do the wheel well, theres some bits to address in the rear inner arches / boot floor - but it will get sorted :ugeek:

[envoycdx]

So, 50 miles down to Catterick where I was let loose in the workshop and this happened..


Bye bye 4 stud axle.


Hello 5 stud hubs and a V6 anti roll bar :lol:


End result...


Looks much better now, and I have to say - it's taken a little getting used to.

[envoycdx]

Liberated the gearbox from my old car (now the donor)

From this:




To this:


It's not uber clean, but its certainly better!

[envoycdx]

Automatic to manual, plus engine change - total time: 13 hours

It's started... urgh.. if I'd known what was coming, I'm not sure I would have..














Engine mounted - plumbing and wiring to go.


Learned a few things last weekend

1) Driveshafts from an auto will fit a manual box
2) The plastic water ways will swap between an SPi and an MPi block
3) Budget for more than 10 hours to do the whole job and have some damn good friends on hand for when things go pear shaped.
4) I am clearly insane and do not recomend this to the faint hearted.

[envoycdx]

Engine was liberated from an E reg Astra Belmont when it had an 20XE fitted.

And 3 weeks after this was fitted - the car came off the road due to extensive repair requirements prior to the MOT.

[envoycdx]

25th October 2011 the car went to be stripped and repaired... I really wasn't expecting it to be easy - but I wasn't expecting it to take this long either..

December 2011:

Well, due to work and family related issues, I really haven't gotten much done with the cav, certainly no where near as much as I would have liked. But them's the apples....

Anyhow, from what I have gotten stripped down, I've been fairly surprised








Then, one afternoon I went and stripped this out of a Calibra Turbo along with the full dash loom. (So, check control is pretty much checked off, along with 1 click ignition) - 2 mods down before I've even started

[envoycdx]

March 2012: Not much happening - but repaired a BURY kit to use in the Cav

Right, so to cheer myself up I thought I'd post a positive post / update.
A while back, a friend of mine gave me a Bury kit that was well, erm broke.

So, I set about fixing it - which consisted of replacing 2 fuses (rated T3.15a 240v fuses in case anyone is wondering )

Some pictures of the progress

Started with a bit of basic soldering to get to grips with the soldering iron again - it's been a while, not my best work however, I'm going to be modifying this wiring again come installation time


All fuses replaced, can you see where I've been? Solder mop is amazing stuff!


Well, thats the offending blighter, however - I dropped the other one :hysterical:


Well, it booted up after a few moments of thinking it was totally dead.


Fully booted up and paired to the phone





I nicked this idea from a friend of mine, however, I have a few ideas to make this a bit more subtle

[envoycdx]

Once more digging had been done - this general list was the plan to work towards:

All rot chopped out and replaced.
Seams cleaned up, repaired where needed and resealed
Replace passenger side front door
Any MOT patches are getting re-done also.
Arches finished off and repaired where needed
Front of the roof is going to be cleaned up and repaired - daunting task really as I'm not sure how it's going to turn out - though if I can actually unpick the roofskin from the other cav, that maybe an option.
Respray inside and out - the great debate of colour change is ongoing, I really only want to change the colour if I can get the engine back out again, so most likely it will remain Lagoon Blue.
Airbag Dash, Calibra Turbo Dash harness (gives me Check control, and a few other bits and peices I was going to wire in anyhow, but with a facotry spec loom - came from a P reg, so I have the Ignition 1 Radio mod as standard now too)
Rear electric Window motors and loom is being fitted also

5th June 2012:

Finally managed to get down the garage again :thumb

Not the best update in the world, but there's some progress - hope to have the windscreen out tomorrow, then I can finish getting the sound deadening off the bulkhead without damaging anymore.

Few surprises (both pleasant and a bit of a shock) along the way. Taking the full body harness out, was never really somethigh I had planned, but it's looking like its going to give the cleanest results. So, that'll be out tomorrow too! all being well anyhow






Drivers side front floor is a bit grotty in places, but I've seen alot worse.








Bits starting to creep in here, but it will be resolved!



Doesn't look too bad from this angle.


Bloody stubborn security bolt holding the steering column 0.. Gary 1