1983 Vauxhall Cavalier estate project - £50!

[Jon]

Hello fellow shiters, Jon here, formerly cav_estate. As some of you know, I live in NZ now but am back in sunny old Britain for a few weeks visiting friends and family. Despite leaving these shores almost 3 years ago, I'd left behind a project at my folks house which in reality I'd have no chance of ever completing and now they're sick of the site of it and want it gone.

 

Back in October 1983 they bought a brand new Cavalier estate 1.6L 4 speed manual from Fry's of Otford, Kent. They had their heart set on choclate brown but thankfully they couldn't get hold of one, so settled for red. Over the next 20 years it was the faithful family hack until replaced with a Volvo estate; at which point it passed on to my brother and is still registered (or SORN'ed) in his name.

 

It was taken off the road some time in the mid-2000s as it was becoming rotten but we didn't have the heart to part with it. After sitting outside for a short while, it took residence in my parents garage. A chance find of a NOS estate shell on Ebay meant that any idea of restoring original body was knocked on the head and we decided to chop up the remains of the old one to make more space in the garage. It seemed a good idea at the time....

 

Anyway, enough doctor-style waffle. Here be pics:

 

 

 

 

Here's the old shell prior to cutting up - it's now cut at the bulkhead, doors removed and the centre cut in to manageable pieces. The rear is partly complete since we couldn't work out how to remove the rear side glass without breaking it. All parts are there (such as the wiring loom, carefully bound up rather than chopped up) in various boxes. From memory, the only casualty was the front screen, which broke in storage.

 

 

 

NOS shell, sat on a home made dolly for ease of movement. Pattern front wings and valance included, to replace the bent one attached to the front. At some point in the past it's been hand painted in some form of white paint  though from memory, this chipped off easily enough.

 

Anyway, this great big heap of 'potential' really needs to be gone in the next couple of weeks, or its curtains for the lot. After 7-8 years, my folks just want the garage back and all sentimentality has gone out the window. My brother would get more for it in scrap obviously but we'd prefer to see it made use of, hence the token gesture price, which doesn't even cover 2 month's rent of the lock-up the shell's been stored in for the last 7 years!!

 

Location is York, about a mile from the A64. There's a chance my brother may know of someone with a flatbed Transit who could assist but I've no idea of price.

 

For any other details, please PM me. I'll get some updated pics in the next couple of days but in the meantime, feel free to bump this with your comments of interest/support/punditry regarding just scrapping the lot, etc.

[dollywobbler]

Holy cow. I hope one of us snaps this up! (won't be me). Cavalier estate reassembling party at Shitefest?

[Cavcraft]

Oh my days, these are MEGA rare now. I really, REALLY wish I had the room and time and money to do this the justice it deserves.

[Novanick1]

a crap load of work, i dont have the time, money or resources to finish it. sorry but it would be great if someone on Autoshite could finish it

[autofive]

pm sent

[Jon]

pm sent

 

Replied!

[trigger]

I saw this Opel dressed Cavalier on Sunday, Inspiration maybe?.

 

[autofive]

havent got a PM, as yet

[skattrd]

Weren't these actually re-badged Holdens?

[autofive]

Thats my understanding, that the estates were holdens

 

my dad had a couple of these in the 1990s

[fordperv]

wow, i really hope this gets saved 

[Jon]

havent got a PM, as yet

 

Sorry, my bad - replied via your e-mail address.

[dollywobbler]

IIRC, they were Holden bodies, shipped over here to be assembled as Cavaliers/Asconas. 

[Jim Bergerac]

Yes, the bodies are from the Holden Camira. Interestingly*, there was no Opel version of the Estate.

[dollywobbler]

Ha! In your face Europeans! Serves them right for having fancy two-door Asconas that never (bar very early?) made it as Cavaliers.

[autofive]

looks like i ll have to order some Holden badges then

[CortinaDave]

That is bloody awesome. Auto five, you MUST build this!

[fordperv]

looks like i ll have to order some Holden badges then

 

does this mean its saved then????

 

if so

[autofive]

yes, subject to arranging a date for collection with scary, his truck and trailer to move it, its saved.

[Joey spud]

I was a yts scote at a Vauxhall dealer in the mid eighties and these Estates used to fly out the show room faster than we could get them from the factory.

 

Rear shock top mounting points were in a different location compared to the saloon/hatch and used to rot away after a few years and would need a tickle with the welder,yet great cars though.

[hairnet]

swoon

[John F]

NOT ALL VOXALLS R SHIT

 

Glad to hear this is being saved, Cav Estates are for WINNARS (as are all Cavs, an' you knows it)

[Jon]

Erm.......yes it was an Australian production, marketed as the Holden Camira, launched about the same time and sold with various facelifts until 1989. Embarrasingly, here's my never started first model JB Camira bought a few months after we arrived in NZ

 

 

 

 

 

You think I would have learnt, eh?! This one's being re-homed hopefully when I get back, as I've never seen another JB model wagon anywhere and only seen a handful of the much much uglier JE ones. Interestingly, the only other shape sold in Austraila was the saloon (sedan), which was based on the Cavalier shape shell, with the rounded bottom rear quarterlights. However, NZ sourced some of their models as re-badged Isuzu Askas and the rear quarterlights straightened out, then at some point they changed back to Aussie sourced models again with the rounded windows. Factoid!

 

I'll send you another e-mail today Dave before end of play and hopefully some photos.

[barefoot]

Who designed that dashboard?

I've never seen anything like it.

[Jim Bell]

Who designed that dashboard?

I've never seen anything like it.

 

Looks like a BX dash to me?

[vulgalour]

Well it looks like someone is about to win Autoshite forever.

[Cavcraft]

The front end looks sort of Mk2 Granada/Yugo Sana.

[hairnet]

dashboard says stellar to me

[Novanick1]

the front looks tad like a montego to me 

[Pillock]

So does the Vauxhall version have a standard Cavalier dashboard then? Must be sheer good luck that it fits!

I always thought the back end of these looked a bit odd when they were common sights on the streets. Seeing it in "Holden" mode makes much more sense, quite utilitarian compared to the hatch and saloon models with smoothed lights.