Holden Collection

[STUNO]

Some 4-5 years ago  I became aquainted with a young chap and his wife. cav_estate was his moniker, they had decided to have a bit of excitement in their so far Yorkshire suburban existence so came to live in the wilds of New Zealand. well jon, his moniker now and I had something in common so we continued the aquaintance. That thing was shit old cars.

Jon had bought a Holden Station Wagon which had  suffered being fitted with a 2.8 Nissan diesel when the Holden 3.3 six expired, actually a fairly comon replacement engine for these.

A while later I got a message to say that cav_estate was now the owner of a Cavalier Estate, known in these parts as a Holden Camira Estate. As I understand it the camira was used to get the children who lived on the farm where it lived, from the settlement to the front gate to meet the school bus, a trip of about 10 km. Jon, please correct this as necessary.

Jon collected the Camira and drove it to the nearest town and parked it in a friends yard to await him getting started on the rusty floors and other bits that needed doing.

Fast forward 4 years, Jon is being asked by his friend to remove it please.

This morning my phone rang, yup it was jon saying " lets go and have a look at the Camira and see what it will take to get it moved", I suspect he only rang me because I am an old pensioner and had time to do whatever he wanted.

The upshot of that was we left an hour or so later to go see. The only fly in this lot of oil was jon's Peugeot GTI, which had been sitting in my garage for a few weeks awaiting the parts for a cambelt change. Parts were now here and it just needed to be taken to the mechanic. F%^$king battery is flat innit. so we stole the battery from bm55's mitsubishi which did the trick and car was duly delivered. Battery refitted to the Misty bitsy and we were off to The big lake in the middle.

ON the way

Cloud in the sky

Getting passed

gone

Rover !

 

We got there to find a Holden somewhat hidden in the grass and bushes.

 

 

To be continued.......

[STUNO]

Part too......

 

After looking at it for a while we decided to see if it would move. 4 years sitting in a grassy yard may have done some damage to it's underside, brakes tyre etc so here goes.

IT MOVES.. apart from the fact that the wheels had sunk an inch or two into the ground it was moving !A few good pushes and it came free and rolled into a clearer area, all moving freely and the tyres looked like it had only been there a few hours. It was just the green slime that told a different tale. For some reason we decided not to try the brakes or handbrake.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come.........

[STUNO]

Miracles will happen..

We now had to work out what to do, but that was soon answered in the form of a dolly that was inside the workshop and is used for film work, you know those scenes of stars driving along being filmed through the windscreen ! When a car is mounted on this the wheels are only 2" off the road so the look to be sitting correctly.

This was available with a tow vehicle and driver so it was instantly loaded so the owner could not change his mind.

 

 

 

 

 

Then off home again and now in my back yard for a better inspection

 

 

 

A wee bit more to come.

And no there is no fuel stop photo, we don't even know if it turns over yet !

[STUNO]

It towed perfectly, the trip was about 75 km and nothing went wrong.

A few pics of the rust in the front footwell which is easily repairable and not bad at all

And a few of an old crane that was there too.

Just a note on the car.

The Camira was not a great success, Australia was used to the big sixes and V8s and even though fuel prices were going silly they were not ready for small cars. A 2 litre was small and underpowered and these were 1800 so not attractive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jon]

Nice write up STUNO! I wondered how long it would take you to post this up. I must admit that there was a short pause when we arrived outside STUNO's house, as he thought we were stopping for a cuppa on the way up the road to mine, not to offload an offensive eyesore and lower the tone of the neighbourhood....

 

Anyway, here's some pictures when I went to look at it way back in late 2010. AND BEFORE SOME LOWLIFE NICKED ITS GRILLE BADGE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holden: making the MkII Cavalier's dash look stylish since 1982.

 

 

 

Lack of trim and bump in door just adds to the character. At the time, I was having withdrawal symptoms from the Cavalier estate family project I'd left back in the UK only a few weeks previously and seeing this bombing down a dusty driveway of a farmstead to meet me at the main road stuck in the mind and I think I went in blind and just bought it. You can see the Commodore in the background, which kind of helped with the idea of buying it, as I liked the idea of a 'his&hers' Holden wagon collection but finding rust a couple of hours after buying put paid to that:

 

 

This was the only bit at the time but it seems now that there's a little in the centre of the passenger foot well, so not as serious but still outside the realms of possibility for me at the moment, with no skills and welder. Or time, as work's busy. That does mean that there's funds available if my local mechanic thinks it's doable. He passed the point of asking if things are fiscally viable, so long as I pay him. But I don't need the car - I've got 5 others at the moment (about 2 too many) and 3 are off the road. However, logic doesn't always prevail when the shite bug bites, so let's see what happens. GR8 as backup vehicle 4 visiting Autoshite Lancia fixer!

[Jon]

Just a note on the car.

The Camira was not a great success, Australia was used to the big sixes and V8s and even though fuel prices were going silly they were not ready for small cars. A 2 litre was small and underpowered and these were 1800 so not attractive.

 

An 1800 may just have passed the grade but this is a first series JB and as such is a 1600! If it's the same spec as a Cavalier's, that still means 90bhp but as you say, you need to stir the gears rather than just stick in top after gaining little more than walking pace. Corollas etc. sold well in Aus at the time but I assume that people expected these characteristics from an import but not a Holden. Later ones had 1800 motors then the last ones were 2 litres and supposedly the pick of the bunch but are fugly, so don't hold much appeal to me. I'd still like to sample the velour luxury of the re-badged Isuzu Aska saloons that Holden NZ imported for a while.

[STUNO]

1600, oh dear, the aussies would not have liked the sound of that at all! That badge will be available somewhere but maybe you should worry about if it can be made to run first  .The rust has grown a bit from your original photos but I don't think it is massively worse, just bigger holes where there was already rust. Your offer of food solved the storage dilemma but pardon me if I am so old I forget the details, I was wondering where you were going to store it. Next time you are over bring some diesel for the bores in case it is needed. Just had a message to say deliver the Mitsubushi next week too ! So another adventure is in the offing soon.

[stuboy]

jesus they make my old mk2 cavaliers inside look delicioius 

[I_am_Diesel]

That crane looks a bit too close to those power lines for my liking.

[STUNO]

That crane looks a bit too close to those power lines for my liking.

 

Optical delusion. If you look at some of the photos in the yard the base of a pylon is near the car. it is about 25-30 metres high.

[Split_Pin]

Excellent stuff, weren't Cavalier estates all built in Australia and then shipped over? I didnt know the Holden had a different dash. Here's my Dad's Cavalier GL in 1988. It was the first car we had that had power steering and a radio casette.

[Bucketeer]

The front end looks like one part Montego, one part Granada and one part Cavalier. Which equals three parts of WIN.

I hope you can manage to get something done with this.

[carlo]

Never understood why Vauxhall only put the 1600 in the Estate, sure a 2.0 would have been quite successful.  

 

Looks nice and warm there....

[Felly Magic]

Someone around here has 'Ascona SR' converted their Cavalier estate, seen it about a fair few times, I think Triggs may have a photo of it

[Angrydicky]

This is superb! Good luck with getting it back on the road!

[Junkman]

Top bombing. When will you go back to collect the crane?

 

On a different note, I'd be more inclined to replace a 3.3 Holden engine with a 5.0 V8, instead of a Nissan Diesel.

[AnthonyG]

The Aussies were not greatly impressed with a 4 cylinder Commodore either!

 

In fact, judging from the two books R.Welfare kindly gave me, the Commodore itself was not a great success on launch as it deemed too small and too foreign (i.e. German). The second gen one was widened and lengthened, although it still had a lot in common with the second gen Senator/Omega,and was a lot more popular.

 

The preceding Holden, the big ones of which the most common in the 1970s was the Kingswood model, was a sort of cultural icon in Aus, similar to maybe the Cortina over here. There was a sitcom with a kind of Alf Garnett mixed with Paul Hogan dad as the main character, who's pride and joy was his Holden. The show was even called 'Kingswood Country".

 

As regards Cavalier estates, all estate specific panels were stamped in Aus and shipped around the world to whichever GM company wanted to offer a J car estate derivation. Certainly there were Chevrolet and Pontiac versions as well as Vauxhall/Opel.

[STUNO]

Next day

 

I got up late in the hope that it had gone , but it was still there.

So to work on it, First a clean....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now it will be left for a while to get used to being loved.

After that I sat inside and pushed the clutch in a few times, it seemed to be working !!

 

 

 

 

[Alexg]

Blimey, that's one of the few bits of dormant chod that actually looks even more miserable once cleaned. Truly excellent.

[Junkman]

The Aussies were not greatly impressed with a 4 cylinder Commodore either!

 

Would you be impressed with a four banger when you can have a big bloody V goddamn 8?

I'm not an Aussie (no kangaroos in Austria), but I declare myself solidly united with them in this respect.

 

Besides, thou shalt never put a small block, where a big block fits.

 

Junkman, Psalm 19:86

[Noel Tidybeard]

after the montego look they tried a sierra look

[Jon]

Nice work, especially on the engine bay! If I leave it there long enough, maybe you'll get quite attached to it....?!

[Junkman]

And now it will be left for a while to get used to being loved.

 

Come on! It oozes that it knows it's loved out of every pore! It looks like a happy little puppy that doesn't know what it's done wrong to be neglected like this.

Get it running, drive it down to the A Team hangout to get some weldage done, get an MoT and drive that sexbomb to your local wherever the chicks hang out down there.

 

And go and get that motherless craneshite. Don't fuck this up.

[STUNO]

Come on! It oozes that it knows it's loved out of every pore! It looks like a happy little puppy that doesn't know what it's done wrong to be neglected like this.

Get it running, drive it down to the A Team hangout to get some weldage done, get an MoT and drive that sexbomb to your local wherever the chicks hang out down there.

 

And go and get that motherless craneshite. Don't fuck this up.

 

It's jon's car, not mine. Love is subjective . And the crane will stay where it is   It's you, not me that is called junkman.

[Noel Tidybeard]

a rhd chavalier wagon needs to be imported to live alongside its ugly aus cousin :mrgreen:

[fotorabia]

Nice write up..but Jon...i sorely admit im glad i missed on this one!..i had enough Viva's..to be dealing with...

[STUNO]

I got under this later today to check that the fuel tank looked ok. It did but the whole underside is heavily coated with mud. This goes back to it's former life on the farm. Also filled the radiator "surge tank" which should fill the radiator as water was still visible at the bottom of the tank, the only  other option is to remove a hose and try to get water upwards into the rad. Also removed the fuel hose and blew back to the tank and that is clear with no sign of fuel in the tank though ( not locked closed so it may just have been siphoned out years ago) which is good for a dry rust-free tank.

Oh, the mud does not appear to be causing corrosion but  the whole underside will need washing before we know for sure. Where it has come off the underside looks good.

[Essex V6]

after the montego look they tried a sierra look

That is honking!

[dollywobbler]

Great stuff. That green facelift estate looks like one of those modified cars they use in insurance adverts, where they don't want you to know what the car is.

[twosmoke300]

the front end reminds me of an early Daewoo something