shite cars Retroshite

[Zelandeth]

Oof... that's crispy!  It been parked in the sea?

[Jenson Velcro]

I remember my parents getting a brand new Chevette saloon in the seventies. It was beginning to rust at 2 years old when they chopped it in against one of the first Astra’s, so no surprise that these are so rotten.
Interesting that all yours are saloons. I would have thought they sold more hatchbacks, but that is only a guess.

[BeEP]

Liking the Chevette love.  My first two cars were Shove-its, red W reg hatch followed by yellow X reg saloon.  The former died when a tree rudely jumped out in front of it.  The second was bought in haste (see: tree incident), and had a noisy diff from the start.  One day when pulling away from a crossroads there was a bang and the diff wasn't noisy any more.  But neither was it transmitting propshaft rotation into half-shaft rotation.  I was quite unpopular as I pushed it sadly off the busy junction.  Next car was a Mk1 Fiesta 950 base, which I have to admit was quite a revelation after the Chevettes.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

When i was little my dad had a Chevette van for years. He used to drive it from Wisbech to Whitley Bay every weekend!!!! Unsurprisingly it was forever blowing its shitty old 1256 engine up. Most weekends he was fixing problems on it so he could drive home again on the Sunday night. Many happy hours spent going round the scrappers of the North East with my dad finding parts to repair his busted Chevanne. Looking back now it is/was a cracking vehicle, a little lightweight rwd panel van. Admittedly the engine was a bit wank but if you had one nowadays with maybe a 1.4 16v from an Astra G and some sort of 5-speed box you'd proabably have the perfect car. Bet it would get close to 50mpg as well.

Just remembered, he must have fitted 100's of manifold gaskets to the friggin thing, the old 6-bolt flange coupling on the exhaust was forever leaking. Thinking back I can't see why really. I reckon he must have been doing his favourite trick of putting metric nuts on imperial studs and vice versa (my dad is one of those types who would not hesitate to deploy woodscrews etc in car repairs) and thus getting the clamping force all uneven.

[Rod/b]

10 minutes ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

When i was little my dad had a Chevette van for years. He used to drive it from Wisbech to Whitley Bay every weekend!!!! Unsurprisingly it was forever blowing its shitty old 1256 engine up. Most weekends he was fixing problems on it so he could drive home again on the Sunday night. Many happy hours spent going round the scrappers of the North East with my dad finding parts to repair his busted Chevanne. Looking back now it is/was a cracking vehicle, a little lightweight rwd panel van. Admittedly the engine was a bit wank but if you had one nowadays with maybe a 1.4 16v from an Astra G and some sort of 5-speed box you'd proabably have the perfect car. Bet it would get close to 50mpg as well.

Just remembered, he must have fitted 100's of manifold gaskets to the friggin thing, the old 6-bolt flange coupling on the exhaust was forever leaking. Thinking back I can't see why really. I reckon he must have been doing his favourite trick of putting metric nuts on imperial studs and vice versa (my dad is one of those types who would not hesitate to deploy woodscrews etc in car repairs)

Me and my brother once found an long - abandoned Chevanne on its side in some woods on a farm in west Wales. It was absolutely rotten everywhere so obviously we chucked rocks at it and knocked massive holes in the roof etc. This would have been about 30 odd years ago. 
 

 

[DodgyBastard]

RJC_4882 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4883 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4884 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

Engine out!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

So why Chevette love and not Cavalier? Is it just the fact you got stuck into the blue one and things spiralled from there? I like mk1 Cavs, but hold a mk1 Kadett/Chevette in higher esteem. 

Oof. 

[DodgyBastard]

5 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

So why Chevette love and not Cavalier? Is it just the fact you got stuck into the blue one and things spiralled from there? I like mk1 Cavs, but hold a mk1 Kadett/Chevette in higher esteem. 

Oof. 

It's just that exactly, I'm focused on getting this Chevette finished and don't have any time to commit to the Cavalier. Obviously if nobody buys it I'll get around to it eventually but at the moment I've been throwing lots of cash and time at the blue Chevette and getting rid of the Cavalier is one less thing to think about. Also I bought that gold 4 door Chevette auto which is pretty similar in style to the Cavalier so do I really need a Cavalier too? 

I'd love a Kadett front end for mine but could only find fiberglass ones online.

[DodgyBastard]

I had a couple off days off from working on this but was back at it today.

RJC_4886 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4887 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4889 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4891 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4892 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4897 by srblythe, on Flickr

A couple of people have asked for offcuts, someone wanted the rear strut turrets to fit to a Chevette hatchback and someone else wanted whats left of the rear arches.

 

My rear inner arch arrived so I'll need to look into fitting it shortly.

 

RJC_4896 by srblythe, on Flickr

[vulgalour]

Looks like that's provided a wealth of useful stuff that'll save potentially hours of fabrication with repairs.  Were they fairly new tyres and refurbed wheels on the gold donor, or do they just look really clean?

[DodgyBastard]

15 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Looks like that's provided a wealth of useful stuff that'll save potentially hours of fabrication with repairs.  Were they fairly new tyres and refurbed wheels on the gold donor, or do they just look really clean?

Tyres were ancient but the tread was like new, the wheels had been painted at some point and have a small amount of rust coming through. It did actually have new sills fitted but they were welded over the top of the old ones.

It's a pity the doors won't fit my blue chevette.

[vulgalour]

That is a pity.  Are you okay for outer arches?  I ask that like I have some, I don't.

[DodgyBastard]

I do have rear arches which came with the car .

 

https://youtu.be/Cf5d8amCctE

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Great to see you've properly pillaged the donor car. The nose cone would make great garden art in the meantime...

I'd not clicked your blue one was a two door.  They're definitely that little bit prettier than the more door shell. 

[666jjp]

not really knowing what I am talking about but is the roof not usable for future repair patches as you seem to enjoy welding so much

[DodgyBastard]

not really knowing what I am talking about but is the roof not usable for future repair patches as you seem to enjoy welding so much

It could be used but I prefer working with new sheet metal.

Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

[DodgyBastard]

We gave the ranger a quick paint job yesterday, spent £60 on primer, 2k paint and hardeners which was just about enough to cover the whole car.

 

RJC_4906 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4908 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4917 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4919 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4920 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

We did the bare minimum prep, masked off a couple of areas and wire wheeled some of the rust. I'm happy enough with the result, it certainly looks better than before.

 

RJC_4792 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_0770 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

Also got rid of that horrendous looking wing on the 305.

 

RJC_4473 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_4911 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_4912 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4913 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

As rough as it looked on top I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it is underneath. I still think the scuttle drainage tube which goes from an area under the windscreen, through the inside of the car and out of the inner wing is a daft idea. 

 

RJC_4924 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4922 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

I also compared my Chevette front ends after a quick blast of paint in the wrong shade of blue.

 

RJC_4904 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4903 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4902 by srblythe, on Flickr

[DodgyBastard]

 

 

I made this video the other day and had a go at mixing/sampling a song that my dad helped to create in the recently reformed Glasgow band "Restricted Code". Apparently the lead singer wasn't amused with my unauthorised use of their music in my video but I was just returning the favour of him using my photographs of the band playing live on their website.

 

[Zelandeth]

Exact same scuttle drain arrangement as on a Skoda Estelle.

It's a daft idea there too, especially when it blocks up and then starts leaking into the footwell.

[Austat]

Shame that Shove-it Special was too far gone, looks like an early one being on a W plate (the Special was released in 1980 if I'm correct). Oh well, can't save them all I guess.

[DodgyBastard]

£10 car! by srblythe, on Flickr

£10 car! by srblythe, on Flickr

 

I appear to have won a car for £10.

 

Collection is going to be interesting...

[DodgyBastard]

I dug the old Mercedes out,

DSC_0267 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0268 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0271 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0273 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0278 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

It's in desperate need of a wash, the wings painted and a new fuel pump relay, it's currently wired to a switch which although seems to work quite well I'm not sure if it'll pass an mot like that.

I haven't touched it in months but it started up fine and still runs great.

[DodgyBastard]

 

[Rod/b]

9 hours ago, DodgyBastard said:

 

Were they all the boxes from this week’s supply of welding wire?

[DodgyBastard]

Were they all the boxes from this week’s supply of welding wire?

Whisky!

Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

[DodgyBastard]

DSC_0303 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0306 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0305 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0308 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0309 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0311 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

Worst raffle win ever...

I hate it so will be trying to sell/swap as soon as possible. Already been offered an MGZT or a Rover r8 216gti for it which I'm awaiting pictures of.

[seacow]

That’s R8 sounds ace do you know if it’s a 3 or 4 door?

[Supernaut]

That looks pretty tidy, if somewhat under-tyred on the rear axle.

 323i pre-facelift so about 170hp.

[DodgyBastard]

While I was making up boxes to smash through, my friend was inside getting on with the Chevette Weldathon.

 

DSC_0343 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0345 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0344 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0348 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0349 by srblythe, on Flickr

DSC_0350 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

Still a couple of wee bits to do on this side then the complete sill and outer wheel arch will be welded in.

 

 

 

[DodgyBastard]

3 hours ago, seacow said:

That’s R8 sounds ace do you know if it’s a 3 or 4 door?

 

216 GTI by srblythe, on Flickr

216 GTI by srblythe, on Flickr

216 GTI by srblythe, on Flickr

216 GTI by srblythe, on Flickr

 

 

3 hours ago, Supernaut said:

That looks pretty tidy, if somewhat under-tyred on the rear axle.

 323i pre-facelift so about 170hp.

 

DSC_0364 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

I really don't know anything about it other than I don't really want it.