Cavalier mk2 - another blue giffermobile.

[4wheeledstool]

Made a start on the front end this afternoon, lots of surface rust mainly, just a small area needing repair where one panel overlaps another.

Pretty fiddly stuff, but the end of underside strippage is in sight now.

[vulgalour]

That's really very solid underneath, was expecting  you to find some horrors given the old repairs to the rear valance and arches.

[4wheeledstool]

This car is certainly a bit of an oddity in that the majority of the car pox was confined to the bottom few inches of the rear half of the bodywork. Although it looked pretty bad a few months ago, I still think I've been lucky with its condition. (Not as lucky as I was with my other Cavalier!)

[4wheeledstool]

Spoke too soon! You can just about see some blown areas of metal in the first of the two pics above  (driver's side) - today I had a good stab at it with a hammer and screwdriver. After removing some of the sound deadening material, this was the view of the driver's footwell.

After removing the thin metal from around the holes in the outer layer, and the surrounding area of the inner layer.

View from outside.

Pieces let in to the outer layer.

Inside of outer layer zinc primed.

Missing metal of the inner layer replaced, then zinc primed.

There's a hint of more of the same on the passenger side, (a lot less of it though!) So this will be investigated another time.

[4wheeledstool]

Got some unexpected time on this today due to having nothing to do at work.

Passenger side lower bulkhead/floor holes.

When cut away, the layer above was in a good condition, (still had e-coat) so it was zinc primed then closed up.

Hydrate 80 applied to bare metal of surrounding areas.

Incredibly sweaty in the shed today.

[4wheeledstool]

Only had a couple of hours for this over the weekend - made a start on stripping the chassis legs.

After getting fed up with painfully slow progress, I switched to the inner wing for some instant gratification.

Found one small area needing a welded repair (on the inner wing, in line with the front of the turret ^^^) which I'll address next time.

[4wheeledstool]

Stopped off at the shed for half an hour on the way home this afternoon to sort the hole in the inner wing.

Poxy metal cut out, and a piece cut to go in.

Welded in and ground back.

Back to the wire wheel tomorrow.

[4wheeledstool]

Got the majority of this inner wing stripped back now.

Once I've done inside the turret, (most likely tomorrow) I'll get some of the black stuff on there, then move on to the other side.

[4wheeledstool]

Nothing doing at work today.

Finishing up the turret.

Black stuff went on.

Made a start on the other side.

I need a new wire wheel to continue now - that was the third one I've spent up!

 

[4wheeledstool]

New wire wheel acquired Saturday afternoon, then put straight to work on the passenger side inner wing.

Cleaned and treated on this afternoon.

Having a look around the engine bay (really not looking forward to bare metalling this ) I noticed a bit of car pox in the front cross member.

Cut out the pox, and cleaned up the strengthener behind it.

Welded in a piece of fresh metal to fill the hole.

Cleaned back as best as I could until my finger sander comes back from a mate.

Back to the joy of paint/rust/crud removal next.

[4wheeledstool]

No actual work done on the car today, but during a bit of a tidy up I got shut of a load of crispy metal removed over the last few months. All the biggest bits are long gone, but theres still a reasonable amount of scrap metal gone to the weighing in skip.

Also a new gallon of thinners was bought this afternoon so I can clean all the filth out of the engine bay in preparation for the last bout of wire wheel action.

[vulgalour]

I continue to be amazed at how not-crumbly this usually crumbliest of Vauxhall offerings is, and your dedication to cleaned up and preserving it all.

[4wheeledstool]

4 hours ago, vulgalour said:

I continue to be amazed at how not-crumbly this usually crumbliest of Vauxhall offerings is, and your dedication to cleaned up and preserving it all.

Theres definitely been a lot less metal needing replacement than there could have been. It needed saving, and I want to make as good a job as I can to help it to last - I'd be gutted if all that new steel were to start rotting again in a few years time.  :)

I managed to grab a bit of time for this on the way home today, and got stuck in to the engine bay. Its pretty fiddly, but a lot less unpleasant than the underside was.

Hopefully I'll have it all stripped in a couple of weeks, then I can start getting some paint and seam sealer on there.

[4wheeledstool]

Not had much time for this the last couple of days, but still chipping away at it a little bit at a time.

Its pretty fiddly, but its getting there slowly.

 

 

[4wheeledstool]

Got another go at this earlier.

Just the relatively straightforward part between the turret and the bulkhead to strip, and I can get this side treated.

 

[4wheeledstool]

A bit more done this afternoon.

Next session should see this side cleaned + treated.

[4wheeledstool]

Not going to be getting any time on this for a week or so now, but managed to grab a wee bit this afternoon. Driver's side inner wing got a couple of coats of Hydrate 80.

Then made a start on removing paint and rust from the front crossmember.

The slam panel + front valance strengthener panel will be next on the list, followed by the passenger side inner wing. Not a huge amount of wire wheeling remains.

[4wheeledstool]

A little time was made for more wire wheel action this afternoon - thanks to not having to do overtime today.

Nothing spectacular, just chipping away at the frontal parts of the car.

More progress to come in the not too distant future. (hopefully)

[4wheeledstool]

A few more bits done in available time slots. Nearside headlight area 

Front and back of front valance strengthener.

Theres just the underside of the slam panel to do before the frontal stuff gets treated.

[Uncle Jimmy]

THIS is awesome

[4wheeledstool]

Got a bit more done over the last couple of days - finished up stripping the underside of the slam panel (seen here before cleaning the orange dust off prior to treating with the Hydrate 80)

Underside of slam panel cleaned + treated.

Top side of slam panel also treated.

I'll get the rest of the front bits treated next time. Because the front valance still needs to be welded on, the strengthener must have weld through primer on the parts which will take the plug welds. The rest of it will be treated with Hydrate 80.

[danthecapriman]

Looks brilliant so far! You going to keep it the original colour? Or go for something different?

[4wheeledstool]

Cheers Dan! Plan at the moment is to keep it the original colour.

All remaining bare metal now treated.

Started preparing the front valance for going on, first stripping it back to bare metal.

Then giving it a couple of coats of electrox primer.

It was a bit too hot for comfort in the shed today, so may not be back for a while. It'll give me a bit of time to think of a way to attach the front end of the rollover jig once the front valance goes on.

[Skizzer]

This is great to watch as ever. Congrats on the milestone of finishing all the bare metal.

On that front valence, what made you go straight to Electrox rather than Hydrate80? (I’m a newbie at this but have some similar work in the pipeline and am finding this thread inspirational and educational.)

[4wheeledstool]

No rust at all on the new valance, so no need for the black stuff.

[Skizzer]

Fair enough!

B-H does talk a good fight about the rust prevention as well as rust conversion properties of Hydrate80, but I guess if the valance has got this far with no corrosion then it’s good for another 30 years...

[4wheeledstool]

On 8/24/2019 at 8:11 PM, Skizzer said:

Fair enough!

B-H does talk a good fight about the rust prevention as well as rust conversion properties of Hydrate80, but I guess if the valance has got this far with no corrosion then it’s good for another 30 years...

It'd probably be fine just painted, but that electrox tackle is supposed to be the next best thing to galvanising. 

I snaffled a bit of time this evening to make a start on the passenger side of the engine bay - once the shed had cooler down a bit. The battery tray was hit first. 

There was still plenty of time left, so I just carried on until hunger got the better of me. (about an hour!) 

Not sure If I'm gonna finish the engine bay or stick the front valance on next, stay tuned! 

[vulgalour]

Still hitting the old like button.  Still amazed.

[4wheeledstool]

A few short sessions during the week sees this side mostly stripped now. 

I have a decent amount of time to get this finished off tomorrow - and it'll probably take most of the day as this side is by far the fiddliest area of the whole car. Major milestone imminent!

[Cavcraft]

Fab!  Have you counted how many man hours you've put in so far? Must be an amazing amount, but all worth it of course.