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Cavalier mk2 - another blue giffermobile.


4wheeledstool

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Armed with a couple of hours spare today, I prepared myself for the deep joy of dashboard removal. I don't have a steering wheel puller, so hit it with the violent wiggling trick. After a few minutes of that, coupled with a bit of professional grade language, it popped off.

 

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As is normal, the Haynes book gave me a few clues, but I had to work out how to remove some of the parts which ate up a fair bit of the time available.

 

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Once I'd discovered how to remove the passenger side air vent, radio and central vents, the operation sped up somewhat.

 

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And its out! :)

 

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Took out the comedy air vent ducting (similar to the MK1)

 

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I'd run out of time now, so had to leave the heater box and wiring spaghetti for another day. My target for the day was to get the dashboard out though, so jobs a good 'un!

 

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Loving this. Look forward to seeing how the repairs get tackled.

I too would like to see how the repairs are to be tackled - I'll get a plan together once all the shite has been jettisoned. :)

 

All interior pieces (and lights too) have been stashed away in my dining room today. This should ensure they stay clean, and don't get any moisture damage. As I have no idea how long it'll be before it all goes back together, all upholstery has been stored without anything resting on it to avoid distortion.

 

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As you can imagine, living alone is advantageous in situations like this!

I'll be cracking back on with the scooter for a bit next, so may not have much to update on this until I get back on it in the Spring. :(

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Glad that you got the wings but sad that an SRi looks to have bitten the dust.

It is sad that the owner couldn't be arsed to fix the SRi, but theres a disproportionate amount of those still in existence compared to the lower specced variants. From what I could see, the SRi was in a better condition than my car too!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Grabbed an unexpected bit of stripping time on this earlier - the bumper brackets, side repeaters, mirrors, wiper arms, windscreen trim, door membranes + removable parts of the grill all came off.

 

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Window bottom trims were next - great care was taken to avoid distorting these as they're made from a soft alloy - I seem to have gotten away with keeping them nice and straight. :)

 

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More progress to follow sporadically!

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steering wheel removal trick that works more often than not for me.

 

jack front end off the ground. loosen steering wheel nut but do not remove it. steering wheel rims hitting the bridge of your nose at mach 3 is why they* insisted we wear seatbelts and stuck air bags in them. seriously though I was pulling a Moggie Minor steering wheel and when it suddenly freed in the general direction of my face I did not know what the fuck I was doing for the next couple of minutes, then I started throwing up etc. 

 

Anyway wind steering from lock to lock banging it against the steering stops.

 

after a couple of times the wheel pulls from the splines. remove nut and slide wheel free :)

 

Loving this thread

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another bit of unexpected time spent on this today. I decided to do a bit of bran flakes banishment - and thought I'd ease myself in to it by tackling something non structural + hidden from view when completed. (Just so I could experiment a little!)

 

First pox patch pruned

 

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Making a replacement piece

 

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Welded in (a bit of hole chasing occurred, no doubt due to the poor condition of the metal I was welding to in some areas)

 

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The other side was done in a similar style

 

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Once the replacement piece was shaped, I decided to postpone the welding until I've grabbed my 0.6mm wire from home. I'm thinking the lower power required to melt it may make it less likely to blow holes in the poorer patches of metal.

 

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I'll find out how well that goes next time! :)

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  • 1 month later...

Day off today - so pencilled in a couple of hours on this heap. :) First up, the bonnet came off in preparation for removing the engine/gearbox at the weekend. (time on two post ramp permitting)

 

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Next I decided to remove the outer part of the front valance. I was going to replace it in its entirety, but it would be difficult to weld it on without unsightly beads on the end of the chassis rails. This way I had the joy of unpicking all the spot welds holding the front part to the beam behind it. (And look forward to separating the two parts of the GM replacement!)

 

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Before leaving, I ran it up until the fan had kicked in a couple of times. I was totally impressed that it started immediately after a couple of months festering!

 

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Whilst waiting for my mate's ramp, I removed the windscreen. It has a few chips in it from the time a truck flicked a load of gravel up at it on a motorway slip road last February, so I'm on the hunt for a replacement. The screen frame has no rusty bits at all which was a bit of a bonus. :)

 

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Then the engine and box came out with the gratefully received assistance of our kid. (He did his apprenticeship at a Vauxhall dealership when these were new)

 

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Its now sat piddling it's oil out onto the floor.

 

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Most of my spare time today was spent removing the incredibly sticky sealant off the windscreen rubber. It appears to be the same stuff that was used to attach the door membranes on my MK1. After about 3 hours, every last bit of it is off, and the seal is ready to be reused. :)

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Got a bit more time in on this today - under bonnet furniture removal time.

 

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Haynes manual yielded the odd indication on how stuff comes apart. (not many)

 

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Removed a sheet metal/filler/sheet metal sandwich "repair" to the offside inner wing behind the headlight.

 

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Finished the session off by unpicking half of the reinforcement part of the replacement front valance.

 

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I'll finish the other half next time! :)

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Most of the front suspension gubbins came off after work today.

 

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Its getting closer to the stage where I can get it up on a rollover spit. The brake lines and servo, plus the steering rack will come out next, then I can remove the bulkhead cover and have a good check for car pox.

 

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Last week I discovered the reason for the jerky gearchange experienced when it was in use....

 

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The front gearbox mount was broken - a new one has been sourced already. :)

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Today's installment - finished off sparating the front valance panel, then spent a bit of time marking where it needs to be positioned before welded on. Fitted pretty well, just needed a little tweak here and there to satisfy my OCD. Seen here in trial fit position.

 

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Next I was going to take off the steering rack, but it turns out that you can't get to one of the bolts without removing the brake servo too. (Mr. Haynes makes no mention of this) Removing the servo wasn't the easiest of jobs in my partially crippled state, but perseverance and swearing saw the job done.

 

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Once I've got round to taking the brake and fuel lines out, the bulkhead cover can come off. This won't happen tomorrow though, as I've locked the key to my unit inside the unit, so time available tomorrow will be spent cutting the lock off and being laughed at! :)

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Apparently removing the servo on a mark 3 is an arse as well. I managed to get all the bulkhead cover off on my Colorado cavalier without moving too much grief. It had no corrosion behind it either. I didn’t recall much noise increase from the cabin either

I intend to refit the bulkhead cover when the car is rebuilt, so care needs to be taken to ensure it remains in one piece.

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Didn't get much time in on this today - just removed enough brake lines to get the bulkhead cover off.

 

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Pleasantly surprised by the brake pipes all coming undone as they're supposed to, I was then further surprised by the condition of the bulkhead.

 

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All the seams appear to be fine, just needs repairing around the gear selector shaft aperture at the bottom.

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That is pretty damn good under there.

  

Its not bad at all - I've certainly seen far worse!

Thought I was following this thread, happily now I am.  Excellent progress being made and while those rear arches were a bit scary, overall the car seems in suprisingly good shape.

Cheers! I went to Castleford yesterday to get a windscreen - the car being broken for spares had massively better rear arches and tubs than my car, but was utterly ruined in places where mine is spotless. It really is bizarre, the random nature of car pox areas these cars seem to harbour. I may well be going back for some bodywork cuts from the broken car to make my life a little easier further along the line - I'm thinking stuff like the rear tubs + fuel filler aperture.
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My first car after passing my test was a B plate Mk2 Cavalier 1.3L saloon in maroon with a lovely beige interior. It served me well until a railway bridge jumped out in front of me and I totalled it. It was then replaced with a D plate 1.3GL saloon in dark blue with a blue, very blue interior. Certain bits were robbed off the crashed one to fettle the blue one which got me back and forth to uni for a few months until it suffered OMGHGF and shat itself in spectacular fashion.

 

Watching this thread with interest!

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Definitely got to get bits where you can. Think the body cuts are going to be helpful. I have had several mk 3 cavs and they have all had rot in different places. There was a myth going round that the uk built ones were not as rustproof. However i had a mixture of both and they both are as bad. I bought an Sri from Lincolnshire which was low miles and looked ok but because the good old soil up there had been stuck to the underneath for so long the first pressure wash revealed a level of rot which was too much for me, so swapped over the best bits on to mine, and sold it on to someone else as a parts car

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Made an exploratory excavation into the driver's side sill this afternoon. Some time in the distant past the lower part had already been replaced with a Hadrian panel.

 

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The rear half of that had then rotted out and had another aftermarket panel boshed on top of the rotten one. (This explains the "fatness" of the rear half of the sill prior to any excavation.)

I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to get the sills in order before it is suspended on a spit, as the spit will only be supporting the weight of the body at its extremeties.

The inner sill needs to be repaired where it strengthens the jacking point, then it looks like a routine outer sill replacement can be done.

 

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Not entirely sure when the weldathon will commence, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. :)

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