My life in cars - Manta man!

[junkyarddog]

30 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yes it could

 

Waterford County reg.

[mk2_craig]

How the fuck did that happen .  Judging by the other cars in the photo, that Escort can't have been more than about a dozen years old. 

[trigger]

As alluded to in the News 24 thread I agreed to buy a MK2 Cavalier of a mate, he bought it a couple of years ago from auction to use on his YouTube channel but it took another direction and just sat in his barn unused instead, after having to move it last week to get some cars out for the NEC show and finding the handbrake had welded on he agreed to let me buy it to do something with... So yesterday it was loaded up

And today he dropped it round.

Yep, it's a early 1982 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6L saloon with an amazing 16000 miles from new on it.

I don't know much about it's history unfortunately, I know a garage in Weston Super Mare was selling it 10 years ago for £4995 and then a film company bought it for a true crime documentary and had it wrapped black

Thankfully that's been taken off with no real damage, it's then sat around for ages since so now needs a bloody good clean and some recommissing work

look at the condition of the door shuts, the underside is like new still too

It even had it's original Good Year tyres still on it although they'll have to get binned for new rubber 

So not a bad project, the rad fan motor has burnt out so finding a replacement will be fun and the brakes are really spongy but nothing to worry me.

I'm booked in for the Festival of the unexceptional so hopefully it will be there!

[RoadworkUK]

Entirely sensational. As ever. Your car CV is frighteningly excellent.

[trigger]

Ha! That's debatable but as someone else mentioned I do have the knack of finding excellent examples of shit cars! 🤣

[Matty]

7 minutes ago, trigger said:

Ha! That's debatable but as someone else mentioned I do have the knack of finding excellent examples of shit cars! 🤣

Bloody hell Trigger compared to most of the shit sold now that cav is the perfect family daily!

[dollywobbler]

Ah I was admiring that earlier this year. What a beauty. Also a dead ringer for the first car I ever lap-drove around a caravan site.

[trigger]

So this week between night shits has been spent in the garage going right though the Cavalier, I still want to replace the brakes, cambelt and water pump, fit some rear seat belts and a few other little jobs but it's coming along nicely now.

I definitely need to sort the tyres though as they are the original, I've got a set of Nankangs for £157 and I'll get a mate to chuck them on for me once I've painted the wheels.

I spent a small fortune on two clips as the headlights were loose, I still need one more but I refuse to pay £20 for one tiny clip.

I've had to make a small local repair to the back lip of sills but was the only rust on the entire car which is remarkable for a early 80s Vauxhall, and even that was just a surface scab.

I'm looking forwards to taking it to the Festival of the unexceptional in a few months

 

[tooSavvy]

Z18XER *fit in there, lovely....

TimeWarp[....again...] 😍👍

🚙💨

[Lord Sterling]

Welcome to the world of owning an old Vauxhall. Yours looks tremendously clean. Mine is quite tired, leaky and old. But it's just taken me to Brussels and back:

[Wibble]

21 minutes ago, trigger said:

So this week between night shits has been spent in the garage going right though the Cavalier, I still want to replace the brakes, cambelt and water pump, fit some rear seat belts and a few other little jobs but it's coming along nicely now.

I definitely need to sort the tyres though as they are the original, I've got a set of Nankangs for £157 and I'll get a mate to chuck them on for me once I've painted the wheels.

I spent a small fortune on two clips as the headlights were loose, I still need one more but I refuse to pay £20 for one tiny clip.

I've had to make a small local repair to the back lip of sills but was the only rust on the entire car which is remarkable for a early 80s Vauxhall, and even that was just a surface scab.

I'm looking forwards to taking it to the Festival of the unexceptional in a few months

 

That is absolutely gorgeous and brings back some memories.

Back in about 1991, I needed some cheap wheels as I was still rebuilding my Cortina and had been grassed up for using company pool cars.

My mate had an X reg Cav that had been side swiped and written off, not long after he’d rebuilt the engine, which we lifted in together with rope. Anyway, his parents were giving him grief for it sitting on the drive, so after plying him with beers, we agreed a price of £50. 
 

I went round to his the next day and it started with a jump. Gave him £50 and drove it home for a quick clean. Did a few emergency stops to free up the brakes and took it for a test. It went straight through and I then bought two offside doors in the same colour for £20 and drove it for 12 months before selling it on for £200. Mate wasn’t happy it went straight through but it served me well. Great cars. NotAVAS!

[trigger]

This is a very lazy update but I can't be bothered to document everything anymore!

Anyway the last week has been spent painting the wheels and fitting tyres, replacing all the brakes and removing and repairing the fuel sender unit and now the Cavalier is road ready!

I still need to do the water pump and cambelt and I want to get a fresh mot on it but for now I can actually use it, I put it over 17000 miles on the first test drive

It's a little bit splutterly and I've noticed the fuel filter is a bit grubby already so I'll swap that out but it drives nice enough, I can't see it being a keeper though. I managed to get some photos this afternoon 

[Bren]

It looks lovely. I would really like another SRi.

[Wibble]

Sorry you don’t intend to keep it, wish I had room. Looks amazing.

[Popsicle]

That looks a real honey. Its cleaner than the 1986 1.8 GLSi I had when I met Mrs P back in 1993.

[wuvvum]

Hard to believe that's a 43 year old car now. 

[Cavcraft]

So much love for these cars, that is an absolutely brilliant buy.

[lisbon_road]

Looks amazing.  I remember them being just so good when they came out.

Did you get a rad fan motor?  I have a few spare ones for Mk3 Astras, is it possible they might be the same?

[Joey spud]

I started my apprenticeship at a Vauxhall dealership about 18 months after these had been launched.

It was a golden time for Vauxhall/Opel with the all new MK2 Cavalier, MK2 Carlton and the recently launched Nova and Astra. Even the facelifted Manta was selling well. 

Arguably as good a line up as Ford were offering in 1982.

[danthecapriman]

How on earth have I missed this!?

That Cav is absolutely gorgeous @trigger 👍 

Unbelievable the condition it’s in for one of them. I’d give Vauxhall heritage a call if you don’t keep it, it’s easily good enough for their heritage fleet or museum if they have such a thing. There really can’t be many of them around so original now.

I used to work on a very similar one years back. X reg saloon in the same blue and spec owned from new by an old boy who barely used it. It came in to our garage every year for a full service and MOT (always passed!). We tried to get him to only do an oil & filter change instead of a full service to save him some money given the miles he was doing but he wasn’t having any of it! 
The last time I saw it some scroat had tried to steal it and failed so to try and stop it happening again the old boy had used a hole saw to cut a hole through each door and fitted DIY store deadlocks with keys intended for gates etc on every door! The sort of modification only old guys would do, you know! 
It really did look awful and ruined the look of the poor old Cav. No idea what happened to that car after our garage closed down and I never saw it again. Can’t even remember the registration to check.

[hairnet]

hannah be able to change gear in that compared to the last one

its also oof

 

[trigger]

12 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

Did you get a rad fan motor?  I have a few spare ones for Mk3 Astras, is it possible they might be the same?

I actually managed to find one in Lithuania on eBay, £40 and it was here less than a week later and like new so that was a right result, the old one had burnt itself out and part of the loom too which I had to cut out and rewire.

I've chucked a few more miles on it this morning, it was very splutterly still so I swapped out the filter for a new one from GSF at £1.39 and it fired straight up and is currently running like a swiss watch.

It drives really nice, everything just feels like new still which I suppose is to be expected for a 17000 mile car! 

[BorniteIdentity]

The first thing that struck me about seeing this (and any MK1 Cav for the first time in years) is just how plain the styling is. They are SO understated, so simple. Exactly as a child would draw a car. My (half) sister's grandfather had one in the same colour and this really did bring back some strong memories.  

If you're doing FotU it's worth talking to them now and seeing if their lawn of win is full - because this could be your second winner.  

Well done chap.  It's a peach for sure.

[hairnet]

trig you slaaaaaaaagggg

500£?

 

[ProgRocker]

Nice buy.  Always fancied a mark 2 Cavalier.

Prefer the post 1985 facelifted ones. 

[Bmwdumptruck]

When these Mk2 Cavaliers first came out my Dad still had his garage in Luton.  I’d have been 17/18 ish.  He had a customer / friend that got an early 1.6SR, before they made them 1.8Fi’s.  So it looked sporty but was only standard 1.6 power.  This guy was a rep and quickly put 100k on it, by which time it was guzzling oil so one of the last jobs my dad did before closing the garage down (in Maggies recession) was to fit a brand new crated vauxhall replacement engine, as they were still too new for recon untis from the more normal engine suppliers.  At the same time dad had another cusromer, one of the last hat factory families in Luton, where the dad had just bought an early BMW 323i that was just so nice, and his younger son who was their company rep, had a new 2.0 mk5 Cortina Ghia which looked great but was so antiquated compared to both the Cavalier and the BMW, and woefully finished and unreliable.  For me Ford certainly rested on their laurels through most of the 80s.  Don’t actually think much changed until the first Mondeos. 

[Bmwdumptruck]

On 14/04/2025 at 11:43, Joey spud said:

I started my apprenticeship at a Vauxhall dealership about 18 months after these had been launched.

It was a golden time for Vauxhall/Opel with the all new MK2 Cavalier, MK2 Carlton and the recently launched Nova and Astra. Even the facelifted Manta was selling well. 

Arguably as good a line up as Ford were offering in 1982.

Ohhhhhhhh way better. I mean Ford still relied on their old crossflow engine for a few more decades.  The basic 1.3 escorts were just horrible compared to the equivalent Astra.  The Cvh Escorts were better but I still found a 1.6 Astra just drove better than Escorts in all bar XR3i or Orion Ghia i guises.  And in truth you couldn’t even compare the Cavaliers to wobbly ole Sierras and their again very dated Pinto engines.  Cavaliers were lighter, roomier, handled great even with miles on them, and 1.6’s were quicker than 2.0 Sierras and way more economical.  
Oooops, sorry…….I am a Luton boy afterall😂😂

[wuvvum]

My grandad had a 1.6L hatchback in pale yellow when I were a nipper - replaced a beige Mk2 Granada.  The yellow Cav was replaced by a D-plate 1.8 CDi in metallic red - that was a lovely car.

[Lord Sterling]

Fatha_Sterling had a 1.6 L hatch in red. I loved that car and always had a soft spot for the Cavalier. 

Mustard mitt, I'm not entirely sure why I never really considered one at the start of my driving career. They were still just cheap enough but were thinning out. I guess it was because of my relentless pursuit of a Mk1 Sterling. 

[trigger]

I had my Mk2 Escort on the drive this afternoon and was indoors eating my tea when I had a knock on the door, a young lad of about 15-16 was there and asked if I would mind if he could take some photos of my car, of course I said yes and showed him around it and started it up for him etc, he was staying a camp site a few doors down but I was impressed that he actually knocked and asked first, someone's parents are doing a good job and it's great to see youngsters take an interest in classic cars👍🏻

I'd collected the Escort from my dad's this afternoon as my untamed welder was taking an age to actually get in, I've lost heart in it now and a local lad I know has been chewing at the bit to buy it since I bought it so I've decided to get my money back out the car and sell it on to him, I haven't got room for it anyway at the moment and I'm at a crossroads with it, either spend £1500-2000 and get the rear of the sills and arches replaced or sell now and get my money back so I did that.