My new Lutonshite

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey, I bought this the other day:

 

 

It was advertised on here and retro-rides for about £200 or so. Its a 2.0 GLSi Auto (with hand controls!) and a head gasket problem.

 

It had been winking at me for a while, then when Mrs_bol was away for the week with work, I thought it would be a good idea to nip out and buy it! The HG was described as 'on the way out' due to bubbling in the expansion bottle, and I planned to drive it back to Crewe so bought a cover note and a one-way train ticket to Manchester. When I got there however, it was clear that the HG was long gone already as there were clouds of steam coming out the exhaust and the sump was well mayo'd. It seemed like a nice car still though, and the lad was mega sound so i still fancied buying it. Eventually we settled on £160, we both knew he could get a bit more than that just by weighing it in, but I promised to do something constructive with it so a deal was done.

 

 

I put it on Shitly and a mega sound chap from Manchester quoted £45 to bring it down to Crewe the following day, so that was pretty painless too. That shitly thing is very expensive though for what it is, they kept the 12% deposit that I paid to the transport fella, then took another £6 off me, so they had about £12 on a £45 recovery job. Anyway the geeza was supa sound and punctual so i couldnt fault him.

 

The car is very nice, the engine sounds lovely as these 2.0 8v efforts usually do, I know cavette goes mental for 'em and its not hard to see why, they are a real honey of an engine really. The interior is clean and tidy and its in its original paint all over as far as I can tell.

 

 

The only bit of proper grot I can find is the forward egde of one wheelarch, and the corner of the adjacent door:

 

 

The other one has a bleb on it but does not seem to need welding:

 

 

Plans are to fix the headgasket, maybe get a fresh ticket on it (its tested till may though), go to town on it with the polishing mop and that, give it a general check over, remove the hand controls, and then I dont know after that, see how i feel. Its a really nice old thing though, if I get a load more grief off the Rover it might come in handy!

[Station]

I never thought that would get sold!

Now all you need is one of those 'Scrappage Scheme Survivors' stickers innit?

[Guest]

Looks top-notch, nice trims! I reckon you should leave the hand controls on and use it as part of an ill-thought out scheme to claim disability benefits.

[Inspector Morose]

That is, well, what can I say. Wish I'd have squirrelled mine away somewhere now.

[warren t claim]

Was an emergency head gasket swap at the First bug garage out of the question? They might of had a NOS Bristol VR one that could of been persueded on.

 

Top save though. Impressed.

[Guest]

Just noticed the reflection in the wheel arch pic, that's a nice "Jimbo Jones" hat.

[Torsten2001]

They've never really tickled my fancy but somehow that one seems so right, well done!

[pompei]

I've had a couple of these in the past and they were just fine!

[worldofceri]

Sorry if I is bein' thick or uncool 'cause I don't know all the latest slang and what not but...

 

Who or what is Shitly?

 

edit: PS: They are a great motor these - 200K miles is no bother.

[Station]

Shiply arrange car transportation, like a broker.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

http://www.shiply.com/

[pogweasel]

OMG UR FAMILY R SO POOR, UR DAD R DRIVIN A CAVALEIR LOL.

[Pillock]

Hmmmm. GLS are alright spec and like you say those engines are one of the better mass-market jobs you'll find. Rare colour too, not seen many at all in that.

 

Are the hand controls proper professional jobbies, or are we talking some string tied around the pedals? I can't honestly imagine any hand controls being safe, surely it means driving one-handed constantly? Or just setting the throttle to a certain level and careering through gaps using both hands on the wheel.

[Cavcraft]

Class that and a good price too. Can't imagine a headgasket set will be too expensive/hard to do and they're bloody reliable motors. Colour is ace, about the best they came in imho.

[trigger]

I drove a old Granada once with hand controls, I nearly crashed it so i gave up using them.

[Richard]

I once tried to ride a Jawa 350 with sidecar that had been adapted for a one-armed rider. The third time I dragged it out of the ditch I gave up and pushed it the 10 yards back to where I started.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

OMG UR FAMILY R SO POOR, UR DAD R DRIVIN A CAVALEIR LOL.

 

Ha ha, these are (or have been) a weapon of choice for those folk who are long-term unemployed but who do a bit of cash in hand unskilled work, I reckon they are getting rare enough to be just coming out of that zone now though. nowadays those guys are driving Vectras of course.

[andrew e]

I'd cut the pedals off run a Foots Spa off an invertor.

 

Everyone at the office would be talking about your alpine frseh feet behind your back I'd imagine.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Although I have no practical experience, I assume my hours of Playstation driving have earned me mad hand control skills. I could probably jump that Cav over a canyon and/or lap the Nürburgring in three minutes.

[Owain-328i]

These are nice, i would very much like an SRI 8v on a G plate, but then i see Sierra 2.0 Ghia's pre 90 and fancy them too

 

Added shite points for being fully endorsed by Douglas Bader too, having an autobox and hand controls

[Lankytim]

I once drove a Fiesta from London to Dudley with hand controls. They are usable with practice, but ultimately a waste of space. Dangerous, too! (hand controls, not fiestas)

 

Careful when you clean it out, Boll. You may find crumpled up pieces of foil and a few syringes in the footwells. All the Cavs I see on OMG POLICE STOP seem to!

[Mike D]

The only Cav i've had experience of was a mates dads 1.8LS on an M, which used to take such a colossal abusing I have quite a respect for the things... That, and the actual car appeared on 'Traffic cops' belching out smoke from its obviously ragged to death engine... M453 MFU i recall...#

 

Yours looks a beauty Boll....

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey does anyone fancy taking this off my hands? This business with that Autobianchi is making me realise that I really oughta concentrate my now much-less-abundant garage time on vehicles with a higher 'shite factor', such as my 929 or whatever. I have done the head gasket, with new stem seals and what have you, new head bolts and a new cambelt. It now runs lovely, with fresh blue coolant, a steady temp and a nice warm heater. Fresh sumpful of oil too. Its tested till May and is a very tidy old bus. The worst of it is the rot pictured on the rear arches. i was gonna get this done by a bodyshop, its a long way from needing rear arches - they really just need a clean up and re-paint, with possibly a small patch on the rear end of one sill. With this done the bodywork would be pretty mint, its the original paint all over for a start.

 

It would be nice to finish it and get it really nice but theres just not enough hours in the week for all the shite projects that are in the back of my mind. At least it'll leave me in better nick than it arrived. It owes me about £250 all in..... I'm looking for £225 plus a non-legally-binding 'promise' to keep it on the road for a bit and at least try to not just weigh it/banger it when the MOT's up. The brake pipes, CV boots and exhaust are all healthy as far as I can see so the next MOT should not present any massive hurdles. PM me if its any use to you, the car is in Nantwich, Cheshire.

[pogweasel]

Like the sound of your plan, brown paint & vinyl seats are much more important in shite.

 

I am displeased at your timing mind, as I was in cheshire on thursday and it took me 4 hours, 5 trains and £100 to get home. I could have bought this, bunged £30 of pez in it and been back for tea.

[Lankytim]

I need a smoker while I take the audi off the road and fix the fire damage/fit new wings/MOT/go bankrupt however the position of elderly automatic motor/stopgap has been filled with a maestro with a busted head (for which I now have a recon head for) Otherwise I would have definitely had it e.t.c.

[Cavcraft]

If someone buys my Nissan Micra K10 bodykit for £225 I'll have it

[dollywobbler]

If someone actually buys my CX, I'll be amazed.

 

But a Cavalier's not what I'm looking for. If it was a V6 Mondeo in bright yellow, at the end of my driveway, I might have been tempted. Sorry.

[Split_Pin]

Blimey that's a complete steal with all that work done!!

[Shep Shepherd]

Cavaliers are great cars, especially now that they aren't as common as they used to be. Apart from the back arches (which aren't anyhwere near as bad as some I've seen), your's looks very nice. I hope that you are able to pass it on to a suitable new owner in due course

[pogweasel]

Did you sell this yet?

If not does it have any rent in the window??

 

I've a job in Crewe on Monday, but my car is currently b0rked [again]... I can get a run up there no probs, but I then need to get to another job in Chester on Tues and then back home - this would be a cheaper option than fucking about with trains and shit.