New member - Calibra V6 (resurrection)

[Captain Flimble]

Just joined the forum as it seems appropriate to my lifestyle, i.e. autos and shite.

 

I thought you might be interested in the ostensibly pointless project I am working on - most people probably wouldn't get it, but I have a feeling you lot will understand...

 

I have here a Vauxhall Calibra V6, in my opinion a very underrated car, which I have owned for a number of years. Bought in 1997, I had planned to keep it for a couple of years but could never find anything that ticked the same boxes so I still have it all these years later. It's a bit tired (210k miles) so I recently decided to restore it.

 

I thought the body was basically sound, but on removal of the back bumper it became apparent that it was right royally shafted and had a serious case of tinworm, see pic.

 

[Cally got the squits]

 

 

But, like I said, I was going to restore it, so I wasn't going to be put off by the fact that there was so much rust staining around the back end that it looked like it had a bad case of the shits. Anyway, I've got a welder, and want some practice with it. Also, one day, I'd like to tackle something a bit more exotic one day, and practice makes better (perfect might be too much to hope for). I've been assisting John F with his Maserati 222SE and it hasn't put me off - it's his headache, not mine

 

I got a spare back end from the scrappers for replacement metal, and the rebuild is going on this weekend so I've made a start, with John giving me the benefit of guidance with welding.

 

 

 

More updates to follow after this weekend...

[dollywobbler]

Welcome!

 

Crikey, that was hiding the rot. Look forward to seeing this shite-saving project progress. I trust you're going to replace that thirsty V6 with a non-turbo 1.7 Diesel? You can't Top Trump that in autoshite terms!

[Station]

Welcome to AS!

I admire your belligerence restoring a Calibra and agree a 1.7TD would be a grand idea, a few years ago there was a green Turbo Calibra on eBay which had been raped for it's engine and had this put in!

That rust looks scary, is it on the boot floor/seam as well? I am too 'restoring' a mk3 Astra 1.4 which I began in 2005

[Cavcraft]

Welcome along, looks a tricky project that one but hats off for taking it on. Looking forward to reading more about this as I'm a big fan of the Calibra.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Cavette in fan of a Vauxhall shocker! All we need now for a good old flame war is a couple of posters who will come along and say "Vauxhalls are shit" etc.

 

Welcome to Autoshite and keep us posted on the Calibra project!

[Guest Len H]

^Ahahahaha that's just what it's like here, you are a very perceptive man.

 

I can't remember the last time I saw a non-Barried Calibra, looking forward to seeing yours restored.

 

They are essentially a Cavalier coupé, Cavaliers are great. I'd advocate a tuned up 1.7TD Isuzu engine too.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I reckon Calibras are a dead cert 'classic' when folk realise that they have all dissolved and you cant buy one anymore without a load of effort. (they'd better hurry up and realise like) I think people will spend yonks welding them up and rebuilding them and that.

[cort16]

I like them they're great looking cars. It's a pity so many of them have been bummed for their engines.

[Pete-M]

Um, I don't actually mind V6 Calibras. Nice wafty tourers.

[Pillock]

My ex-mate had a nice SE9 - Red V6 with BBS wheels and full leather. Very nice car and in mint condition too.

[M'coli]

Um, I don't actually mind V6 Calibras. Nice wafty tourers.

Are you feeling ok?

 

That's a nice load of grot on the back of that Calibra, welcome to the forum.

[Captain Flimble]

Thanks for the welcome.

 

I was thinking about dropping in a 2.5TD from an Omega until I realised it was just a four pot and didn’t have nearly enough cylinders to go wrong. So I’m happy to stay with the V6 petrol for now because at least it’s more frugal than the Westfield, and the Merc 6-wheeler isn’t a problem because it runs on synthetic petrol from the reserves in Poland.

 

On a more serious note, yes, the boot floor was rotten in places, notable at the back of the wheel well, where the holes were so big you could almost get your shopping out without opening the boot.

 

First job was to strip out all the rot. This was done by cutting and peeling off the lower section:

 

 

…and then cutting out the bit between the lights. Doing this in 2 bites made the job much easier than trying to remove one big lump.

 

 

Then we cut out the rotten sections of boot floor and wheel well:

 

 

(Windows covered to protect from the copious angle grinding). A lot of time went into cleaning off the paint and electrophosphoric coating from around the joins, and any rust. As I mentioned before, I got a back end from a man with a big yard full of highly desirable vehicles, and we cut the appropriate bits off for patches, clamped them in place:

 

 

...and welded in the new boot floor sections ready to receive the new arse section:

 

 

All sections that were going to be covered up were primed with Jenoseal red oxide primer and the donor arse prepped:

 

 

…and offered up so that it could be carefully trimmed to fit:

 

 

…and tack welded into place:

 

 

As you can see by the dim light in this pictures it was beer o’clock on Sunday evening by this point, but as it now just needs the welding finishing it’s all over bar the shouting. And painting. And reassembly. Bleh!

 

 

Many thanks, John for the help on this.

[Station]

Flip! Excellent job. That would've taken me 2 years to do. A day is splendid work.

It's nice to see you doing this to a Calibra, they're very unloved. I'd like a metallic sky blue one with cream interior and a 2.0 Ecotec. V6 is a bit hard on the petrol. I have a load of leather door cards in the loft.

[MK5 Escort]

Welcome, Flimble!

 

V6 Calibra's certainly don’t hang about. They have more shove in them than you’d expect and certainly a motor which remains very much below the 'radar' when it comes to classic status at the moment. An uncle of mine, former Vauxhall employee recently retired, had an L reg one also in white when it was new. Full black leather too. It did drink the fuel though.

 

Never seen grot like that on a Calibra before. It's normally the rear arches that go on them.

 

Very brave with the cutting, there. Full credit to you. I wish I had welding skills like that.

[Cavcraft]

Cavette in fan of a Vauxhall shocker! All we need now for a good old flame war is a couple of posters who will come along and say "Vauxhalls are shit" etc.

 

Welcome to Autoshite and keep us posted on the Calibra project!

 

 

My daughter has been pestering me almost non-stop to get another one since the last one got written off.

 

The common or garden 8V models were GR8 on fuel by the way (due to areodynamics probably) so I expect a veg oil burning converted one would be bloody ace.

[Station]

Useless Calibra fact: The 8v front bumpers were more aerodynamic than the 16v as the 16v had a larger grille area for cooling. Might save about 1 litre of fuel in it's lifetime.

 

Another crap fact: The rear of the car was designed based on the heels of a sprinter when he is on the starting blocks.

[John F]

My pleasure, Capt. F! Although next time I'd appreciate it if you could keep your local midges under control, I'm covered in bites Suppose I should have put my overalls on, hehe.

 

I think V6 Calibras are OK on fuel for what they are, and for their age. I tend to get just over 30 mpg out of mine at a steady 90 on my private motorway, maybe 25 mpg round town on its current engine (X25XE out of a Vectra, running on C25XE engine management). I'm not expecting fuel economy to be much worse when my 3.0 Omega engine and f28 6-speed box go in, either... they'll be even less stressed than the 2.5 lump and lazy f25 gearbox.

 

And yep, as well as being really easy to live with on a daily basis, Calibras are definitely heading for classic status. I'd keep mine in preference to the Maserati or the Land Rover without a second's thought.

[dollywobbler]

I have to ask - how easy is the engine to work on for servicing and the like? It's that rearmost bank of spark plugs that always seems to be the problem. I've had a very real hankering for a Xantia V6 for a while now (though a Calibra is certainly appealing too...)

[John F]

I have to ask - how easy is the engine to work on for servicing and the like? It's that rearmost bank of spark plugs that always seems to be the problem. I've had a very real hankering for a Xantia V6 for a while now (though a Calibra is certainly appealing too...)

 

It's quite easy to access the rear bank of cylinders. The plastic engine cover has to come off, then the inlet manifold (about 10 bolts) plus a couple of brackets round the back. It takes no more than 5 minutes once you've done it a couple of times. Oil & filter changes are a doddle.

 

I bought my V6 Calibra with 66,000 miles on the clock (it's now on 125,000) and in that time all it's had is an alternator and two cam belts... 40,000 mile cam belt changes are recommended, the belt & tensioner kit costs about 80 quid if you can do it yourself (NB there isn't a lot of space) or budget for 250-300 quid from a garage. Alternators occasionally fail due to their hot location behind the rear cylinder bank (ensure the cooling fan ducting is still present), the offside drive shaft has to be removed to allow the alternator to be removed through the wheelarch.

 

I also fitted alloy cam covers from a V6 Vectra. The original plastic items can warp if over-tightened, allowing oil to drip onto the manifolds. Smelly and annoying, but not really a big problem. A set of alloy covers will cost about 40 quid or thereabouts.

 

But in general, I can only recommend the V6 Cally. Prices are starting to become more robust for tidy examples, so anyone that's tempted should get a cheap one whilst they still can

[Captain Flimble]

The work actually took 2 days of hard graft. Most of the work is in preparation such as flattening kinked surfaces, grinding down to bare metal, trimming and positioning panels.

 

The rust came about from a minor shunt that the car had sustained before I bought it (in 1997). I noticed minor crazing in the surface of the plastic bumper but no other effects so I ignored it. However the impact was enough to crack the paint on the rear valance around the bumper mounting bracket and the rust seems to have emanated from there.

 

It’s easy to be brave with the cutter – just think about having to do it all again when any left-insitu rust spreads again, and you’ll get the lot out. As far as welding skills go – this is my first welding project. As I said earlier, this project will help me to learn skills that may be applied to something a little more exotic in future.

 

I get an average of 37mpg but I tend not to go over 80 and I don’t tend to use the brakes, unlike most British drivers who flash their red lights at every corner/ junction/ roadsign/ etc...

 

With regard to working on the engine, the timing belts are a bit fiddly – I’ve only done them with the engine out, but it can probably be done insitu with scraped knuckles. I also have a cam and crank locking set; I can’t imagine how difficult it would be without. My engine has now done 210,000 hard miles with no oil leaks and it still pulls like Warren Beatty in his prime.

[Captain Flimble]

It's been a while since my last report, but I have made some progress on the Cally.

 

The replacement panels were welded in place (seam welded wherever possible). A bit of filler to smooth of a couple of minor undulations along the top seam, and a bit of zinc primer. The zinc doesn't give any passive protection,but helps the primer to bond to bare metal.

 

 

Brush-on seam sealer applied carefully and liberally to all seams:

 

 

Bit of paint. Spray paint on visible panels and where the light clusters need to seal against the body work. The rest was brushed on. All paint was cellulose.

 

 

The more observant of you will notice the sudden appearance of a motor under a cover in the background. This is a Lancia HPE recently acquired from these hallowed pages. Future reports on this later.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Cally; bits and bobs getting nailed back on. Seemed a shame to start covering up all my graft:

 

 

...but nice to see the old girl looking a bit fresher:

 

 

But not finished yet - rust around the rear seat belt anchorages:

 

 

I made templates for the patches out of paper, because it folds over contours and where you get folds you can see where you need to cut out fillets, etc. Also one for a patch on the sill.

 

 

I am lucky enough to have a mate with a plasma cutter, who kindly cut out my steel patches. I want one of these - no distortion of the metal at all.

 

 

 

A bit of judicious bending with a bench vice and pliers…

 

 

A good jolly good migging…

 

 

Primer, seam sealer and topcoat…

 

 

Very pleased to say, the car sailed through her MoT – not even an advisory, although the tester did say there was more rust developing – goody!

[boobydoo]

You've done a splendid job there!

 

If only I had 1/100th of your skillz!

[Captain Flimble]

Kind words - thanks!

 

But I'm still only learning to weld on this car. The advantage is I have another daily driver so I've been able to take my time (lots of it) and I've also been lucky with the weather! It also helps that I really like the car - I've owned it for 14 years - so I wanted a decent job, and I'm very happy with the way it came off.

 

...and went back on again, obviously!

 

I bought my MIG over a year ago, and I'd only done little bits with it until recently. But now after a fair bit of practice on the Cally, I'd be happy to tackle pretty much anything (including John F's Maserati!). If anything goes wrong with metal, you can (usually) just pick up the angry grinder and rip it out and do it again until it's right.

 

I'd recommend anyone to get a welder and have a play, and then go on from there. If you persevere, it's actually good fun and very satisfying, and much cheaper than paying someone else. If I hadn't done the Cally myself it would have been a write-off. I reckon the total cost of the project was less than £150, including spare rear end, consumables and electric - much cheaper than replacing the car.

 

I've just got another fiddly weld to do under the left sill (hidden under the plastic cover, hence the MoT pass) and then I can get my teeth into my next project, the Lancia HPE, which is going to be a serious restoration job. Starting with welding the fuel tank - I did say serious

[fiatdaft]

Well done,can you post some pics of the merc estate in your sig?

[Captain Flimble]

Will do, but it'll be in a couple of weeks.

 

The car is still parked at my mate's house. I'm hoping he doesn't get fed up and scrap it whilst I am pissing about with my other projects!

[Cavcraft]

More top work and very impressive. Really looking forward to reading/seeing the pictures of the restoration of the Lanica.

[Captain Mainwaring]

Nice to see what is a pretty overlooked car in these kind of circles getting the treatment it deserves, I look forward to seeing the finished car. Calibras are lovely things.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow man, cracking work you've done there CF. Nice the V6 Calibra looking so fresh. I'd love to try out a V6 Calibra one day.

[barrett]

Good work Flimble, you're really putting the effort into saving something most people wouldn't hesitate to chuck away.

I'm glad someone's taking the time to save one of these, Calibras have gone from 'one on every street' to 'C.R.T.L.T.I.S.O' in the space of a couple of years.

[Captain Mainwaring]

I see a minty BRG one on my rounds at work with those steel alloys in a matching colour, it looks fantastic. Only letdown for me is it has the later grille which I don't think suits the Calibra at all.