mckdan0

Hi Estateman. I'm in Reading just down the road from you (14 Chiltern Road near shops) I don't mind taking a look if you are still having any troubles with the car. I'm normally working on my Cavalier or Belmont on saturdays, so feel free to pop up if you like, I also work at Reading College so have access to all of the motor vehicle workshops and equipment

Yeah, all of the blue bits that you can see in the pic's are the original panels sprayed in ceramic blue, it has a purple/blue colour when the sun hits it at the right angle . Its a funny colour, the camera doesn't seem to show the purpleness up all that well ??? I did take all of the pic's on my phone though . perhaps a proper camera would show it up better

I think it’s called Vauxhall Ceramic Blue? but I can find out for sure when I get home. I had loads left from my last car which was a 1996 Vectra so I used the paint up on the Cav. Have to agree with you though Nordic blue does look really nice on the car . It was that colour that made me consider changing mine in the first place…..but at the time I didn’t realise the name Nordic Blue . Suppose it could always be changed back to a genuine Cav colour in another 20years time … my main intention at the moment is to try and keep the car rot free

Thanks for everyone's kind comments, They all help to motivate me in to spending every spare minute on the car to get it back on the road I'll be getting the Roof and Engine Bay sprayed blue to match all of the panels that are already done in the next few weeks, and I'm hoping to get a lot more done on the car throughout August as i've booked the whole month off of work Weather permitting i'll be able to make a start on stripping off the underside stone chip coating, and hopefully get some new paint on it before the winter

Hi, I’ve been using the Sealey Shot Blasting Kit (Part number SB993) http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?gotonode=ViewProduct&method=mViewProduct&productid=9212 As for the Blasting Grit I’ve used x2 25kg bags (Re-using the sand) for all of the suspension bits and a few other areas of the car. (Sealey Product Code: B/25KG) http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?gotonode=ViewProduct&method=mViewProduct&productid=6296 I’ve got a small direct drive compressor, off the top of my head I think it’s a 25 litre one. It’s not really big enough to keep up with the air requirement as the compressor is always running….Very noisy as its a direct drive! So it is probably best to buy the biggest one you can afford, I've used a Sealey belt driven Compressor at my work which was much quieter than my direct drive one. Try looking at machinemart - http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/categories/search/air-compressors Hope this is of some help

Yeah it has taken a lot of patience so far…..quite often I get the impression my neigbours think I’m mad for doing it! , but I’m glad there are some people out there with similar interests for the cars. I found some of the other project threads on here motivating enough to keep me going! ;D As for Billing I will hopefully make it there eventually….I still have a lot to do on the car before I’m going to put it back on the road……The underneath being one of them, its pretty much rust free but I don’t trust the stone chip coating so I’m going to take all of that off and repaint the underside to be on the safe side Right a few more pics I made a start on the offside wheel arch, it was getting a little bit crusty at the bottom corner near the sill so I decided to cut it out and weld a repair patch in. The rest of the arch was as new with no rust present at all Repair section ready to be welded in. rather than lap the new arch with the old I decided to butt weld them so there is no water trap behind. I've also came up with a cunning plan on a way to fill the inside of the arch repair with waxoil aswell > Repair section welded in Arch with welds ground down and tiny amount of filler The finished Arch ready for painting

Hi, Its taken a long time....about 3 years! I only get an afternoon a week to spend working on the car, and haven't got the car in a garage.....Its outside so its all dependant on the weather. If your going to go down the sand blasting route on all of the suspension parts etc I would really consider getting a sand blasting company to do it as this is what takes all of the time.....such a slow, boring and dirty job using a diy sandblasting kit! I ended up looking like a coal miner after i'd finished blasting! ;D Other than the suspension components the Inner wheel arches were quite quick to do.....probably took me around about a couple of days per side. The engine bay must have taken me 2 days to remove the engine,gearbox,steering rack, wiring loom etc etc. Around about a week to prepare the bay for a respray as there are so many nooks and crannies to sand up ready for painting. I also decided to take the battery tray off aswell as there wasnt any paint at all underneath ....was really lucky it wasnt rotten!

Thanks m8, It's my first major project, started on my first cavalier when I was 17 but the bulk head was rotten so pretty gave up and weighed the car in .......then this one came along when i was 23 .....was the model i've always liked ;D just had to save it!! Any idea how many Lx models are left in the country now? can't be that many can there??

Right here comes some more pic's as requested.... The Calipers were quite rusty so rather than buying new ones I decided to overhaul the old ones Calipers after hours of sand blasting ;D Rather than let the calipers go rusty again I chose to spray them red with caliper paint, I also took the slides out, cleaned and lightly greased them....hopefully will give years more service now Cars starting to come together now, the suspension struts etc. are bolted back on to the car, new pads and discs are fitted aswell and the old cv joints fitted temporarily to avoid damage to the new wheel bearings (Car has to be moved often). Next up was the engine bay, I took the engine, gearbox, steering rack, servo, wiring loom, brake lines etc. out of the car, then peeled back the bulkhead sound proofing......was worried that the bulk head would be rotten like on my old cav! But luckily it was all solid!.... bar a little hole smaller than a 5p in the bottom right corner. It was so small I was able to weld the hole back in without a patch. The rest of the engine bay was pretty good the only sand blasting that was required was to the underside of the radiator support bar Next on the list of things to do was the rear axle which was quite rusty . I decided to strip it down to a bare axle removing the anti-roll bar, brake mechanism, hubs etc, then sand blast it Underside of the axle after sandblasting Top side of axle ready for priming The finished axle, painted in 2pack satin black paint ;D Picture of the new brake shoes. I changed the brake cylinders aswell as the old ones were leaking New Brake drum's!. I decided to paint these to stop them rusting so I chose silver caliper paint which was the nearest match to the original colour of the drums The coil springs were quite rusty aswell so I stripped the paint off with paint stripper, then sanded the rust patches. As a finish I purchased some plasticote in the hope that it will flex as the springs move........hopefully they will be ok! time will tell

Yeah will keep the seats, all of the lx models that I have seen have had the same colour grey and red seats so pretty sure the they will look ok regardless of the car colour

Yes i'd like to keep it all original....as it left the factory. I won't be modifying it in any way, The only thing i'm changing is the colour to blue. I kind of regret making that decision as white cars are popular again now but its too far down the line to change it back now . I'll post some more pic's of all the other work that i've done/am doing on it if everyone wants to see more ;D

Haha yeah no problem! ;D......I've had enough of all that sandblasting for a few years now! Takes forever wish i'd payed somebody else to do it now looking back

Hi Everyone, I thought it was about time I posted some pic's of my Cavalier 1.6 LX Auto. I Managed to pick the car up off of ebay 3 - 4 years ago for £400, To my surprise there was very little interest in anybody bidding for it!. When I picked the car up it was in far better condition than what I was expecting. It had covered 54000miles, was totally original with no welding anywhere!, all the usual mk2 rust areas i.e chasis legs etc were solid , and it also had a near to immaculate interior ;D The Interior was a little bit grubby but cleaned up like new with upholstery cleaner I drove the car for a few months then decided to do some preventative maintenance....(having had a mk2 cav before and loosing it due to tin worm) I didn't want to loose this one! I started by removing the Stone chip coating and paint from the front Inner wheel arches......was caught out by rust creeping underneath on my previous cav Wheel Arch back to metal, and sandblasted in areas such as the top suspension turret ;D Undercoated ready for Top coat Drivers Side Top coated My intention is to have the Inner Arches Stone Chip Guarded and sprayed in 2pack Satin Matt Black when it goes for the Re-Spray.....eventually! Next inline was the Suspension Arms, Wishbones and Mounts which were quite dirty and rusty Out comes the sand blasting kit and wire brushes Sand blasting complete! at last!! Undercoated ready for 2pack Black Topcoat Wishbones and Mounts Sand blasted Undercoated ready for topcoat All complete looking like new ;D I'm Fitting new wheel bearings, ball joints, discs etc aswell....no point in cutting corners at this stage.