New here and Hi from Australia

[ant0ny]

Hi all i have joined your forum to share and get help restoring a Mk2 Vauxhall Cavalier SRi that was imported to Australia and is now in my hands. In the pic the previous owner put a Ascona Grill on it.

[img width=640 height=480]http://thor.pointclark.net/Ascona_rear.jpg

I have had plenty of experience with these cars having rallied a Holden Camira (Vauxhall Cavalier) JE Sedan for years that was build with parts from Harry Hockly and others.

After I finished with that I reshelled the car into a Mk2 Astra building a replica Rally Opel Kadett GSi complete with C20XE and at the moment is producing 155HP @ wheels.

[img width=350 height=350]http://thor.pointclark.net/Kadett_front_s.jpg

The new project other than this one is a replica of the Vauxhall Astra 4S, myself and Mick from the Astra MK2 forum are building one each from the original panels and viewings of the 4S at the Vauxhall Heritage Centre.

The Mk2 Cav will be my daily car and I will restore it either to original or I am toying with the idea of building it into a SRi 130 replica. I have a 20l 8v race engine that was in the Camira rally car that produces 118HP @ wheels which exceedes the 130 spec anyway but this is if I can secure the body kit etc to make it look right.

I have a personal Website with more in for on the cars including the 4S build.

www.ynet.com.au

I was pointed to this site by DarrenH from AstraMk2 forum where I have my Kadett and 4S builds posted as well.

Antony

[neilsri130]

Welcome, i like the Cav and the Astra looks VERY nice. Are there many Cavs down under that were imported? Were they imported by private individuals or were they sold over there.

I would think you dont have the rust problems over there unlike the UK with plenty of rain mixed with salt on the roads in the winter, this has killed off most of the Cavs over here.

[ant0ny]

No they weren't sold here under the Holden badge. We only got the sedan and the station wagon which are identical in almost every way. I don't have any idea of how many are in Australia and I have not seen another. I don't have the full story on the car as I just picked it up on Sunday but I believe it was an automatic and was converted to manual but you wouldn't know it by looking at it.

I have a question: Did the Cav's have air conditioning when they came out?

Antony

[neilsri130]

No not in the UK, dont know though if it was available anywhere else sometime later in its life during manufacture, but i dont think so. I would love it in my 130 if it had been available though. Wonder what the parts situation is like over there. I have in the past seen Cav and Ascona c parts on ebay from down under.

Would think a Cav Cabriolet would be nice over there with the weather you have.

Does your car show any signs of rusting anywhere?

[ant0ny]

All the Camira variants from Holden have air con so I will be doing a conversion at some stage and do a write up... the misus demands it if it is my daily driver.  Yeah the parts people are selling are from the Camira variant, which is plentiful here.

You would think a Cabriolet would be the go and for sure at morning and evenings but I live in Brisbane QLD and it's hot here in summer during the day and you often see people with the roof down but wearing a hat lol.

I have seen some surface rust middle rear hatch below the glass and above the spoiler, passenger arch and on the bonnet but this is just surface rust from lack of paint. The paint is crazed and cracking all over the roof. There is some rust next to the rear hatch top hinge and so far that's all I know about.

Antony

[andy]

Hi Antony, welcome to the site!

You should probably PM OZSri - he's been a member on here for a long time, and whilst you most probably wont be anywhere near each other, you never know! He also has an imported Cavalier SRi which looks particularly tidy too!

As a fellow imported car owner I look forward to seeing your car progress. Give us all a shout with your progress often, excited about this one now!

Thought I'd add, Southern Europe could spec. air con later on at cost price and Northern Europe got a heated seat option, but here in the UK we got neither! Owing to the fact that the car was designed in 77-79 it wasn't seen as a priority. Although these days we get everything everyone else does!

[retro cav]

welcome to the site mate

[ant0ny]

Thanks ... hey where do you get the clear front indicator's from I searched ebay but can't find them... where they only on the 130?

Antony

[stevemc]

welcome ,  the later mk2's  had clear indicators and different rear lights ,there is normally some on ebay(england)

[ant0ny]

Drove the Cav to work today and wasn't confident with the brakes... so tonight I decided to take off the wheel and have a look at the pads.

First big problem... the 4 wheel bolts on the drivers side wheel where virtually striped and the thread in the hub is damaged on all four. Might explain a vibration in the front at 110km/h so good thing I checked.

Now this is having a big knock on effect because I just realised as I started to remove the strut the spare I have for the Mk2 Astra is a Calibra set... which is good having bigger brakes but now the 14" wheels don't fit so I either have to use the smaller Cav brakes or breakout and put on the Std Factory 15" Calibra wheels I have... what to do 

So after 48hours I might be doing it's first upgrade  .

[Mark S]

Dump the standard brakes and put the bigger ones on. Most people do it, like you say you will need bigger wheels though.

[andy]

MK3 Cav 256mm brakes do fit under 14"s as that's what I'm running on the Ascii at the moment.

When it get's upgraded I'll be running 280mm Meriva discs with 15" wheels and cav turbo calipers which seem to clear also.

[ant0ny]

Yeah the bigger ones are the go but I just noticed that the spring plate on the Calibra struts sit 2" lower than the Cav struts so I will effectively lower the car by 2" using the Cav springs but a grind and re weld would fix that... then the Calibra strut thread is bigger so it wont fit the Cav strut top and of course the Cav struts dont have a standard shock that just slides into the strut... it's oil and bits.

So pack up for the night and I'll run a tap through the threads tomorrow arvo and see if it cleans up ok to keep it on the road for now and just buy shocks and mod the Calibra struts to fit.

I should through in the equal length drive shaft I have spare for the Mk2 Astra as well... assuming the 1.8L 8v block has the tapped bolt holes for the center bearing? anyone know?

I think I better start a build thread! 

[Mark S]

I would have thought just a straight brake caliper swap was the easiest way but who knows? :angel:

[ant0ny]

I would have thought just a straight brake caliper swap was the easiest way but who knows? :angel:

True Mark but you must have skipped the bit where I said "First big problem... the 4 wheel bolts on the drivers side wheel where virtually striped and the thread in the hub is damaged on all four." 

[stevemc]

could you get the threads tapped out ?

[Mark S]

Does not a Camira hub fit instead? The early cav struts 1981-83 vary to the later ones 1984-88.

I was trying to make things easier.

[ant0ny]

As Steve mentioned I'll try tapping the thread first.

[stevemc]

just been looking at your site ,some very nice cars ,i like the kadett  ,what a clean engine bay  ,superb work

[Greg]

Hello Anthony and welcome to the site.  Nice to see the Vauxhall/Holden fetish abroad

[Matt O-SRi]

Hi there and welcome to the madness  ;D

[Guest]

Hi Anthony, any updates? I'm curious to see what you managed to sort out with the Cav