Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

XL391 · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject: 1981 Vauxhall Cavalier Mk1

Right chaps, this is RJU 943W. I bought her in July of last year from a chap in Scarisbrick. She's a Vauxhall Cavalier Sportshatch 1600GL in Jamaica Yellow and is in fairly decent fettle. We've just come back from a 400 mile round trip to Leicestershire chasing the recently restored Vulcan bomber around the county on its test flight and she behaved faultlessly.

The ownership history of the car goes like this - owned from new by an old chap from Derby called Dennis who died and a firm of house clearance blokes found it in the garage, they sold it on to a classic car dealer who MOT'd it and sold it via ebay around xmas 2005 or so. An Opel Manta club member bought it from that ebay auction. He only kept it a short while before advertising it on the OMOC Forum and another member bought it from him March / April 2006. He had just the one summer with the car, sold it because he had nowhere to garage it and felt it would deteriorate body wise if left in the open, as I've found! He sold it on to the guy from Scarisbrick, he passed it on to the intermediate owner in really good fettle and then I bought it, after it had been on Ebay. I done a deal with the guyafter seeing it and wanting it.

When I picked her up, the first problem was the carb, the Solex 32/32 DIDTA. After being told to go the Weber 32/36 DGV route, as fitted tyo 2.0 Cortinas & Capris, I set about trying to find one. The ones I did manage to track down were ropey beyond belief and very ambitiously priced. I decided on a brand new Nikki carb on a friends reccomendation. After a few minor teething troubles, she now runs great, picks up well, too.

Bodily, she was in sound original condition but with losing my garage and having to stay outside (poor bugger) corrosion really is starting to rear it's very ugly head.

So, I will over the summer attempt to return her to her original condition, taking care of some extremely nasty problem areas along the way. I'll keep you all updated and, with this place being such a superb fountain of knowledge, if you could give any pointers they really would be much appreciated!! Here are a few pics mere days after i'd picked her up:

And in her wee house before splitting with the Mrs...

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK

Top post XL, look forward to following your progress. Nice to see the pics at Bruntingthorpe, its some time since I last went there. The most recent two times it was during the week so managed to take some car/aero combination photos too, I'll see if I can find them sometime and pop them on here Smile

cheers, RJ
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Old-Nail · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 853

That is in good condition for one of those. It's funny how cars that I think of as being from the recent past are actually almost 30 years old! Laughing

Nice shot of Ricks garden ornament in the background too!

Job-Rated · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 1010 Location: Sugarbeet County

Great pics!

Best of luck. Cool

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marknotgeorge · Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 12

Boydens! My dad used to work for the coach firm which was based by the original dealership in Castle Donington. They used to use Bedford-chassis coaches, with 33 as the number in the registration, if bought new. Cream and blue livery, except one, which was maroon and pink. Many's the time we met him at Derby bus station, or along the A6 at Alvaston where we lived, to help him clean the coach after a tour.

Is the sticker in the Cavalier from Derby or Donington? The Derby showrooms used to be Bristol Street Motors, and are now Pentagon.

XL391 · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 12:16 pm Post subject:

Is the garage still there??

XL391 · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:16 pm Post subject:

Just to update you guys, on trying to find what was causing the knocking from the rear axle/propshaft area, I had her up in the air and it appears to be driveline related.

I've noticed that the noise as you take off sounded like axle tramp which led me to go underneath the car. When I checked them out, all the axle and suspension components/nuts/bolts seem fine. I noticed the other week on the way to Bruntingthorpe a dull thud going on and off the throttle. When I got home I then tried going over speed humps, one with the clutch out where she clunked like mad, and one with the clutch out where there was no noise whatsoever. Confused

So, looking like it's driveline related, anyone else had experience of this and where to look first? As a side note there seemed to be a fair amount of vibration coming from the prop around 60-65mph. Does this mean the propshaft needs rebalancing? Rolling Eyes

Also found two 'lovely' holes, one in the O/S/F inner wing and one at the N/S/R area of the sill. She'll also be requiring two front wings and probably a valance in the next 12 months as well which, to be honest, I knew about when I bought her. Mad

I'll post photos up later on for you all.
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Regards,

Will

1972 Daimler Sovereign 4.2 Series 1
1965 Sunbeam Tiger Mk1
1968 Triumph 1300

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK

Hi Will, thanks for the update, I wonder if there is some play in one or both of the propshaft universal joints?? or possibly some 'give' in the gearbox mounting rubber(s)?

R
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Penman · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4759 Location: Swindon, Wilts.

Hi
Has some one had the propshaft off and not marked up the flange to put it back in the correct quadrant.
I did that once and had to experiment with all 4 quadrants to find the correct one.
2 positions were really badly balanced, one didn't show up till a bit of speed had been built up and the correct one was back to smooth just as it had been before I had dropped it.

i take it that it had been balanced in situ connected to the rear axle flange.

XL391 · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject:

Afternoon Gents!! Long time no speak etc. Thought i'd update you all as to what's been done since I last posted.

Had a good summer with her last year, took her all over the country and she never once let me down.

She even met a 'friend' at Bruntingthorpe last May...

In August last year I decided to begin stripping back all of the old underseal to totally re-cover all the inner arches and the chassis in Waxoyl underbody sealant. On stripping back I found a small hole on the N/S/R sill and the beginning of some serious corrosion on the inner wing splash panel, behind the drivers pedals.

About a week after finding this, I was made redundant. I started a new job in November but near enough every week I have been working away. The MOT on her expired just before Christmas and I laid her up out of the way at a friend's house around the corner. I made sure she was run whenever I come home but all major work was put off because of time restraints.
_________________
Regards,

Will

1972 Daimler Sovereign 4.2 Series 1
1965 Sunbeam Tiger Mk1
1968 Triumph 1300

XL391 · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:42 pm Post subject:

Anyway, since the end of June I have been able to snatch a few days here and there and so I stripped the footwell back to good metal, likewise the sill and made some templates using old cornflke packets and then cut the steel. Now all welded up and undersealed.

Last week I continued to underseal any remaining areas and I removed all of the interior and waxoyled the entire floor pan, A-pillars, rear arches, sills and also inside the rear quarter panels inside the boot. She smells a bit at the minute, but it's all worth it!! The weekend just gone I gave her a wash, a T-cut, a wax and all the trimmings and fitted a nice Manta B 3 spoke steering wheel and the missing wheel centre cap i'd been after. Here are a few pictures of her from today:

Next up is to sort a misfire I just can't seem to trace and then, hopefully, a fresh ticket next week!! Laughing

_________________
Regards,

Will

1972 Daimler Sovereign 4.2 Series 1
1965 Sunbeam Tiger Mk1
1968 Triumph 1300

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK

hi Will, thanks for the update - I was wondering where you'd gone! I'd assumed you were so excited about XH558 activities that you'd forgotten all about old cars Smile

Rick
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Phil - Nottingham · Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 1252 Location: Nottingham

Boydens Garage who also had a largish private hire coach fleet were very close to where I used to live - they went bankrupt 20 years ago after they took over the huge old Bristol Street Motors showrooms at Pentagon island Derby now occupied by Pentagon Vauxhall/Reeves.

The Castle Donnington Site is a car supermarket now

Mk1 Cvaliers are very very rrae now yet they were so common and that colour too was.

I awlws thought they were far superior car and drive than the even more commeon rep car the Cortina MlV/V or is that too contraversial Wink

Very nice anyway
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XL391 · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:41 pm Post subject:

XL391 · Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 9:26 pm Post subject:

Evening gents,

Compared to some of the truly epic undertakings on here, this pales into insignificance! However, I thought i'd share it with you anyway.

I decided the other day to strip, grind out the corrosion and respray the black panel between the tail lights on the old girl as the tin worm had sprung up here in a matter of weeks. The day started with the sun beating down, a cloudless sky and not a breath of wind. As soon as the paint came out it turned to the total opposite of this...

Shown below is a small area of it, it was slightly worse on the other side. The whole boot lip was starting to flare up as well.

So, strip down and grinder out

Ground down and treated

Masked, primed and painted

Rebuild

While I was rebuilding I couldn't help but think that she looks better without the Vauxhall letters between the lights...

And all done. Not happy at all with the finish but it only looks rubbish close up. I'll rub down again and refinish it properly but at least the tin worn is treated...

October last year I also managed to locate a pair of clear front indicator lenses and combined with the silver indicator bulbs I think they transform the front of the car.

I also fitted a set of Halfords Brilliance seies Halogen bulbs. They're a bit steep but the difference they make is phenomenal, i'd recommend them to anyone running the square lights.

There are lots of other jobs to do in the near future, base of both A pillars, O/S/R sill, a pair of wings, front valance and I still want a V8... :rolleyes:

Thanks for looking!
_________________
Regards,

Will

1972 Daimler Sovereign 4.2 Series 1
1965 Sunbeam Tiger Mk1
1968 Triumph 1300