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My new Cavalier V6 ... and a big thanks!

12K views 68 replies 18 participants last post by  RatCav 
#1 ·
Ok after owning her for 3 weeks and putting a lot of time and effort into getting her almost to the standard I am happy with, here is a list of things done so far:

1) Replacement rocker gaskets (old ones leaking oil like Niagra Falls).
2) Replacement spark plugs (thought what the hell as I had the inlet manifold off).
3) Replacement HT leads (thought what the hell as I had the inlet manifold off).
4) Replacement passenger side CV joint (to cure the ABS not working).
5) Replacement passenger side lower ball joint (as I destroyed the old one trying to remove it).
6) Replacement ABS and Traction Control fuses (they were removed to cover up the fact the ABS wasn't working properly).
7) Replacement altenator with a 100amp Vectra unit (the old one was overcharging intermittantly ... badly to the point of almost hitting 17volts).
8) Replacement EML, ABS, Traction Control lights (as they were taken out to cover up the fuses that were taken out for the ABS and Traction Control, and the altenator overcharging).
9) Reverted back to the original OEM steering wheel (from a too small diameter that covered up the speedo etc, and didn't have an airbag in Momo racing one, including rewiring the airbag circuit).
10) Reverted back to the OEM rear lights (from broken black lexus versions).
11) Converted the manual sunroof to an electric one.
12) Cleaned out and oiled throttle body (as it was like looking into a black hole and not shutting properly).
13) Cleaned and sprayed the inlet manifold (as it was covered in blue lines by someone with a very unsteady hand).
14) Cleaned the plastic engine cover and routed the throttle cable back under it.
15) Replaced blue LED sideights with standard white bulbs.
16) Removed fake carbon fibre sticky back plastic from all the door handles and dial surrounds.
17) Bloody good wash and polish.









Now for the thank-you's. First off goes to the members of VXON. All of this couldn't of been achieved without your patience and knowledge. Many of these jobs I probably wouldn't of been able to do without having your advice on hand on this forum.

Next goes to Barry/Bigbazzer and James/Uglymonkey. Your help in providing me with the parts I need and the ecouragement to do it was invaluable. You are both a credit to this site and I am glad to have met you both on this project. If at anytime you need a hand drop us a line and I will help as much as I can.

Cheers
Neal
 
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#3 ·
rock n roll ... you're welcome :up: big thanks for the very small part I played! The Cav's looking much better now ... time to start building up the miles.

I'll give you a shout tomorrow about which day I'll popping back over - gonna try for Tuesday if they can fit me in.

cheers
james
 
#4 ·
Tuesday will be cool James. I have nothing on and I would o been dead in the water without that alty.

Only a few things left to do when I get some more cash-a-roonies.
1) Get the speedo back to normal. Need to double check whether the one I have in there is correct and all that has been done is the dials changed. If so get a set of originals put on.
2) Give the engine bay a bloody good clean as its covered in oil at the moment.
3) There are few blemishes and laquer peels that need touching up.
4) I would ideally like to replace the 18" rims that are on there with some 17" ones. While they do look nice I would prefer to get them back to the proper rolling radius.
5) Re-wire the audio system.
6) Anything else I think of as and when I come accross it.
 
#7 ·
good to see it`s getting to the way you want,can i ask who done the doorcards if you know,i like the leather look instead of velour.
Not sure to be honest. They came with the car. The only thing which the previous owner said was the guy before him had stripped a GSi for parts, so can only assume they came from there. They aint perfect to be honest. The fronts have some holes in where I can only assume a handle or such like was. Also the rear windows are the hand wound "keep fit" versions. In fact at some point I will convert the rears to electric and put some caps over the holes where the handles have gone through to tidy them up.
 
#9 ·
Looks good.

Them Bonnet Vents functional?
Lol ... you have just reminded me of that. They are cut into the bonnet itself, but the sound proofing needs to be cut away to get the air into the bay. That will be a quick job to get out of the way tomorrow.
 
#10 ·
Lol ... you have just reminded me of that. They are cut into the bonnet itself, but the sound proofing needs to be cut away to get the air into the bay. That will be a quick job to get out of the way tomorrow.
Nice, Astra GTE Vents by the look of it too :Cool2:
 
#11 ·
When I saw them in the pics I wasn't sure on them to be honest. However after looking in the flesh (as it were) and saw they actually could be functional after cutting the cladding underneath I liked them. Not a bad colour either. Compliments the "Nautilus Pearl" or green as I call it.
 
#12 ·
4) I would ideally like to replace the 18" rims that are on there with some 17" ones. While they do look nice I would prefer to get them back to the proper rolling radius.
quote]
Depends what you want the car for! 215/35-18" are about 3.5% less than std which is about right for performance. I run turbo rims on 205/45-16" which IMO are brilliant, but over 5% under std.
Ask James he usually drops a ratio (or 3)from Std. I think his most radical were over 8% below std.
 
#14 ·
Get it the shows matey! ;)

Looks good, just remove that weird spoiler ontop of the window, and the spoiler on the hatch looks out of place on a hatch, they were meant for saloons.
Agreed - a subtle SRi Lip Spoiler would be much better suited IMO :cool:
 
#15 ·
You see I am torn with the spoilers. In all honesty the lower one is so badly fitted it is unreal, and I think the top one on its own would definatly look stupid. I might take the lower one off and see if I can mount it better i.e. flush with the boot and go from there.

To be honest I am more concerned with the speedo at the moment. I am sure the gearbox has been changed. As my dials only go up to 140mph, but seem to be reading fairly accurately. Now the faces have been changed for sure as the tacho hole doesn't line up, but I am trying to find out wether they produced a set of dials that went up to 140 but electric driven. Its very confusing.
 
#17 ·
Hmm ... deffo interested in that bazzer, but I am seriously running short of finances at the moment. I think the Irmsher one would be a better option, and far more in keeping with my originality theme. Do you have any pictures of what it looks like.

I have got the new wheels on there now. I actually prefer them to the Black multi-spoked ones that came with the car. Not a bad deal for £50 including the rubber boots. Am seriously considering getting them refurbed and given a coat of glossy black, though I do have some crazy ideas of running with the silver theme to accent the Green. Was thinking of doing the bottoms of the bumpers and side skirts in silver to get a two tone effect going. Will post some pictures of suggested looks after I get my Photoshop working.

Cheers
Neal
 
#18 ·
Ok I need some opinions here. Got the new wheels on and wondering what to do with them. The first picture is how it stands now, But I thought I might make some changes. The second is with the wheels in black (gloss) and the second is with the skitrts and bottoms of the bumpers done in silver.

So your thoughts on where to go forward .. or just stay the same.








Please excuse the bad photoshopping.
 
#20 ·
Thats a tidy looking Cav there djgritt, and I like the combo of Nautilus Pearl with Gun Metal. They are both slighly unusual colours but compliment each other well.

Ok done some more work to her. I removed all 3 rear spoilers (the top one, the Irmsher saloon one, and the SRi lip spoiler) I have given the wheels a clean, though now the entire car is filthy again (from driving around scrap yards). I have redone most of the stereo wiring (still need to properly attach a new ISO plug) and replaced the bulb for the heater controls. An added bonus is that without all that weight on the boot it will stay open without the aid of a broom handle :D

The boot is a real mess to be honest. Black sealant everywhere, and the holes for the spoilers look like they have been done with a plasma cutter. I have given it a good clean, and covered the holes with gaffa tape to stop them from getting too rusty. The plan is to replace the boot lid with one from a scrappy. I have seen two in my colour in one yard and they are selling for peanuts (besides the guy there thinks I am slowly taking parts to build another car and laughs everytime I go in. Anyway he charges me peanuts for what I take. The last time was an ICV for the g/f's Astra and he charged me £5) I will put up some more pictures of the car tomorrow.

Cut the sound proofing from under the bonnet so those vents actually do something and let nice cool air into the engine bay.

Found a proper set of dials from someone up the road and they will be going in tomorrow, and hopefully will be selling the old alloy wheels as well.

Bad news is as I was working on the electrics today I kept on smelling petrol, but put it down to the knackered Toyota Corolla that was pootling about. Only when I went to pack the tools away I noticed a puddle of petrol under the drivers sill ... Only gone and bust a fuel pipe. Looks like its just where a rubber hose connects to a metal pipe. Will pull it off and trim it down a little, then jubilee clip back on again and hope its solved. failing that I might have to replace the fuel lines ... chore.

Ok Plans for the future:
1) Get an ISO plug from a scrapper and wire it into mine (possibly a Vectra one so I can get the stereo controls on the steering wheel)
2) Fix fuel leak
3) Put in new speedo console
4) Either fill the holes in the top of my boot and paint and lacquer it, or just replace the entire thing with a decent one. (replacement has the advantage of minimum fuss and if its the right colour I don't have to paint it)
5) Get the tracking sorted (it pulls badly to the left)
6) Give her a service (I have done the plugs and leads. She has a K&N cone filter already so that just needs cleaning, all thats left to do is oil, oil filter, and fuel filter)
7) Colour code the bonnet vents to the rest of the car (I like the new wheels as they are, but I am starting to not like the way the vents stand out .. I am thinking more and more along the lines of a sleeper vehicle)
8) Give the engine bay a thorough clean (Apart from the big bits its covered in muck and it annoys me its that way)
9) Another wash and polish (bleeding muddy norfolk country roads)

I am sure there will be more as I go on and will keep you posted.
 
#21 ·
Don't like them wheels in black.. the original black wheels looked nice imo, but some colours just don't suit some wheels..

Not mad keen on the green/silver thing, a little bit too Ripspeed/Halfords/Lax Power for my liking, and never been a fan of them upper rear spoilers.

All the negative stuff aside... still a big fan of the Mk3 Cav, can see another one in our lives some day..

Tidy car matey... nice one :up:
 
#22 ·
Don't like them wheels in black.. the original black wheels looked nice imo, but some colours just don't suit some wheels..

Not mad keen on the green/silver thing, a little bit too Ripspeed/Halfords/Lax Power for my liking, and never been a fan of them upper rear spoilers.

All the negative stuff aside... still a big fan of the Mk3 Cav, can see another one in our lives some day..

Tidy car matey... nice one :up:
Cheers buddy. The more I do to her, the more people like it. Means I am doing something right.

Well the spoilers are off now, and I don't plan on putting them back on. I will probably put an SRi lip spoiler on at some point just to cover up the mess with the boot. I am liking the silver wheels more and more each time I look at it, so will probably leave them as be.

I am thinking along the lines of sleeper to be honest. The thought of driving in something that looks mundane, but has a nasty surprise is amusing :D
 
#24 ·
Don't want to take this off-topic for ya but I like the subtle look..

This was my old V6.. should never have sold it :(
Thats loverly.

Ok you have convinced me :D ... sublety is the key. I think I will now be going down the unassuming to look at route, but a monster underneath. Body wise I think I will get some paint and laquer in and start going aound cleaing up all the blemishes. There are a couple of dings here and there, and some pretty bad painting patches on the bumpers so will whip them off and get them back to showroom. Still keep the original colour though.
 
#25 ·
Ok more work done. Tracked some new clocks down and put them in after giving them a bit of a clean. Can you spot the difference?

Old:


New:


Also while wandering around thinking what should be done next I hit another problem.

Picture the scene. Ciggy in mouth looking at the car. Standing on the drivers side and saw a puddle under the sill of the car. Hmm I wonder .. whats that. Put ciggy in mouth and get to the ground. As I reach up I have a sniff and the smell of petrol hits me.

"Awooogah Awooogah .. ALARM ALARM" thats petrol. Ciggy got flung yards away as I realise I am going to explode. Bl**ding fuel line had sprung a leak. Anyway took them off and had to replace them. Got some tubing from a hardware store and bent them into shape and replaced them. All for lees that a fiver. Job done. Here are the old ones for interests sake. Only one was leaking from a pin prick hole, but changed them both for peace of mind.



Only a photo of the ends of them but they were like this all along the length.

Next step is to replace the boot lid. Will get some piccies of the WIP later.
 
#26 ·
Alwys one to get distracted. Saw this on here and thought I could do that. Thanks DJGritt as I think you were the one I pinched the idea off on your how2.

Popped down the scrappy and pillaged an omega for the bits and promptly fitted them when I got back




Hate working under the hood with that bleeding bonnet prop in the way and makes things much nicer with the bonnet open.
 
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