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Hi all, long time lurker and recently decided to add my project! About 2 years ago I came into ownership of a Mk3 Cavalier SRi. I have been into Opel's and Vauxhalls since my teens and have had a goodd few (mainly Astra's) over the years. Always daily drivers with small mods to make them a little different. I was on the hunt for a project to keep my head and hands busy and one sunday morning I spotted an ad online, not too far from me. These are like hens teeth here in the Irish Republic, you might spot a diesel Vectra A the odd time when down the country which are about the only ones still in use by a select bunch of farmers, lumberjacks, murderers or a combination of the three. They are usually on their last legs with gargantuan mileage. Something a bit like this which I spotted (with a valid NCT):   Anyway, to spot an SRi online that morning was a rarity. If they do appear online for sale they've usually turned to rust or are absolutely immaculate. This one however was middle of the road and was just what I was looking for. |
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Last Edit: Aug 5, 2017 7:39:14 GMT by caviste
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Last Edit: Aug 5, 2017 7:41:03 GMT by caviste
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Oooh a teaser  Waiting for an update! |
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Bit of background on the car. Obviously its a 1993 but was imported to Ireland in 1994. Original reg is K146 ANF, don't suppose anyone knows it?  It was last on the road about 2005/2006 and was stashed away in a shed until I got it. Mileage is 93,000 First thing was a timing belt:   Changed oil, thermostat and flushed the manky old coolant. The car ran great, here it is dragged out into the light:  |
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Last Edit: Aug 5, 2017 6:47:19 GMT by caviste
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So the thing is, these like to rust, I've read threads over on vauxhallcavalier.com that'd give nightmares  Fortunately, due to the lack of salt on Irish roads and having being parked in some form of shed for the last 10 years, this seemed to have avoided anything serious. It had a dusting of surface rust in places, flakey paint and crumbling original underseal. It was solid in all the right places. It was parked up like this, and promptly had the tank and rear beam extracted to see what was what:  Here are a few pictures of the underside when I got it:    At this point I could have slapped a heap of underseal on and saved myself a whole load of grief but I wanted this car to last and as they're so scarce I felt the need to protect it. I armed myself with wire wheels, flap disks and a heap of Bilt Hamber product and went at it. |
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I started by removing all the loose flakey stuff and seeing where the rust started and finished. Out came the Bilt Hamber Deox gel. The idea is that it extracts the rust from the metal and leaves a clean surface on which to overcoat. This stuff worked, but, it was a pain in the nuts to use. It went on gloopy, had to wrap the ssection in cling film and leave for 24-48 hours before cleaning off, sometimess having to reapply. It took ages but slowly and surely I worked my way down both chassis legs over the space of a number of months. At various points the mojo dwindled, life got in the way, injury, deaths...basically all the curse word that life throws sometimes but always made sure to keep tipping away on the cav, a little progress was still progress. Anyway, enough of that, heres photos of the rust being removed and the chassis legs first having Deox Gel doing its thing, followed by Elextrox Zinc primer, seam sealed         |
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I really like these , always lusted after a GSI as a schoolboy . I remember my neighbour had a sri like this as well after his mk2 sri . His mk2 sri i was not keen on but his point was , ' it cost £300 and will do 120 mph ' , which is a fair point !
Nice to see one being saved .
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This car was not without a couple of holes however. Both in the passenger side rear. One was at the bottom lip at the rear of the arch, the other was near the shock mount. I had to chop a little bit out of the boot floor at the back of the arch and fabircated my first ever repair patch!  I welded that in first and then the square out of the arch cut out to access this point was welded in. I must get better at taking in progress pics. Here's the other patch:   All patches were done with zintec steel, zinc primed and then overcoated with 2k epoxy maastic paint so should last longer than the metal around it  Anyway, fast forward, the chassis legs and arches were now clean and ready for the 2k paint and finally two good coats of Dynax underseal:    |
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In the time above I amassed a few missing bits and pieces such as:  The elusive door badges!  I also managed to get my hands on GM front wisshbones, Eibach springs, KYB shocks.  The rear axle was also refubished along with the anti roll bar and fuel tank:  Fast forward a bit and the underneath now looks like:   The rest of the floorpan is fairly clean with only a few bits of surface crust to tidy up. very soon I should have this car down on its wheels and swap it around to clean up the front by stripping it all back (ooh!) |
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Pics of my daily beater, an Astra saloon with a mpi lump in it:  Engine crane in the boot  Along with a mates hatch:  More to come soon, thank you for reading! |
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Were these the ones that had a reputation for bending the front wishbones when they were kerbed hard?
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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I had an N plate one of these with the Ecotec lump about 10 years ago.
It was utterly mint but, occassionally, it had cutting out/lumpy running issues which, if i remember correctly, i used to cure by cleaning out the cam sensor with carb cleaner.
I sold it for peanuts as, back then, you couldn't give them away.
It ended up going to Poland.
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nice tidy work , there s a vauxhall breakers called mc mullan s in strabane, also breakers in fintona just outside omagh
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Were these the ones that had a reputation for bending the front wishbones when they were kerbed hard? Yep I have had loads of Mk3 cavvys and at least 2 got put up kerbs bending the wishbone. Nice looking cav much better than the later version imho. |
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Last Edit: Aug 5, 2017 14:12:28 GMT by Spudgun
1984 Rover SD1 Vanden Plas 2600 Auto
1985 Rover SD1 2300s Auto
2005 MG ZT 1.8 Manual
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Look forward to watching how this progresses. I sold my GSI before it went on the road.
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Nice to see another Cavalier owner joining the ranks of RR.
That's a brilliant looking project and good to see you are going to town with the underside.
This is Bookmarked.
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier MK1
1970 Mobyleete 40T custom
1978 Mobylette 50V
1965 Moulton Standard
1979 Raleigh Grifter custom
1980 Raleigh Grifter
1982 Raleigh Grifter BMX custom
1982 Raleigh Bomber
1987 Strida
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very good----------looks a decent one.
is that roja red i think its called???theres a couple about up here(northern ireland) the same colour
I'm a mk3 cav fan myself-------had a few of them of the years.
still have 2 needing abitta work....a gsi and a cav turbo 4x4
they were great cars of that era.
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That is awesome! Always preferred the shape of the saloon over the hatchback. Not seen one in a really long time sadly. I like the Astra too, had one years ago and loved it. Another of those that you sell but wish you hadn't..
Cheers,
Drew
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2001 Mk4 Golf - Not retro yet but getting there
Some cars I've owned:
'91 Renault Clio 1.4 RT
'96 Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi (the one that got away)
'96 Vauxhall Astra Euro'96 Gold edition
'97 Renault Laguna 2.0 RT
'98 Mk3 Golf GTI Colour Concept
'00 PT Cruiser
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,608
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Glad the see the thorough attention it's getting.
Certainly remember one on here as its owner realized just how rusty it was & was going to extreme efforts repairing rust through most of the rear structures seams.
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very good----------looks a decent one. is that roja red i think its called???theres a couple about up here(northern ireland) the same colour I'm a mk3 cav fan myself-------had a few of them of the years. still have 2 needing abitta work....a gsi and a cav turbo 4x4 they were great cars of that era. You are correct with Rioja Red. Its a decent colour when cleaned up! When I dust this off I'll T-Cut it and try get away with it like that for a while but ultimately a respray will be on the cards down the line. Thanks for all the comments folks. A few of you have noted the OCD-ness on the underside As said, I've seen what can go on these cars and the rear end seems to get the worst of it. This one was by no means unscarred by the dreaded rust but was nowhere near "too far gone" so decided I'd just do it to the best of ability to protect it. If I had a spit or the funds to get it dipped that'd be great but just not feasible. I plan to underseal the floorpan today. No holes or even much surface rust thankfully. The factory underseal is very much intact so I'm going to leave it alone and coat over it with the Dynax UB which is tough and forms a nice durable layer. |
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Last Edit: Aug 7, 2017 6:40:35 GMT by caviste
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