1988 Mk2 Cavalier 1.8GLi

Got a bit more time in on this today - under bonnet furniture removal time.



Haynes manual yielded the odd indication on how stuff comes apart. (not many)



Removed a sheet metal/filler/sheet metal sandwich "repair" to the offside inner wing behind the headlight.



Finished the session off by unpicking half of the reinforcement part of the replacement front valance.



I'll finish the other half next time!

Nice to see this moving on, if you need any of the lower front wing to front valence braces I still have a couple of pairs left

Cool! I'll check the condition of mine.



If you had kept it, it would most likely be pretty ripe by now!

Today's installment - finished off sparating the front valance panel, then spent a bit of time marking where it needs to be positioned before welded on. Fitted pretty well, just needed a little tweak here and there to satisfy my OCD. Seen here in trial fit position.



Next I was going to take off the steering rack, but it turns out that you can't get to one of the bolts without removing the brake servo too. (Mr. Haynes makes no mention of this) Removing the servo wasn't the easiest of jobs in my partially crippled state, but perseverance and swearing saw the job done.



Once I've got round to taking the brake and fuel lines out, the bulkhead cover can come off. This won't happen tomorrow though, as I've locked the key to my unit inside the unit, so time available tomorrow will be spent cutting the lock off and being laughed at!

Made an exploratory excavation into the driver's side sill this afternoon. Some time in the distant past the lower part had already been replaced with a Hadrian panel.



The rear half of that had then rotted out and had another aftermarket panel boshed on top of the rotten one. (This explains the "fatness" of the rear half of the sill prior to any excavation.)
I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to get the sills in order before it is suspended on a spit, as the spit will only be supporting the weight of the body at its extremeties.
The inner sill needs to be repaired where it strengthens the jacking point, then it looks like a routine outer sill replacement can be done.



Not entirely sure when the weldathon will commence, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.

Boring but necessary stuff today - gave all the under bonnet stuff a quick clean and started boxing it all up to go into storage.





Once all that is taken care of, I'll be getting the grinder back out again.

A few bargainous eBay purchases arrived this week - steering rod ends, and the two front engine/gearbox mounts.



It's always a relief when the bits you need are available at a reasonable price.

Nice work again fella
That’s coming along well following with interest
I remember preparing plenty of these ready to sell in the garage where I worked in the late 80s
I’ve always been a ford man but love this due to its rarity now, great work

One can then wonder why (IIRC) Astra beams was fitted to the Cavalier floor pan used on the Saab 900.......

Gear shift mechanism was whipped out after work this afternoon - it was very brown due to a liberal coating of underbody wax type stuff. Thinners and a cloth saw it looking loads better though



A bit more help is gonna be required to pretty up the fuel pump/regulator/filter arrangement removed yesterday.



The gearchange mech was the last item to be removed from the underside - now it's bare, I just need to get the sills sorted before it can go up on the spit.

if they are same as astra (i would imagine so) the zig zag holey mysterious third inner sill would originally have had a 90 degree return on the bottom and then spot welded to the lower return of the outer sill.

example pic of 5 door astra with outer sill removed




p.s if you open the doors does the car bend in the middle (doors start missing their strikers ?) my astra did, which is why i am welding it on its side, with the doors shut lol !