Well, after the CF fiasco over the winter, I was looking for a replacement van, could I find anything within my budget? Nope, not a thing, I drew a blank and was getting disheartened, andthe money was slowly ( rapidly) dwindling as one thing or another cropped up to pay for.... I was starting to panic, the prospect of nothing to play with was becoming a reality. Until, on whim, I stuck a few quid on this on ebay. I have a method with ebay, I put on my max bid, then avoid looking until the auction is over, some you win, some you lose. This one I lost, for the sake of being out bid by £20, oh well, keep looking then yeah?
A day later the seller contacted me and said he's had no contact from the guy who won and offered it to me on a 'second chance offer', so off I went to sunny Southampton, cash in hand, and drove it back the 170 ish miles home.
According to the paperwork it was built in 1996 at Opel's Belgium plant, and sent to Hammond and Theide for conversion. It would have started life as an Opel Ascona GT / Sport, something like that anyway as it has a 1.8 with Bosch LE3 jetronic injection. It drives great, although the wheels make for a harsh ride, and don't really suit it to my liking, I have rectified this issue, more on this later.
I bought it for some fun days out, and to take it to a entire summers worth of shows, as I missed a fair few last year with my various vivas letting me down, now all sold as punishment
Anyway, since owning it I have managed to screw up the immobiliser, and break the boot lock. Fun eh
So far, the number of shows I have managed to attend is exactly one. Not all my fault I'm sure. The day I got the cav it was bright sunshine, I had dreams of driving around with the top down, sunglasses on etc etc.... It then rained for 3 weeks. Which conveniently highlighted the fact that the roof hadn't been sealed where it joined the bodywork and it filled the boot with water, so the first job was unbolting the rear of the roof, cleaning up the rust and glue-ing the roof back down with some nasty black panel sealant, So far no leaks, but it needs neatening up a touch. Oh, the rain cancelled two shows I planned to attend, so two down, plenty more to go right? Nope, I missed two local pub meets following this due to family issues, as in the family needed taking somewhere, or we didn't 'get back in time' etc etc hmmmm ok, well I've got Sywell on the saturday and Baston on the sunday coming up, so It's ok right. Nope, I can't remember what stopped me attending Sywell on the saturday, but I did manage to get there for the sunday, but only for a couple of hours as we wanted to get to the Baston show as well. By the time I got back to Grimsthorpe Castle it was too late to get on the show field so we had to park in the public car park... oh well.
The next two local evening shows were cancelled due to weather, but I had 2 oadby shows coming up, one after the other, so all's good. Until the morning of the first show. I was washing the roof, making it all nice and getting off the various bird droppings and general crud, gradually working around the car, I got back to the open boot, which was obscuring the bottom of the roof, so I shut it to get it out of my way, Immediately realising my keys were in it. Damn!! No problem, I'll just go through the back seat right? Not on a cabby, the rear bulkhead, which is open on normal cavalier saloons, is a complete sheet of steel. curse word. Ah no worries, there is a remote solenoid for opening the boot, I'll just run a live to it and it'll pop open right? Nope. It clicked away happily, but the boot did not open. Out comes the drill. Goodbye boot lock
After retrieving my keys I inspected the boot solenoid, it was missing the rod that connects it to the lock, It now has a piece of welding rod in it's place and works perfectly. I covered the lock hole with the badge off my key fob, it doesn't look too bad I think.
I didn't make the show by the way. Nor did I make the following weekends show. I can't remember why, I just didn't go.
So, the wheels.... I'm getting pretty much fed up of them now and I've been fruitlessly searching for a set of original 13inch crosspokes for the cav, until I found these...
13 inch K&N diamond cut alloys, I didn't know K&N made wheels, anyway, I got them for the grand sum of £30, bargain.
The hugebigmassive alloys are on ebay if anyone is interested, they are dual fit, 108mm PCD and 100 PCD, and have good tyres with plenty of tread.
Wheels
So last week... I'm using the cav daily as I'm waiting for a part for my fusion, and I went shopping at the local Lidl. I come out to the cav and get in, turn the key and. . . nothing. Not a blip, nothing.
Hmmmmm
It's at this point that my memory pipes up with 'well....the immobiser has been a bit iffy lately, you were going to have a look at it weren't you' ...yeah, I do recall thinking that at some point. Hmmmmm
Now I didn't know where the immobiliser was connected into the loom, so the only option was to trace the wires from the unit and rip it all out. So, where's the unit? I assumed, rightly for once, that the frantic clicking I was hearing from behind the glovebox was actually the control box for the immobiliser and alarm unit. So I started to take it all out.....I was left with this.
But will it work?
Thankfully yes...I drove home with bits of dash hanging out, as I'd spent far too long in the sun trying to figure out what was wrong, I put it all back in the shade of my driveway... it's funny how none of the plastics want to go back where they were isn't it, it's almost like they've had a taste of freedom and want to escape.
Anyway, that's the story so far, sorry it's a lot of waffle, but there you go.
Oh, as for shows, I'm typing this on the morning of the Stamford show that I was supposed to attend with the Cav. I would've made it, I really would, but there was a family wedding yesterday, and although we didn't stay late, It was in Leicester, and I live in Lincs, and was a fair old drive back. And back again, as I'm using the cav as a daily, and it only has 4 seats, and my uncle had missed his lift home and I couldn't fit him in on the first journey, so I had to go back to the wedding to pick him up. So I may go down later to the show but I wasn't no way gonna get up and out to stamford Early this morning.
There is also the big Vauxfest show at billing next week, I was going to attend, but we're moving house and have been waiting for the keys since June whilst the builders sort out the new place. The keys will be available on the 30th... so I guess i'm missing Vauxfest while I move house .... I wasn't meant to go to any shows this year was I?
oh well ...
A day later the seller contacted me and said he's had no contact from the guy who won and offered it to me on a 'second chance offer', so off I went to sunny Southampton, cash in hand, and drove it back the 170 ish miles home.
According to the paperwork it was built in 1996 at Opel's Belgium plant, and sent to Hammond and Theide for conversion. It would have started life as an Opel Ascona GT / Sport, something like that anyway as it has a 1.8 with Bosch LE3 jetronic injection. It drives great, although the wheels make for a harsh ride, and don't really suit it to my liking, I have rectified this issue, more on this later.
I bought it for some fun days out, and to take it to a entire summers worth of shows, as I missed a fair few last year with my various vivas letting me down, now all sold as punishment
Anyway, since owning it I have managed to screw up the immobiliser, and break the boot lock. Fun eh
So far, the number of shows I have managed to attend is exactly one. Not all my fault I'm sure. The day I got the cav it was bright sunshine, I had dreams of driving around with the top down, sunglasses on etc etc.... It then rained for 3 weeks. Which conveniently highlighted the fact that the roof hadn't been sealed where it joined the bodywork and it filled the boot with water, so the first job was unbolting the rear of the roof, cleaning up the rust and glue-ing the roof back down with some nasty black panel sealant, So far no leaks, but it needs neatening up a touch. Oh, the rain cancelled two shows I planned to attend, so two down, plenty more to go right? Nope, I missed two local pub meets following this due to family issues, as in the family needed taking somewhere, or we didn't 'get back in time' etc etc hmmmm ok, well I've got Sywell on the saturday and Baston on the sunday coming up, so It's ok right. Nope, I can't remember what stopped me attending Sywell on the saturday, but I did manage to get there for the sunday, but only for a couple of hours as we wanted to get to the Baston show as well. By the time I got back to Grimsthorpe Castle it was too late to get on the show field so we had to park in the public car park... oh well.
The next two local evening shows were cancelled due to weather, but I had 2 oadby shows coming up, one after the other, so all's good. Until the morning of the first show. I was washing the roof, making it all nice and getting off the various bird droppings and general crud, gradually working around the car, I got back to the open boot, which was obscuring the bottom of the roof, so I shut it to get it out of my way, Immediately realising my keys were in it. Damn!! No problem, I'll just go through the back seat right? Not on a cabby, the rear bulkhead, which is open on normal cavalier saloons, is a complete sheet of steel. curse word. Ah no worries, there is a remote solenoid for opening the boot, I'll just run a live to it and it'll pop open right? Nope. It clicked away happily, but the boot did not open. Out comes the drill. Goodbye boot lock
After retrieving my keys I inspected the boot solenoid, it was missing the rod that connects it to the lock, It now has a piece of welding rod in it's place and works perfectly. I covered the lock hole with the badge off my key fob, it doesn't look too bad I think.I didn't make the show by the way. Nor did I make the following weekends show. I can't remember why, I just didn't go.
So, the wheels.... I'm getting pretty much fed up of them now and I've been fruitlessly searching for a set of original 13inch crosspokes for the cav, until I found these...
13 inch K&N diamond cut alloys, I didn't know K&N made wheels, anyway, I got them for the grand sum of £30, bargain.
The hugebigmassive alloys are on ebay if anyone is interested, they are dual fit, 108mm PCD and 100 PCD, and have good tyres with plenty of tread.
Wheels
So last week... I'm using the cav daily as I'm waiting for a part for my fusion, and I went shopping at the local Lidl. I come out to the cav and get in, turn the key and. . . nothing. Not a blip, nothing.
Hmmmmm
It's at this point that my memory pipes up with 'well....the immobiser has been a bit iffy lately, you were going to have a look at it weren't you' ...yeah, I do recall thinking that at some point. Hmmmmm
Now I didn't know where the immobiliser was connected into the loom, so the only option was to trace the wires from the unit and rip it all out. So, where's the unit? I assumed, rightly for once, that the frantic clicking I was hearing from behind the glovebox was actually the control box for the immobiliser and alarm unit. So I started to take it all out.....I was left with this.
But will it work?
Thankfully yes...I drove home with bits of dash hanging out, as I'd spent far too long in the sun trying to figure out what was wrong, I put it all back in the shade of my driveway... it's funny how none of the plastics want to go back where they were isn't it, it's almost like they've had a taste of freedom and want to escape.
Anyway, that's the story so far, sorry it's a lot of waffle, but there you go.
Oh, as for shows, I'm typing this on the morning of the Stamford show that I was supposed to attend with the Cav. I would've made it, I really would, but there was a family wedding yesterday, and although we didn't stay late, It was in Leicester, and I live in Lincs, and was a fair old drive back. And back again, as I'm using the cav as a daily, and it only has 4 seats, and my uncle had missed his lift home and I couldn't fit him in on the first journey, so I had to go back to the wedding to pick him up. So I may go down later to the show but I wasn't no way gonna get up and out to stamford Early this morning.
There is also the big Vauxfest show at billing next week, I was going to attend, but we're moving house and have been waiting for the keys since June whilst the builders sort out the new place. The keys will be available on the 30th... so I guess i'm missing Vauxfest while I move house .... I wasn't meant to go to any shows this year was I?
oh well ...
