Bilbo's mk1 Cavalier

Hi all. Thought I would join up here as the new car is much more Retro Rides style than other cars I have owned. This is my first Vauxhall, spending the majority of the last 10 years playing with MX-5s.

First off here's my current Eunos Roadster. Been about 3 years of rolling restoration, and it's gone from this:




To this:






It's still nowhere near concourse, but I think for 186,000 miles it's not looking too bad! Basically overhauled everything, loads of welding, full respray, ITBs, all new bushes, brakes, suspension etc. etc. It's been a ton of work!


Anyway! I seem to go through dailies very quickly. I get bored of things. In the last 2 years I've had a K11, Civic, Bluebird saloon, 107, Yaris, and currently a CMAX (it was £250 and does 52mpg, don't judge me).


So I've been looking into and planning something the last couple of months, and decided to go for it. The plan is proper old school 4 door, RWD, MX-5 engine, daily driver.


So here it is, a 1980 Cavalier 2000 GL Automatic:









It's already partly stripped, but came with everything in boxes, and a ton of spares. It's pretty rusty but came with a load of repair panels and sections to weld in to about 90% of the problem areas.

So lets get the rust photos out of the way:

Passenger rear sill:




Nearside inner wing (previous owner already started to cut it out and fix it):




Another shot of the nearside inner:




Driver's footwell:




Partially repaired headlight housing/wing mount:




And one spot below A pillar:



There's some other bits of rust around the car, one chassis leg is a bit gone, some bits of the floor are gone in some areas, but this is the worst of it. The sills are the worst part. Small amount on front wings under where the front bumper would go.


I've already got started on it, only owned it a few days and just trying to crack on and get all the rot cut out and welded up. I think I've seen just 1 of these on the road ever in person that I can recall, at least in recent years, so I'm excited to get it going again. It's been laid up since 1997! 


However other common rust areas are pretty good!


Front strut towers and bay generally is in pretty good shape:




Rear arch tubs are good:







Boot shut and door shuts are nice and clean:







Roof and pillars all look alright:






Comes with all original parts that were removed, and a ton of new spares, as well as the partially disassembled original engine:












So a lot of work to come but it's not an absolute rotter. Rear arches look great actually which I was surprised by, and most other tricky/annoying to weld areas look clean, so that's something at least!

Anyway, made some good progress on it since I got it on Sunday, on the nearside inner wing and jacking point area.

Got the panel the previous owner made prepped and welded in:




Never done any plug welds before, so they didn't start off too beautiful, but got better as I went on. The panel is all done now, and no pinholes viewable from the inside, so I seam sealed the welds, primed and undersealed.



The top corner bits I have had to make separately, got one of those done now as well.


Decided I may as well make use of the new jacking point repair section, and cut the old one out, as well as the rusty sill end plate:




I cut the end off of the full length sill section and got it welded on:




Dressed the welds a little and got it all protected:




The floorpan above the jacking point was rusted through in some places, which is why I decided to cut the entire floor out in that section. I kept cutting away until the new panel started to fit a bit better. It is the same shape, but some minor variations to the original. The chassis rail the jacking point attaches to is fortunately in great condition, so that won't need cutting out.


I have now welded in some sheet to replace the floor section, and need to plug and seam the jacking point to it after. I will also be welding it to the sill and the chassis rail as it was from the factory. I likely won't use it to actually jack the car up, but want it to be as strong as it was designed to be.


With a little more work it should fit perfectly:




I buzzed back the metal in front of the door and it was all perfect, so I primed and undersealed it to keep it good:




The good thing about the car in this area is that the back of all the repairs I have welded in so far can be accessed from the other side, so I am able to properly paint and protect them when I am finished.

And here is the (unfinished, horrible to weld) floor plate that I have started to weld on:




Should have this corner all zipped up by the end of this week, and then it is on to the rear sill and removing the front subframe for overhaul.