TD Daily Hatch
Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 12:00 am
I thought it was time to make a thread, after owning the car for over a year I thought it to be right to do it now, the car is currently on SORN in a lockup where its being kept nice and dry, after the work done by HAIRIBO it's a great car that was a pleasure to drive and guaranteed to be mechanically sound, well cleaned and most importantly really fun.
This is where I bought the car, after taking about a years break from driving lessons (I really don't know why I had such a big break) my dad started to look at a couple of smaller engined cavs I'm guessing to peak my interest back to passing my test, we looked at a couple of rougher ones for around the £350-400 mark when I spotted this up on the forum with smoke grey paint and the Isuzu TD engine being a couple of my favorite things in a cav, it was bought to replace my current TD project at the time, one trip to Sunderland and a nice chat with HAIRIBO, dad and I headed back home in my first journey in a cav in about 6-7 years (not including the 1/10mile struggle without a clutch journey that i had when bringing my original derv down the hill road I live on)
This was our much needed break after around half of our late night journey back home
Think I spent around half an hour looking through the car when we got back that night like a little kid with toys on christmas, also due to the multiple no shows who bought the red TD on ebay I managed to get a photo of all three of the cavs together
It was around the 29th September that we got the car home and got it insured and taxed early in October until the 15th of December I think, over that time I managed to due just over 1,500 miles in the car, dragging poor dad out nearly every night to get the driving practice in, with the longest journey I had in that time being the 40 mile each way trip to Llandudno and back, with the problem of seeing a strange white object fly over the windscreen at some point in the journey which later on turned out to be the front L plate
Luckily we had a spare L plate in the car so we could complete the return journey, which unsurprisingly suffered the same as the one before it a few weeks later
A couple of photos of both of my cavs together freshly washed after someone finally picked up the red TD saloon
Finally here is my plans for the car, i'm currently driving the 1.6 Cavalier L and insurance is to be renewed in December I will then insure it for 12 months marking the date that I plan to get this diesel back on the road if I can complete everything I want to do, this is including removing the carpets and as much of the interior as i can, probably the roof lining and dash being the only things to be undisturbed so i can check for any rust, surface or otherwise, from there I will sort out all of the rust that I can find, grinding and welding in new metal where possible, visible from inside the car or underneath, where I will strip completely in preparation to paint the complete underside of the car and the parts that bolt up to it, I've given the car a few good look overs where i can so far and nothing jumps out as being serious, but I want to make sure that i can get it as clean as i can and get it painted to protect it for the next few years and keep on top of maintenance and metalwork i'm currently (and have been for nearly a year now) thinking about using Epoxy 121 to paint underneath and the components , this is including the front sub frame and struts.
For the exterior of the car aside from the underneath won't be touched as the few little dents and marks add to the aggressive look that the car gives, for the suspension when I go through the work of redoing the underside I ideally want to go with a full polybush kit front and rear, I managed to get a full set of good condition yellow Bilstein B8 shock absorbers and i'm debating between Eibach, quality -40 springs I can get a good used set of and -50 or -60 Spax springs.
A few of the miscellaneous bits that are in the plan that I've been thinking about for the car since day one is to swap the window glass for the Gls and higher tinted glass, I've currently got the full door glass and rear quarter windows, due to the tailgate glass I've thought about adding a slight tint to the already tinted window glass from the rear doors back and blending the original rear window with tint instead of sourcing glass and having it replaced, Just leaving me with the task of finding a windscreen.
For the inside of the car I'm going to fit a full electric floor loom and adding rear electric windows and electric mirrors, I've already got all the parts to do the conversion so is just the job of going through the wires and replacing the loom, I've also thought about replacing the window motors on the mech with compatible ones from an omega or similar later vauxhall just as they can be quicker due to being newer, also between a friend and I we are planning on making a full custom exhaust system for the car.
This is where I bought the car, after taking about a years break from driving lessons (I really don't know why I had such a big break) my dad started to look at a couple of smaller engined cavs I'm guessing to peak my interest back to passing my test, we looked at a couple of rougher ones for around the £350-400 mark when I spotted this up on the forum with smoke grey paint and the Isuzu TD engine being a couple of my favorite things in a cav, it was bought to replace my current TD project at the time, one trip to Sunderland and a nice chat with HAIRIBO, dad and I headed back home in my first journey in a cav in about 6-7 years (not including the 1/10mile struggle without a clutch journey that i had when bringing my original derv down the hill road I live on)
This was our much needed break after around half of our late night journey back home
Think I spent around half an hour looking through the car when we got back that night like a little kid with toys on christmas, also due to the multiple no shows who bought the red TD on ebay I managed to get a photo of all three of the cavs together
It was around the 29th September that we got the car home and got it insured and taxed early in October until the 15th of December I think, over that time I managed to due just over 1,500 miles in the car, dragging poor dad out nearly every night to get the driving practice in, with the longest journey I had in that time being the 40 mile each way trip to Llandudno and back, with the problem of seeing a strange white object fly over the windscreen at some point in the journey which later on turned out to be the front L plate
Luckily we had a spare L plate in the car so we could complete the return journey, which unsurprisingly suffered the same as the one before it a few weeks later
A couple of photos of both of my cavs together freshly washed after someone finally picked up the red TD saloon
Finally here is my plans for the car, i'm currently driving the 1.6 Cavalier L and insurance is to be renewed in December I will then insure it for 12 months marking the date that I plan to get this diesel back on the road if I can complete everything I want to do, this is including removing the carpets and as much of the interior as i can, probably the roof lining and dash being the only things to be undisturbed so i can check for any rust, surface or otherwise, from there I will sort out all of the rust that I can find, grinding and welding in new metal where possible, visible from inside the car or underneath, where I will strip completely in preparation to paint the complete underside of the car and the parts that bolt up to it, I've given the car a few good look overs where i can so far and nothing jumps out as being serious, but I want to make sure that i can get it as clean as i can and get it painted to protect it for the next few years and keep on top of maintenance and metalwork i'm currently (and have been for nearly a year now) thinking about using Epoxy 121 to paint underneath and the components , this is including the front sub frame and struts.
For the exterior of the car aside from the underneath won't be touched as the few little dents and marks add to the aggressive look that the car gives, for the suspension when I go through the work of redoing the underside I ideally want to go with a full polybush kit front and rear, I managed to get a full set of good condition yellow Bilstein B8 shock absorbers and i'm debating between Eibach, quality -40 springs I can get a good used set of and -50 or -60 Spax springs.
A few of the miscellaneous bits that are in the plan that I've been thinking about for the car since day one is to swap the window glass for the Gls and higher tinted glass, I've currently got the full door glass and rear quarter windows, due to the tailgate glass I've thought about adding a slight tint to the already tinted window glass from the rear doors back and blending the original rear window with tint instead of sourcing glass and having it replaced, Just leaving me with the task of finding a windscreen.
For the inside of the car I'm going to fit a full electric floor loom and adding rear electric windows and electric mirrors, I've already got all the parts to do the conversion so is just the job of going through the wires and replacing the loom, I've also thought about replacing the window motors on the mech with compatible ones from an omega or similar later vauxhall just as they can be quicker due to being newer, also between a friend and I we are planning on making a full custom exhaust system for the car.