Bilbo's mk1 Cavalier

[®evo03]

You can buy universal rubber mounts both inserted thread or studs. 

[Bilbo]

On 22/08/2023 at 21:55, ®evo03 said:

You can buy universal rubber mounts both inserted thread or studs. 

Cheers mate, that's what I have at the moment. Some "bobbin" mounts with threads on either side. Could just do with something marginally more stiff I think.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Bilbo

[Bilbo]

So got the car on the ramp this weekend, as a couple of new noises appeared. A metallic vibrating sound, this was actually the exhaust gently vibrating against the gearbox brace a little on overrun. Now sorted.

The other noise I mentioned previously. After bolt checking everything, having a look over everything in the area, including the prop, nothing stands out as being the issue. So I think my initial thought that it is the clutch release bearing is correct. MX-5s are notorious for release bearing noise. Usually completely harmless, but really annoying. This has always had the classic noise, goes away when clutch is pressed. This noise is a bit more full on, the bearing sounds on its last legs, but it is what it is. It's either that or the flywheel spigot bearing, though noise from that is not something that I have ever encountered on a 5 box before. I have a 1.6 flywheel upstairs (lighter than the 1.8 one I have on), so when it comes to it I'll replace the clutch and flywheel with a 1.6 sized setup, still plenty good enough for the power I'm running, so no worries there.

 

In other news I was getting a little tired of basically falling out of the standard seat on hard cornering. The seat rail setup on these are very strange, the standard rails are this awful hooked metal system on the rear, with a pivoting bar on the front. Never really liked it. I wanted to get a basic set of fixed rails in place for some different seats. I had a set of MX-5 side mount rails lying around, so decided to make them work. The left side of the floor is raised compared to the right, which complicates things, but these rails have multiple holes, so I've managed to use the lower holes on the left, and the top holes on the right:

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#

Drilled some new holes. Top left of the photo was a pain as that section is boxed in, can't get to it from underneath. Took some messing about, but got it bolted up. The other 3 fixing points go through the floor with massive spreaders/washers on the underside, and brand new nyloc nuts to prevent any loosening. Washers on the bolt head side too to spread the load a little. These are then side mounted into the bucket seat, and the floor mounting points are long holes that allow side to side movement so the width can be adjusted for different seat types.

Now in terms of seats, I have my rather tired torn Sparco Sprint that I took out of my 5 when I broke it for parts. The other option was an absolutely god awful OMP bucket seat I got for £20 a while ago. It has I believe a 1996 FIA tag on it 😂 It's a truly awful seat, I don't like it at all. So Sparco it is.

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Ignore the tape on the scuttle vents, I've still not got round to sorting this permanently, but this keeps rain water out of the engine bay, which runs into the chassis rails. I don't want that, it's a stupid design, just asking for rust issues. So they're still sealed up with waterproof tape. Looks crap, but it does the job until I can be bothered to sort it properly.

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Does it suit the car? No, not really. But, it was a really good drive being in a seat that actually holds you in place again. Cornering was much nicer as I'm not clinging to the big old OEM steering wheel for dear life haha. It is temporary, when funds allow I'd like to get some form of retro looking recliner type bucket seats. Nothing full race spec, something that looks sporty but still somewhat comfortable. Recaro recliners would be a great choice, but pricey. Maybe some old school Recaros if I can find some for a decent price. Would just get Manta ones, but to be honest I just dislike that OEM rail system and would prefer if I was going to have moving rails to have proper modern sliding rails, and it would be a shame to hack up some nice Manta seats to do that.

We'll see, this will do for now, it is much more fun to drive.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Bilbo

[®evo03]

Hard to get a manta recaro to sit low. This is due to the bulge in floor near tunnel.  And the back attachment isn't much better, weird hook effort. On a happier note, got a slim line reclining bucket to sit pretty low.

Have you seen mx5 adjustable rear spring platforms.Seen them used before on 60mm lowered Manta springs. The platforms sit tight in the original top spring seat. 

wonder if polyurethane or nilock mounts are available? ororr 

[Jessopia74]

I bought these cheap enough, sound perfect for what you want. Adjustable recliner bucket and they do come up around £100 a pair used. Obviously mine have been trimmed in Opel Blitz material. Overall cost for repair frame/foams and retrim was £450 

‘You can also still buy a lot if item looking Vauxhall cloth if you want to be period correct too.  E.g. https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/opel-vauxhall-seat-cloth.php

 

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Edited August 30, 2023 by Jessopia74

[TheRealExile]

Did that include someone actually fitting the blitz material? If so who did you use? I'm struggling round here, I have a set of recaros that need the bolsters done.

[Bilbo]

13 hours ago, ®evo03 said:

Hard to get a manta recaro to sit low. This is due to the bulge in floor near tunnel.  And the back attachment isn't much better, weird hook effort. On a happier note, got a slim line reclining bucket to sit pretty low.

Have you seen mx5 adjustable rear spring platforms.Seen them used before on 60mm lowered Manta springs. The platforms sit tight in the original top spring seat. 

wonder if polyurethane or nilock mounts are available? ororr 

Yeah that was what I thought it may be like on EOM hook rail setup. I sit too high, I'm 6'0" and find myself slouching all the time. With the Sparco I'm sat almost too low now haha, but it's doing wonders for my posture 😂 Reclining bucket is going to be my choice I think, best of both worlds.

24 minutes ago, Jessopia74 said:

I bought these cheap enough, sound perfect for what you want. Adjustable recliner bucket and they do come up around £100 a pair used. Obviously mine have been trimmed in Opel Blitz material. Overall cost for repair frame/foams and retrim was £450 

‘You can also still buy a lot if item looking Vauxhall cloth if you want to be period correct too.  E.g. https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/opel-vauxhall-seat-cloth.php

 

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Oh mate, these look amazing! Nicely done. To be fair my mum is ridiculously good with a sewing machine, might have to have a word with her 😂 she can make clothes, leather bags, all sorts. I reckon she could reupholster a seat without too much trouble.

Are these comfortable? They look like they would be. I had Cobra fixed buckets in my EJ Civic and my god they were dreadful 😂

[Jessopia74]

20 hours ago, TheRealExile said:

Did that include someone actually fitting the blitz material? If so who did you use? I'm struggling round here, I have a set of recaros that need the bolsters done.

No I already had that, but it did include all the other materials he used as that was all new. 

[Bilbo]

So not a huge amount going on lately, money has been a little tight, but still had some bits going on.

Got down to Lancing Motor Show as probably one of the last shows of the season, some cool cars there, and the Vauxhall was pretty well received by everyone I spoke to. Saw lots of people throughout the day looking in the engine bay and pointing, probably at some of my more questionable work 😂

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Had a bit of vibration appear, seemed to be getting progressively worse over a day or 2 so got it up on the ramp.

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Decided to adjust the front wheel bearings as there was just the tiniest amount of play in both, just nipped the castle nut up one tiny bit to get the split pin through the next available slot in the nut, and both are mint now.

However while it was up I checked all other areas underneath, everything seemed tight, no issues. Then I grabbed the prop and found the problem. The front UJ that goes into the box had a lot of side to side play in it. As in I held the front section still with my hand and the main prop section had a fair bit of movement on it. Not ideal.

Now the work that JW engineering did on the prop was mint, still is, it's perfect. So this isn't about them. I provided the front and rear UJs, the front one was taken from a good condition mk2 MX-5 prop (used). I have a feeling that the UJ was probably used to working/wearing in one particular way on the MX-5 it came from, now being on a different car I guess it just didn't like it.

Now MX-5 props are annoying, the UJs aren't circlipped into place, the units are staked in with what I imagine is some for of press from the factory, so there's like 8 staked pieces of metal holding the UJ central. So I carefully ground these back, and we removed the front joint from the main prop.

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Luckily I had some mates with me who have done this sort of thing before, so that helped a lot. We then carefully replaced the UJ, making sure the replacement one was greased where the caps go and that all the needle bearings were sat where they should be. Tapped the caps on, and then simply tacked both sides so that the caps are held firmly in place. Done a good few hundred miles since, and re-checked and there is zero play in the prop at all, and it feels much better driving. Will keep an eye on it from now, but a relatively simple (albeit fiddly) fix.

Planning on wrapping my manifold this weekend to get the bay temps and in-car temps down a little bit. Yes I will be double gloving and wearing clothes that I can bin after, do not want to be itching myself for the next bloody week 😂

[Jessopia74]

Is there any angle of the box ? If it’s low at the back in relation to the prop line that would account for it and in that case a CV would work better 

[Bilbo]

22 minutes ago, Jessopia74 said:

Is there any angle of the box ? If it’s low at the back in relation to the prop line that would account for it and in that case a CV would work better 

This is a good point that I had considered but not though too much more about. There isn't a mad amount of angle, I need to get myself an angle finder to check for sure. Worst case there is room for me to raise the box up slightly with slightly thinner box mount bushes, which should help level it out if needed.

[Jessopia74]

1 hour ago, Bilbo said:

This is a good point that I had considered but not though too much more about. There isn't a mad amount of angle, I need to get myself an angle finder to check for sure. Worst case there is room for me to raise the box up slightly with slightly thinner box mount bushes, which should help level it out if needed.

It does not need to be much if it’s out in relation to the drive line to cause premature failure. It would be the inverse of the bottom example if back of box was too low

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[Jonathan Pounsett]

4 hours ago, Bilbo said:

This is a good point that I had considered but not though too much more about. There isn't a mad amount of angle, I need to get myself an angle finder to check for sure. Worst case there is room for me to raise the box up slightly with slightly thinner box mount bushes, which should help level it out if needed.

Download the TREMEC Toolbox from the App Store. You can use your phone to measure the angles and the app will tell you how good your set up is. I’m sure there will be other perfectly good apps if you don’t like the TREMEC one.

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[cam.in.head]

just be aware that the front wheel bearings are supposed to have some play in them or they could overheat.there are various preffered methods of adjustment including dial guages to measure end float .i usually adjust them up tight by hand to seat everything and then back them off until the thrust washer can be moved about easily and there is a small amount of free play evident.too slack is better than too tight !

[Bilbo]

On 13/10/2023 at 19:07, Jonathan Pounsett said:

Download the TREMEC Toolbox from the App Store. You can use your phone to measure the angles and the app will tell you how good your set up is. I’m sure there will be other perfectly good apps if you don’t like the TREMEC one.

Thanks for this mate, that's a great idea. Unfortunately the TREMEC app is too outdated on the Google Play store for my phone, so won't allow it to download, but I'll have a look for another that is suitable. Good idea.

On 14/10/2023 at 17:38, cam.in.head said:

just be aware that the front wheel bearings are supposed to have some play in them or they could overheat.there are various preffered methods of adjustment including dial guages to measure end float .i usually adjust them up tight by hand to seat everything and then back them off until the thrust washer can be moved about easily and there is a small amount of free play evident.too slack is better than too tight !

Thanks, and for sure, definitely don't want them too tight. I'd always worked with MX-5s, front and back the hubs you just do up FT haha, proper tight. Anyway when I had my Bluebird saloon I hadn't encountered tapered bearings on a hub before before and wasn't aware that you only just about do them up a little. Anyway, did the nut up on the rear with a bar, and yeah. After driving the damage to the inner of the drum where the bearing was located was absolutely biblical haha. Replaced that, and learned my lesson. The kind of thing you only do wrong once!

I will check the bearings again soon, they are still incredibly close to being loose, I can undo them by hand with no tools still. I will keep an eye on wheel temperature, but so far it has seemed ok, I just really didn't want any excess play in the bearing when grabbing the wheel 12-6or 9-3 which there was a tiny tiny bit of beforehand.

[Bilbo]

In other news as I mentioned before, I wanted to wrap my exhaust manifold. 2 reasons for this, firstly engine bay temperatures.

I don't have a significant issue with it, in fact intake temps when looking on the laptop are fairly reasonable given the open trumpets, but still it can't hurt to keep bay temps down more.

The other reason (and yes we are going into winter now, but still) is in-car temperatures. At first I suffered with this as my heater doesn't have a hot/cold adjustment, I just made a heater box that has the heater core in it, and that's what you get. I've now solved that issue pretty much, but inside the car was still getting really quite warm, on a hot day it was quite uncomfortable. So I thought yeah it's probably engine/box heat, but the exhaust is tucked up above the gearbox brace, so it must be contributing too.

So I bought some exhaust heat wrap, stainless ties, old hoodie on, double gloved (thank god, don't ever touch this stuff it'll ruin your day, proper proper itchy!) It was a bit fiddly, but I wet it before use and this helped quite a lot actually. Got each port wrapped nice and tight, then ran the wrap around the 4 into 2 sections, before finishing up down at the collector.

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Didn't wrap the flexi as was advised not to do so. Had a lot of the stuff, and you do use a lot of it! But I had enough, so I thought why not, lets wrap the entire midpipe as well. Runs directly under the cabin, so I wanted this heat to be gone. Went really well, a mate spun the pipe around as I tightly wrapped it up. Occasionally stopping to add a tie, until it was all done. Basically fully wrapped until just before the rear axle section starts.

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Pretty pleased with it, all went back on with not too much fuss, and it looks alright I think:

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Anyway, results-wise. Unbelievable difference. The wrap is so effective at keeping the heat in the manifold that I can put my hand on the manifold at operating temp and not get burned. Inside the car is night and day difference. The transmission tunnel (particularly on the passenger side) is warm now, but it isn't like a radiator like before. So much nicer and now I can just choose when I'm warm with my heater, rather than constantly be too warm.

There's some downsides to exhaust wrapping, but we'll see. I cobbled this system together from all sorts, so I'm not overly precious about it. If it makes it rust, I'll fix it. Until then I'm loving it.

Also as an added bonus the extra heat that it now takes all the way to the backbox is resulting in some particularly spectacular flames on flat out gear changes, and high rev overrun/downshifting. There's been a couple that have been physically visible in the rear view mirror haha. A guy I know was behind me as I pulled onto the duals, I'd been for a drive so the exhaust was nice and hot by this point. He claimed the flame on 1st to 2nd gear change was approx. 4 feet long 😂 As much as this has been a great change for practical reasons, I am a child at heart, and it makes me laugh every time I see the fireball in the mirrors.

[Bilbo]

So not too many big jobs going on lately, few little bits. When the storms rolled in a few weeks ago I got some rather nasty leaking inside the car, particularly on the passenger footwell side. Poured some water over the front to see exactly where it was coming from and sourced the issue.

 

It was actually 2 places, one was a small drilled hole in the inner wing, not sure what it was for, but anyway all sealed up now. Was a good opportunity to take the wing off and properly inspect all the work I did last year. All holding up pretty well actually, the stone chip has stayed on nicely, and the seam sealer seems to be doing it's job.

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Notice the gap in the inner wing at the top, just by the bottom edge of the bonnet. The metal here wasn't great, but the surrounding area is mint, so got that cut back, cleaned up, and welded a piece in here now to properly seal it. This was one of the sources of the excessive amount of water getting onto the firewall. Seems to be a lot drier in there now, though I'm still chasing a leak on driver's side, think it's getting under the door seal at the bottom, so I'll look into that.

Front tyres had got a little more dead than I realised, that's what I get for not getting an alignment sooner. Oh well, brand new set on now and all good.

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Few more little bits to do, but the car is ready to be used as a daily throughout the winter once again. No issues so far, and touch wood it doesn't entirely dissolve before the spring 😂

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Also came back out to the car when parked up and this rather lovely Chevette was parked next to it. Properly properly clean rebuild. Had a chat to the guy when he came out, it's running a Zetec engine, over 200hp, and an absolutely lovely high rise manifold on it too. Sounded decent, and I bet that absolutely flies.

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Edited November 24, 2023 by Bilbo

[TheRealExile]

What a great picture 

[Paul Barrett]

Great to see you’re still posting progress on here! 
 

you’ll like my latest acquisition I reckon….

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[Bilbo]

On 24/11/2023 at 09:25, TheRealExile said:

What a great picture 

Thanks mate, first old Vauxhall I've seen out and about not at a show since I got this on the road!

On 25/11/2023 at 00:44, Paul Barrett said:

Great to see you’re still posting progress on here! 
 

you’ll like my latest acquisition I reckon….

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Now that does look interesting. I'll be honest it threw me off what it even was, because it looked a bit VX4/90, but the lights wrapping around the edge didn't quite look right. So I zoomed in and Googled the barely visible plate, and ended up finding this: 

What engine is that it has in it now? Looks V8 from the photo.

[Jessopia74]

Ah, is this Andy’s GS/E ?

Engine is BMW, m52b25
Quite surprised he let it go in the end as he was selling/keeping/selling/keeping as it was a fun car 😁

 

[Paul Barrett]

It was Andy’s yes. 
bmw m52b25

working my way through getting it ready for road again. 

[Bilbo]

On 28/11/2023 at 13:46, Jessopia74 said:

Ah, is this Andy’s GS/E ?

Engine is BMW, m52b25
Quite surprised he let it go in the end as he was selling/keeping/selling/keeping as it was a fun car 😁

 

 

4 hours ago, Paul Barrett said:

It was Andy’s yes. 
bmw m52b25

working my way through getting it ready for road again. 

Ah of course, I should have counted the runners on the plenum haha. Seen a fair few of those engines at the unit as a few mates have had plenty of BMWs. Pretty sure that's the same 2.5 lump my mate is putting into his E30 project he's just finishing up at the moment. Pretty good engines, one advantage over the 5 engine in mine, they've got loads more torque! Must be pretty quick in that, those Commodores are a little lighter than a 36 so I bet the acceleration is pretty great (if you keep traction of course 😂).

[Paul Barrett]

On 30/11/2023 at 00:01, Bilbo said:

 

Ah of course, I should have counted the runners on the plenum haha. Seen a fair few of those engines at the unit as a few mates have had plenty of BMWs. Pretty sure that's the same 2.5 lump my mate is putting into his E30 project he's just finishing up at the moment. Pretty good engines, one advantage over the 5 engine in mine, they've got loads more torque! Must be pretty quick in that, those Commodores are a little lighter than a 36 so I bet the acceleration is pretty great (if you keep traction of course 😂).

I haven’t had it out yet. Been away for a couple weeks but itching to get back on it. Not far off now. 
apparently it is an animal, like you say lighter than it’s donor car and has an LSD. 

[Bilbo]

On 02/12/2023 at 15:13, Paul Barrett said:

I haven’t had it out yet. Been away for a couple weeks but itching to get back on it. Not far off now. 
apparently it is an animal, like you say lighter than it’s donor car and has an LSD. 

Should be a class drive that mate, especially with the LSD. It's the one thing that is a bit of a killer on the Cavalier for me, the open diff is just so savagely open haha. Pure 1 wheel peel at any opportunity. Will have to sort that one day.