Vauxhall Cavalier Calibre Restoration Article,

This is the first of an occasional series on the website on Club members cars that have been restored.  To start the ball rolling I have written an article on my Vauxhall Cavalier MK2 Calibre which has recently been restored by Perfect Panel and Paint.

A bit of back ground to the car.  I purchased it in 2007, I had a call from the garage I us locally.  The boss of the garage had taken a call from a chap he knows who takes cars for scrap and he said I had a Vauxhall Cavalier Calibre and was wondering what it was, the chap from the garage said are you sure you don’t mean Calibra to which the reply was no this is a four door saloon on a E-plate.  The garage promptly called me as they knew I was into Vauxhall’s.  At that time I did not know to much about Calibre’s so I looked them up on the net and checked out a few forums. What I found out was there is not many left on the road around 25 out of a production run of 500 and there are lots of replicas and they also suffer badly from rust.

Armed with this information I visited the person concerned, had a good look over the car and I was pleasantly surprised.  It had not suffered to much rust wise and had apparently been in a garage since 2000 which had helped.  I took the car for a short test drive (not to far as I was not sure of the brakes etc) and the car felt very tight with plenty of go.  I checked a few things to make sure it was genuine, for example that the rear towing eye was an extension on top of the original.   Something that replicas don’t have.  Everything was ok.  Also there was tax discs in the glove box going back to 1999. 

They we came to the price I asked the chap what he wanted and he said make me an offer as it does not owe me anything as I was paid to take it away.  I offered £350 and the deal was done. 

I drove the car back to the garage I use to be put through an MOT.  Obviously it failed on various items.  But to my amazement nothing major. 

Once on the road I started to use it as my daily car.  I also took it to Billing that year.  I meet a chap at Billing who was local to me who also has a Calibre and he had some spares like alloys etc.  I arranged to go over and visit him and acquired an Exhaust System (Not a genuine Irmshcer one but the garage fabricated it so it fitted) a new drivers seat and some alloy wheels. 

My Calibre parked with sister E70 FTL.

Later that year I attempted to take the car to the Woburn Rally.  However I only as far as Woburn Sands where I was meeting some Manta Club members.  The radiator decided to blow at the end of the road where I was meeting some one.  We towed the car back to his house.  And had a look and there was a hole at the bottom of the radiator so a new radiator was required.  I sourced one locally from a company called Dial-A-Rad. 

(They can do Cavalier MK1 and Manta Radiators as well). 

So I now have a copper cored radiator in the car.

The following year I fitted a Opel Ascona Spirnt/i200 steering wheel.

(In Germany these cars have a different steering wheel which looks more sporty than the UK one). 

Also various other interior parts were fitted and the dash board was resecured as a bolt was missing.   

In 2008 the car attended Billing and then came the Woburn Rally. 

On the way there this time the car sprung a fuel leak in the engine and as

I had not left my town I changed to the Manta and parked up the Calibre. 

(For some reason this car does not want to go to Woburn). 

I took the car off the road at Christmas 2008 ready for works to be carried out. I managed to source a spare body kit and bumper, new sills, new rear wheel arches, badges, boot carpet and front fog lights. 

The car was collected by Matt who runs Perfect Panel and Paint in the Summer of 2009.  And was taken to his workshop near Lichfield, where the body kit was removed and repainted, the boot was removed along with the doors and bonnet and all window glass.  Ready for repainting.  Repairs were carried out to the inner and out rear wheel arches which as you can see in the before and after pictures were in a bad way.  Once of the sills was part replaced and one was repaired.  The car was repainted back into Carmine red and the doors and glass refitted.  The boot was realigned as it was leaking.  The body kit was painted and refitted. 

Pictures on the day before the car went to be restored in 2009.

Pictures of the Calibre during the restoration.

Pictures of the Calibre after the work, less the stickers and rear spoiler.

Pictures take at our local Meet and outside my Office.

I have recently sourced the stickers for the car from the person I know locally who also has a Calibre.  These will be applied soon and a photo of the car with these on will be posted. 

On my last visit back to Matt’s workshop in February on a cold snowy day Total Vauxhall were visiting and writing a feature on the work Matt carry’s out which will be in the April edition out on April 9^th.  They also took various pictures of my Calibre which may also feature in the article along with me. 

I am hopping to take the car to a number of shows this year including Billing 2010.  It's debut all being well will be at Newton Longville in May 2010 (See events section).  And I may even attempt to take the car to the Woburn Show (3^rd time lucky?). 

If you have looked and pictures of the car above and are interested in Matt carrying out work on your car his contact details are as follows.  Please also say that you got his details from the Cavalier and Chevette Club website.

Matthew Harvey

Perfect Paints

Mobile: 07517 756179

E-Mail: callymatt2000@hotmail.com