Oh Sion what a find an amazing time capsule! How lovely to see one after all these years they were everywhere and suddenly you don’t see them often! My dad had a hire one in exactly that colour when his Astra was off the road with a technical fault such great motors they could swallow miles and everything a family could need and in my opinion always seemed a better car than the sierra That’s well worth restoring and enjoying and will be a lovely addition to the fleet! It will look amazing next to that gorgeous Astra E Merry Christmas to you both daniel
@@MorselsAndMotors thanks Sion was around a lot of the cars you like and in the fleet! Many of the family were BL workers others had fords and my dad was a staunch Vauxhall buyer in the 80s!
There was a base version of the Ascona C/Mk2 Cavalier with 1.3 litre engine. That would have been perfect FOTU fodder, though this one will be a good candidate too. 😊
I'm sure the ariel on my Cavalier had a small slot on the top, which came with a small key. You slotted the key onto it which enabled you to pull the ariel up. Mine was a slightly later model, 1986 on a C reg.
I had the same model an 84 B plate, same colour. Only difference I can see is that mine had 5 gears and a rear wash wipe, I guess they were added for the following model year. Auto choke on mine was crap too :-)
My parents bought a 4 year old C reg 1600L in 1990. It was the navy blue colour, and a saloon. I had their previous car - a Mk1 1300 made in 1980. The difference between the two felt more like 25 years than 6. Vauxhall really leapt forward when they launched the Mk2 and the time of the Mk2 (and maybe Mk3) weas the only time that Vauxhall comprehensively trounced Ford's offering.
Very nice! I remember these being launched - we had a VX estate at the time, which looked and felt positively ancient in comparison to this (although I do love the VX series). I also remember China Blue well - it was ago to Halfords spray paint when I was studying product design - I used it to spray paint my mock-ups. Add some matt lacquer, and it made a passable injection moulding lookalike!
I enjoyed your reel. I'm in New Zealand now but, in the 80s I sold Vauxhall cars for my living in Stockport Manchester. The China blue cavalier L mk2 brought back memories for me. Excellent cars (from memory) thanks for sharing.
Ironically in the UK we had the cavalier estate which had the back section of the Holden Camira estate and they were very popular at the time but extremely rare now
Very nice original car & the rust proofing has been extremely effective, China Blue good cavalier colour, the 1.6 engine was very lively for the time. living in Chelmsford in the early 90’s, County Motors Vauxhall genuine AC Delco parts were very competitive, Astra oil filter / 5 litre oil / air filter was £11
@@MorselsAndMotors Strong engines. Sorry, I am a Mine of useless information, I was at the Agricultural college, so might have got a discount, the Ford dealer, Trimoco were also cheap, but VW Kennings only cheap for Quantum oil
That's in fantastic condition, I had a A reg one 1984 which I bought two years old.that was an 1.6 L the same. But did have a rear wash wipe on it. I would read the owners manual as I'm sure there was a technique to start it from cold, I'm sure it was ign on press gas pedal to the floor then start or something like that. there was a manual conversion choke kits available aftermarket. But my father had a couple of MK1 1.3 Astras as company cars , one was a 1981 with Auto choke, then the last of the MK1 Astra s 1984 had a factory manual choke with a light on the dash when it was pulled out. They did suffer from camshaft wear, the root cause was put down to high revs on cold starts due to the auto choke
Looks a brilliant find mate, I ran a 83 saloon in brown for a couple of years 1.6 L, very fond memories and should not have swapped it for the 1.8 L sierra. What a great stable mate for your Astra, I’m pleased someone is giving old Vauxhalls some love.
It surprises me that old Vauxhalls are generally much less loved than old Fords. Even though nobody seems to have a bad word to say against the Cavalier!
Back in 1990 - the same year I passed my driving test, I had a Mk2 hatchback in white, the 1.6 as well, and it was registered in May 1983, also on a Y plate - APF933Y if I remember rightly. Sadly even then, it was a lemon, and needed a recon engine put in it as it was burning oil like crazy. But got rid of it quite quickly and later, in 1992 I got another Mk2 Cav, but this time a B reg - B497SNX, a 1985 silver 1.8 CD version which was the top of the range - so much nicer, and really quite quick. I always loved the shape of the Mk2 hatchback Cavalier, I thought they looked like a shrunk down Rover SD1 - which was a car I always wanted but never got as they would have been too costly to run. Never really liked the saloon version though, I thought they were too old fashioned looking - it was amazing the difference a hatchback made to this model. How lovely to see a Mk2 in such great nick and 40 years old too. Hope you get the engine running sweetly again on cold start - auto chokes of that ere were not especially reliable.
That's lovely, and you're like me being able to remember all old number plates! People seem to have very few negative things to say about mk2 Cavaliers
A fantastic video that brings back memories of my first jobs working in Vauxhall dealerships between 1984 and 1988. Bonus points gir the original Phillips radio cassette player, the AN232 IF my memory serves me.
The same model my Grandma had in the early 90's. She had an A reg one in Leaf Green and ended up traded it in for a MK2 Fiesta. It originally belonged to my dad in from new 1984 and went for the optional 5 speed box as he did long journeys to work and better on fuel. He also stuck a Weber carb with a manual choke because the original GM Varajet was troublesome
The auto chokes wernt the best, their basicly a heat sensitive spring sat in a housing full of coolant, but they can be adjusted to work better. Or you can convert over to manual.
Thank you - I will have a play with this and see how I feel about it. It always starts first time, and once it goes through its initial warm-up grumbles, it idles perfectly.
How many of those mark twos did I drive during the 80s, dozens of them. The company I worked for had them as fleet cars. I remember the radios weren't switched with the ignition and frequently got left on🤦
I had a brown 1.6 mk2 saloon and then a later pale metallic blue 1.8 injection mk2 saloon. I particularly liked the 1.8 injection but enjoyed them both. Not keen on the jelly mould mk3 so then started on a series of Citroen diesels because of a longer commute.
What a gem, had a few variations of the Cavalier back in the day, loved them , my last cavalier 1996 was a favourite I then stepped into a Vectra it was ok but it didn’t quite have the cavalier feel, despite all the effort of GM/Opel/Vauxhall, that was sold on back in 2005. The Auto choke (hot or cold) can be a bit iffy on these, even when not very old, a tip as you start it give throttle a little stab as it’s turning over, yum that engine sound and engine takes me way back.
Very nice! I remember these being launched - we had a VX estate at the time, which looked and felt positively ancient in comparison to this (although I do love the VX series). I also remember China Blue well - it was ago to Halfords spray paint when I was studying product design - I used it to spray paint my mock-ups. Add some matt lacquer, and it made a passable injection moulding lookalike!
Obligatory "my grandad had one of these" post. His was a 1984 base model with the smallest (1.3?) engine... which he used to tow his caravan. Despite that it wasn't quite as Unexceptional as a proper misery-spec base model as it had a rear wiper and metallic paint... just nothing else that the L might have had over it. It was his retirement car - it replaced a probably-slightly-rusty-by-then Renault 16, and it saw him through to the grave... which was only seven years but it did its job.
That looks in amazing shape, congratulations! Where do you find these gems?! I remember when there were loads of these about, there were quite a few "pastel" type colours including a green, beige, yellow and of course the blue. I always thought the hatch was much better looking than the saloon.
Yes, the colours all work well I thought. The green is my favourite I have to admit. I was lucky enough to spot this for sale on a mk2 Cavalier facebook group in which I'd been lurking for a few years, waiting for the right car to come along!
@@MorselsAndMotors yes! I didn't like the green when they were current, but it looks great now, very reminiscent of the period, I suppose because so few cars have been painted that colour since.
My dad had this Same colour, spec and interior colour with the same philips radio. A927 GAD wow it takes me back. Ultimately rust broke her back and the back shock absorbers almost came through.
I had one , mine was a terracotta red. Towed a caravan with it. New sills, some welding around the rear struts, and it was as good as new. This was around 1992. A young lad in his mom's fiesta wrote it off . A mate of mine had one in a pale green .
How much did you pay for it ? It’s probably one of the best left, get rid of them door protectors, they hold the shit & bite into the paintwork eventually
The only car I've ever had an accident with was a Cavalier in that colour, although I think that was a D reg. But if there's evidence of a repair to the nearside rear quarter, that might have been me.
Had some friends had one of these that they bought for a song in the 1990s. Twice. It ran and ran and would not die. Didn't rust either, possibly due to a good underseal job early in its life. Love the '70s deep pile carpet boot liner.
I had a black 1600 L ex RAF staff car. One day, the door handle wouldn't work so I was locked out of my car, at a car wash with the engine running. Friends had to drive to the local town to get the police to come and break in using wire.
The engine sounds exactly like mine, there is a few differences between the early spec Cavalier L’s and the mid spec ones, mine has a manual choke but has a rear wash wipe. They really are great cars! I absolutely love driving mine around! Well done for finding such a fine example! Steve.
Hi Sion, that looks lovely mate, takes me back to when i was a child and i used to go to school in an estate version which was a taxi, the estate ones' reversing lifhts were square and on the boot which made them look like buck teeth but it looked nice 👍 Nice find mate
I had an 86 1.6L model same as that one but with the later grill. C263 FMT. Great car but had to change the cam shaft and the the clutch release bearing in the 5 years I had it. So easy to work on. Changed the camshaft in a couple of hours. You could change a cambelt in an hour or so. Its a full day and horrendously complicated to change the crappy wet belts they're now using thanks to Peugeot.Oh and mine had the manual choke which worked much better than the automatic choke.
Nice purchase i had a B Regn in the same spec but it was dark brown with brown interior was a good car i seem to remember the gearing was quite high on it so only the 4 gears wasnt an issue at higher speeds
That is lovely! I've had a few Cav mk2's in my time - My first car was a 1.3 A reg - and all of them had more rust than yours. They are great cars. Enjoy!
Congratulations on the new purchase! A cool fact about this generation Cavalier, it has to do with the blanking plate next to the light switch. I bet you never saw one with a switch fitted, but can you guess what it was for when it had one?
It's the activation switch for the start-stop system, yes really!! Only available from 1985 with the (obviously carbureted) 1.3 engine in combination with 5 speed gearbox. Google "Ascona C Stop-Start System" and you'll find more info. I fell over backwards in amazement when I read about it!
You can do a clutch in 30 minutes (changed with the mk3 you had to take the gearbox out on that). Did 500k in two diesel’s Leeds Hackney carriage. Plate 138. Think I’ve still got the cam press to replace rockets when cam belt went.
I wish manufacturers would have continued that easy clutch replacement trend. I’m sure thousands of cars have been scrapped because it’s uneconomical to pay the labour to replace the clutch
Had a 1.6 GL 1984 A as my first car, 5 speed box and auto choke, and in the same colour as this car, china blue, was given it and it was half the price of insurance than on my mates fiestas (£780 a year 1997)....and when their fiestas had broken down, or beint welded up i could carry them around in comfort....great cars.
What a great car. If I remember correctly it has a Pierberg carb. Please don't throw the automatic choke away and convert it to manual. The auto choke has a diaphragm that pulls the choke open a bit when it has started. Almost certainly that will be what is causing the over chokeing and rough cold running. Replace that diaphragm and your problems will be over! There is the slightest chance that the hole for the suction to said diaphragm could be blocked. However, the chances are that the 40 year old diaphragm has perished and is holed. I have a lot of respect for those 1.6 Cavaliars. Easy to work on, super reliable and quite quick (considerably quicker than the 1.6 Cortina and Sierra). You are a lucky man!
Thank you, that's some useful advice. I intend to keep the automatic choke, so yes I will investigate what might be wrong with it and see what I can do
Just don’t take bends too quickly- after a test drive in one of these followed by a drive in a 405 I decided to buy the 405. The front wheels in the Vauxhall didn’t seem connected to the steering wheel.
A superb example of a Mk2 Cavalier, even the original radio with the front and rear fader wheel next to the hazzard button. We owned a 1982 X-reg saloon in China Blue that we sold in 1988 for a Mk2 hatchback in Nordic Blue, which we still own to this day and with only 42000 on the clock.
Thank you. I’m very happy with it (although I’m afraid I am going to have to upgrade the radio to one from a slightly later Cavalier so I can have FM for my Bluetooth transmitter)
Love your videos! That blue colour is beautifully hideous 😂. Good luck on the touch ups... Would the cavalier be the british equivalent to the Opel Ascona?
the auto choke is on the left side of the carb and has some screws which you can loosen and turn the auto choke unit clockwise to make the choke less strong. it was the same on my nova years ago until i did that then never over choked again.
