Cavalier News!!

Last Updated On: 7/21/03

Recent Cavalier News:

7/21/03 Well...reality set in lol. I can't afford to buy a car for $1000...and then if it needs work, then that car might as well have a death sentence. Oh well, I'll stick with my dads civic. I'm not gonna make a page for it cuz there is probably 1 million pages about 99 civics already and mine is just stock lol. One day me and Dane will deffinately restore another cavalier.

7/14/03 Screw what I said in April, I'm gonna find myself another cavalier.

5/23/03 I've been looking around for another car and haven't seen that much. Looks like I'll be taking my dads 99 civic. Its a nice little car and it'll get me back and forth to marching band lol. Here it is with the Cavalier

4/18/03 This is the last update and a final goodbye for the Cavalier. Sometimes life can be cruel and unfair. Two days ago, the Cavalier felt the brute end of this cruelness. The mechanic said my car was rusted to hell on the subframe (my car wasn't made with a regular frame) and that if I was ever in a front end collison, I would probably instantly be killed. My parents won't let me keep the car and it will be junked. I know life will move on, I mean, for god sakes its just a car. But..there's just a little more involved: A lot of emotional stuff happened with that car (vacations, events, etc), my friendship with Dane and Brian grew tremdously working on that car. Working on a car together makes an unbreakable friendship, a strong one that will never die. Dane Brian and I got exposed to amature car restoration and body work...And lastly, we had an emotional attachment to that car. We could tell if it was happy by how it ran, how those goofy clown rims looked, and by how the car looked over all. If you think I'm crazy for sayin that either you've never restored a car, or you never got emotionaly attached to a car. (Either of which is ok) I'm thankful that Bob the mechanic (who checked out the cavalier) looked beyond our checkbook, and saw that I could be in danger. I owe him my life.
I know I'm going to miss that car a lot, it was the car that people said should never be bothered with, worked on, or even given a chance. And although in the end, we weren't sucessful...we'll always know that we were the only people who ever tried to restore a 1990 4 Door Chevrolet Cavalier. I really don't know what else to say, I just hope it gets crushed quickly so that it won't have to sit, rust, and rot away. Goodbye Cavalier.

Left: Bob talks to me. Right: Goodbye Cavalier
Brian and Dane follow in the Buick.

4/13/03 Good Morning :-(. Well it's actually afternoon, but morning for meeee. Whatever. Today, I'm gonna try and get that brake thing off. Wish me luck

4/11/03 Happy Birthday to my dad. Ran the Cavalier today..that's about it. Dane's Mustang is registered and the next step is to get a new engine. He's workin on it!

4/10/03 Washed the Cavalier! Then ran it, it sounds good. Here's some pics of the nice clean car!

4/9/03 Ran the Cavalier. It sounds good! :-D. Guess the thicker oil is better.

4/8/03 Finally got some gas for the car and ran it. It was in the mid 30s and humid today, so at first the car didn't run that good with thicker oil. After the engine warmed up, it ran fine, but "Service Engine Soon" popped up, so I dont kno. Oh well, next project is the brakes, shouldn't be that hard (hopefully). later

4/7/03

3:00-> Another snow storm here in NY!!
The first storm my car will experience outside...but I kinda like it outside. People can finally see it, and it has a lot of wax, so I'm not that worried about rust for now. Still didn't get gas, so I didn't run it. I know you can't really tell, but its lightly snowing in the pic.

5:30->
This is how the car looks at 5:30. At this point I was like...ok these weather people are really b.s.ing

9:00->
Ok, so maybe the weather people were right.

4/5/03 Ran the Cavalier today, until it ran out of gas! (sorry Dane, shoulda listened to you). The car sounds kind of weird, but I think it's because it's running on fumes. :-). Hopefully tomorrow I can go out and get some gas for the car. Dane and I have been contemplating whether or not to say "screw the engine" on the Mustang, and start some body work. I'll keep you posted.

4/4/03 OIL FILTER REMOVED!! After spending about 20 bucks and buying an oil filter wrench and an attachment for my socket set, it came out! I changed the oil, Dane and Brian came over and helped me move the car outside, and it ran! and ran! till we were afraid it would run out of gas...Dane says: "Well �t le�st we c�n fix th�t, 1 luv!" Ok dane! I'll pretend that it both made sense and had to do with my car...anyway.LOL jk man its all "madd chill" as you thug types might say. For those of us who are less exposed to g�ngst� types....YEA. ok "At least I wasn't raised in a jungle." Ok, this doesn't make any sense anymore but ITS FRIDAY AND MY CAR RUNS! later

4/3/03 Didn't try the filter even though I said I would. Workin' out ideas on what to do with the Cavalier...no, not sell it or anything. Just what to fix first~! I'm on a VERY limited budget. Decided to put the updates back onto page 1 and I think I'm gonna keep them and not delete them daily. Lol, I know I know..who cares?!

4/2/03 Didn't even try today. I'll try tomrrow.

4/1/03 The jar opener didn't work. Oh well, at least I'm building up some muscles!! Dane came over to help, still that oil filter wouldn't move. It'll have to come off eventually.

3/31/03 AHHH! I don't know how many more cuts my hands and fingers can take!! This oil filter is not coming off! I tried using the back end of a mousepad for gripping...but it didn't work. Sometime this week, Dane's going to come over with those grip things to open up jars. Wish us luck.
9:20 PM - Still no luck! AHHHH

3/30/03 I think I've finally gotten over the floorpan problem. It'll get fixed. Had to just kinda walk away from the problem for a while. Ah, and then there's the oil filter. We didn't get to work on it today, so hopefully sometime soon. I don't why it's so difficult to get out!! Later today I'll try, but I don't think the filter's going to come out. Wish me luck.

3/28/03 Today has to be the lowest point of the Cavalier restoration. Lower than when the brakes went, and even lower than when both the back doors were mishapen pieces of steel that fit in the doorway. When jacking up the car (I'll explain why soon), I accidently jacked up the floor pans. The driver's side floor pan is so bent out of shape now! :-(. There's like no leg room (yes now even less than a 90 Cavalier's) and the driver's seat is definatly off. Getting it fixed is going to cost more so it's probably going to delay the Cavalier getting fixed. Ok, I was jacking up my car to get to this thing on the brakes. There's just one leaky thing that actually unscrews from the line, and then screws into the brake drum, so it's doable. But that'll have to wait for another day. It's time to take Dane's advice. "Start putting some things back together so we can focus on one thing at a time" Thanks man. I guess our focus is going to be to get the oil filter out and finish changing the oil! I tried doing it again today, all I accomplished was stabbing a hole in the filter. Hopefully Sunday (3/30/03) we'll be able to work on it. Wish us luck.
Go to Page 12: Cavalier Problem of Until Another One Shows Up for Damage Pictures of the Floorpan.

3/27/03 So busy! I've barely had time to look at the car when going in and out in the garage! :-( I didn't even try the oil filter, but since tomorrow's Friday, I'll have more time to work on it. Good news! The Magic Mystery Oil finally went down in Dane's engine. The bad news is it still won't crank :-(. We'll keep you posted.

3/26/03 We can't get that oil filter out! UGH, we still don't want to run the Cavalier with new oil and an old oil filter.

3/25/03 Haven't been able to run the Cavalier yet because we didn't put the new oil in. Makes no sense to put new oil in and have an old oil filter. Tomorrow I'll add this oil filter problem to Page 12: Cavalier Problem of Until Another One Shows Up. I forgot to ask Dane about the Mustang! I'll update again tomorrow.

3/24/03 My cousin Meredith in Florida is picking up license plate brackets for my car! The dealership that we bought the Cavalier in changed hands within a family, so they say Roger Dean instead of Janie Dean, but oh well! They still will add a nice touch to the car. Thanks Meredith!

3/23/03 Still waiting for the Magic Mystery Oil in the first cylinder to drain down in Dane's Mustang. Didn't run the Cavalier today, I will tomorrow.

3/21/03 Hmm...just been running the Cavalier every few days. That's about it. Waiting for the Magic Mystery Oil to unstick Dane's Mustang engine. I'll keep you posted.

3/16/03 Not much happening here in Potown. I've been driving around a little. We're still trying to get Dane's mustang to run....and Happy Saint Patricks Day!

3/3/03 Ok, so it's not Cavalier news..but I GOT MY PERMIT!!!!!! Too bad my car still doesn't have brakes. I wanna thank everyone who gave me money and stuff for my car!!

3/1/03 With the work of Brian, the Cavalier's spark plug wires and spark plugs were changed. Joe Deck gave them to me for my birthday, thanks man. ALSO!!!!!! The gas gage went back down to the right setting!!

Check the site every so often, I'll try to keep it updated :-D. I want thank Dane for the countless hours he's put into this car with me, and also for thinking before doing. He's stopped me from making many mistakes!

Check out Dane's 68 Mustang Convertible!

Check out Brian's 83 Buick Park Avenue!

Table of Contents
Page 1: Intro
Page 2: Getting rid of rust
Page 3: Changing the lightbulbs in the instrument panel
Page 4: The Carpet
Page 5: The Doors and Spray Priming
Page 6: Signs of improvement
Page 7: Cavalier parts car
Page 8: The System!!
Page 9: The Cavalier with the Buick
Page 10: Cavalier glove-compartment
Page 11: Removing the Air Conditioner Fan and Other Stuff...
Page 12: Cavalier Problem of Until Another One Shows Up
Page 13: Cavalier News!!

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