Hello everyone, my name is James McGrath, I live in Robertsbridge in East Sussex and am currently studying History at Canterbury Christ Church University and may I say what a pleasure it is to see so many Mk2 Cavaliers on the site.

I've always been a bit of a Cavalier fan; I grew up with both the MK2 and the MK3.

A bit of History:

My Father purchased the Family’s first Cavalier in 1986. It was a 1983 A-reg hatchback L 1.3 in polar white. It was bought as a ex fleet car from Peabody housing association. This became my mother’s car and served for many years.

After moving house in September 1996 My father, (after finally passing his driving test!) then bought a 1993 facelift MK3 saloon LS 1.6, again as a ex company fleet car from the post office. This then became my mother’s car and my dad took the reigns of the MK2.

After a long hard life and convening over 160,000 miles the MK2 was finally SORNed in 2001 and scraped in abut 2003. My father tried to keep it going as long as he could but it eventually succumbed to very heavy rust and finally a head gasket failure. Looking back, it wasn't very well treated and was never stored in a garage but it will always be fondly remembered. Being born in 1992 I never got the chance to drive it on the road but I did finally get to drive it off road just before it was scraped. I will never forget what she was like and hope one day to get another like it again.

I passed my driving test in March 2010 and started driving the MK3 which at that point was beginning to show its age like the MK2. However knowing what happened to the MK2 I’m determined not to let that happen again.

With very little money, and armed only with a Haynes manual and a good set of spanners I have stared restoring her!

I have very few pictures of the MK2 as this was before the age of the digital camera.

Here is one of her very late in her life looking very sorry for herself:

[img width=800 height=543]http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/James_Michael_McGrath/IMG_0001.jpg

And here is one of my MK3 the very day I first drove her, before I had done any work. Unfortunately it doesn’t really show what kind of a state she was in, needless to say the rear arches were very rusty and the paintwork was as dry and dull as the parchment of the original 13th century copy of the Magna Carta on a particularly hot day!

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/James_Michael_McGrath/DSC00224.jpg

And her she is after all major rust had been exterminated, many new parts and fittings and may hours spent touching up the paintwork:

[img width=800 height=599]http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/James_Michael_McGrath/IMG_0903.jpg

Well I hope this serves as a bit of an introduction and I hope to see many of you in the future on the forum and at club meets!

welcome to the club like the mk2 hatch

the mk3 looks spot on too

Welcome to the home of the mk2 cavalier

What a great story a joy to read. Like many of us the fascination with mk2 cavs come from are family's.

Welcome.

As a facelift Mk3 your Cavalier is dramatically better at resisting rot than a MK2. Its weak spots are the 'splashback' areas behind all four wheels and the 'splashforward' area at the bottom of the front of the rear arches, where the plugs are.

Welcome , nice wee story :)

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Growing up with them, I know allot of their history and I have many warm memories of both.

I've got allot of work to do on the MK3 and have only really got her road worthy. She does have a few surface blisters but all major rust underneath and on the body I have removed. She has done exactly 178,543 miles now and the engine still feels fantastic.

My long-term goals are to get her undersealed (hopefully happening sometime this summer) and have her at least partially re-sprayed. Once I’m done with her I’ll be in the market for a nice early MK2 hatchback! 

Hi james . i started as an apprentice vauxhall mechanic back in 1990 so worked and owned loads and loads of cavaliers. my first car was a 1980 mk1 1600.

welcome to the club .

mk3 's are great cars and easy to service and mod yourself .

any questions feel free to ask .

you need a mk2 to keep the mk2 company  ;D

Welcome James! I hope you enjoy it here.

Welcome James and Great Cars and Great story.

Welcome to the home of the mk2 cavalier

What a great story a joy to read. Like many of us the fascination with mk2 cavs come from are family's.

Agreed and welcome. Hope you buy another Mk2 soon , theres a few out there to choose from at the moment 

Hello james welcome to mk2cav.com fella glad to see you found your way over here how's the mk3 going did you end getting standard springs or lowered ones in the end?

Hi Jimmy!

Good to see you on here. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with insurance; If I lowered it by even 20mm it would have added something like £150 a year to my premiums. So I ended up getting standard springs in the end. But they were genuine Vauxhall ones and at a great price too. But I’ve still got lowering in mind for the future.

I haven’t forgotten about cavmk3oc.com, in-fact I've got a load of work done since my last post but I’ve got a bit more to do. Ounce that’s done I'll put it up on my WIP in one go.

Hi James, glad you made it across from the club's Youtube channel! Hope that memory of the MK2 grows into something tangible!