Well its been a while since i have posted any updates on the car....

I had it for sale about this time last year wated to sell it in order to get a sport bike. I had it out to a meet or too and this is what it looked like...



Had a few interested buyers but no one very serious about the car. In June 05 it happened....







At 186,XXX kms the motor was finished. To this day i dont know what caused the failure, all valves were seated, spark plug did not snap, rod bolts were tight, i suspect detenation, but am unsure car was @ 3500 when it died...

So then i was at a crossroads. I wasnt really big on selling the car in the first place but wanted a bike pretty bad, 2 summer vehicles seemed impractical. Sell the car with a blown motor and take a huge loss, or fix it and keep it...

I decided selling it blown was too much of a loss so i decided to start selling parts off to pay for a new motor...

After selling off a bunch of stuff i hated to see go i was left with something that looked like this...



The kit, CF ram air, Seats, guages, motor mods, short thro, guages, stereo, headlights, rims fenders, tails ect. were gone....

I decided that with my tired motor i had a tranny that had 186,XXXkms on it and the Izuzu is known for the best internals so i decided that a tranny swap was in order. The Getrags are a little more solid of a tranny, but requires mounts to be moved as most swaps do...




I also started to accumulate some parts, amoung the parts are larger front brakes, rear disc conversion, rear sway bar, new calipers, and a convertable strut tower bar...



I was considering changing up the kit before the motor went and now was the bes time. I prefer the look of a sleeper car, and hope to have the car apear stock to most unless you know what your looking at...2000 rear end with a WW lip installed...



I also decided to swap the front. i did so in favor again of the cleaner look and better output lights....
2000-02 Cavalier Z24 front end



WW lip kit



painted up the headlights, kept the reflactor orange to keep the output decent




Here is a centre console i picked up from a 2000+ cavalier, has deeper cup holders a 12V power supply and fits with the Getrag shifter better. Also visible is the short thro shifter and the CF console lid and window switch cover i made



Heres one of the rear discs bolted up, 11.25 rotor, also visible are the RK porstreet coilover shock system




The powerplant is still in the works but will be unvieled once everyhting is running and tuned, hoping for June 1st.... but still a long way to go...

Questions comments welcome...

thanks
Dave

wow thats a lot of work

sucks you had to sell off so much stuff to pay for a motor but I guess it gave you a chance to start over

I do like the older front end better but I like the rear

keep us updated and I hope you make you target date

nice work man
should look real good when done
u should re-paint the entire car after, a diff color

love it man. post more!

Touching story. Keep up the good work

holy shit, was that piston made of glass or something? very impressive carnage, haha

looks like the car is comming along nicely, what are you doing to the new motor or is it a secret?

thanks for the comments...

yea ive kept in on the DL thus far.....Im hoping to turn the key on it next weekend, but we will see, if that happens i have alot of driving to do to break it all in and will maybe try to bring her out to the following meet, but ive still got alot to do, 3/4 breaking corners are mounted but no plumbing as i am waiting on braided lines...

Wow man. Personally if it was me I would have just sold it once it was blown and tried for something new. But to each their own I suppose. But I am impressed with all the work that has gone into the car, looks like its gonna be a real nice peice of work when its all done. Keep us updated with pics.

wow man, thats alot of work you've done and I respect that very much. I gotta admit it impresses me alot to see someone put this kinda effort into their car and I really like seeing so many people on VM putting such effort into their rides.

I personally am thrilled to see you move more into the sleeper car theme. It's always really cool to see the flashy cars with kits and wings and massive ram-air and stuff, but I figure it's one or the other, show or go. If you got the go, lose the show somewhat so as to draw less attention from unwanted cops9and unwanted street racers too). It's alot more fun to be a clean mean power machine as opposed to the head turning ricer. Either way I liked it before and I like it alot more now man. Let me know when ur gonna fire this thing up man I'd love to be there first hand, and if all goes well I'd love to cruise with ya while you break it in(I'll roll in the MSP) and we could maybe even shoot some pictures, hell I could easily talk Don Kael into bringin his sentra too since he's been wanting to go on a cruise with me. A nice weekend afternoon cruise would do real well, maybe catch some food later too man. If not I'll see it at some meets hopefully and see ya round. Nice work, can't wait to see the complete work.

Hey man, do u work at Princess Auto??

i love how your car looked prior to the detonation, shame bad things happen to nice cars. can't wait to see your finished product.. keep us updated for sure!

there's my old hood, and my cf hood

thanks for the comments guys.....ive got this weekend off and alot of work to do.....as long as things go well the motor will be cranked over sunday...
i got my SS brake lines today, just need a few adapters to make em work which hopefully make it before the weekend....

Yes i work @ princess auto, I do kinda miss the old look sometimes, but i think cause the car looks like a Dr. Frankenstien creation right now... once its painted it should look alot better....

--Dave

i knew i recognized the car.. i drove by there twice a day last summer haulin jet ski's.. would see u n Jen (Mizunderstood) parked next to eachother

yepp that was me.......my car will stand out just as much as hers now......but for all the wrong reasons haha....

well was hoping to run the car this weekend, but to no avail....... had a small problem with the ECM not powering up, once that was fixed and we got the fuel pump to prime my fuel line near the rear axle burst where it is rotten..... Removed the relay to the pump and the car cranks over, should get to hear what ive waited almost a year to hear on wednesday.....

maybe drive it wednesday too if my brake fittings are in...

--Dave

BY any chance can l talk you into doing my headlights and corners...?

PLEASE...!!!!!

looks good.. blew that engine up good.. you probly really miss driven it by now?

hey, got a sunfire in my garage right now with no tranny would like some info and that tranny swap you did If you dont mind..

get those rims on !!!

Git-r-done I wanna see that lip put to good use haha. Good luck with the engine start up.

well i have waited what seems like for ever to hear this....

its a short tease only tho haha, due to a rotten brake line a test drive was not possible but should take place this sunday.....

RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS !! CLICKING DOES NOTHING...

http://www.domesticcrew.com/chris/misc/exhaust2.mpg


the headlights are relativly easy to to do, i can give yea some pointers...

the tranny swap is not too hard really, especially if you get new mounts....

if ures is 5 speed already all u need is the tranny from a 2000-02 2.2L OHV cavalier, the shifter assembly and cables, mounts, clutch master cylinder, and a clutch.....

www.turbotechracing.com offer the getrag front mount, this is not even available from GM unless u buy the whole subframe, the rear mount is available from GM, bout $40-50....some people redrill the front mount but that seems half arsed......

--Dave

Pointers would be next best....

what temp...Oven...
what did you use to seprate the lens from the housing with...?
what paint...?
what sealer...?

Anything else that may help.......

thanks in advanced...

Preheat oven to 200-220. put a cookie sheet on middle rack upside down, place the light inside for 10 mins, take it out (wear gloves) using a prying device (i opted for the butter knife as it has more pry area then a reg. screwdriver, also have an exacto ready to cut the glue cas you pry apart....make sure u get the knife or screwdriver under the glue when you pry.....be gentle as the corners are a lil fragile (i broke a set of lenses) start @ the wide part that touches the headlight and work around the lense, untill you get 1/2 way up u can pry on the headlight end, but if you do this for too long you will snap about 1/2 off the very tip of the corner, to avoid this seperate the two like opening a book kinda, ull see when u look @ it what happens if you keep prying from the headlight end.....

the headlights come apart w/o the oven, just use an exacto to cut away all the silicone and then pry em apart......

i used flat black paint on mine, no clear as i want a matte finish...used indoor/outdoor silicone (clear) to seal em back up....

hope that helps...

--Dave

well the last few days i was pushing hard to make it for "the bash" the biggest j-body and GM small car show in north america... and to my misfortune things kept going wrong with the car... with the new brakes ABS was removed and we swapped in a Gen2 master cylinder w/o ABS, and so we found out last night when we went to test drive and a combo of pedal travel and booster design wont build enough pressure to stop the car...

i got a 03 sunfire MC w/o ABS today but too little too late, it will run and drive, just not in time for the show....