So.. Some of you may not like this cause its not flashy or done yet and the help I got would be easy for half this forum to do, but I massively damaged my right hand half way through and was unable to do anything on the car for half the time it was being put back on the road..
This 2000 z24 cavalier has had 5 stages in its life so far, and more to come. ill cover each one in a different post so everyone can skip over the unimportant parts
Also I'd like to say before I start that this is one of my first posts and its my attempt to get into the Jbody forums community to find the knowledge and help ill need to finish this build
Stage 1: The Purchase
Stage 2: Brake Parts & Maintenance
Stage 3: My Only Home
Stage 4: Welding, Paint, Wiring, Mvi
Stage 5: Fuel, Odds and Ends
My overall end product I want Is a freshly painted 3800 supercharged 5 speed Z24.. This car has had to much help from to many helping hands and to much history to just run it into the ground. it deserves a build, the car has been a tank through everything i've done to it and has been extremely reliable.. the guy who helped me with the body work etc told me if he had this Z it would get a 350 rwd swap and become a drag car lol..
stage 6 cause i know their will be one
stage 7, you never know..
STAGE 1: THE PURCHASE
on a limited (loaned) budget and determined to buy a car knowing the favours people owed me and the help I could get with it I searched and searched for a car to start with.
I looked at jeeps, Hondas, sunfires, tiburons, literally everything but my 600$ budget didn't fit for any of those cars.
Then on Kijiji I came across this
Not one person supported me in buying the car and It was 200$ over my budget, everyone refused to help me once i purchased it, but alot started coming around and helping me once i put in the wrench tim
Known problems: blown brake line, sitting for 2 years, no mvi, won't go in reverse, no power steering.
Bonuses: TL1 2.4l from a Grand Prix with 89,000 km on it, 149,000km body, every problem that the car had was completely obvious, fully stock never screwed with by any kids.
Tried to talk the owner down to 600, he stayed firm at 800, so I had to come up with another 200 and pay to tow it to my buddies garage. After another 200$ loan and a friend paying for my uhaul trailer we got the car on. (Seized brakes and no reverse later) strapped it in and we were on our way to the garage
Two days after I purchased the car I lost my tire changing position and was completely jobless, freetime spent on the car constantly.
STAGE 2: BRAKE PARTS & MAINTENANCE
Once we got it to the garage we pushed it off the trailer and I went to drive it into the garage not remembering the no brakes part.. Thank god the e brake worked (ironically right after it was in the garage my buddy pulled the ebrake and the clip snapped)
Up on jacks she went as we ripped out the brake lines and tore off all the old rotten brake parts
Three trips to my local part store and a really good friend who back doored me all the new parts kept my cost down to nothing at this point
After a week of being in the garage and worked on daily between me, and about 12 other people helping me, we had new calipers, pads, rotors, drums, shoes, 2 hardware kits, (needed to mis match the springs) ac delco spark plugs, coil over plug boots, all brake fittings flared and lines run down the whole car, fuel line fixed for leak, theirs more I know I'm forgetting some.
This was the point I hurt my hand, the state of the car was it needed a new abs unit (guy helping me flared the wrong fittings onto it and stripped all the holes.. off to the junkyard i went to buy a new abs unit, problem being that my hand was destroyed and noone would flare for me..
this is the point in my story where this car became the only thing i had.. it was coming close to the end of the month and i didnt have money for my rent for the next month so i had to move out, with nowhere to go i moved all my stuff into a buddies shed and ended up living in my cavalier in my friends back yard..
car didnt run, it was a cold cold fall, and it rained most of the time. i did this for about a month.. car sitting in the back yard not being worked on cause of my hand and loss of garage (bmw took priority) no job, no money, nowhere to sleep, barely surviving. being yelled at by everyone to sell my car at this point (no abs unit in it, door locks not working, not running cause fuel pump connection, etc etc) i refused and stuck out the @!#$ storm..
STAGE 3: MY ONLY HOME
Losing weight fast (110 lbs in 6 months) i knew i needed to get this car on the road so i started asking everyone who could possibly help me to help me with it, nobody had the skills or garage to do it, after a month i was beginning to think this was my end, only thing keeping me from giving up on life was my newborn daughter which if it wasnt for her i dont know where i would be right now.. after a long drug out sob story ill spare you all from my ex's family finally said enough is enough and took me in having the garage and skills to do the work my car needed i gratefully moved in and for the first time in 35 years her fathers drag car got left outside overnight, 3 nights in fact.. all of which were thunder showers.. but this is where my story warms my heart..
we delivered the car and instantly started going at it, first task was my abs unit (in case i didnt say what happened my buddy flared the wrong fittings and stripped my holes
next was to deal with the not running issue, her father traced it back to the connection for the fuel pump in the back of the car
STAGE 5: FUEL, ODDS AND ENDS.
now that the car was on the road i was noticing the little things going on with it, at this point i found a job, moved out of my ex's families house, and started eatting correctly gaining weight and strength back.
on a trip to the valey my car died on me 16 times on the highway.. the only thing i could think of it being would be the residue in the tank from the 2 year old gas that was in it choking it up, turns out it was a good thing to replace old tank straps crumbled coming off and the fuel filter had so much gunk in it you couldnt blow through and it came out looking like oil
being winter and not having a garage i decided to fiddle with some ledglow million color kits i had kicking around so put those in too
found a bluetooth deck very cheap from word of mouth with a friend and threw that in
decided to write my ged to enroll for college in january, i booked it on tuesday to write that friday.. friday morning i woke up at 7am to oil change and fix some grounding issues along with put my intake on all day fight later i left the garage just in time to go to my first test that night, after my first test i went to work back shift at 11, 7 am i got off and went straight to my next test 24 hours without sleep.. leaving that test to head home to sleep for work my slave cylinder finally decided 3 months of "going"it went.. there goes any chance i have to sleep, and had to limp home..
staying up all day and working again that night i was 48 hours without sleep and out a car.. good news is i had a stage 3 clutch purchased waiting to go in cause i anticipated this, called double z monday and booked it in for the night $300 to do my clutch, awesome right? except ebay sent the wrong clutch.. 667$ bill i couldnt pay later but my car was fixed.. i traded off my flat screen tv, wall mount, bluray surround system to match the tv and a wall mount entertainment stand to get it fixed..
STAGE 6: REGULAR WINTER FIDDLE BOREDOM
started to get bored of the car at this point, so i started fiddling with the interior not wanting to go completely ricer with my car like everyone else i painted my black panels a black paint with some pearl in it and a silver base just to give it a little better look
decided to black house my headlights as ive seen a few cavi's with them online but nothing around here (hid's are 8000k in case your wondering)
painting my hood roof and trunk black once i can get my hands on a garage to do it in cause its still not nice enough outside yet.
now my main reason for posting all this on here is to ask jbody community for help.. i have a gallon of crimson red paint sitting in my basement now and i want to spray it on my car i need someone who can teach me to spray and let me rent their booth to spray my car.
ive also recently come across a 3.8l supercharged GTP for 300$ by word of mouth and can see the project come together between now and when im enrolled to start school in september, i can do all the tear down and motor pull i just need help for the mounts the rad reinforcement, and a garage to drop my motor in at.
this car has been built on helping hands, favours, hopes and dreams.. but its far from done yet. just thought id throw up the first half of my project on here for everyone to give me their feedback on it. Thank you for taking the time to read and see what ive done
(i have pictures of nearly every little thing ive ever done to this car its been fully documented, body and frame is rust free the only problems its had were sitting problems when i registered it it was last registered 6 years prior and driven 29000 km total in those 6 years, got a motor swap and 2 months after the brake line blew and it sat.. i love this car to death and im sure there is someone out there who appreciates the work ive done to it and can help me finish it the rest of the way, thank you guys!!)
All I got from this is you used stolen parts that your buddy gave you to rebuild you car.
Pathetic.
-I drive my car to work-
none wrote:All I got from this is you used stolen parts that your buddy gave you to rebuild you car.
Pathetic.
a lot more back story to it than that.. and im sure you havent been an angel all your life.. this car is the reason i can see my daughter constantly and we can go out and do things, its shown me how much help you can really get from people if your in need of it.. yes the parts put on my car were stolen, but in the situation i was in it was either take the stolen stuff for free and not get caught for it and fix my car. or spend another year and kill myself walking 7-9km to work everyday just to pay for the parts that went into it.. i didnt steal the stuff for my car, and i didnt ask for it all.. he asked me what i needed and gave me it all..
Dylann Jensen wrote:none wrote:All I got from this is you used stolen parts that your buddy gave you to rebuild you car.
Pathetic.
BS and whining.
I am re-posting the my email response to you, because I hate thieves.
"The ends do not justify the means. I have been in @!#$ty situations where I barely had enough money to put gas in my tank. But I never stole, so don't whine to me about how times are soooo hard that you have to steal.
I Fing hate thieves.
Who do think paid for those parts? Me. Because of thieves like you and your buddy stores have to raise prices to compensate.
Again F you."
-I drive my car to work-
Josh Watson wrote:I am confused...
Cliffs:
Guy buys car.
Guy works on car.
Guy get free parts from auto parts store.
Guy put in F&F neons.
OMGZ car done.
People rage.
You commented.
I typed this. Now we're all up to speed.
We(People) are the greatest flaw the earth has probably ever seen. You don't @!#$ with any ones car, ever. What about the daughters and sons, elderly fathers and such that for some reason can't provide something expected or worse, needed because you had your JUVENILE(cause come on, no grown ass man takes what doesn't belong to him, he asks) friend, who you knew stole @!#$, go out with a shopping list and take from those who already may have worked as hard or harder than you, hell maybe they didn't start a project with pennies. Easy as this, if they EVER find a SINGLE stolen part, you are gone. You'll rat you friend for reduced sentence, and he'll bust you up. Lose your car, time with your daughter lol forget about that. Or your friend as you call him ends up with a rifle round in his leg for trying to take the wrong persons part.
We as humans can find any excuse to forward our own agendas and greed. But if you type about all these favors, and help, from different people, do you think whats easy is really the answer(Stolen part reference)? Look a little further down the road, you are caught up in the moment. Also, this means anything you do with it, no matter what, you didn't do it, other people's hard work earned money did, driving. and about the walking thing, in Arizona I walked 6 miles through Apache Junction(Major crime intersection) to work, and took bus home, purchased a bike, and was golden from then on out.
Honestly, I would rather your post be deleted(account might take it to far) because I feel that by leaving it up with an admission of guilt is the same as all of us saying it's ok, come steal our parts too! O wait, your "friend". Matter fact, if this thread went on craigslist for your area what will happen? Bro. I could go on, but you get the point.
none wrote:All I got from this is you used stolen parts that your buddy gave you to rebuild you car.
Pathetic.
Z doesn't mean last, it just lapped A.
wtf ever man.. people gotta do what people gotta do.. glad ur able to see your daughter. people steal legal from the goverment everyday and if he gets caught he pays.. so either way he pays just becomes when u actally pay.
never admit or put ur personal @!#$ on the internet next time..
1st misstake
OEM CAMBER/CASTER KIT 10 People for $210 <P>
GOT ECOTEC?
Ya you know what, that's a good point. I guess just make sure you get A's you know make it worth having had to have it done.
Z doesn't mean last, it just lapped A.
You receive stolen parts and are stupid enough to boast it on a public forum 
