I appologize in advanced if this topic has been covered already. I did a quick search and nothing came up.
While I had my sunfire parked in our barn, the hay loft collapsed and smashed the driver side of my car!! The frame is slightly bent and the driver side door and door pillar is bent pretty good. I wanted to find an old sunfire body for decent price but have had no luck locally. I did find a cavalier for $100 with the body still intact. I know the frames are the same, my question is what body parts -- IF ANY are swappable from a cavalier to a sunfire? Such as are the doors the same, since the roof is smashed, can i exchange it with one from a cavalier? Although they are unibody's right? I realize what an under taking this would be, but i've put too much work into the car to just throw it out. People tell me to turn it into a convertable, one - i don't want a convertible and 2 - that wouldn't exactly be safe to do. I appreciate any suggestions, i love my car and want to try everything i can to save it. I appreciate any suggestions anyone may have.
Doors are swappable and front ends are swappable. How ever you have to swap the whole front end(hood, fenders, bumper, headlights).
Thanks for the input. Thats some helpful information. Although, let me see if i can ask another question without confusing anybody. Between the sunfire and cavalier, is the structural body the same? Not the frame, but the body that all the fenders bolt on to and the front ends and the rear ends. Does that question make sense, I guess you would consider it the inner body and the fenders and panels would be the outer or shell of the car.
Thanks, for the help
Generally speaking the "inner body" is the same. The sedans share more commonality than the coupes. If you have a coupe, the roofs are different, as are the rear fenders (I think) and trunk lid. The roof and rear sheet metal (aside from the trunk lid) are part of the unibody and can't just be unbolted for replacement.
Why don't you put everything that is good that is in the smashed car into the $100 car. Besides if you change the front fenders, hood, bumper, the front end would look the same. You could have a cavfire (I apologize if that name is already taken by someone just giving an idea). I have a cavalier that has a sunfire interior and all I did was change it out. You could save yourself that hassle of trying to fix your old car.
Being that you have a Sunfire coupe you won't be able to use any of the Cavalier rear parts. (Quarter panels back are different)
That is why he will have a Cavfire, Cavyfire, Sunalier, etc...
Thanks, for the help so far guys. The "cavfire" sounds like its my best bet so far although not my first choice. The rear ends of the sunfires were my favorite aspect of them......but beggers can't be choosers i suppose eh? Thanks again.
<a href="http://web.thewavz.com/ldrewes/"><img src="http://registry.gmenthusiast.com/images/ldrewes/Power%20of%20the%20Sun.jpg" height="195" width="245"> </a>
