’87 Chevrolet Cavalier

A little bit about this car… In the beginning I paid 50 bucks for the car and all it was supposed to need was a new cylinder head. We located a rebuilt one for $250 bucks so I figured that $300 wasn’t bad for a car that would get decent gas mileage. The other hitch is that the car was stored in Oklahoma and the next week I was due back in Rolla to begin my sophomore year at UMR. Upon my arrival the cylinder head was sitting on the block with the head bolts started. So in my haste I assumed that the guy who was helping me had, as I had asked him to do over the phone, turned the crank over and cleaned the gunk off of the cylinder walls and pistons. At this point I spend the rest of the night and part of the next day reinstalling the intake, throttle body, etc and plumbing the car back together. So I turn they key and CLANK, and again CLANK. Well imagine that, no one had the forethought to turn to turn the crank over and make sure it wasn’t seized up. At this point we decided to go ahead and purchase a short block to get the car running rather than eat the $300 plus dollars we had invested in the car thus far. Since the crank was seized up I had to drop the pan and take the bottom end apart in order to disconnect the crank from the flywheel. I finally got everything apart, we got the short block and reinstalled it. By this point I had realized that I really hate working on FWD four cylinder cars. So of course there have been your obvious bugs. Had to replace the EGR valve, and a slew of other parts. So all told we replaced damn near every part in that car, the only thing that hasn’t had to be replaced yet, knock on wood, is the transmission. We, my grandmother and I, have about $1200 in this $50 car. Anyway this past weekend I let my aunt barrow it for the summer since I’m stuck here in Rolla and don’t really need it. There are a few things that still need to still be fixed on it but I think it’s coming along.

Things that could be replaced/worked over:

Muffler (this one is rusted through on the top)

TCC solenoid (kind of embarrassing killing an automatic)

Have the TBI cleaned

A note about the Grabber Green grill and accessories under the hood:

I was standing in the parts store and figured what the heck, Grabber Green costs the same as flat black. So that’s my daily driver while my cutlass is up on jack stands in the garage.