Background

I purchased my 1995 Cavalier brand new when I was fresh out of college. The sales price was around $12,600. That was my first new car. It had 35 miles on the odometer when I test drove it, and 52 when I picked it up. It was a base model that had been special ordered to have the bumper color match the car (base models normally came with black bumpers), but the customer backed out and it was the only Manual Transmission on the lot when I showed up.

I had visited several dealers, but eventually purchased from J.R. Roof in the center of Newton, NJ.

The car needed and received exactly what you'd expect, oil changes, new tires, wipers, air filters, etc. There was a problem with the master cylinder for the clutch around 150,000 miles, so I had them replace the clutch at the same time. The Head Gasket wore out around 170,000 miles, but it still passed emissions and I never bothered to fix it. The car leaks all sorts of fluids these days and the engine has lost a lot of power, so around December my wife and I bought a new car to replace the Cavalier. The Cav is now parked in my garage awaiting repairs and the conversion process. The last time I drove the Cavalier, the power steering was no longer powered. I'm pretty sure that there is a problem with the tie rods as well. I'm also considering changing out the rear drum brakes for disks. I will also make some aerodynamic changes to the chassis.

I recently bought an engine hoist to pull the engine. This project will proceed as I get funds to purchase parts, so there may be large time gaps between entries.