Home Page | Photo Page | Photo2 Page
1998 Turbo Cavalier

Here is a little bit about an 03 summer project in Western New York.

This is basically an overview of whats been going on in our garage for the past summer.

The Car

The car started out as a base model 1998 Chevy Cavalier LS with pretty much no options. This wasnt a problem because it saves a bit on weight. Last year the car looked decent but had no go. We came up with the crazy idea to turbo it for under . Everything you see here was done in our own garages. Nothing was done in a shop or done by anyone other then myself, my best friend jake or his father.

Mods

Well the first thing I got squared away as soon as the snow started to melt was the interior. I stripped it completely out and sprayed it red and black. It turned out really sharp and I always get asked where I purchased the parts from. Next was the purchase of a new body kit. I got one on ebay fairly cheap and let me tell you, it took about 3 weeks to get the thing to fit right and look like it was meant to go on there. I work full time so all the work was done in spare time. After that was fitted I started on the body work. That took about a week, I had a few dings and dents here and there but nothing was going to be perfect considering it was going to be a daily driver. The paint was layed on at 1am on a sunday night. There was little humidity and not one bug in the base or clear. The waving phantom flag you see is actually in the paint. The paint is not perfect but for 3 23 year olds doing their first paint job it isnt bad. Now that we had show we needed go. This was courtesy of a RHB5 turbo from a ford probe. The log style manifold was hand built by Jake's dad and yours truly. The install process took about 2 days. We trouble shot some cooling problems which took about a week and resulted in a stand alone cooling system for the turbo itself. It has its own water pump and radiator. The project is far from complete and the intercooler is on the way. It's going to go away for the winter soon so I have all that time to stock up on parts.


Ownership

Ok so the car is not mine. I actually have a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The car is owned by my sister. She has no problem handing the car over to me and my friend to play with for the weekend here and there. She loves driving it and gives old men and young punks a run for their money. Usually after the first run they sit behind her scratching their heads wondering how they just got beat by a girl in a cavalier. The car has placed in the 2 shows it was at this year. We got a 2nd and a 3rd. The car was not built to be a show car. We really were just looking for something to practice on for when we were building our hot rods (68 Chevelle, Shelby Cobra) I think it turned out alright.

Send me an e-mail

Paint
Here is an image of the front. The paint was a pearl color sis picked out and the flag was made by feathering it out over the hood and side to give it the phantom look.



This is just another shot of it. I will have more pics this week. I have a video I am trying to figure out where I can upload to.