I had the time so I removed the carb and cleaned it. It runs very good but I’m now certian there are some wiring gremlins. However I did cut all the lawn, after straightening out the grass deflector so the clippings don’t clog.
Looks good for 9 years. I bought this one up in Salmon Arm from the one and only owner.. And he looked after this truck. He’s retired from the GM dealer, and that’s when it was bought new. Needless to say I doubt that I would have found a better one in my price range. And although not quite as loaded with gadgets as the Buick. However there’s enough of them for me. So this will be a good replacement vehicle that is a truck and can tow our trailer plus good on gas too. And that where it’s very interesting ! On the drive home we had both the Buick and the Canyon. Both have 80 L fuel tanks.. We filled both up in Enderby and set out on the 305 km trip home. Now I reset the Canyon’s trip A & B which also resets the average fuel economy L / 100 km. I wish I had done the same for the Buick..
This is the Canyon’s trip B when we got home Notice the gauge reads close to 3/4 full.
This is the Buick’s trip B which hasn’t been reset for a while. So this reflects quite a bit of around town with a bit of highway driving. Notice where the gauge is ! Yup close to 3/4 full. So let’s now look to see the distance to empty for both.
Canyon first.. Wow 604 on what’s in the tank. So if we ad the quarter back to that I get 806 kms on a full tank ? Impressive for a truck with an 80 L tank
Now the Buick says it will go further on what’s in the tank ? Kind of a head scratcher.. Sure wish I had reset the trip A & B. I already know that the Buick normally has a range of 850 kms. Also notice how similar the gauges are ! I’ve now poured through the service records and found the the transmission has been serviced twice, and the tires are two years old.. Always regular services. The truck is super clean …no dogs , no kids, no smoking. He was sad that he did not clean under the hood for me… I Did that today..
It was just dusty.. Now it matches the interior.
GMC floor mats , front and rear. Factory spay in bed liner. 3M protection on the front, hood, mirrors, door handles and the front of the rear fenders. So no rock chips yet. Has a folding hard tonneau cover that I don’t care for. I’m going to keep a look out for a canopy. Heated power seats, auto climate and remote start.. All the usual stuff for the year. As a bonus this truck has the trailer towing package with a factory brake controller ( left of steering wheel).
Next I’m going to clean out the Buick and it goes up for sale. We will see how that goes, mite be easy …mite be hard. Oh I forgot this truck has a back up camera. Most vehicles these days do.. But after 9 years of road grime and dust it’s a bit too blurry for my liking.. So I tried polishing it to see if I can clear up the image. Not much improvement. Replacement cameras are easy to get and quite low cost too. So I have now received that and installed it today. Very easy to do..
Better.. I can see the hitch
This page will be about fixing the rear cover..and the nose cover too. I was so curious about what I would find between those white panels.
Ok.. Just a small ish piece missing.. And duct tape. Well I know how to deal with this.. I’ve been fixing plastics on ATV’s and other things.. I have a plastic heat stitcher, and I know how to use it..
The gun heats up little wire wiggly things and melts them into the plastic. Working on the inside of coarse. The result is a strong hold on the crack.
Made a fill piece from the white cover. Now some JB weld to fill in the cracks and sand it all smooth… There is no way that the sun fading and oxidization is going to just sand out. I have resigned myself to having to repaint all the plastics with Kubota orange. I’ll even make some new decals and the stripes with my cricut and vinyl. The nose piece is getting the same done too.
It too was missing a small piece, and cracked on both sides. Got that painted and the hood too. 
And that’s better… worthy of being re- installed on the Rider 16. And I made a video about this little side project..
Some new decals have been ordered.. we will see how that goes. And let’s just move on to the finished , cosmetically correct Rider 16…
How’s that for taking the ugly away.. My motor hood turned out great.. With some nice blue decals and graphics, we will be the pride of the fleet.
So the new decals arrived and since the paint is well cured let’s finish the spiff up. Starting up front.
Dark blue is the correct colour.. Not getting to crazy with the set of 11 I got.. Just using three.
I had the right colour vinyl so I made the stripe. some day I’ll break out the circut and make “Rider 16” in white as the fishing touch.
For now I will just keep a cover on the Rider and end this page.. Will start a new one with the fine tuning of the motor. See you soon.!
Here’s a photo of a very nice one from a Swedish Auction. You know when I show you this photo first that the one I just bought looks a bit different. I can’t afford ,or find one that nice. SOOO…. I got to make it..
I warned you ! But lets look at the facts here.. It’s 26 years old, It’s had a rough life ..left outside. Plastics are sun baked. However it runs and cuts grass.. because that’s all the fella cared about.. So the deck was rebuilt , new bearings. The steering cables ( that’s what articulates the body) are new. The tires are ok and holding air. That’s all the good, he left me a long list of stuff needing to be fixed. Dave and I drove six hours to Surrey for this gem. Was it worth it ? Hell yes.. These riders hold there value and folks love them.
Loaded up and tied down for the long drive home. When I got home the big pin that locks the deck in place was missing.. I see in this photo that it is gone too. Easy to make or find a new one …or even a bolt. And I did… So even with a list of stuff to fix, I would like to cut grass with it and see if I need to add to the list. So I gave it a bath…
The underside of the deck is very nice…the blades not so much.. But I’ll just sharpen them .. This is a 40″ cut deck and those blades should be 14 inch. New ones for sure at some point. Check out how clean the hydro drive is now.
I don’t see the need to tell you which one is the “before” photo. If there’s a leak I’ll find it now. And yes another fan that needs blades, All of them ! Here’s a intro video that shows more….
But for now like I said We need to cut some grass and see what else goes wrong. One thing that seams have fixed itself is the cutting height lever. You know the one with ten…I mean nine settings.
I pulled those wires off and sprayed some lube in where the spring is and now it works ! This makes me question some of the other repairs ? Here I thought something was broken or missing and that I would have to take it all apart… Lucky me. Still a little sticky, But mostly you leave it on the setting you use. I ran the motor today and went for a little drive. The motor is not running great,and I suspect a good carb cleaning is needed.
I really need to finish the Kabota before this project.. But I could not resist wanting to paint some of these faded / sun baked plastic parts. I started with the cover for the hydro drive and rear axle. I sanded the oxidization ,and cleaned really good..
Not bad ! Dying to try something orange.. Today I removed the right side foot well to see about the foot pedal problem.. So let’s see what I can do with this mess..
That’s faded bad ! If the oxidization wasn’t so bad , the wet sanding would have brought the orange back. However I have paint…
Slight difference.. And some rubber mat for your feet. I really should leave the R16 be for now and work on the other projects. But I want to finish with this last photo…
And we will leave it at that.. When I return to the R16 I’ll start a new page.. Oh hell let’s just go there…
So the first thing to do is release the tension on the deck belt, and remove it. Well the outbound arbour is loose.. Maybe pooched ! not looking good. I’ll need to press the main shaft out to see what is wrong. So I take back what I said earlier about how tough they are. They can be damaged ..but it takes a lot to do it, and it just the one replaceable bearing. I still need to convince the double pulley to free itself from the spindle.. I have ways..
Well that double pulley refuses to part ways with the deck.. So I left it there.
Going to put my efforts into the big hole in the middle of the deck. That is not a rust hole ! Something happened under the deck to punch that hole , ripping the metal. AND ! Forced the deck mounting bracket right up through the floor board on the tractor.
They fixed this with a piece of angle iron bolted across. Nah we will do a better fix using a bigger plate up top, and bolt that through. As for the deck.. It’s got a lot of stress cracks to weld up as well as the patch. No way I can get all the dents out. But it will be functional and repainted. Oh and while I was under the tractor I removed the drive belt tension wheel. It was seized and not doing the job.. Which I’m sure the belt was slipping .
Back to the deck…
The pulley is ok it’s the swivelling part that did not swivel any more. FIXED ! But let’s get back to the deck fix’n. I did the welding today, the patch and the new front wheel holder’s.
It’s not bodywork on a car.. This just needs to be strong, not pretty. And it’s hiding under the tractor.
Here’s one of the gauge wheel holder’s. Hope they stand the test of time.. I only welded the new piece on ! Everything got another sanding and de-greasing. Time for the bottom paint first..
Ta Da ! Once the bottom was dry. The top got a coat of primer.. and then the Kubota orange paint.. Looks as good as can be..
You can really see the dents in the front of the deck. Looks like they were mowing rocks not grass. Today I replaced all four bearings in the arbours… Now they are smooth… I will install them then paint them, so I can paint the bolts too. Need to make a grass deflector and two safety covers. Here’s a bit of an update video…
Today I’ll work on the grass defector and the belt covers. This is Funny! Who knew that Betty Crocker made new belt / pulley covers for my Kubota. $3.75 each !
Oh sure they need a bit of a trim..and a hole for the grease zirt.. But the diameter and height is perfect.
I’ll make clamps to hold them in place…
This popped up for sale on Market place for a very low price.. Seller said ” only good for parts” I disagree !
It runs and drives ( on to the trailer I mite add ). Sure it’s missing a few things…Battery, gauge wheels for the deck, a grass deflector and the headlight cover. But all and all it’s very complete. Aside from those four things there is also some stuff that needs replacing.. Front tires, seat, blades.
Oh there will be more I’m sure.. like new belts. But most of all … The Motor Starts ! The deck works ! Here’s an intro video…
This is 100% my kind of project. I don’t like working on dirty stuff, so time to separate the deck from the tractor. Well that’s the first bad news.. A hole in the middle of the deck.
I have access to some metal and a welder…so we will fix that. Years of grass caked on have now been removed. And the deck is clean !
The guards over the arbour pulley’s are missing. The front wheel mounts are DESTROYED ! And the cable that pulled the blade brake off when engaged is M.I.A. Oh I knew the blades were bad.. but this is bad to a new level.
Bent upward ? What did they hit ! That would have destroyed most lawn tractors arbours. These are very “stout” grease able arbours.. It’s a Kubota.. The tractor got it’s bath too…
Easier to see what you are working on when things are clean. And I’ve seen most everything ..top and bottom. Here’s the part 2 video.
And now I start taking stuff apart. First the seat then the rear body. And it came off with four bolts ! Amazing how little rust there is. Mostly where they made previous repairs.
Why paint this. Let’s just polish and wax it. Ya there’s is worn off paint parts … but adds character. Removing this part allows good access to fix the battery hook ups, and my fan is missing a blade !
This post is getting long, so time for a new page.. And we switch gears to focus on the deck.
But I’m waiting for the new top to be installed… So I keep busy with other stuff. I’m also waiting for some supplies to finish under the dash. So I hop back and forth from the shop to my home work area. That’s were the trunk lid is. The Black one… The winner of the three. I put the primed bottom trim piece back on and used a bit of the glassing putty to fill some scratches from removing the emblems.
And there you have it.. The lights cover the middle so no need to paint that. Since the inside is all painted I want to clean up the wiring so it’s ready to just plug in.. Part of my plan with that is replacing the mercury switch / light with two LED penny lights.
These will be a bit brighter and less likely to get damaged. They will be turned off when the trunk is closed by a push button switch. This lid is now with the car but not installed till after the top is completed. And speaking of that… The old top is now off the car !
Good thing it’s inside out of the weather .. Now I have a lot more work to do. Cleaning, oiling and repairing the mechanism. All the belt line trim is removed around where the top and the windows meet the body .. And that needs to be painted. This small shelf at the back had a plastic cover.
Mostly to cover that butcher job .. cutting it back to fit the top when retracted. That plastic cover was brittle, cracked and can’t be fixed.. This requires a creative solution ! This is the kind of thing I like.. It is hidden under the well cover being made for where the top goes. Hard to explain… better to show you later. The back part of the top is stapled to HDPU strips , which are riveted to the body. The strip in the middle is still there.. (barely) But the corners are gone. My job is to remove the rivets clean the area and make new strips.
It’s a mess ! So I set to work.. and Cleaned things up… a lot ! Going to need primer on these places.
Once the top is stapled to the HDPU strips there is cover pieces that screw on to finish things off. I’m repainting those. And here they are with a new paint job…
They are aluminum so no rust.. But some of the old paint was missing, so these got primed and painted with the satin black. All part of installing the new roof. And now for the other part to keeping mother nature out of my car… The outer window gaskets.. Going to be a lot of work to remove the old ( glued on) gaskets…or what’s left.
Anyway lets get back to the convertible top.. So I needed to replace some of the HDPU stapling strips. I had a sheet of that, and just the right thickness too. Made some pieces to fit the curves and the straights.
These corner pieces were totally missing ! Noticed I primed the bare metal first before fitting the strips on. Heating them up allowed for bending and twisting the pieces. Quite pleased with how this worked out.. The roof needs to be continuously stapled around and across the back. Here’s a look at the roof fully retracted..
Before the roof goes on I need to lube up all joints and the rear windows. Also cover that shelf. And that all got done
Finally the roof roof went on plus all of the weather stripping. Works great and the new well for the retraced roof fits great.
Nice ! The right side mouldings are on .. just working on the drives side. Then the rear trunk lid can go back on.
It’s dusty ! I’ve decided that this car is too much work for me.. Still needs a paint job and the interior put back.. I listed it for sale.. Let’s see what happens.
Now I don’t have to cover the car every time I think it’s going to rain ! Yes I’ve moved it to the shop.
And yes it’s on a hoist… And yes we checked out the underside of the car. It’s in amazing condition. Looks better than the top of the car. For it’s many many years there is little to no rust. Everything is solid.
See what I mean.. Not bad for 38 years. and here’s another view..
Some rust on the rear cross frame, but that should be expected. The tires however are showing there age with some dry cracking and one of the rear shocks is leaking.. That’s it for the underside.. Other needs are an oil change and the serpentine belt changed, and it just so happens there’s a new one in the trunk. There’s other work to be done while here inside.. The new top has arrived and that work will be very soon. I will remove the seats to make that easier. Also I will work on the side window seals and the workings inside the doors. Get those windows going up and down better. All this will make the car “weather proof” once again. And while I have this nice place to work without the seats in the way..I’ll tackle removing the remote start and clean up the wiring.
The bolts holding the back of the rear seat were rusted on the outside. To be expected and not hard to deal with when you can lift the car. That’s the hydraulic pump for the top, now visible. I also removed the fuzzy side panels for better access to the rear window and roof mechanism. while the tools are out let’s open up the dash and find that darn remote start stuff.
The control box is gone. And that’s too bad because I would like to look up the wiring schematics. But this mess is left behind and that coil of wires under the hood too. So I’m going to do some wire tracing and removal.. Kinda like defusing a bomb, without the boom. I have a test light and know how to use it. I also have the wiring diagram for the car. So I at least know what colour wires I’m looking for. What I’m looking for is the lock / unlock wires for the power door locks and the trunk lock. I have found the wire to flash the park lights. I’ll get back to the wiring soon.. But I have other things on the go too. Not in the shop, but at home closer to my tools. One of those is the front seats that I got. These are the matching ones for the correct year and the correct colour of fabric. But they are rough, and the lower slide frames are rusty. I’ve taken all that apart and cleaning those up..
These are from the parts car that had no doors.. Therefore they are rusty from “Mother Nature” having full access.. I FIX ! And painted them.. As for the cushions … I’ll talk with my upholstery guy to see what we can do. Easier for him now that they are out of the car and taken apart.
The foam is breaking down and some stitching is coming apart. I’m also repainting the luggage rails for the rear trunk lid. And that brings up the debate on witch lid to use… The 93 one currently on the car has the wrong holes, and it does not fit well. So I’m reconsidering the black lid. And reconsidering the need to have six luggage rails.. The correct holes are there for four rails. Maybe that is good enough. So I will continue sanding down the inside for the colour change. Meanwhile back in the shop.. I have won the battle with the old remote start.. Now GONE ! But it left behind the wires needed for my remote door lock system. I removed the door panels for access the the window and locking mechanisms.
That is a huge steel panel RIVETED to the inside of the door panel ! So access is limited to say the least. But I’m not drilling 20 or so rivets.. So I’ll do my best to get the locks and windows working better. On the passenger door someone already dealt with the rivets. Might want to remove that one. With this access I could hook up my remote system… Done and it works great.
Judges all agree… The black lid wins ! So I went to work sanding the inside , and primed it too.
How’s this ? Not bad transformation.. Rattle can paint job with a very close colour. It’s called Bahama Blue, and it’s a great colour. I think I’ll clear coat it too. Today I removed the 93 lid that was on the car.. Plus the latch and wiring, which I can transfer to this lid. New loom on the wires too. Now that the lid was off the car it was easier for me to get the spare loosened up and out.
I just wiped it out a bit.. The paint looks better in here than the outside of the car. Too bad this is hidden under the carpet. Time for a new page… this one is getting long..
First thing on the agenda. And because need to still drive the car. The plan will be to work with what I have that’s not currently on the car..For now it’s.. The trunk lids. Today I gave them a bath so I could look them over carefully, decisions need to be made. The blue one is the original trunk lid, and was changed out most likely because it has a welded up place where the latch mounts. Kinda messy too. But it has the six luggage rails that are proper for the year. Also the centre brake light is dented down.. Again I see why it was changed. The black lid has the proper latch mount. But only has holes for four luggage rails. New holes are easy to do. Welding up four old holes is easy too. Also I would want to paint both sides, inside and outer. I’m leaning toward the black one.. Because to repair the blue lid I would have to weld the latch mount from the black lid into the blue one.. And that position needs to be accurate ,so not ideal for me.
But I could do that. After all one of them (if not used ) is scrap. Here’s photos of top and bottoms. All stripped down.
So I have a few things I can do before Starting the work on the car once it’s in the shop. And that’s coming soon I hope. But meanwhile I have two sets of the centre taillights.. Red are just reflectors, white is the backup lights. And they are slightly different. Below is what is currently on the car.. I like these.. they are the real 1988 taillights.
I know these work … I saw them on when we were moving the car before I bought it. Below are the ones that came with the blue lid.. but are likely from the lid that’s currently on the car.. It’s complicated !
And of coarse those are 1993 taillights like the lid.. More reflector… less backup lights. In very good condition. They are all interchangeable. Therefore I will use the ones I like.. Once again decisions will be made on condition and originality considered.
Here’s something else… I was digging through my stash and found this keyless locking kit I had bought years ago.. For what I don’t remember. But this would be ideal for the Cavalier.
Ideal ! Because the fob has a “open trunk” button as well as the door locks. Perfect the Cavalier has a electric latch with a “pop the trunk” button in the glove box. Right now the car has what’s left of a remote start system and I presume an alarm too. No fobs it so going bye bye ! And that system will be wired into the door locking and the “flash the park lights” wires. I’ll be having fun with that..
Wow I found the RPO code decal in the trunk ! And now I have the paint code…..clear as day.
WA 9346.. is the colour. “Bright Blue Metallic” I’m not worried about the silver for the bottom.. So long as it’s close.. I’m re painting all of that. The debate is whether or not to remove the lower cladding before painting. I’ve got lots of time to figure that one out.
Today I removed the key lock from the trunk lid that’s on the car. I’m having it keyed the same as the doors.. Simple and not costly. While I was messing around I decided to remove the spoiler and centre brake light. 
The trunk lid is from an early 90’s car.. The spoiler was bigger and so was the brake light. As you can see the holes do not line up. I was considering using this lid, but I would have to drill twelve new holes and fill these two. Also this lid was red… and some of that shows on the inside.
You can see some of that red peeking through in places. Like I said before I have three to choose from and that can wait.
Today I moved the car to it’s new (temporary ) home in my nephew’s Auto shop. The Cavalier can stay here while some important work is done. This calls for a new post / page.
Well that’s a maybe.. And I’m not ready yet.. Officially it’s still winter for a few more weeks. I have to keep the car covered and dry. If it was in a garage I would start right away. That would be nice. But that’s not going to stop me from doing research on solving some of the issues I know of. “I know of” Ya.. there are still some unknowns. The car needs to go on the hoist and all the stuff you can’t see checked. Brakes, suspension, frame, lines… and the whole condition of the underside. For now my focus is on keeping mother nature from doing further damage. I believe I have sourced the weather stripping needed for the windows. Also I have a local shop that can replace the roof.. For now these I consider the next most important things. However for the time being this is my view out the window.
Well I had the place in the states send me five samples of the “belt line” window sweeper gaskets. And I found a very good match to what was there. An order has now been placed for more that enough for the four windows. Should be here soon.
In the mean time… I had to go to Cranbrook for vehicle pick up so I stopped by the place where I bought the car.. He has another car ( not convertible) that’s for parts. So I got the sad looking seats and a few goodies.
These are very dirty and in need of repairs…not to mention the rusty parts. Can Rob clean and fix these ? You bet I will try.. Consider this photo the “before” photo. I can make a whole post on fixing those.. And here is the other bits I got…
On the left is the “under hood” light that should come on when the hood is opened. It has a mercury switch and one of those dome light bulbs. Mine is only missing the lens..BUT this gives me a chance to make the better, brighter light. And on the right is the right side of the dash bezel for the wiper controls and under that normally has the rear widow defrost. However I have a convertible without defrost… but the roof control would be here instead. In the introduction video I made I showed the roof control. Changes are coming.. Stay tuned.
The weather is going to be nice for a few days. So I unwrapped the Cavalier and moved it to our driveway. Needed to open the windows and air it out.. starting to smell musty. Noticed a few things. One was yet another mystery switch under the dash by the hood release.
Hiding a switch has to mean some kind of security thing. We will find out later. But nicely done! The other thing bothering my ” OCD things in the right place” mind.. was the horn button. The Z24 was upside down when the steering wheel was straight. Sure enough The horn ring has a notch and three possible ways to mount it.
They got it wrong… the notch should be at the top. I guess they thought “the horn works so what the hey” I’m certain to find more.. Meanwhile my new roof guy has come by and had a look at what’s needed. Then we’ll get that ordered. The paint colour has been confirmed, and I can get what I need here locally. I’m not changing the colour or the two tone theme with black trim. That look has grown on me and is a recognized 80’s look. Off to Creston again this week to get the original trunk lid and a few other bits for the donor car. Here’s a video I made after moving the car to my driveway….
I’m back from a trip to get more parts. I brought home two trunk lids… so now I have three ! That should be enough to make one good one.
The one on the left is the original lid… The one one the right came of the parts car, which was a 2 door hard top. The light assembly is off the blue lid, and I just found out the red lights are just reflectors ! Only the backup and licence lights work. Interesting …. Wait ! there’s more… I got two perfect Z24 emblems for the lower valances.
Just got to figure out how to remove them without harm. Yes it’s still attached to the valance. Plus.. I got a complete trunk carpet (grey), dirty but it will clean up.
Consider this photo the “before” photo. Also in the picture is a second piece that goes between the hood and the windshield. I’m sure it has a name…. just don’t know…at the moment. Having this (un attached) piece shows me how to (un attach ) the one on the car. Yes I will need to do that..
Here’s another spare part, this time interior. The centre dash bezel. This means I have two… and that means I can experiment with modifying one of them. I don’t want or need an ashtray…or cassette tape holder. Or green switch for that matter. And last but not least some extras…
A window belt gasket. A door sill, and wiper arm. You just never know what you’ll need. AND having removed parts helps learn how to remove the bits on the car come painting time.. Yes I would rather remove stuff then mask them off.