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This bitch is finally alive. Started yesterday with no exhaust so fairly rowdy. Just needs exhaust sorting, cooling fan found (looking for one currently let me know if you have one please!) I seem to have lost it over the last decade. Pretty pumped as I got the engine rebuilt over 12 years ago and was a bit worried there would be issues. Will need a tune etc and no doubt some other issue will show itself but its getting damn close. Looking forward to taking it for a fang!

Gidday, Thought I'd start a thread on an HB viva I've just bought. It comes with a built 2.3l slant engine which apparently is a certified ripper but has probably been sitting for 10 years... I actually know very little about it, it's been a friends for as long as I can remember and he had some motivation a while back and got the body work done & painted it. Put in the GT grill and got GT badges. But these days he hasn't looked at it for years. Talking turkey with him at New Year 2018-19 and I said I'd look to buy it off him and finish it up and just sealed the deal about 6months later. I'm guessing the job list is: Strip engine, inspect, hone and replace rings. Build exhaust & extractors Rebuild carbs Radiator Install driveline. Clutch, gearbox & diffs largely unknown. But I think there are some spares from a 1.3l HC viva... Install MSNZ cage Entier braking system Poly bushes Springs & shocks Wheels & tyres Race seats, harness Fit enough interor to meet HSC class That should be the worst of it haha Anyway, I'm keen on some guidance on how to set this car up. E.g. springs to suit the 2.3l. Tips and tricks to set the car up for circuit racing. Brake components from other vivas etc. Won't be much work happening until I go collect it from the South Island which I think is going to be New Year 2019-20. Just want to get a bit of a plan in place and start keeping an eye out for any parts needed to get this finished up. Discussion thread here: Cheers, Pete

Fucking civilised as fuck. It's almost a Jag or a Roller now.

2019-06-19_01-30-25 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-06-19_12-40-53 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-06-19_12-40-43 by sheepers, on Flickr

No major updates on the scoot, it has been kept locked up in the dining room while other things have been happening. Team photo. Good colours!

Pour it through a loaf of bread, then buy new oil

Took the axle and leaves off, jesus its tiny versus the Toyota t series one: Then played car Tetris: Just fits:

Made a bit of a drive to raglan so we could go for a surf. Made for a brilliant cruise, really couldn’t be happier, would be nice to put a lower 5th gear in it for cruising but I’m not to fussed. Also made sure to take the piss a bit with the neons

Welcome back viewers to yet another ever so thrilling update on the old Huddyson. Sitting here and looking back over the last few years I must scratch my head and ask where has all that time gone. I really did believe it would of been driveable by now - road legal or not legal. Life has its way of derailing such grand time frames as im sure you all are aware and the fact that even though the parts im using may not be the most expensive out there they sure dont come cheap. To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, "I wish I had known this some time ago." Everything was such a damned nice idea when it was an idea yet as with everything How you look at it is pretty much how you'll see it I guess. And looking at it I can see the old gal ride low n slow down the street fast n loud on the highways everytime im out working on the old beast. God i got a tad philosophical there for a moment... what are they adding to the water around these parts. /twitch Enough of that nonsense. let start the normal barrage of images and brief explanations. Back floor all patched up over four link brackets. Holes added for access & removal of the top bars bolts. Sparks and smoke flying up front as the Trans cover was all made up like a big jigsaw. To help pull the drivers side floor up the brake boosters cover has been incorporated onto the trans cover to add rigidity. Since the brakes are all tucked away under the floor and me being a bit of a lazy sod im using a remote reservoir. The brake pedal was a bit of a sod that took up a heap of time. Due to the floors sloping angle and other factors we couldn't do a normal pivoting bar as the inside push rod where you stand would be pointing towards the floor. So a duel/tandem lever was made up. its somewhere between 4:1 and 5:1 ratio. Still got to get the adjustable top links. but tested with a bit of bar and have heaps of travel for the booster. Grease nipples all over the place. Machined up brass bushes and ya its solid as. Have to get the actual pedal and the other lever bar it connects to tested still. Moving on to smaller jobs now. Power steering. As i have mentioned I think some time ago im using a PSC setup made for rock-crawlers. So if its powerful enough to drive and survive the crazy setups they have it should be fine for my setup. Now I didnt want to take away from the finned engine dress-up stuff when you open the hood. So a low mount bracket was fabbed up. The little pump has a heap of adjustment, lines up nicely with the other pulleys and is tucked nice and low that will not only keep it out of eye sight but since the pump is gravity feed from the reservoir that will be mounted up by the radiator it will have ample full as well. Mounted up the trans cooler up front of the radiator after I drilled a few holes and added grommets for the hoses. Should be hidden away enough not to be noticed. Got the cad skills out again to design up the gas tank. Its about 19Gallons/72litres. The tail pipes are rather close together so the plan is cut a hole in the trunks floor and have half the tank through this and then the other half taking up much of the trunks floor space. Baffles will also add bracing for those times I may throw heavy loads like tires ontop of it. The bottom should be flush or just tucked up with the bottom of the chassis whilst the top will come nearly up to the trunks lip/bottom of the door. So it shouldn't be a hindrance or noticeable. One end is slightly deeper for the pump and sender. Josh and the guys at Apex in Oamaru cut n folded it up. Top guys with some great kit that I highly recommend. They also made up that Hudson logo for a bit of fun what was nice of them and chucked it in. Until I figure out what to do with it I plan to use it as a stencil to tag a few things around the garage. \,,/(-.-)\m/ On a bit of a separate note the missus has taken up slinging a bit of one shot paint of late. Hell yeah I say. Im more than happy to buy the brushes, paints and what ever if it means I can get some lines laid down on pretty much what ever I want. I think she is busting it out but naturally I may be a tad one eyed, biased and not the best judge in the matter. Take a look any way. Some panels up near the top of below pic in my garage. Cooler to go with her Morrie Door she made up for Flockie on an old 40s Ford pickup door. And of course hand bags... she has a thing for handbags.

Project discussion above This has been in storage but that has come to a end so it was time to dig it out of the shipping container its been sitting in. I've had this for about eight years. I bought off my brother, its dead in the reg so plan is to get some live plates back on it. It has a few spots of rust in the body and the engine dropped a exhaust valve. So I pulled the short block out as the head had been pulled off years ago. Although it dropped a valve it hasn't done any major damage. Someone has done a sweet red paint job on the engine bay. I won't open up a can of worms by painting it at the moment. Just concentrating on just getting it up and running then focussing on the rust to get it back on the road.

Caraid 32 Duke st. Ha ha cars will destroy both time and money.

thoughts on the condition of 3 and 4? where the bore has deteriorated? a simple case of bore it out, or are there other factors? i read your escort thread, looks like expensive (rightfully) processes which kinda bums me out right now. im not a particularly rich man, but the thought of shelving the project is even worse.

I'm not looking to go super fast. Just have some fun and learn more about 2strokes etc. Emptied the fuel tank to see how she's looking, and damn she's looking good! I'm going to get more Metal Rescue and fill it again and seal the top up better so I can leave it upside down to better get rid of the rust that's still there. But stoked with how good it's looking. Removed the plastic filters from the tank outlets. Anyone know where I might find some local? Seem quite pricey looking at ebay etc. I've also removed the fuel gauge and float. The gauge had clear tape all around and over which wasn't very clear anymore. Will try and fix it so it's visible or find a new one if not too pricey

Factory 2ARFE pistons might work as they are 90mm Factory compression ratio is 10.4:1 2ARFE Head 50cc Pins 22mm Rods 157.5mm Comp height 34.8mm Think the dome is -10cc from memory and can't remember the pin height (also no idea what 18r pistons pin height is) Would need to see how they compare but heaps of wrecks around with them so can be found cheap and stock 2ARFE seem to handle 350whp Wouldn't be hard to work out what comp you would get in the 18R if you know the headgasket thickness and combustion chamber size of the head, if the rods are shorter then youll lose some compression but that wouldn't be a bad thing anyway :p Not sure if this is helpful or not

Hiya, Cool car!!! Nice wheels... In my opinion, based on having set up a 2.3 in a chevette, owning a FD victor wagon with one and having driven a fair few HBs with the slant fitted.. I would use something lighter and better then the slant 4. They are asthmatic heavy old lumps with a terribly designed oil system. Fine for a road car (although always bloody thirsty no matter how you drive) but horrid for anything you want to trash all day long on a race track plus be able to go around corners properly. Your car will never be as good as an HB can be with one of those. Now you'll get your slant 4 fan boys quipping in and saying things like " oh but they are torquey and strong and Gerry Marshell was a god behind one etc etc " Yeah fuck that shit- one fella who told me off sternly at a NZ Vauxhall nationals for having stuck a Japanese motor in my Viva ..." how dare you put that shit in there! " followed it up with "you should have fitted a 3.3 Cresta six instead! " Obviously not that keen on going around corners with grace that man.... You could look into loads of great engines that are lighter, stronger at high revs, will last longer. So many to choose from. If you want to keep it looking all period then I would fit a Ford crossflow (who cares about badges...its just a car). I fitted one and they are quite light, look cool, sound great and can go fucking hard. With enough money thrown at one you could get similar horse power to a worn out old toyota 4age.... or mx5 engine with a turbo. My choice, when I get around to it, for my HB wagon will still either be another v6..because I just love the sound and revs, or the Duratec/Mazda L series engine I have sitting here. Tough choice- the V6 is still a tad heavy for the best steering. If you insist on fitting the boat anchor then do the handling a favour, cut the firewall out and mount the engine back as far as you can. Then buy an Accusump for the oil system... I hope this doesn't sound all high and mighty. I just think you can do that car so much better then a slant 4. Looking forward to seeing another Viva thread on here !!! Alex

I hear @Archetype has special limited edition TF50 parts / stickers for sale.

Been pretty useless updating this. Scrapped the front lip, decided it didn't really suit the car. Since my last update, I've done a few things. I've fitted a set of DHLA 40 sidedrafts and a new rocker cover. The sound of the side drafts is amazing and throttle response is much better. Got a new rocker cover. Purchased from jrcast.com, took a couple of months to arrive but worth the wait. Stoked with the quality and finish. I 3D printed a FORD badge to attach to my oval style front grille. Really happy with the result, can only tell it's not real when looking clsoely at it. Got a new project coming soon, will put a thread up when I get the car.

So I'm just trying to get the short block completed at this point. There's a fair bit of maching in the cylinder head, fitting valve inserts so I'm just concentrating on the bottom end. So I measured up my crank and found that the mains are worn about 1.5 thou. But the big ends are within book size. So I mount and measured the rods. I found that I had 2.5 thou vertical oil clearance. Which isn't a major issue but I'm building it for myself so I'll resize them to tighten them up. We would offer this to any customer but more often that not the budget comes into play. And budgets generally compromise most engine builds. My budget is definitely compromising this build mainly in the parts department. So I removed the dowels and grind the rod and cap parting faces. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the cap dresser. Note the rod thats been ground on the left. Now I reassemble the rods and hone them back to a tighter size than they were. I want them three quarters of a thou tighter. Now that they are all honed to the same size I will mount and measure with the bearings fitted to double check my clearance. This is just a picture of them apart showing them honed and ready for bearings.

@KKtrips Do this?

https://jdmtsurikawa.com/collections/genuine/products/genuine-classic-4 $59 USD. Damn I have 6 of them.

Temperature has dropped and work has slowed. Have been deliberating over engine choices for aaaaages, was pretty set on running a M104 (basically a Merc RB/JZ), other alternatives included an M271 (supercharged 4 cylinder thing) or an OG M180. I flip flopped for about 18 months until this popped up on trademe for $1 reserve, it's mine now. So I brought a 54 year old engine that 'ran when parked' 20 years ago sight unseen. It's not an L series Datsun donk but rather a Mercedes M180 which is what these cars originally came with. It doesn't look half bad under the rocker cover but even with the plugs out and a bar on the front pulley it has no enthusiasm to turn over so could be seized, more investigating required..

So I forgot to get a picture of the molasses. But here's a couple of pictures of the head once out. The molasses sort of just loosens the rust. Then you have to wire brush to get the rust off. I didn't put the block in what we call our hot tank as I haven't removed the cam bearing.. Our hot tank is only for ferrous metal. And the cam bearings would react with the acid. The cam bearings are in reasonable condition and this is build is on a budget. I run the tap through the head bolt threads and main threads. Removed all the gallery bungs and frost plugs. I found a decent build up of rust at the rear of the block that i chipped out with a screw driver through the rear frost plug hole. And also gave the block a good wire brushing. I gave all the machined surfaces a sand up with emery tape on a file.

So I looked at the prices of aftermarket pulleys and said to myself "fuck that, I can make those" so have drawn them all up and will be putting them on the cnc lathe soon. Idea is to make myself a set and get them anodised. Will likely sell these eventually too, have got fwd and rwd water pump pulleys drawn up and the alternator pulleys so yell out if anyone is interested. These are underdriven too. Nearly there with the design, just need a few tweaks to give some added strength and make them easier to run up on the lathe.

My bike if anyone was wondering lol

Ha ha ha. Nope. Damn close but a bit of a drip at the gearbox end. Fuuuuuuuuu......... /Still, practice makes perfect !

Stop it. If it cant survive a painted sump, a turbo will kill it for sure. /I'll stick with "gutless".

As reported elsewhere it passed its test. Whilst not with flying colours, it was good enough. Or maybe he just wanted rid of me. It's been a week now and I've done about 350 miles, the only casualty has been the alternator and P/S belts which have worn due to rusty pulleys. I'll have to have at them with the emery paper. I have no idea how I survived the last ten years without a pickup, it's been so useful this week. I know we had the L200, but that was only half a pickup really and had a lid on it most of the time. Mrs Shuzz drove it for a few miles and declared it "alright, but a bit slow". Blardy hooligans. Update when the weather gets good enough for painting it. Anyway, pics.

It had crossed my mind. I'd do it if I knew that I'd never have to access the engine ever again. The way the recovery services work over here would make it a complete waste of time. So many ways of worming out of fixing stuff, if they answer the phone at all.

So he's not a Firetruck anymore ? I must keep up. Couple of pics for amusement.... Lube chart that has lived in the sun visor pouch since new. And on the back, me being a Barry about my oil changes. Muppet. A Muppet with a 300,000 mile engine that doesn't use oil.

Nah, it was in H2. Just wont rev beyond a certain point if there's a whiff of a hill. Up to max revs in 3rd but won't pull in 4th. I've never put a set of injectors in it & I'm pretty sure that sitting with shitty diesel in it for 10 years hasn't helped them. I'll bung some cleaner in and wash what's left of the piston rings into the sump. That'll do it. Maybe just get new injectors, it's not smoking or getting hot so I'm not that worried.

IUZ-FE swap will get you going.

No turbo, no sticker. Or should I have a "Non Turbo" sticker ? I seem to remember @kyteler had a "SOHC 12valve" sticker on his R30. /or did I make that up ? Also.... Alternator turned up and had been dropped. Plug was smashed to fuck. New one on the way. Still no seats. Still no winder. Hey Ho.

Door on, front shocks on, heater fan fixed, interior progressing, waiting for alternator, nearly run out of nuts and bolts. No seats or window mechanism yet gosh darn it, possum on a gum bush, etc. /pic

Slow day back at work so time for an update with some photos. Not a huge amount has changed on the scoot BUT it is finally legal! Bit of a process with border checks, lighting exceptions, vintage car club sign off and even the need to get a low volume cert (front disc etc). It is a good feeling not having to worry about the local fuzz and being able to properly insure it though! Had another 1600km Motto TT event last year, scoot went well until some minor mishaps near the end. Exhaust decided to open up and on the final day my statorplate shat itself. New tubeless rims before the event. Route over 4 days, 1600kms. Lots of Castrol TTS was used! Teammate helped patch up the pipe at a local bike shop in Wellsford which lasted well for the rest of the event! The stator plate then gave up around Tutukaka Coast on the final day so it was trailer time back to Auckland. Bit of a stink way to finish the event but still loads of fun with great people. Poked exhaust was a good thing in the end, it meant I could finally get my self an expansion camber. A friend parted ways with his Darryn Tayor tuned Evo pipe and I gladly took it off his hands. Still some tuning to happen but damn I am loving it so far! Next up is to sort the tune, maybe a dyno and trim rear floor boards for clearance on the pipe.

Well, he did it again. To the other sill this time. Then started making up for it He's going to finish tomorrow, he told me. Says I don't owe him anything but I think I do. I pulled the tank out, it was a twat and I got an armpit full of stale diesel for my trouble. It was so f***ing cold I gave up at 3 and came home. Think it was a bit too cold to take pics n'all.

So Now I have this thing, it has hydraulics, PTO, and diff steering, it has 2 fuel tanks and a carb that will run the engine on petrol or kerosene, engine is 630cc 17 HP, It has 0nly 255 hours on the clock and is in very good condition, the only problems are it got water down the exhaust witch seized the exhaust valve and filled the cylinder with the inside of that Coby muffler, bore only has marks where the rings sat at the bottom of the stroke and I just gave it a hone with sandpaper, I had to replace the main bearings as they had water marks, other than that it just had light rust witch wiped off, crank journals are mint. exhaust valve had a slight bend so I have straightened that and valve seats and valves are away getting ground.

Someone had deemed these "junk" and left them in a fish bin full of water outside for a year. Some time ago i cut open a dead RB25 coil hoping to see what was inside. Such fine wire, so many windings. About a million of the finest wire windings i had ever seen, trapped in resin plastic, sealed and unable to be unwound at all. At least by any methods i could see. These 100 year old ford ones remind me of the same thing, except the wire is slightly thicker and there is 2 lots of 1million windings. 2 per coil around a heavy primary winding. Accidentally put a chisel into the primary and is still works. Not for 100 years anymore as it'll corrode now it's damaged but still... not many ignition coils you can pull the windings out of, involving chipping away or melting the tar they were packed in. Those brown paper things are capacitors. Condensers effectively, like you have for a distributor. While i'd heard of old timers making their own from paper and chewing gum wrappers back in the 1940s when they were poor kids fixing their first car... i'm not that keen. These had real tin foil, not the alloy foil we have today so they solder really nicely. A couple tested within spec' so i re-used them. Others i replaced with orange things. Mix and matched the wood. And going ot do the same with the burnt out windings so i can turn 8 burnt ones into 4 good ones... hopefully. Had some burn up after 10 minutes of driving because i didn't realize how keen they were to have inch long sparks jumping inside the box if i didn't put the glass plates and tar back in. Opps. Bit marked up, some have clear borer holes in them but not too bad for 100 year old ignition parts. How many of you are still running original coils and points at 1/3rd the age?

Did i mention it that i think it should be lower? i can fit SOHCs version of this car under the chassis rails. Which are 24.5 inches off the ground (average, 24 front 25 rear)

Needs front wheel bearings, about $1,000USD spent on manking the diff' nice (high speed gears & reduce the disturbing noises) reline brakes, fit floor and probably a few other things i haven't listed. Why is the exhaust bends crappy? Haven't got a pipe bender at home, i can cut that section out and replace it later. And make a proper hanger, it's tied up with wire for a test drive in those pics.

That radiator is full of holes and half the tubes have been cut and soldered up. Some when a fan went through it, some from what might have been collision damage. Tanks are pretty had it too. Can't make a new one as i don't work at a radiator shop anymore. Metal fatigue has taken its toll on the top hose fitting, it is cracked in several places and the pipe rotted off completely so i soldered this copper strip on there. Not sure how long it will last but then i'm pretty sure the rest of that rad' is nearly dead too. Liking the way it fits the whole "barely much left of anything" build style. (Edit: lasted until the year 2020 when i got tired of it's leaks and overheating on hills. Would still work on something driven to the ice cream shop & back once a month, if you wanted to shove black pepper and bread into the holes.)

The tube sticking out of the dashboard is a light, like a map light but can be turned to light up the instrument and switch on the dashboard. Supposed to look like this. Mine is made from a small piece of copper, a nitrous oxide canister of the kind that used to be found on every roadside, a disused trim clip spring and a piece of wire that was one of the tie wire / safety wire bits on one of my connecting rods. Waste nothing.

So SOHC helped me turn these wheel bearing spacers. Actually he did most of the cutting out, i only did one cut and the radiusing of the corners and honing and gave them a really rough polish. Now more modern type wheel bearings will fit //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47381-rustiz-1920-26-ford-t-bucket-of-rust-discussion/

You can tell which piston ring i made because it has some file marks on it. This block is pretty bad but i can't find anyone who'll touch it, definitely need to cut some valve seats some day soon.

Made some square nuts. So when i sleepwalk i sometimes make mirror brackets. Not even mad about it. Thanks to a donor i have some leather to cover the seats with. Found some springs too but they were a bit harsh so i took them out to maybe rework them or swap them out later. Maybe give the foam underneath some better shape later but for now i'll live with the plain bulge. Here is the now leather seat base. Pretty sure it was BangBug who was the donor.

This battery terminal lead end started life as A copper pipe clamp.

This week i spent way to long making and remaking parts. Replaced wooden things with metal ones. Repaired the old oil fired tail light. And by repair i mean replace most of it.

This seat is lacking in padding. Has more padding than the alloy bomber seats i was thinking of making. The wooden frame is based on the original seat frame, except the originals had coil springs and horse hair padding. i don't know how to make horse hair or coil springs. Bundled reeds tied up with flax as padding. Not that comfortable. Probably alloy buckets would be slightly more comfortable? Edit: After 3 years of driving, the bundled reeds have proven to be good enough, at the time. Only now (February 2020)are they losing their springiness. Guess i should find some seat foam soon. Lucky the 'wastelands' as some people jokingly refer to the place i live, is no longer suffering from the 2009 GFC. Could be a new GFC with concerns over that virus (common cold?) coming from wuhan lately though..

Believe it or not this is not the fabrication disaster thread, i really did make the deck lid from a discarded road sign that was run over by a car, and then another car. And this is the inside of it.