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So as mentioned in the discussion I made it to the wof garage with no major issues. I have learned to ignore the temp gauge.. it tells lies. Maybe wrong sender for the cluster I'm using that's the old one from Viva one. The fuel gauge ain't working. The alternator light randomly comes on ..I suspect a bad earth. The speedo cable has now snapped at the other end ! But I made it and it was in good hands.. After wowing the tester as he's never seen an HB wagon before I walked off to do some shopping. I was hungry as and had a nice pie while I waited for the result. Whilst going shopping I spotted this.. I chatted to the owner, an old boy who's very proud of his Viva. He actually has a Datsun engine with a 5 speed box, fitted by the fella doing my wof. Finished shopping, walked back to the garage. Car was moved inside... Did it pass???? It did! Yes One of my sidelight bulbs was out. I'd known about it but forgot. He chucked another bulb in and passed it! (I have to fix the speedo asap which I will do so tonight). Yay!!!! Straight to the post office for some rego. So I drove home happy, checked the ignition timing with a mates light and it was indeed probably 10-15 degrees to advanced! Its also running lean but damned if I can move the jet down. Might put a slightly smaller O ring in that wont jam up. Got home. Took photo of this... Hung these in place... and sat back for one of these... A very, very happy man I am ! So speedo cable to sort then tune the engine. Change the oil. Get radiator leak soldered. Then in between driving I want to sort out the boot floor with some plywood and make it all flat ready for bikes etc.

A very exciting evening was had for us. We drove the wagon for the first time. In fact it’s the first time its been on the road since around 1999. I had been intending to have it ready to put through a Wof test on Thursday so we can hopefully take both Vivas to the Nelson area Oldschool meet in the weekend. But it turned out that my wof fella was booked out then. So I booked it for tomorrow and with that little carrot dangling in front of us we both set to work pronto to finish lots of little jobs. We almost had the list checked off but for fitting the bonnet, a side mirror and getting the windscreen washers sorted. The mirror will have to be a little purse mirror taped into the empty side mirror shell that I nicked from the Datsun 120y sitting out back. The windscreen washer is the original old push button type that I just need a reservoir for and the bonnet is now on in place after some quick rust repairs… I also pinched a filter from Hannahs Triumph wagon. It fits well enough and will do until I get something nicer.. Before it got too late in the day I thought I’d better take it for a drive. Its not idling right and shakes about a bit. My timing light bulb is blown so I cant check the timing. I can’t do it statically with a bulb and some wire as it now has electronic ignition. So I just twisted the dizzy until it sounded about right. The carb jet height is set at two turns down since I stripped it, as per Mr Haynes advice . I have no idea what’s going on but it runs. I jumped in and left the shed. I drove down the slope from the shed and heard a loud sound. Ha..I forgot that I had not cut the front lower corner of the front arches away to clear the wider wheels (a standard mod needed for Vivas) . Back into the shed again and out with the angle grinder. Then back out again and this time a little drive just up our driveway to start with. Brakes needed a good application to scuff off the rust on the discs but otherwise it was OK. Took some photos when it was at the top of our drive… I really like this next photo I took from our field with all its spring growth.. ( I have given up on mowing up here).. Hannah walked down and got the recycling bin and tried out the wesome useful load space.. Then back to the shed. I grabbed my tool box, phone and a shirt to stay warm for a possible walk home. First drive on the road here we go. OK not a biggy.. just 3km down the road to the beach. Hey wow.. it goes well! It wanders a little bit and needs and alignment but peppier than I expected. Steering is very light and the clutch is fine. Pretty quiet for a car with no bonnet and no carpets etc. It fun. Excited. Happy! Wow.. I did it. Yay. Down at the beach some old lady remarked how she used to own a Viva when she spotted it as I snapped some photos. I was sort of in an elated but slightly nervous, excited mood and didn’t really concentrate too much on what photos to take. I just snapped away and was happy to be there in the sun after all this time working on it. Drove home and showed the neighbour over the road. We spotted a weeping header tank seam on the radiator… Oh well.. hopefully it’ll hold for a trip to town and the test and I’ll get it sorted out later on. Water pump leaks too but I have 3 spares so will swap one in. Hopefully tomorrow I will also get the bulb for my timing light and properly have a crack at tuning it better. Next to Viva one and getting Kevins approval.. Please wish me luck with the test tomorrow!

update time. out in the daylight and re assembled. with a new sticker

I will now rummage through all my fading memories the happenings of the last few weeks since the wagon became legal, weeks of holidays, drinks, sunshine, fettling of various old car things. Hopefully as I type it will become clearer.. Since getting the car back into life I have just kept using it for all sorts of trips and its been fun. I love the looks it gets. Often I get thumbs up, usually from young folk who might not even know what it is but certainly like the fact its shabby. Older people often smile too. Many comments But it was never 'right'. I felt it had better potential and didn't believe that the engine was knackered. It was not using much oil but enough to make me look further than just the patches it left here and there. Every time I drove it Id discover afterwards a new fresh coating of oil mist over everything. I checked the rocker cover and sure enough that was loose. But still the mystery mist kept appearing.. hmmmmm… Finally I worked out that it was spinning off from the front pulley. Luckily my stash of Viva spares had a new seal. I popped off the timing chain cover and swapped out the very very hard old seal. The nice soft new one stopped the mist. Yay. But that rough idle was annoying me. More so the engine shal=king about and making the exhaust knock the crossmember. This I had to fix. It was too close and sat quite low as well.. So I cut off the down pipe and while it was off I repaired my previous ‘repair’ to the manifold joining flange which had started to leak. Knock be gone but still the car idled rough. I checked the compressions and they were all good @ 150 psi each (which is way higher than the 130 Mr Haynes tells me to expect so I either have a gauge that lies or someone in the past has skimmed the head?) But still the car ran rough. I finally bought a new timing light. A self powered one. So good not having to plug in the battery leads! With my new light I was able to check the timing which turned out to be only about 5 degrees out. So I was happy that Id managed to get it so close just by ear but not happy that it was obviously not the cause of the poor idle. I checked the valve clearances. Now things got messy… the manuals all say check them hot and many sources out there say the best thing is to check them with the engine running….. NEVER AGAIN will I try using feeler gauges on a idling engine! What a kerfuffle and resulting mess! After I had spent many clean rags clearing up the oil from everywhere I set the clearances hot. They were all pretty good actually. I screwed the rocker cover down and started the engine. TINK TINK TINK TINK TINK…. WTF?!!! Where’s that coming from. Oh no.. have I dropped a valve? Sounds like piston slap or a broken piston top but higher pitched? Oh dear I thought. I popped the cover off and started the engine. Sound has gone! What? Looked at rocker cover and I could see marks underneath from where a rocker was just touching my altered breather gallery… Oh OK. So tightening the cover down further on a new hot cork gasket just pulled it down that bit more to touch. One swift smack with the hammer and the sound was gone So what is causing the rough running then. I had been pulling the plugs after every few runs to look at the condition. Always the front 1 and 2 plugs were clean and borderline lean. The rear 3 and 4 always a touch oily. Hmmmm. Then I looked at my servo and breather lines heading into my inlet manifold- remember back when I changed the positions?.. I popped off the servo one and sucked on it. Hang on… no resistance! What? Bugger me.. I have a split diaphragm in the servo causing an air leak. Which also explains the hefty brake pedal ( I’d just put that down to poor brakes bedding in or not being manly enough..) I plugged the tee on the manifold and started the car. Wow!! What a difference!!!! So smooth. I was able to lower the idle speed right down. Then double checked the timing, tweeked the carb jet a little and it was heaps better. Next drive was way smoother, engine had more pull and no lurching. Heaven. But I knew it could be even better. So I undid the breather pipe from the inlet and re-routed it down the back of the block, holding it in place by the bottom of the bell housing with a zip tie. I plugged the remaining takeoff on the tee and started the car… even better! Yes!! Having got rid of another ‘air leak’ helped no end plus was also explaining why the rear two plugs were constantly oily. I will source another HC servo and for now just put up with a harder pedal. The brakes work well but just need a shove. As for the inlet take off I will move the position to just after the carb in the middle so its even across all cylinders. The breather can remain to atmosphere. Now I knew the engine was actually OK I gave it an oil change. The old oil was not too dirty but it did smell. It burns a little oil at start up past the inlet valve stems. I have found out that this earlier engine doesn’t have stem seals but a friend who owns many Vivas said they used to slide an O-ring down the stem so most oil ran over the o-ring rather than down the guide. Nifty idea I might try if I do pop the head off. Im now a little reluctant to take the head off as its running well..but I am a little curious to see how carboned up it might be?. So my once rough running Viva is now a very smooth little car to drive. In fact its an utter joy to drive, allowing for a general lacking in power. My fears about driving up hills have been removed. Yeah it’s a bit slow but only on one very steep section do I need second gear, otherwise its third gear and cruise. Its ideal about town and fantastic for popping to the beach, a trip it has done many times now. I like it. I like it a lot. I just cruise. Windows down. Chilled out. Lifes a breeze. I love the way the car handles with the tiny engine up front. Steering is very light and it fun to flick around. Many more little things to tidy up now and make it a nicer place. Hannah’s mum is over from the UK on holiday so I made the most of her baggage and got her to bring over lots of stuff I got cheap on ebay Uk. See here… New dizzy cap, rotor, a full set of mint Vauxhall service manuals (only £1.50 ), full head gasket set (cheap), a few magazines, adjustable electric fan controller, a chrome air filter which doesn’t quite fit but I’ll sort that. So that’s where I’m at now. Just using it. Transporting mountain bikes (easy pesy).. Going to the beach.. Sitting pretty in the afternoon… Taking me down to my local village for moonlit strolls along the beach.. Just generally being a very good fun wee classic daily

I am quite happy to say that I have managed to get quite a bit of work finished on this little wagon. With the evenings being brighter and warmer and having a new dose of enthusiasm I have spent more time on it and its been fun. So where was I last update. Lets start with the doors. I knew they had rust but not too bad and in places that’s easy to get to. I have been putting off repairing them so now is the time after having just finished the last few bits on the tailgate (hatch..) Luckily the rust was mainly on the outer skin wrapping over the inner strengthening panels that the hinges are welded to. I cut it away and let in some nice new thick sheet. I actually ground back the welds afterwards because it it made sense to have it all finished properly in a place that is hard to get to once the doors are back on. Plus the seals, speaking of which I will need to get some decent second hand ones with the originals having fallen apart, will need a good smooth surface to squash against. There was minimal rust along the inner bottom of one door and they fixed up well. Really glad they are in good condition otherwise with minimal dents on the outside (just dented enough I say..) While I was working on them I also had one of those ‘expecting it to be a arse but it was actually easy’ moments when I had to remove a broken screw from a window winder stub. The screw was small, broken unevenly and I sure that Id not be able to drill it central enough. But I did, it worked and I was happy.. With the doors repaired and the repairs painted over I put them aside and started on the wiring. I enjoy wiring and have always planned to tidy all the original stuff up. I got carried away and its now pretty well hidden from view. I added some extra wires for the fan etc and decided to run the main loom out of sight via a hole I added in the tunnel. The original bulkhead grommet worked perfectly. Once I started hiding things I got even more carried away. I disliked the look of the fan wires running externally along the top of the bulkhead so they were carefully re-routed then back through the heater box and through another added hole. The main loom sorted back through inside the car and I was happy with it all. So onto the heater hoses. First I fitted them as per original. Oh dear. No, no ,no.. this will not suffice !… Damn they are ugly hoses, just running over the engine like an afterthought, looking like a scaled up version of a badly designed Lego tecnics kit with poorly scaled pneumatics. Nup. No sir..I don’t like it! So I rummaged through my always handy supply of random hoses and found a few Mazda items that will help in my quest for neatness, a Toyota bottom hose and a ideal tee piece. I also found a heater pipe from the Crysler Northstar quadcam V8 I have been gifted (another story…). Still not enough pieces to complete my puzzle. Back to the wreckers then… I love going to wreckers, especially when they let you roam about by yourself and get your own bits, a rare thing these days with so many OSH rules. Luckily Hannah enjoys it too because she was along for this sortee. We found a variety of hoses from a Datsun something, a Mitsubishi Mirage, a Honda Shuttle and also scored an ideal inline heater valve from said Honda. A few hose clips and other handy bits. All this for $10 free image uploading Back home and I assembled my scavenged findings together and came up with a design. I cut that steel pipe down, welded on a bracket so it mounts onto the carb support bracket beneath the carb. Chopped the excess bits off the heater valve and mounted that in the original place using various bends from my even more awesome stash of bends. Added the Tee into the Toyota bottom pipe. It worked out fine except for one thing.. the heater valve works backwards. Hot is cold and vice versa. Luckily my other Viva, with its Chevette sourced heater valve is exactly the same. So no confusion for us.. just everyone else.. After finishing them I noticed my exhaust was not yet connected to the manifold. Then I discovered holes. Bugger! So old towels out to protect things and I carefully welded in some repairs. I am a bit upset in that the blobby welds might well restrict things and lose me a pony or two. However I shall learn to deal with this. Then on to the breather and brake servo hoses. I have decent PCV valve to use and some pipe now. But nothing matches. Out with my stock of alloy bits and I worked out a plan using my 1/8th bsp taps. I machined up an adaptor and it worked a treat. Finished and mounted.. With that lot finished and looking a lot neater it was now it was time to sort out the throttle pedal to carb interface system. I am using a HC Viva floor mounted pedal like in Viva one. The original top mounted pedal system uses rods and is..ugly. I copied the design of cable clamp and pedal mount from Viva one. Noted how much cable pull was offered by the pedal. Did some maths and worked out the diameter of pully needed. Then I machined up a pulley from a lump of alloy on the trusty old, leaky, English lathe. Made a new cable bracket and used some old bike barrel adjuster. It was an easy enough job but just time and I’m glad its done. Cable clamp so the nipple will go at pulley end for neatness... Measure cable pull.. Pedal mounts here on new base... A leaky (because English made) old but trustworthy lathe and a lump of alloy.. A new pulley.. I wont mount it yet as some wiring to do for the starter solenoid yet to be done. But I’m not far from firing the little 1159cc block of fury up and I’m quite excited. Here's a photo of the new hose layout. I'm much happier with it and it was worth the hassle... Back soon

Grass has been getting a little long. so time to give it a trim in other news, just been making a few things stronger, chassis panhard mount. added some braces to lower chassis links on the rear. pedal box was flexing the firewall/wiper tray even tho i took in all 9 of the factory bolt holes. added another bracket back to the cross bar. and hung the brake light switch off it grass trails p/s cap is out in the paddock somewhere

Update time. Vivadom daily driving has been pretty damn good. Especially when 2 months ago I finally got around to changing the voltage settings for the wideband O2 sensor on the ECU so that the ECU would get the same reading as what the Innovate gauge shows. It’s a common setting fault and took all of 5 mins to get them to read almost the same. What does this mean though? Well for ages the ECU and hence the tuning program, Tunerstudio, have been receiving a ‘leaner’ voltage than what the engine was really at. This meant that in tuning the final outcome was always a bit too rich. When the ECU was in closed loop ego control it would take my preferred AFR table settings and adjust to what it thought was correct.. which was not. With the ECU now getting the proper signal we re-tuned the car on the way back from Blenheim to Motueka. It was too rich everywhere and after not long was leaned right back. Driveability remained the same, but tail pipe smells improved J I have not gone super lean, sticking to around 15~15.5 on cruise. We filled the tank back up in Motueka and the cars economy had improved returning 32 mpg (8.8l/100km). There is still room to improve but happy with that. So this was all good and everything was fine and dandy for the last month or two. Then the other day while leaving town I started to hear a teeny whistle sound. I just put it down to the throttle body making the sound because sometimes it does just this. The other thing I thought it might be was the idle control valve. I didn’t look into it any further. However, over the next few drives I noticed it was hunting a little at really light throttle openings, like slowly accelerating away from standstill. Hmmmm?... Then that whistle again, this time when I got home one evening. I popped the bonnet and listened around. I couldn’t pinpoint it but when I ran my fingers around the back underside of the plenum box where one of the runners joins I heard the note change. An air leak. Bugger. I looked with a torch and could just make out a little crack on one of the welds I had machined down…hmmmm. Bugger. Oh well.. I was planning on doing a modification to the throttle body pulley so why not sort it out now. I drove the car into the Viva hospital and started surgery. It didn’t take long to pop the bonnet off, unplug all the bits needed and start removing the inlet manifold. The trickiest bit was the return fuel line which was stuck to the pipe and hard to get too. One hour after having parked the car in the surgery and picking up the scalpels I had the manifold on the bench. I worked out pretty quickly why the manifold had cracked where it had. To explain how we need to pop into the police box and go back in time…. Maybe not that far though. Lets try again… Nup.. still too far. This time… Errrgggg. Again… Oh dear lordy..one more time… Ahh… that’s better! Righto..now remember this original plenum chamber? Made from some bent up 2.5mm alloy sheet. It had buckled diagonally when welded and I had then set up the runner heights to suit when I tacked them in place. I had to try and straighten it so it sealed correctly (using our house as a press).. It all worked out OK at the time because it flexed enough to seal when bolted down to the runner flanges. However a few years later I had that backfire and blew the lid off. I then fabricated a new plenum from 5mm alloy sheet and its was nice and straight.. It did not flex. This is how I think the crack happened. I decided I was not going to try to weld up this little crack because I knew the heat would warp the runner flange and nothing will seal. So I bought some posh looking South African epoxy putty, a bit like minute mend or quicksteel. It requires a lot more mixing than the others but sticks really well and smoothed off nicely. Kevin kept guard while it set. While the inlet was off I did some measuring and worked out the dimensions for a new offset/eccentric throttle body pulley. Then I machined down a lump of alloy bar and ended up with a new pulley. I got to use our new mill with a 2mm slot drill ( I could have used a hacksaw and file but this was more fun..) The new pulley effectively gears down the cable pull at the start of the throttle pedal travel and speeds up at the end making for a much easier off idle transition. You can see the difference between old and new here.. No more kangarooing down the road for people not used to this engine with its lightweight flywheel etc. I refitted the inlet manifold, plugged everything in and tried it out. WAY BETTER!!! Went for a drive and its so much easier to ease the throttle on out of corners or from standstill. Much more user friendly and I now wish I’d done this mod ages ago!

Update time on Viva two.... Lesson learned. Don't leave Vivas parked up for two months on damp ground. I went to move it the other day and the clutch is stuck ! I have tried all the usual things to fix it and no luck. Its now sitting out there with a stick holding the clutch pedal down. Funny thing is that I have only recently worked on a mates Viva HC and it had come in with the same problem, which meant we had to remove the box and free up a very corroded clutch. The reason for this mighty wagon of mine being laid up? Well it ran out of WOF at about the same time as I had picked up a genuine Viva '90' engine. I had plans to fit it but its not happened yet. Hannah went to the UK to see family and brought back some parts, seals etc so next week we will tidy it up and fit it soon. What is a Viva '90' engine you ask? Its the uprated 1159cc engine that was offered as an option on HB vivas, and standard in the Brabham spec model. It has higher compression, high lift cam (that found its way into the 1256 Chevette/Viva HC engine), twin outlet exhaust manifold and Stromberg carb. Possibly some other things too.. some foamer can quip in here.. It all combines to give a very useful jump in power from 50 to 70 bhp! Twenty extra ponies is not to be laughed at when you only start with 50. My wagons chassis plate states in the options that it came with one of these engines but at some point it has been stolen from the car. The engine I have scored actually came from this ropey old car here... ...which Slacker Sam had bought and then sold on to the fella I bought the wagon from. He split the car down as it was rusty as (although some of its shell has also made its way into my wagon) , hung on to the motor and I managed to score it a few years later for $100. Its been rebuilt and apparently goes really well he said, useful for towing other Vauxhalls around etc ... Came with all new ignition parts too. Pretty happy with this lot and looking forwards to fitting it! I have cleared a little area in the workshop to work on it....

I have just popped in to give sort of a quick "hey there fella..how's your car working out so far and what do you think of it?" update like thing. Well.. glad you asked. Note one; Its not very fast but keeps up with traffic fine if traffic drives slowly. Hills scare me. In the other Viva, Viva One, hills are fun and something to look forward to. In fact I often plan a passing move on a hill to really put a point across to what ever I'm passing, really lay down the house rules in a quick simple move No such fun with Viva wagon I'm afraid. Now all I plan is where can I wind up the rubber band and how fast can I take a corner so not to scrub off too much speed. Momentum is king. Note two; Its light. Lighter over the front end which makes for really light steering and a throw it into everything, chuckable sort of fun drive. Great for not slowing down *see note one. Note three; The brakes need a lot more effort to stop. Suspect servo maybe not playing its part and has decided its going to just sit in the bay taking space and to hell with assistance. The brakes work fine but you have to push them hard. So best not to bother using them and just hold that speed which is good again for speed.. see note one. Note four; Its only running on 3 at idle but smooths out when revved? Or is it me thinking its smoothing out and its actually only running on three most of the time. I wonder if its the worn dizzy cap and once up to speed it doesnt affect the engine. But I think its more. I will check the plugs in the morning. The exhaust knocks the cross member in a very noisy horrible way when the engine bounces about on three. This totally goes with the style of the car though. Passers by probably just think 'old cars.. aint they so sweet with the clouds of smoke and noise' Note five; Its not burning any oil. This is good. Instead its doing a very British car thing and leaving puddles on the floor. I thought it was mainly the rear main seal but then I noticed I had not re-tightened down the rocker cover since its been run a few times. Hopefully this might help. If the car continues to behave well with regards to oil use then I may well just dump out the 15 year old oil and treat it to new stuff. I really should change it shouldn't I... I'm so mean. Note six; It needs music. The wheezy little four pot struggling up a hill, gasping for air, stumbling and hurting when I try to make the gigantic leap over the hole the size of the Isle of man that is between 2nd gear and 3rd gear is not music. I have been given an 80's tape deck stereo headunit and I have some plastic speakers that cost me nothing. So perfect for this car. I will fit them and then hunt out the best music the local recycling center will have on tape. I will post up the build of this mega sound system as we all like ICE. Anyway- we took both Vivas to the OS Nelson area meet today. It made it there fine and did not have too large a queue built up behind and didn't blow a cloud of smoke. So that was nice. Event went well and I took some photos. There was actually 4 Vivas there in the end. This is a record surely. Certainly for Nelson.. Then we drove back home- Hannah following in Viva one which she now claims as hers..pfff no taste. Snobbery. It was a nice day out and as I drove home to the sound of rattles, bangs and clunks I made my list of things to fix. I will report back as I sort through them.

Hannah, Kevin and I enjoying the blue sky weather on our way East...

I thought I might try on top of the updates and post more often so avoiding such a long catch up session giving a subsequent easing of pressure on my brains hard drive. Distributor time. I had two dizzies. One was from this engine and one from Andres stock pile. I took then both apart and rebuilt one from the best bits. The original has at some point in its life had a proper battering. I reckon it can only have been from the weights breaking away and smacking the inside. I cant think of anything else that might have caused it? I also discovered that the early dizzy has a smaller amount of advance allowance of 25 degrees. This is specced for my lowly 7.0 to 1 low comp engine. At the risk of upsetting the initial running I have swapped in the shaft and weights from the other dizzy to allow for a full fat 33 degrees of advance. I do plan to uprate this engine if it seems OK. My near future plans are to swap out the current thicker head gasket for a standard one and have a much more useful standard comp ratio of 8.5 to 1. I believe (hope) I'm correct in that this is the way that Vauxhall changed the compression on these engines. With it all painted black and looking about as sexy as a distributor can look I fitted the electronic ignition module. Quite neat it is too. Then I slung the lot into the block and moved on to the next item.. Radiator fan. All the fans I have sitting on shelves collecting dust are suckers. I wanted a pusher to mount in front of the radiator because there just isn't enough room for a sucker plus it looks ugly. So off to the local wreckers with a peice of plywood cut to the size of my radiator front. After 5 minutes I found the ideal fan sitting on the front of an old Mitsi Pajaro. A few bolts removed and it was mine for $10. I got home and discovered it fitted perfectly within my Radiator, almost clicking in place Old mounts removed, new ones cut from some 1.6mm steel and welded in place with nuts welded in for easy removal. A bit of paint and it looks all good to me...

Destiny...

Yes...yes...hell yes!!!! Boom!!!

Sorry this is super late making an appearance. We are staying at the Alpine Apartments Camp Ground, the address is 200 Jollies Pass Road. This is the corner of Jollies Pass and Fowlers Lane. Enter through the gate with the oldschool.co.nz signs and arrows. parking will be the same as last year around the concrete oval. https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Alpine+Holiday+Apartments+and+Campground/@-42.5198256,172.8534875,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d306308abc4f737:0xf746b4cbf8b0cb13 Here is the itintery for the weekend Friday: CHCH Convoy Departs @ ?? Check in at the Camp is open from 3.30PM (when you arrive at the camp come to the Gazebo that will have the OS Banner up and Check in) Check in will consist of assigning somewhere to sleep and collecting your event stickers Friday evening is normally pretty ruthless to be fair and can go on until the early hours of saturday morning (last year people were still going at 4am) no dinner is provided on friday so you will want to bring food with you or go into Hanmer township and get something (I recommend Saints Resturant) Saturday: Nursing your hangover with a blue powerade is probably recommended. (the 4 square opens at 8.30am) around 10.30/11 am we have arranged a group activity at the mini golf and a village cruiser scavenger hunt (provided as part of your entry) http://www.alpinecrazyputt.com/ 1pm ish we will be having a catered lunch at the camp. this will be a bbq. 3pm onwards - those who are going to the pools can head off for an afternoon/evening soak at the pools. evening festivities will be at the camp, Dinner is a fend for yourself, however there may be some BBQ food that might not have been cooked up earlier in the day. Sunday: Pack up/Clean up and go home. Things to bring food and drink towel and togs (for the pools) - these can also be rented from the pools sleeping bag and pillows - the rooms will have sheets and 1 pillow on the beds a foldout chair, for either lunch or around the fire Music - ipods, cd's etc for during the evenings a few reminders - YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXTRA'S/MATES YOU BRING. BEING A DICK / WRECKING STUFF/THE VENUE WILL RUIN THE EVENT WE WON'T BE ABLE TO RENT THE PLACE ANY MORE = NO FUTURE OLDSCHOOL HANMER MEET SCOOTERS/MOTORBIKES MUST REMAIN STRAPPED ON TRAILERS/UTES DURING THE EVENING FESTIVITIES. ANY BURNOUTS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY SCOOTERS OR MOTORISED BIKES WILL SPELL THE END TO THIS EVENT BEING RUN IN THE FUTURE NO FIREWORKS - THIS WAS ASKED FOR BY THE CAMP AS A RESULT OF THEM BEING LET OFF LAST YEAR I think that is everything. feel free to ask if there is anything else you want to know

I tried out its towing capabilities today...

Been busy over the last few months A12 out and A14 in! Ended up building a fresh A14 9.8:1 Compression (pistons flycut) Cam with 2500rpm-6500rpm range 9.4kg Flywheel (2kg lighter than standard) Firmer Kelford valve springs Ported and polished head & manifold to my ability Twin 40mm dellortos & extractors New alloy radiator on its way, also have to install the e15 electronic dizzy at some point down the track. Here is a quick video of a small test start with single carb when I first installed the engine... Pics following Pistons flycut for clearance H89 head, water jackets tapped and grub screw inserted. Also drilled a small hole to locate a roll pin from the dellorto manifold to keep it alinged Discussion

*YARN THREAD* Walking around the Kumeu car show 2015, the old man was telling how one of his mates at work had two Escorts he wanted to sell, a Mk4 convertible and a Mk1. But seeing as I was knuckle deep into turbocharging my MX5 at the time I merely shrugged it off as I didn't have anywhere to keep another project. Two years down the line I was eating a tuna steak at The Esplanade in Devonport and all of a sudden "Boy, remember that Escort I told you about a few years ago, would you like to go and see it after lunch?" "Sure why not".... you can work out the rest Beatrix is a November build 1969 Ford Escort 1300 Sport assembled in Lower Hutt. When I brought her in March she hadn't run for about 15 years and her rego has lapsed. I got the engine going with a bit of fresh fuel and some new plugs and did a few laps around the block. I then pulled her apart to have a look at what we got and got a few good surprises, Some spring adjustable front shocks 4 pot AP racing front calipers a 711M 1600 block and the biggest surprise apart from the battery tray, no real rust to speak of. The plan at the moment is, rebuild/replace all that's perished over the years of sitting still. Rebuild the engine. Reregister her. Replace the seats with something less offensive. Repaint it back to its stock color, Ford Diamond Blue.

try leak now you bastard !

18 hour slow cooked marshmallows?

pining hard for this. warm beer on the bridge for sunset, someone else doing minibike wheelie-outs in jandals, sluggish yarns with GCs while wandering back to the river, a new wag/s to stand around each year, beaver singing soul greats in the gravel pit with the dial on 11. aahh

Rum

I am in a tiny tube of a plane

Went for a hoon over the hills and took in a few country pubs with some other 1200s and a 260, car went well and no issues. Today I butchered a couple of old standard A12 downpipes I no longer need and made a flange so this will make life a lot easier in the future! Not to mention tidier looking. There's a pie cut left open cause I don't know what angle it needs to be yet

Is it the correct clip though?

You had me at marshmellows. Breakfast of champions.

Oh man, just thinking about some of the new wags that might turn up next year! Fingers crossed for primio weather again too. Gosh it's been great the last couple of years.

@yetchh and @LowTech I'm picking up @kicker just after 12 from the airport, keen to meet at peg for convoy!

HAAHHH!!! PUZZLE MASTER!!!!!.. I cut the end off the triumph exhaust to get it in there. Now I have to walk all the way down the other end of the garage through my 'living quarters', the storage piles and the 'workshop area' to get the the other side of the car. Might be faster to just crawl through the doors. Motorbike battery was nearly flat, wouldn't start it, same deal for the STARVIA battery. I put the motorbike battery on charge.

It goez Nungarattlenunga nunga rattle rettle Whiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Burrrrrr. (With a huge cloud of thick black smoke, as some hot chick in a suzuki swift with her window down at the lights found out lol) Actually goes hard for what it is.

Because I love my job I'm actually working in the morning on friday. I didn't ask my boss. I just wrote a leave form out, (last friday, so I back dated the date that I put on the form by a few weeks) and tucked into the pile of forms on his desk. Then I'll txt the admin girl who will ring me if any urgent jobs pop up and tell her I'm out. Party on dudes!

Fuuuuuuck yeah! Taking car into work tomorrow and hopefully have some time spare to fit boost tap....

Oi hemi come to wagnats mother fucker.

man i have been fucking around with this thing something shocking, need to commit and just finish it as i have everything to do so now. Shed is currently taken over my honda monza red, cams C50 is in for a new exhaust treatment and sparkle has given me his CT110 to chop Quickly hacked the rear guard off sparkles CT at lunch today, looks gay as frig now with the extremely large postie seat but once he gets a new one it should be lush Mocked up my cub with sparkles brown seat off his C50, i have ordered one of the same but in black which should look pretty lush. The bars are on now but i need to cut them down as they are too wide for the wheelbase of the cub and look a bit out of proportion Scratched my head with the wires a little bit but got all that sorted the other night. I know i could get away without running a battery but it thought id be a good boy and run one, then lights can work if engine isnt running etc which could be handy at times, and the new gel battery was only 30 bucks went to put the side cover on and realised i didnt have a screw for it, bit of threaded rod and an old imperial spanner later and jobs done jim Hope sunday will be a good day, will mod bars a bit and get them straight (seems forks are slightly bent) make some changes to the exhaust and get that on properly, re jet the carb with the jets that arrived today, slap the chain on, mod the rear brake pedal then slap some gas and oil in it and go do a skid, yeowww!

Spotted a car load of ruffians and skallywags just past Havelock going towards nelson as we cruised to blenheim. Be warned nelson... welly bros heading your way !

Only 160 days to go!

Why are you cunts not running? call yourself beardy rebels... pah

Had it alll back together and on , still had symptoms of a vac leak and couldn't find it after hours of trying nothing i did would change engine rpm or show signs of where it was leaking... , so borrowed an osgc's air fuel ratio gauge and wide band o2 sensor, which showed me i was correct in my assumption of vac leak , turns out the venturi gasket was leaking so one is on the way from " mikes carb parts" in the usa, was $4.95 and so got a new accelerator pump plunger and main manifold gasket too , hopefully they will show up this week... and now with o2 sensor tuning it will be sooo easy to get it dialed.

I am leaving tomorrow around lunch, will find a cozy spot to park the bus up tomorrow night, then onto hamner on Friday, gagging for it tbh.

Folding up the channels had some mixed results. I got the first folded up with a bit of fiddling around but it turned out good. The second must have been not quite on the line or something but it came out slightly to big to fit properly. This is both channels fitted into the outer skins. This photo sort of shows how the second one doesn't fit nearly as good as it needs to. My plan is to try to heat up the fold and flatten it back out so I can refold it in the right place. Failing that, I have more steel so I can always just make another one. I'd rather not waste it though. Sorry for the small update. The Mazda should turn up tomorrow. Should be fun.

Couple of Pics I took today Yeah I messed the numbers up didn't see them till I got home : must go back & get the '76 Until I get some trim this IS it's good side Gorge'eous ?

Chatted to the old man a few weeks back and im looking at timing coming back to see the fambams for this area. will try and get a swag ready and then scrounge a ride/ steal one of the families cars. again no promises as im pretty sure ive said this before and havent shown up .

North Island convoy leaving tomorrow morning. Staying at st arnaud tomorrow night. Then possibly considering west coast excursion for the hell of it on Friday depending.

I'm bringing my padded bummed shorts. But I wear footy shorts over the top, because I'm not quite ready to come out of the closet as a lycra faggot yet.

Dare to wagon slide down the ski slope, like james bond.

yeah Hemi, jees and yes Matt, bring hiace!