sr2

The next twenty plus years flew past quickly; I was busy with my job. Busy teaching someone to ride, (check out the 3 story tree hut in the background!)…. Busy building and co-driving race cars…. And busy playing music with these two wonderful degenerates…….! https://www.flickr.com/photos/in-the-pink/

Another six years passed quickly. My beautiful long suffering Sharon, (these days Mrs sr2) and I bought the flat we were renting in Milford, (many thanks to Peter Thomas, RIP mate). My music career was going strong, we were all getting into dirt bikes and Rigamortice was still hauling arse as my daily driver. What can I say, life was good. To be honest she was starting to look a little scruffy, (my early teenage attempts at panel repair were biting me in the arse badly), the little X2 rattled a bit on startup but she still as always did her best for me and pulled strong. Even old cars need a little hug now and then….. In 1992 a collection of overly enthusiastic volunteers from various assorted hot-rod and car clubs formed a committee and came to the conclusion that despite having travelled safely for over half a million miles in various states of mechanical modification Rigamortice posed a real and present danger to the voting public and needed to be subjected to things called “regulations and certification”. I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about but “rules and certifications” sounded very important so Rigamortice and I humoured them by trying to look interested. To their credit they were obviously very clever & determined people who had far too much time on their hands and knew heaps about politics, using impressively long words, inventing regulations and certifications and forming committees to invent even more regulations and certifications! Both Rigamortice and I were overawed by their self-sacrificing tenacity and their astonishingly concise use of mind numbingly self-contradictory terminology - in desperation and under increasing duress we consented to filling out a “Vehicle Modification Declaration” form. At this stage we couldn’t help but be reminded of Officer Opie from Allices Restaurant; (listen from 6:30 to 7:40 or just sit back and relive the full 18 minutes of beautifully, innocent, delicious anarchy). We soon discovered that the “sad little man that the very clever hot-rod and car club committee members had given the task of confirming the above modifications” was in denial that Rigamortice was in fact fitted with a “Starship Enterprise Warp Factor V Hyper Drive” and was not happy with the “structural modifications prior to 1991” being described as “oxidization”. After a vigorous negotiation process where I hid behind Rigamortice while the “sad little man that the very clever hot-rod and car club committee members had given the task of confirming the above modifications” hurled a multitude of thinly vieled insults at me about my car and the marital status of my parent at the time of my birth, we eventually (with a small amount of violence on my part) reached a compromise and I was given paperwork! Eight months or so later a rather confused lady in a L300 courier van T boned Rigamortice very, very hard. Luckily although written off the van hit with the left front and when extracted from the wreckage the hysterical and bruised lady van driver was essentially unhurt. Sometimes you just get lucky.... Modern cars have an effective crumple zone; designed in 1935 Rigamortice just took it on the chin like an old boxer. I drove home in a daze with a very sore neck and a bleeding thick lip while Rigamortice sported a wobbly rear wheel and a rear chassis/sub-frame that had been seriously pushed sideways. A short time later Sharon and I had a baby on the way, we'd bought the house next door and Rigamortice ended up parked in the back yard……

Cheers mate, I didn't realize I'd have so much fun writing it all up, (remember 1992 and watch this space!).

Wow; they are as rare as rocking horse shit in NZ and he's got two of them! The Big 6 was rated at 20 RAC HP as opposed to the J14's 14 RAC HP. They were very classy cars in their day, you need to blackmail, bribe, intimidate, etc. your friend into letting you have one.

The body was looking a little sad so some panel work was called for and a coat of burgundy paint. Near this time I was ignominiously excommunicated from the Auckland chapter of the Vauxhall Enthusiasts Society for the then unforgivable transgression of “automotive blasphemy”; (i.e. modifying an “already perfect” Vauxhall). Rigamortice loved doing skids with her new motor but the Vanguard diff ratio was far too low and the stud pattern was different to the HQ pattern on the front. When the novelty of doing one wheel burnouts on 15” skinny cross-ply tyres finaly wore off I found a 3.3 HD Holden rear end, fitted it with the larger HQ drum brakes and changed the stud pattern by welding up the old stud holes in the axel flanges and re-drilling them. The old girl was starting lift her skirts and haul arse well (for 30 years ago) and it became obvious the 1930’s style lever action rear shocks were struggling with the additional power and traction so out came the rear end again so I could convert it to telescopic shocks. With a little tweaking of the new suspension I had a car that was happy to be pushed hard and was comfortable with 3 times the original 48 BHP. The only issue was that the standard under floor single circuit 1” master cylinder was having difficulty with the HQ disc/drum combination. I was running a dual Hydrovac booster system with a VH40EL on the front and a VH44D on the rear and despite fitting both boosters with matching “complex” (dual acting) control valves the combination still felt clunky and lacked feel. When late one night I caught myself designing an external control valve system that could operate two boosters simultaneously I knew that drastic action was required and in desperation the following morning, I attacked the driver’s side firewall with an angle grinder…… I mounted an XA Falcon pendant style pedal box and rebuilt the firewall to accommodate an XB Mastervac and dual circuit master cylinder. At the same time I converted to a hydraulic master/slave cylinder clutch combo. Finally the car felt balanced and a joy to drive- problem solved! After a series of small but interesting and exciting fires Rigamortice had to be completely re-wired and I ditched the generator in favour of a ‘modern” alternator. A good mate turned up with a rare (at the time) Yella Terra head he’d procured from his neighbour and it proved to be the ideal combination with the X2 cam, the pacemakers and the DCD Weber (I tried a 350 Holley but it just used more gas and never idled properly). With a little tuning Rigamortice was starting to get a reputation for being a lot quicker than the old tart looked……… love those "one wheeler peelers!"........ One month (and a number of instances of unintended, deliberate, sustained loss of traction) later the Nissan gearbox shat it’s self into shrapnel. I found a W40 Steel case 4 speed Celica box (very sexy in its day) and modified the Holden bell housing to accept it, problem was the main cross member sat where the new gearbox needed to be. I jacked the old girl up, put her on axel stands to keep the chassis straight, pulled the front seats out and cut the whole floor out from the B pillar to the fire wall to expose the chassis. I welded in a piece of 4” RHS to form a new cross member, cut a section out of the original cross member to accommodate the new box and extended the original inside chassis rails. A new floor made from 16 gauge Zintex was welded in and a pair of Triumph 2000 front seats were fitted. Rigamortice had yet another new lease on life.

In the summer 1986 I removed all the front bodywork and scrapped the engine, box and front end. I was left with 2 chassis rails and a big hole with a head in it! Soon I was crawling under cars in public carparks with a tape measure and haunting the local car wreckers in search of a suitable front end. I finally settled on a HR Holden wishbone setup that I fitted with reversed HQ stubs and discs. A shortened Austin Kimberly R&P was mounted behind the cross member and connected to a Triumph 2000 steering column. All I needed was a motor and box….. Sometimes you just get lucky, a guy I worked with had a mate with an X2 186 motor hooked up to a Datsun 4 speed and he needed money. $60 later I was poking it into the old girls engine bay. After a few weeks spent fabricating mounts, throttle and clutch linkages, a drive-shaft, etc. Rigamortice’s new donk was starting to look like it was where it belonged. I ditched the X2 twin carb setup in favor of a downdraft DCD Weber and scraped together enough money to buy a set of pacemaker headers.

A decade passed and Rigamortice was still going strong as my daily driver. She’d been parked up for a few years while I lived in Australia, she’d been driven by all and sundry, stolen twice and even hauled Band gear around both islands (with the back seat removed) while I was starting my music career. What can I say; my friends and I grew up in that car. Jump forward to the mid 80’s ; the old girl’s still running strong but I’m over being passed on hills and the bump steer is getting hard to ignore; (the future Mrs sr2 spun out in Milford’s main drag while attempting an emergency manoeuvre, guess who’s fault it was!). The time had come for lots more power, good handling and more importantly brakes! (Get a load of the posers in the 1st 2 pic’s, oh the follies of youth).

LOL, I should have guessed!

Help! Any advice re posting the photo's in the right place gratefully appreciated, (I'm using IE as 95% of the civilised world does).

Bugger! Can't get the "Add to Post" button to work, all the pic's are at the bottom but here we go.......

My name's Simon and In hindsight I should have labelled this thread "sometimes you just get lucky". 1973 in little old NZ was a good year. Colour telly had finally arrived (not that any of us could afford one), Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon, petrol was 10 cents a litre, and I was 15 years old and needed my first car real bad! I spotted an old 47 6 cyl Vauxhall parked up in Hastings rd. Mirangi Bay with a faded 4 Sale sign in the window and grass growing through the wheels. After a round of fierce negotiation with the owner the paltry sum of $15 was settled on. With only $10 to my name I borrowed the remaining $5 from my long suffering father, (not sure if I ever repaid him) and the deal was done. After a triumphant arrival at home in my “new car “on the end of a towrope behind Dad’s 6/99 Worsley we discovered the motor was seized rock solid, within days the family was calling the car “Rigamortice” and the name just stuck. The only three early pictures I have was one taken by my mother (thanks mum) while I was bolting the bodywork back in place after Dad helped me with a “rings ‘n bearing” job - all done with the engine block still in place,….. ……and a second of my little sister and my eldest sisters’ daughter (big family) posing proudly beside Simons “new” car. …..and a third from when I found another J14 Vauxhall to park beside (Rigamortice is the green one). Within a few years the old girl had had been fitted with an LIP motor & box complete with Impala shifter, the “knee action” front suspension had been ditched in favor of EIP wishbones, I’d fitted a Vanguard diff and the interior looked like either a cheap massage parlor or Bishop Brian Tamaki’s living room, (the 70’s were a little weird!). Discussion Thread //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49843-sr2%E2%80%99s-1947-vauxhall-%E2%80%9Crigamortice%E2%80%9D-discussion-thread/

What a fantastic car, thanks for sharing. Having had it in the family since new makes it very special.

At .7" (I suspect it's probably 3/4" i.e. .75") the MG booster will have less boost but more fluid displacement than the original smaller 5/8" booster. The good news is that with the booster being connected to both front and rear axels you will not alter the front/rear bias. Hook it up and give it a go, you'll need to give it a "little more jandal" when you hit the brakes but you just may get away with it. Let us know how it goes.

To the best of my knowledge (and bourbon ravaged memory!) both the MkIIA & MkIIB Powerstop boosters came with either 5/8” or 3/4” bore sizes. They both share the same size control valve so the crack pressure is the same but with the increase in boost at 41.9 % the difference is significant. They are not difficult to rebuild although the rocker/poppet control valve makes them somewhat quirky & different to your average Hydrovac booste, (I used to teach staff how to overhaul them and other boosters in the early 80’s at APPCO Brake & Clutch). I’m not overly familiar with the 65 Snipe but I’m making the assumption it has boosted front disk brakes and no assistance on the rear drums? With the 3/4” Powerstop being suitable for a full boosted drum/drum setup fitted to the Snipe you’ll end up with far less assistance and far too much rear bias – very handy for chucking the rear out under brakes to get it sideways (it’s a blokes thing!) but a little scary on the motorway in the wet. Your options are limited to rebuilding the existing booster (kits available on eBay) or fitting an Aussie BPR VH40, (avoid the temptation of the more commonly available VH44 as it has a 5/8 slave and a smaller vacuum diaphragm). Hope this helps, great project and feel free to ask for more advice. If you were closer to Auck. I’d say bring both boosters and a 6 pack to the Milford man cave and see what we can do.

LOL, looks like you're on to it - don't say I didn't warn you about the white smoke! I spent a lot of time on boosters in the late 70's and early 80's, let me know if you need any help.

Fluid loss with no sign of a leak points to a leaking pushrod seal in your Girling Powerstop, (booster), the fluid will be accumulating in the rear vacuum chamber (as mounted on the car). The chances are that it hasn’t been drawn through the motor; if it had you would have noticed the dense, white smoke! Pull the plastic vacuum inlet check valve out of the rubber grommet and poke your finger or a bit of wire into the vacuum chamber, if it comes out with any brake fluid on it you have a pushrod seal issue (very common with these boosters). If it is leaking get the booster out of the car and stripped down asap, the brake fluid will eventually take out the vacuum diaphragm.