daveyc123

Will be there Saturday! May pluck up the courage to introduce myself at the club display!

Hoping to find all sorts of tat! 

8 minutes ago, Valiant said:

Don't.

Problem solved.

SOLD!!!  shorter shocks it Is! 

Thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it!

27 minutes ago, CUL8R said:

Just put shorter shocks in it, keeps it captive and the height you're at...

This was valiants suggestion to! Seems like my best option! I just worry about the ride quality?

So  the weekend before last I removed the engine to change the  very leaky rear main seal.

Firstly a huge thank you to Valiant for lending me the crane! Quite literally couldn't have done it with out that!

Removing the engine was hassle free, everything went exactly as planed. The old rear main seal was to small, which explained the leak. The new seal was not fun to fit but eventually got it in and dropped the engine back in the hole. Refitted all the necessary bits and pieces to fire it up and it started first turn of the key! Result!!!!

When we had the sump off the internals looked immaculate which is great news and a much appreciated bonus! I'm not sure as to the extent of it but the engine has had work done to it!

With every plus there has to be some negatives..... the old engine mounts had been cut to allow the engine to sit lower as the Weber carb that's fitted  hits the bonnet. Not the best way of dealing with the situation but I shall see what I can do to make things work. It hits on the cross brace so potentially I can modifythe brace slightly and gain some clearance. There is a spacer between the carb and manifold so I'm go8ng to remove this and replace it with a gasket. 

The radiator now sits to close to the fan, this is an easy fix with just six new holes to drill.

The springs have been cut and are not captive. These also need changing. I will do some research  on what my best options are here but ideallyI would like to keep the car pretty low..

So the car runs great! Idles nicely and doesn't leak any oil! Next jobs on the list are to replace the clutch and sort the brakes.  

Will hopefully get to spend a few hours on it this week tidying up the wiring and what Not!

7 hours ago, kyteler said:

Good effort man. 

 

Sorry to tell you though but those wheels aren't even close to filling out those guards.  You're going to have to go wider. 

They are 13x7 with a -7 offset. Anything bigger is crazy expensive.... and then finding tyres too! Depending on how it looks when the tyres are on and how much clearance there is i may get spacers. But we shall see.

40 minutes ago, CUL8R said:

Don't live by the park in St Albans/Mairehau do you?

Thank Christ you got rid of that grill arrangement! Nice work, impressed with the interior coming back up as good as it has

Na live at Taylor's, cars kept in woolston. As i dont have a garage . It's been a lot of work, I wish I had started the build thread earlier, there has been heaps of time and love put into it!

Thanks for your kind words!

Discus away!

Would love to hear from anybody that knew the car in a previous life!

The seats needed a good clean, I was over the moon with the results 

I made some doorcards, just covered in plain black vinyl. They look okay for now, perhaps in the future I will make some better ones. 

Installed some speakers too!

We  fitted the complete wiring loom from the donor car as the original was cut up and it was the easiest option.  A few niggles were sorted and everything electrical  minus the interior light works! The car came with a Victor grill fitted and the head lamp buckets on the car had been cut to make this work. 

I spent hours drilling spot welds and fitting the headlight buckets from the magnum. Then the magnum grill was fitted..... it started to look like a car!

There is still some body work to do, but there are two patches of welding to do, so this will be done later.

My first purchase for the car

Due to my lack of knowledge not much happened with the car. I bought some of the missing parts but really it just sat there.

A good friend from work said he would come give me some help with the car. I honestly couldn't have done it without his help! He's taught me heaps and now I feel fairly confident about giving most things a go!

We checked the compression, serviced the engine, fitted an electric fuel pump and an alternator .  It seems to run nicely.  The rear main seal leaks. But is actualy getting changed this weekend! 

With so many parts missing it was decided a donor car would be the best next step to take. A couple of weeks later a Vauxhall magnum turned up on trade me. It was bought and trailerd home 

The magnum gave me nearly everything I was missing which was a great result! I still needed seats but managed to pick up a mint set of another viva owner! Suddenly I had an interior!

If anybody happens to recognize the car and has any Info on it I would love to hear from them.

With no mechanical knowledge I decided to start by doing repairs to the flared wheel arches as these had all cracked and one had a chunk missing. I'm pleased with the results, the car will eventually get resprayed. But for now just blowing in the repair sections is fine for me

I thought it was about time I shared my viva with you all. Here we go....  

I moved over to nz from the UK nearly 5 years ago. I told myself that once I was settled I would get myself an old car. I was on the look out for an escort or cortina, but with prices rising the prospect of owning one was slipping away.  I wanted a rolling restoration something useable that I could tinker with. 

Previous to buying the viva the most work I had carried out on a car was an oil change. I loved the idea of doing more and learning as I went, but didn't want to take to much on....... I took to much on.

Two years ago a viva popped up on a Facebook but sell page. I went for a look. Not having a clue what I was looking at I thought it doesn't need to much doing and I bought it.

I quickly realized it was a way bigger job than I anticipated. There was virtually no interior and what was There had been 'modified' it was missing the alternator, the fuel pump, bits of wiring had been cut out, it had a Victor grill fitted. It was in quite a sorry state really, but overall the body was pretty solid. These are some of the first pictures I took of the car

Hey guys, does anybody have an engine crane I could borrow for a couple of weeks? 
You will be rewarded with beer!
Cheers David

That looks really smart!I like the look of the slightly bigger tyre, I'm not sure if I can get away with that size due to wheel offset and how much the vehicle is lowered.

Ī

I like the look of 175-50-13's but i'm concerned what the wof man will say? they are going on a 13x7 rim. I thought the 195's would be a better option.

Hi guys, any ideas where I can get hold of a set of 195 45 13 tyres? or a similar size?
Thank you

Not sure they would fill the arches!

Cheers for your reply guys! Allsports and palmside are in the higher price range. But are genuine minilite wheels! Will give elite a call when they open!

Firstly sorry if this is in the wrong section!
I'm wanting some 13x7 superlite style wheels. but am struggling to find any at a reasonable price in Christchurch. I was hopefully getting them from mag and tyre direct but they can only find three wheels. Mag and turbo are nearly twice the price so that isn't really an option. I can import them from the UK fora fairly decent price but was hoping to buy in NZ to avoid shipping disasters etc. So does anybody have any recommendations?
Cheers!

I have the sender, everything is all wired in! 

I have picked up an original fan (I didn't have one) so my current thoughts are to fit the original fan and just have the electric fan on a switch in case of over heating. At a later date I can look into getting the radiator drilled to take a sensor!

As easy as that! I will speak to a radiator specialist!

Thank you

I'm trying to fit an electric fan sensor on my viva. I bought a hose adaptor but my top radiator hose isn't long enough to house it. I feel it will kink the hose. 

What other options do I have? Could I tap a hole into the top of the thermostat housing? 

The obvious thing would be the bottom radiator hose, but I was told the sensor should be in the top hose.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks for your help! 

There is a hole which has been blocked which goes to the air filter, I Can attach the hose from the filler cap to that. Would that be correct? (And unblock it) There doesn' appear to be any free holes in the manifold.

Sorry this is all new to me

Sorry for the crap title I didn't know how to word it. 

I have a non standard  carb and air filter fitted to my 1256 viva by a previous owner. This leaves a hole in the rocker cover and a hose coming from the oil filler cap. What do I do with these? Do they require little breather filters? Or should they be going somewhere? 

A couple of  pics to hopefully show what I mean.

Replaced the points in December, didn't do the condenser as they didn't have one,  will check and replace. Thank you