nels

It’s been awhile since I built a hot rod. my last one was a ford pop that was chopped 3 inches and channelled 4 inches running a 302 Cleveland. i ran it in black primer for awhile and sold it to a guy in Aussie who painted and upholstered it.

I got the viva all ready to run through final compliance and a hot Rodder friend offered me a couple of old ford Ys at the same time and I’ve always wanted to build another hot rod so had to make a decision. The vivas gone to a great home so made the sale a lot easier for me. I need to learn how to chop a roof and am excited for the challenge.

Hopefully turn it into something like this.

The HB Viva went to a new home and have this new project arriving next week

While I was mucking around on fbook this came up and I remember this car really well from the early eighties. Was such an awesome little car and getting fully restored as we speak.

I was getting sick of looking at that ugly red paint so quickly rattle canned it grey. it all has to go back to metal eventually but makes me feel better looking at it.

Finally got some primer and underseal on the front clip. just need to spray out the grill area in black gloss and can start putting all the wiring back on.

The jobs don’t get any better than scrapping a shit paint job off. mind you that paint stripper don’t half stink.

While I’m waiting for the auto sparky to run through my wiring thought I’d make a start on tidying up the front clip. First job is to scrap off the old underseal, what a pitta of a job.

Trims came out sweet. look heaps better in a matt finish and the whole quarter window almost looks original

Well that was easier said than done. got the trims in place but was a mission. Skirting timber helped keep them in place. will sand them back and repaint as they got scuffed up a bit and I would prefer them with a matt finish. If anyone has a spare set of the door trims I’d be happy to buy them.

Me and my daughter got the windows in without a single swear word from me. next step is to urethane the trims in place.

I need to let these cure for a few days then will have a go at installing them with the old cord trick so fingers crossed they work out.

Window rubbers are all made up and trimmed down. used a product Loctite 406 to glue the corners together. This stuff is amazingly strong after holding in place for 20 seconds they are completely bonded even under pressure of stretching around the glass.

A very helpful guy with a sweet HB Gt gave me some very good trims to work with as mine were rusted to bits. I’ve ground the piece off the back that used to slip into the old rubbers and will urethane them in place once I’ve installed and sealed the windows

Finally found one that had a thick enough base to hold the glass in place securely as the viva has a deep channel to it. the rubber had a flap on the bottom also and the side profile was quite bulgy so we trimmed the flap off and also shaved the profile so the trims could sit better on them.

Turns out trying to get rear quarter window rubbers for the HBs fixed windows is impossible even in the Uk. so only option was to get a whole lot of samples sent from Basis to see what could work.

Can’t wait to fire this thing up. Added a trailer plug for the front wiring so we can pull the front whenever we need to.