yoeddynz

ahhhhh Benny Hill. Such simple fun

Ha ha. I'll get Hannah to wear a really short nurses uniform and I'll chase her around in the Viva to Benny hill tune....

Yeah I double checked and then triple checked the clearance of my phone to car interface. I also did a run over my phone with it facing the other way but it kept falling over. I wanted to link the two vids so it would be car going over from front then the shot of it disappearing into the distance. I'll get more vids sometime. So crap though that the car looks really slow. Its not a rocket ship but is faster than it looks. Maybe I'll speed the vids up....

I've used stainless steel dishwashing pads when making my own mufflers to good effect. The courser stuff. Never burnt out and wont rust away. But more expensive.

I thought it looked like screen glass but then I thought.. 'shit the poor fucker has had his garage broken into and I thought maybe it was glass from where they broke in!' Loving your build btw. There's some pretty bloody tidy work going on there!

Cool progress. What were you doing in China?

Yesterday morning Hannah took it for her first drive. We went out to the Dashwood pass about 10km from Blenheim. It was at about 9.30 the weather was already hot. The tarseal was just starting to get sticky. Sunday so little traffic. Good fun. It pops on the overrun (too rich at idle?...) and handles way way better than I thought! ;D I have fitted Spax adjustable shocks all round with stiffer springs. The shocks are only clicked in 5 clicks out of 15 each so still quite soft but its pretty good. Very little roll. I wont fit the front sway bar for now till I know it better. The big ol' 3.3 Ventura front discs and 1800 rear drums haul it up quickly too. Happy with them. The discs are a tiny bit warped with a run out of about 004" I will get them skimmed at some point as they cause the pedal to pulse ever so slightly. We swapped seats and I left Hannah on the side of the road to take some videos. Typically though that upon watching the videos back the car doesn't seem to look that quick. : Then in the afternoon I drove it back to Nelson and Hannah followed in the van. I just cruised at about 60 mph and it flew up and over both passes on the way no worries.... Filled the tank before leaving and filled it up again when we arrived- it returned 25 MPG which isn't to bad really for what it is... Mum gave me an old blanket and old ladies floral hat for the parcel shelf. Now cruising about Nelson and waiting for that perfect moment when I can surprise some twat in a posh car as they try to take out the old grandads car ;D

I think they are still using an older J type Bedford as well?

Cool eh! I sooooo want an old truck with the patina like the ones you and Cam have. Then I'd build a shack on the back but keep it easily removable. We found these ones up Waihopai valley. I want them both....

Troll lol la la la laaaaa. (me singing) Photos please. Good luck for monday!

Yesterday we got back to Blenheim and took the Viva down for a WOF re-test with Cert plate in place. All good. Then bought some rego- I love old cars. $60 for 6 months. sweet. Then took it for a spin here ther and every where- smiling at some police man in his cop car going the other way. Ha- I'm all legal and happy Today I did some little jobs and the sun was shining. I was happy as. Love the fact the car is legal and all good. Just that I can hop in any time and go for a blast. Which is w wihat I did when I took various people who have helped me out with the build for a spin. Took Dad out for a spin tonight. Ha- he loves the seats. Thinks it'll be too easy to get caught for speeding. It will still bog down if I try to accelerate out from an intersection with out enough revs. Hard to explain really but needs to be just a little bit richer right down low. I'll have a tinker with it. Otherwise it just flys along- too fast for me right now especially with the soft bushes. Gonna get a wheel alignment asap although its pretty good as it is. Does the front end lift thing at speed and the steering gets light. Really needs a little bib spoiler. So today I lengthened the gearstick with a slight bend back and fitted a wicked old gear knob I got from a old UK truck wreckers years ago. Its off a really old ERF, is made from Bakelite and just looks the part. Forgot to get a photo of it. I also wanted more air flow over the oil cooler. Its holding the temp spot on with my driving so far but I want it to get as much air as possible for when ragging it up hill on a hot day. So I cut more from the valence and added a bigger mesh. I hoping to go for a spin up the dashwood hills near home in the morning so Hannah can take some drive by vids. I have a feeling the turbo oil seals are a bit tired so will be watching for smoke and oil usage.

Like this?.....

Rafters all good now. Its up Brook valley. Yeah plenty of room for more trucks I think. $50 each per week including all the power you need and the best showers ever for as long as ya like! Bloody cheap washing machines too. All in all a cheap as place to live and only 10-15 minutes bike ride down into centre of Nelson.

Righto. I said ages ago I would get some pics of the truck parked up where we are currently living. I realise these might not be the most exciting photos on this forum but enough of you lot might appreciate it eh. And I figure if it helps inspire then thats all good. Took some photos on Monday afternoon in the sunshine while having a drink. I love the porch- such a nice place to relax (but for the bloody sandflies....) Hannah chilling on the back porch. We get the sun right through till late which is great. The stream we are parked next to. We built the little path down to it a few weekends after moving in and its settled in nicely. Now with all the spring growth its looking really nice... Looking up from the creek... Our neighbour who lives in a small bus he converted has been living here 15 years or so. He has an awesome garden down to the stream and has tame Eels that he feeds. Some are pretty big.. And a swimming hole just along a few meters.. The truck has been very good- well the house I mean. Just dealing with the possums shitting on the roof from the tree above and general leaf cleaning from the gutters. I started it up the other day and worked the brakes as I figure this may well help keep the wheel cylinder seals happy. I'm glad its got good new clean brake fluid throughout for this reason.

My front windscreen washer didn't work for wof as I had broken off the jets. But they didn't test it at all- only the wipers. A mate told me that he had his washers tested for Wof and was failed due to the jets squirting enough fluid!!!! So I guess it all depends where you go. I wouldn't have thought a car should fail due to the rear screen washers not working though!

i'm just fucking happy it arrived this week. Off to blenheim in a few minutes to get the viva woofed. Woo hoo. A weekend of old cars and fluffy kittens.

Just received my cert plate for the Viva! yah! Everything on it all good except its states my car is a 4 door! The has two doors. EDIT; Another plate is on order and I'll get them swapped over when it arrives

the crush tubes i had to add were only where i was bolting up my home-made engine crossmember that goes in up the front. I didn't touch the standard crossmember apart from chopping off the original engine mounts. So you'll be fine. You wont need crush tubes as you have not really altered your crossmember or its position. But yeah- they are easy to add.

Cool. Every day is a school day! And as for 80 bolts.... just don't bother putting them all back. I'm sure 2 on each side will do....

Fill sump with banana skins instead of oil- worked in ww2. Well ok..in jeep gearboxes. But would make it smell nice and be a great story to tell AA man 1/2 hour later after car breaks down eh. Or use ep90.... The method of holding valves out with compressed air- I have heard of it but never seen it done. Do you use a fitting that screws in place of the plug? If you went down that route then you would only need to remove cams and keep shims organised correctly- then surely you wouldn't need to re-do clearances if it was all ok beforehand. Plus you only need to do the inlet valves (no seals on exhaust eh?) You could lift engine up ever so slightly higher to have more room to work on heads.

Yep that's it. Was thinking the other day of a sticker like.. 'NZ historical Zimmer frame collectors society' Billy- yeah man- if the plate arrives this week then i'll be over friday to fit it. Bloody well hope it turns up- itching to get it on the road now!!!! Will ring ya when its sorted eh!

I'm at that excited stage where my car is now close enough to being on the road that I can now start looking up essential tuning items such as this lot.... http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/bowls-b ... 306583.htm I want those books for my parcel shelf. I'm looking for essential items like a straw hat, old tartan blanket and may make up my own lawn bowls club sticker- I'm thinking 'Dommet Lawn bowls association' because I just cant think of a much tinier south island town that many people may know of as they cruise through on SHY 1 than Domett? Other possibilities are 'Ward' or maybe Seddon...? Like this but older style... I also need to make a dash top protector for the sun as my dash as no cracks. Plus this will hide the rev counter and other bits when it hangs down. Maybe some beaded seat covers too? I'm after a Viva tow bar so I can chuck the pushbikes on the back. I've been offered one for free off a HC Viva- I think it'll fit but its a really monsterous ugly thing. I can make my own but tow bars are always the sort of thing that most people end up throwing away.

Well.. time I have right now but I bet its a messy business? Gonna look it up just out of curiosity though..

Is that just the four for the bottom tailing arms eh? I've not had a price yet so at least now I have a starting point- cheers. I've friend down in chch who's absolutely Viva mad and has built some cool Vivas over the years. He told me yesterday that vauxhall used to make some much harder standard bushes with a metal sleeve on the outside as well and reckons they work much better. He's seen a fair few urethane bushes let go- apparently Vivas are hard on the front bushes in the upper arms and chew poly ones out quickly. Anyway - he thinks he might still have a set of these harder stock ones and is gonna have a look for me

cool and cheers for offer! Yeah i remember machining bushes from the stuff years ago when doing my apprenticeship. It was tricky to machine it could catch and i had to make sure tooling was razor sharp.