yoeddynz

Just north of the city. Lots of big posh houses over the road. Can't get over how warm the water was eh. A local fella surfing here said it was unusual but neither of us complained. It was I guess fairly flat but still bloody nice. Soft sand, clear water, sun coming up. Just fucking lovely.

I want 155/200 13's. For full height fatness and ultimate cushtyness across ploughed fields.....

155/balloon R12

As some of you already know, because you saw the car at the OS nats, we just did a nice road trip in the north island. I thought I would write a little spiel about the trip... The trip up to Rotorua was uneventful. The car went perfectly apart from the continuing overrich mixture at idle. All those who got stuck behind us in the traffic through Wellington will attest to the clouds of un-burnt petrol coming from the tailpipe. At any intersection or set of lights where I was to stop for more than 10 seconds I just turned the car off. Easy. Just like a posh bimmer with the fuel saving green mode.... On sunday afternoon the nats we drove up towards Opotiki and then through the (Waioeka?) gorge to Gisborne. Waihotahi beach just past the lagoon near Opotiki was bloody beautiful and the weather was fantastic. Plunger coffee and sandwiches went down well here! The drive through the gorge was awesome except getting stuck behind a slow driver who would not let me past for ages. Some people just seem to not like the thought of an old car passing them I think?!! We arrived in Gisborne at nightfall and continued through north till we found a nice place to pitch the tent. Next morning dawned lovely- again. We got up early to avoid getting caught by the anti 'enjoy your own country and camp in nice places' brigade. Because we were up early we went for a swim/surf at an awesome beach just north of Gisborne. The sun was coming up over the sea and the water was really warm! Lovely start to the day... Then we had strong coffee in town and headed south to Napier. The day was fantastic for driving and car was just cruising along. Any twisty or hilly sections were taken at speed until I reached the (meagre) limits of the Vivas handling. We arrived at Lees house in time for more coffee and chilled out. Then into town and onto some suitably shitty old bikes for a ride about town with Lee and his brother. Fucking coool as town. Had a tasty burger at the Masonic. Was wowed at the niceness of it all. Later we chilled out at Shiteau Napier and then fell asleep with the cat. Next day was another day of great beaches, very warm sea and hot sun. This time Ocean beach south of Napier. The Viva was dwarfed by other cars in the park... Oh and prior to that we visited the British car museum. Awesome place to visit with so many beautiful cars. I like it that it starts off with the Vauxhall section. Ahhhhh- a load of Vivas stacked up. Only two HBs though. And no wagons. I was really hoping there might be a wagon there. Anyway- musn't grumble. Bliss.... Back to Napier and pitch tent in local campsite. Then cruise to town, walk about and take many many photos... Freaky thing was walking into the Masonic again and there sitting down for dinner was my sister- up from Wellington for a break! Small world. Next day we had more coffee, took more photos. Then we cruised south again via SHY 50 and headed towards Masterton. We found a wicked Doc campground at the end of a long gravel road near Mount Bruce, about a half hour north of Masterton. It was most excellent bush and so peaceful nestled in the Tararua's. Very chilly night but so cosy reading Evo and practical classics magazines inside the Viva, nestled very comfortably in the leather Momo seats with a hot cup of tea till the evening grew dark. Then sleep time. Next moring we did one of the bush walks- an old tramline from the old days of milling for hardwood timber. Then we cruised on to Wellington, stopping in Greytown mid morning for a good coffee in a nice wee cafe. The fella there running it warned us about the 'big hill' coming up- the Rimutakas. Would our old car make it over he said? Bugger that- I was looking forwards to caning the Viva over them and so I did passing many a modern car. He he- such fun. Finally back in Wellington with time to spare so we did a little ticky tour around the coast road via Miramar peninsular to Island bay and back over via happy valley. Wellington is far nicer than I thought and along with Napier we both decided we could live there. Onto the ferry and now we are relaxing at my olds in Blenheim before we head home to Nelson. The car ran so well over the whole trip. We covered 1116 miles (1785km) and it averaged 25.2 MPG or 11.2 L / 100km. Bloody happy with that given the twisty hilly nature and some fast driving. Good for a turbo charged rotor sucking through a carb... It used about 1 litre of oil but most of that I think is from various small leaks here and there like the sump and the turbo drain pipe. Front tyres are now a bit sad but they lasted enough. I counted 32 minor birds on walking on the road. The radiator took out 8 wasps. The lights took out countless flies. The car got a much needed clean today.

I loved following this after waiouru. Looked so dinky on the road and I just wanted to pick it up and play with it. Hannah took some photos. I'll post em soon. I think just run the engine into the ground and enjoy cheap fun motoring. Then swap in an easy to get hold of 1256. Cheap engines and they go fine for what is expected of this car. I have owned and driven plenty and in a lightweight chevette they are fine and fucking thrifty on the gas. It'll never be a rocket ship unless you spend some coin and even with the standard engine it seemed much better up those hills than I expected it would fare. Check out the vauxhall viva forum as Paul bottomly on there has spent loads of time getting with his HA and knows a fair bit of stuff about them. Top bloke and bloody helpful!

My boss has an sp250 that he races. I think he will be doing a hill limb next month near motueka. I wanna go watch as I think these cars must sound lovely. He did a rack conversion too and reckons most have been converted over from the horrible steering box. When you say this is only one of five- is it actually a genuine factory made 450?

Wow. Hmmmmmmmm. Hino. Hmmm. Please someone save it. I can't right now. Just having spent $450 on petrol doesn't help plus my love should going on the multipla at work if I could afford anything. I do have storage for that wee car though. If only I could get it to Nelson cheaply. Isn't hawea at the the other end of the earth? Somewhere between hogworts and the shire?

He's probably still out there- station parts strewn across the drive.

I remember watching a school group on the ferry in heavy swells get affected by a chain reaction of spewing. One kid started and before long they were all being sick. Very entertaining.

Maybe your boot lid seal is shit? Boat trip will be fine. We'll feed you many sloppy ferry pies and then stand back and watch... Dirtyleppa- I'll PM you my number. We can meet you where ever- or you can all meet us at my olds place like last year. Tea? biscuits? cats? How many cars and people coming from chch now?

A place in Nelson called Youngs automotive matched a best price BNT offered me- $82 each. A fella on kiwirotary has been selling them at $75 each. Many Falcons and some older Nissans had them fitted stock but they are an older shape.

How did your test drive go? Did it fall apart? How many are now coming up from chch and when do you all hope to hit Blenheim? I would love us to convoy through to Picton as one big group. The Blenheim train station is on the mainroad through town so could be a good place to meet.

How's it going now? Its a Toyota. They aint meant to brake?

Ha- yeah Hannah has done the same. We have a cafetiere. Thats the main thing. In fact I really must start packing my clothes.....

Continued fettling/tinkering away with car today. Decided I must remove the rattle from the front brakes. But how? The sprung shims can no longer be bought for my calipers it seems. But I have a good collection of various little springs and I managed to find a couple that slid nicely onto the retaining pins and kept the rattles away. I have given my invention the catchy name of 'Rattle be gone' Tomorrow at work I'll finish the back panel painting (well actually Shane the painter will) and after work I'll give the car a oil change and grease the ball joints etc in preparation of the big trip north.

Nup- me not know that one? Enlighten me... Btw- you are doing the same as me. About to do a big trip. Hmmmm?.. best try to cram in loads of last minute not so essential mods then.... Nothing like a bit of pressure.

It works! And well at that too. Its always a happy moment when a car starts after some engine/ignition wiring has been done. This stuff I've just done is a piece of piss compared to fellas making and wiring in ecus and shit like that. But I'm still happy. Anyway. I turned the coils upside down and the wires still lined up fine. So I mounted it that way and the leads now reach. Cool. Then I removed the old ignitors from the side of the dizzy and stashed them away in the boot with the old coils- emergency use... I connected the 4 wires into the now exposed dizzy ignitor sockets, the wires I had put in place a few weeks ago in my first attempt at the setup. Turned the key with a touch of choke and it fired up pronto. Took it for a drive. Sweeeeeet. Much much smoother all through the rev range- this on top of what was a pretty smooth engine. Where its most noticeable is cruising in a high gear just on the throttle. In say 4th or 5th at 50kph there used to be a bit of stumble, mild popping or snatch but thats all gone. Its smooth right down to say 1500 rpm where I can then pull away with no stumbles. There used to be a rumble/resonance from what I thought was the prop shaft when in a high gear going up a gentle gradient. But thats gone. I think the fuel at low down revs is being burnt that much better. The idle note is a touch louder and definitely smoother until the fuel starts pooling.... The car still idles way too rich and starts to splutter if I try to gently raise the revs after even 20 secs of idling. I cant set the carb jet any higher so I will just have to make a new needle. I can buy a new needle from Swift with almost the right profile that I think I want- but at $45 per needle I d would rather have ago at making my own. This idling over richness and the bloody noisy, rattling front disc pads are now the most annoying items on the to do list. Oh and the rev counter now flutters away and reads 500 to high at idle. But as soon as I even breathe on the throttle pedal its goes still, drops back to 1000 ish and when driving its fine as. Odd!? I really don't know what is causing this? Its just a cheap Trisco item. That I paid $7 for... But it works fine with the stock setup. I shall attempt to quieten the loose pads tomorrow. I cant get the proper shims/springs from anywhere local so I'll make something instead.

Yeah- its now running wasted spark on the two leading plugs.The wasted spark happens near the end of the expansion stroke and helps clean up any remanants of unburnt fuel. I cant run wasted spark on the trailing plugs though as the wasted spark happens right near the end of the compression stroke- that would be bad. So I'm now by-passing the dizzy and running straight to the leading plugs- A nice direct path avoiding the gap in the cap. And the trailing plugs can use the now redundant leading positions in the cap using the carbon centre button. The original standard setup involved the trailing jumping two gaps in the cap. I'm just gonna update on how its going after a test drive. So far much smoother all round...

How did it go at the WOF? Where do you take it- Jim at autotech is 'oldcar friendly' Whats the back up car- Sams Toymota sillycar?

I have finally, almost, finished the new ignition setup. I had bought 3 Bosch Hec 715 coils to replace the non-branded coils I was trying last time round. Now with 3 coils lined up together there was not room for the new ignitor housing cooler box I had in mind. This little box would house a little computer fan to keep the ignitors cool as last time round I noted how hot they get. Heat is usually the killer of them. So first I thought I would build the box first and then see where it might fit. I took the car to work yesterday so I had use of the lathe, metal folder, plasma cutter etc. Made it much easier and neater than I have been used to over the last few years of dealing with what little I have in my shed thats for sure! Just things like boring a hole in 5mm plate with the lathe rather than drilling many holes in a circle and cutting between them! Box... I had to nick the fan from the housetruck where I had fitted it to cool the solar charger. When I looked at the local tip there were no old computers to raid one from. Next time maybe. I have kept all the wiring intact for the old ignition system so with a bit of allen key spinning and terminal pushing it can be re-installed if this new setup plays up... After having tried fitting the box in several different places in the engine bay I decided it was just too ugly and bulky so I fitted it under the dash on the parcel shelf. This will also keep it away from the engine bay heat. I painted it black so it sort of hides away. The wiring inside box to the ignitors... After all this I was ready to plug the spark plug leads in place and I discovered that they aint long enough to reach- short by about 50mm. Typical Oh well- I was gonna replace them as they are really old but now the start up will have to wait till monday when the shops open again. I might just make a quick bracket to move the coils closer for now as I'm itching to see if it all works OK.

You may indeed.

Yeah for sure I will try. I still must make some stickers this weekend for just that.

Its looking shiny thats for sure.

Well I'm all in a rush to get little jobs finished before the BIG TRIP. Today at lunch time I filled over the new rear valence panel I had welded in. Tonight at work I put the tools down early and I sat in the evening sun and sanded away. Tomorrow it will recieve paint. The other day I had fitted a 'new' secondhand front wheel bearing to replace the knackered one. I got the bearing complete with spare hubs and discs from a mate in Chch who had stock piled old HB parts. Luckily the disc was much thicker, almost new and so it replaced the thin one on the car. But it had terrible pock marks from rust. Rather than skim it in the lathe I had the fella in Nelson come round with his disc skiming machine. This way I know they are skimmed true. Wow- what a difference to the braking. No more pulsing. No caliper throw out. Best $40 I have spent in ages!

Congrats dude- its a cool feeling eh!