yoeddynz

Cheers Zac. I'll text you the numbers but first off I'm trying another lead I'm fairly sure I might be able to get some from Viva mad Shane down your way.

Yeah keep a look out as maybe next week I'll be cruising through Renwick. Cheers chris- i think thems the ones except they have metal sleeved exteriors whereas all the other lower wrm bushes I have seen plus the original ones look like this... http://www.superflex.co.uk/proddetail.p ... 70-80-4KSS With sides to stop them rubbing the arms metal to metal. I think the ones you have pictured are the two that are pressed into the top of the axle. I'm leaving internet land now and heading back to the truck in the valley where we disappear from existence. So replies may be late till I next get access to the greater world..

Aww shucks- you guys make me blush (looks for blushing smilie but can t find one- inserts this instead...) (wtf) Before we head back to nelson I jacked the car up and removed one upper trailing arm. The bushes are quite soft- not perished but just soft. If anyone does have links in the industry to getting cheap Superpro bushes or similar please do let me know. I just priced up the superflex ones in blighty- $320 just for the rear end! (8 bushes)!!! What's the deal with making adjustable top links so you can point the diff head up or down? what does that do? Something about stopping vibrations in the prop shaft, like this bloke mentioned in his Viva thread.. http://www.vauxhallviva.com/forum/viewt ... 2&start=50 Anyone here have experience this theory?

Sweet- good idea! Stay in touch as to when you'll be over. Chris- you need to get over here too. And Cam!

I like the panel vans and always wonder just why they dont fetch the same money as sedans? So much cooler and more usable. Wagons are the same- cheaper. Why ? Loving the wheels- is it to be dropped further?

Yeah i am just about past pluto now! We'll be about around Dec so more than welcome to bowl by and drink tea/beer/talk cars. Both Hannah and I are really keen on making it to OS nats next year now we have a old car to cruise in!

Yep- Just love the lines on this car and those wheels set it right off proper!

Yeah that was the icing on the cake. He didn't have to like it but he genuinely really did enjoy driving it. Made me happy. Plus the car behaved well and didn't throw its toys out of the cot for the test drive. Temp stayed bang on etc.

It passed!!!! But rather than type it all again just check what I wrote about the mornings test in the discussion thread here... viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25475&start=180 I'm very a happy boy!

Its all cool man!!! The passed its cert with flying colours. Certification man Kendall Bradley from Nelson turned up this morning in a cool old hotrod and went over the car top to bottom. He was pretty impressed the the build and just made sure I had done the right things like fitted crush tubes were my engine crossmember was bolted through chassis. I had taken photos of that and showed him so he was happy. Then we went for the drive. He loved it! After a good decent drive with some brake tests of course 'acceleration testing' we headed back into town. He then said " I'm really impressed with this car.. its so quiet and smooth that you would never guess its anything but a standard old Viva" That was cool. Yep I'm a happy man. Car ran well and gets better every time its driven. I think months of rich cold starts are getting blown out and the engine is settling in too after being cobbled back together after the rebuild. I also showed him my widened steels and he reckoned they look well made. He said its up to me but I can just put them back on once the cert plate is in place etc as the sizes on both wheels sets are the same 13 x 6" but to cover myself I could always get one crack tested and see if it comes up cool. He also said "now dont go out and drive it till the plate turns up because you dont want to get a green sticker!" But thats cool because we are heading back to Nelson later anyway. When the plate arrives hopefully next week I'll come back over and do the wof recheck. Cant wait! Oh yeah- its was all nice and sunny for the whole process and then just after he left it began bucketing it down. Lucky. The only thing noted was the rear bushes are soft and under really hard acceleration the axle moves and self steers the back of the car across the road. He noted down that I need to replace the bushes so I'll get a set. Any ideas on where I could get nolathane bushes for it at a nice price? Anyone on here have connections?... I know superpro make them as they are the same ones as LC Toranas.

and always remember boys and girls- if your doing this to an old car don't inhale the brake dust.

this tyre stretch thing... Those rims look very much open and out there for curbing!

Cool. I hope so and I will hopefully sleep easy. Yeah it'll be down in chch this summer for sure.

Hiya Geoff, Yeah thats the book. I have gone for just enough clearance and can always add more with more....bashing. The steels have 60 series tyres and with them on there's heaps of room. I'll see how it goes but as it is the tyres are about 10mm away from the footwell on hard lock at the closest point which I reckon is fine as i figure I'll never use hard out lock and brakes. Nothing would catch- just rub.

I had already thought about that and Dino is now in the wood shed. But walkies will be a problem though because its quite obviously a dinosaur, can't hide that, and I fear some locals might frown upon me walking a dinosaur at the local riverbank.

Back in Blenheim to get the Viva ready for its cert. I have borrowed some 13 x 6 alloys from a fellow Viva owner in Nelson - cheers Andre. They are actually quite rare Vegas? which were fitted to the Twin cam HS Chevettes and the droopsnoot Firenzas. I've never really been that keen on them but now they are on my car they look quite nice (but I still prefer my steels..) Anyway- now I have legal wheels to get my cert with But no photos of them Because they have 185/65 tyres I have had to do the clearance mods to my footwells as per the DTV sports part manual. It involves very careful, controlled swinging of a large hammer. With the wheels sorted I fixed a leaky exhaust flange and then turned my mind to tuning the engine in the hot Blenheim sunshine. I had got it much better last time but when I adjusted the timing I had forgot to take off and plug the dizzy vac advance. With that done I advanced the timing by about 10 degrees and then lowered the idling. It now idles much better and doesn't bog down anymore. Sweet. I still think its ever so slightly rich and its idling around 12-13 on the meter. I'll see if I can get it better tomorrow plus use cert man Kendall's meter when he checks the emissions. Took it for another quick spin and its much easier to drive about now without constantly bogging down. I do think it will always be a touch fussy at low revs with the street ports not helping much with suck at low low revs. Time will tell. I had also lowered the brake pedal with the help of a hacksaw and the welder to match the clutch pedal. Its much better now. In all the old road tests back in the days one common complaint was the height of the pedals. They were noted as being too high and often easy to catch your foot under the brake pedal when coming off the throttle pedal. Finished off with a spot of cheap carpet I was given over the tunnel just to make it a little bit less 'painted metal' and a bit more cosy. Its black carpet and I have always planned that it will get black carpet but now I think I'll keep it original and fit some nice red carpet for that full on 60's feel. Cert tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I giggled just ever so slightly. Not really a laugh. Definitely not the big old belly laugh I was hoping and thinking about for as I keenly soldered away. I feel let down actually. But the dinosaur is pretty cool and sort of makes up for it.

I just built exactly what you said in that order, turned it on. The telly exploded and dinosaur magically appeared in the microwave. I think the comparator was backwards? These Gizmo ones phatt20? what are they like and where are they sold?

Hey cheers for those links man! Good stuff. The turbo tuning tips for minis don't always work for my setup as the Metro turbos blow through, whereas mine is suck through. But still good info. I have played around with the tuning today and its heaps better. I'll update my thread now. Just had Kendall Bradley ring up from Nelson to confirm he'll be over to cert it (hopefully) tomorrow so tonight I'll probably sleep badly thinking of everything that could go wrong.... He seems very friendly and interested in the car on the phone though so hopefully all will be good.

cool- link says out of stock. i shall consult the resident oldschool jaycar man....

thats a lot of photos. nice Paykan - you need to start your own build thread for it.

I think old chum, that you'll find its actually "and THE bitch ain't one" Yes. I believe that's the correct wording. I know this because I recently witnessed some young men, who had not quite grasped the proper function of a peaked cap, thoughtfully playing this tune rather loudly from a phone as they stumbled along quite obviously having forgotten to do up their belts.

I want a really small adjustable shift light that I can mount under my strip speedo. Something like a little bright Led that will only be noticed when it shines. The reason is because I like my old school strip speedo and I don't want to mount my rev counter on top of the dash for asthetic reasons. So currently the RC is mounted under my dash and is fine for general tuning etc but when I want to rag it I want to keep my eye on the road and not be looking down. I have searched for such things as little discreet leds but it seems that every thing available out there is the size of a small lighthouse and capable of lighting up a hall. Thats not me or the style I want. So I thought I could buy something like this.... http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 583258.htm then rip the guts out, mount the adjuster under the dash and wire it to a little led flush mounted into my dash. Could it be that easy? It looks like this above example would be wired in parallel with my current old Trisco rev counter I have mounted under the dash. Does anyone know of other simple kits that offer a adjustable light that just simply wire into the stock rev counter?

I'm enjoying the style of that old ghetto blaster.

Good idea. Its worth asking. I did a weeks work experience there many many years back and they all seemed nice enough.