yoeddynz

OK- so where can I get them tested? What's involved in the testing- ie is it a visual thing or do they actually x ray them. Or use dye. Anywhere in Nelson? Or can I get my old workplace, Cuddon engineering, to have an engineer look over them tick them off? Would that suffice? What a bloody ball ache!

OK- took Viva for Woof pre cert and was told by testers there that my wheels might not get a cert. They usually deal with Don Hoff there and apparently he doesn't like widened steels, wants them stripped, x ray tested etc etc. I've just been out for a test drive in Viva after tightening hub bearings. I drove to blenheim car parts and while showing Geoff the car he spotted the wheels and said " ohhh you won't get them certed, it'll be a pain and they'll want to strip them every time its for a warrant cause they can crack where they are welded etc. Lots of sucking through teeth... Hmmm what to do? Anyone on this here forum with widened steels had any problems? Should I just swap them everytime I go for a wof - put on my old 13 x 4.5" wheels. Would the police spot them as being widened? If so I'll need another set of bloody tyres Anyone know what Wayne Martin is like on widened steels? Billy and his mate reckon that the fella who I was going to get it cert'd through, Kendall Bradley, works through Don Hoff so thats no bloody good. I'd rather get it all cert'd and keep it legit then have to piss about swapping them.

yeah- not heard of this before. Will ask in the cert thread about it now......

Took car through wof yesterday morning. Apart from the items to be cert'd it failed on RH headlight aim too high, wheel bearings a touch too loose, speedo not working. The wheel bearing were really loose! I have tightened them up and guess that after having packed the hubs and thinking I had them set right they have loosened off. Would loose wheels bearings cause a shimmer when braking? The speedo cable inner is slightly too short and wasn't quite engaging into the square hole in back of speedo. I never even noticed it wasn't working yesterday as I was more concentrating on other things like revs, boost..oh and the road. I'll sort it out by shortening the outer. Headlight aim easy. They really liked the car at Blenheim testing station which is cool. Was noted how quiet it was. Good- a nice wee sleeper 8). They also mentioned that some Certifiers want to see widened steels X- ray'd/crack tested.???? Not sure what the law is. Will find out. Boy I miss the UK when it comes to modifying cars!!! I'm pretty sure my wheels were built by elite wheels in Chch many moons ago but I have no receipt as I bought them second hand. They hold air and the tyre man who shod them noted how almost perfectly balanced they are. After the test I took the long way home and hannah took the short clip of the rev counter and boost gauge. It goes up to 5psi and holds there. Sweet. Pulls really well and sort scared me in 3rd as its just an old Viva and I am only used to old diesel hiace speeds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQxKYs14w6A When the waste gate opens I can here the exhaust note change. Sort of hissy ? like sound from tailpipe- sounds cool. Quite happy. When I got back home I sorted the bearings adjustment and fixed the speedo. The cable inner was not quite protruding enough into the speedo to drive it. Last night before leaving Blenheim I took it for one more quick spin and the shimmy under braking is less. I think a wheel alignment wouldn't go a miss either.

yeah we'll be around. Hopefully will have the car in nelson by then so we can do some of the classic car events there. Your welcome to swing by chateau truck for a cuppa.

please please please i hope you can. We were looking at a bedford cf jumbo a while back but it was on a cof. Walked away- not paying 115 bucks each time it needs a cof ! Guy selling it reckoned you can get them downrated?

shit i dont know. Just driving a classic about again will be awesome. And more time for cycling too. Must get a tow bar so i can combine both.

Sweet. That what I want to hear! He seemed sound as when I spoke to him on the phone.

Cheers man. I'm well excited now!!! Heres an update from the afternoon. Picked up car, now with extra muffler in the back. Just a longer coby under the boot. So much quieter now. Much better. Most wont know what engine it has. I decided I had better get some go juice into the tank so stopped at Caltex. And there near Repco was a beautiful little Anglia with lotus steels in what I think is Ford olympic blue? I love Anglias! So cool. So small too. My Viva is pretty small but next to the Anglia its large. Back to Vivas though. Still bogging down. Then I started to notice how bad the brakes were binding. I thought maybe heat from the turbo was affecting the master cylinder? Got home and jacked up rear. Backs were binding too. Pedal had no slack. I had wound the bloody brake light switch in too far so master cylinder was not able to fully release As soon as I wiund it out and got some free play into pedal the rear wheels unlocked! sweet. Now it doesnt bog down so bad. I guess I never noticed as it needed some heat in the system before the brake fluid needed somewhere to expand- and because the master cylinder wasn't returning it couldn't expand into the reservoir so it instead started to apply the brakes? Pedal now feels softer and more normal with out the built up pressure. Brakes work well. Sorted the wipers out. I love old cars!!! It takes like only 10 minutes to have all the heater matrix/fan and then the whole wiper assembly out. It was the arm on the motor being 180 degrees out that had the wipers working backwards. 2 minutes later and they were working fine I've installed a washer bottle, from a Mazda b2500 I think, in place. It fits perfectly and looks like an old bottle should But my little jet nozzle thing on the bonnet has broken! jolly pain in the backside

I like tidy engine bays but not the over done full on show cars, you know, all the shiny extra crap. My pet hate is chromed bonnet catches and really shiny chrome finished catch tanks everywhere. or badly placed brightly coloured radiator or filler caps. Its annoying for me when a car engine bay starts coming together and I get to that point when its just right. But then all the extra hoses, vacuum hoses, wires etc have to start going in and its gets filled up, all messy like.

yep- keep it all hush hush now I'm Mr number plate.... Not started engineering business yet but next week we hope to build a little workshop at my brothers- just 10m2 to avoid need of consent. Then i'll be on the look out for a small lathe etc. Loving this wee car so far. Much quieter now. Quite fun finishing little jobs tonight now that I know the major stuff is done. Spoke to cert man Kendall Bradley from Nelson- he seems like a GC and well friendly. If car passes wof tomorrow except for the lack of cert then I'll be bokking him to look at it two weeks time!

Wow. I love catching up on the builds here and yours is tops! I too agree with above comments that the black radiator looks better than shiny silver. The copper lines look good and will go off to a duller finish which I think would give it a nice factory finish. Or fit steel pipes and paint them black too so they are more hidden? And after finally driving my Viva today for 2 minutes with its maybe 170 ponies and giggling away I cant imagine what a 13B with a turbo the size of a large babies head would be like in a lightweight car. Immense I imagine.

We just took the Viva for a drive Its very quick! Had to take it down to my local exhaust place. They will move a muffler across because where its been placed it may touch the prop shaft when it drops down with the axle if car leaves the road ie big jumps... Plus I'll get another muffler added as I want the car quieter. Anyway. Last night I made a new number plate up to replace the missing one. Turned out really nice- in fact its too mint so will need to be 'weathered' to make it look older. I made it by carefully cutting the numerals out of thin alloy sheet. This took a while to get them neat. Lots of fine filing. I then masked the front of each, etch primed the back side and then stuck them onto a primed peice of 3mm alloy sheet cut to size. with the numbers stuck down in place I paint black over the whole lot with matt black enamel. Then this morning I peeled the masking tape off and hey presto- new plate! ;D I wish I didn't have to go through all this but such is the way of NZ where you cant get new 'old' plates and instead have to replace them with ugly white ones. This morning it was a little rush finish off some small things. For now I have wired the Rad fan to a spare switch on the dash. I'll add the thermo switch/digital readout later. Went to fit the wipers and then discovered the motor is wired backwards! ::) So out with that later and sort it. So out the driveway, up the road, no seat belts as I forgot to bolt the buckles back in, temp gauge reading fine, all good. choke still out on a fast idle as I was paranoid it might stall. First impression was 'ooooh its quite nippy' then on next street I gave it a bit more welly and thought 'crikey- its bloody fast- COOL!' I don't even think I went beyond 5000rpm and boy it gets up there quick! I was giggling. ;D Steering wheel feels odd in the typical Viva offset to the left way. Handling on such a short drive? Doesn't roll as much as it used to but doesn't seem overly stiff either. Arrived at Murrys Mufflers and was shaking with excitement. I just love the first drive of a cobbled together car. Man I'm looking forwards to driving it home later!

Do you mean 1-2 secs to drop all the way back down?

Yeah I have heard of people using powersteering fluid. I wonder what weight it is? I'll check the level next time I start car just in case its low.

I had some of those wheels on my old triumph. They look quite cool on the corolla. I like your car hoist- looks handy.

Thats a good idea. Its weird though because it should be all fine and dandy as the carb setup is all original and setup exactly for this engine/turbo setup. I'm running some 10/40 weight engine oil in the dashpot damper rather than the standard 20weight. This is based on the fact that many places I have read state the later HIF carbs like mine use a heavier oil. There is so much (un)informed debate out there about oil weights. Maybe the oil I am using is thinning out?

Nah no skids yet. Wont be back to Blenheim to work on it for another few weeks. I want to book it for the cert fella from chch to cert it but dont want to book that till I know its all good. I need to add another muffler too as I want it even quieter. I want it nice and quiet so it sounds like an old car when cruising about hence attracting less attention from them in blue eh. I've had enough loud cars- they become a bore on long trips. It would be different if it was going to be really quick- then i'd put up with more noise

yeah we did. It was a lady who was near blenheim but has now moved down south near chch. Make sure the kittens parents have been screened for hip and heart problems that can affect mainecoons. Lots of good info out there and i think most breeders are good in nz.

wicked! Make sure you post up some pics of it! Morris is growing so quick. Now well over 5 kg. I think he'll be an easy 11kg when older like his uncle is so playfull and naughty too.

The way petrol prices are going I reckon an old car with a diesel turbo conversion - so long as you can disconnect the speedo for mega cheapness.... Honest though- I do like the way this car is going but I would be just as happy with any half decent motor slung in there. I mainly went the rotary way because I got a bargain motor for bugger all money so it was an easy choice, although I do like working with them now I done a couple. But since having the centre plate frost damage so having to look for parts, I was quite shocked to see what rotaries engines cost out there. BTW- there is a cheap cosmo on trademe right now.

Cooling fan control... I would still rather a nice simple standard switch screwed into my radiator- but the problem with that is that with my switch location being at the bottom of the radiator I cant find a suitable temp switch. I want to keep this engine running at around 85 degrees. I would have to be sure of what the temperture drop of my radiator is before I work out what switch I get? I wish I had put the bloody insert at the top of the radiator now. But really cant be arsed removing it and de soldering/patching/drilling/resoldering to move it. Maybe a adjustable one from supercheap etc bunged in the top hose like on the previous chevette/rx3 projects. I feel like I'm going in circles. for now I just have a switch. I know damn right that if I don't fit something automatic then sods law will dictate that one day I will forget to switch the fan on, leave the car idling while I do something else, then come back to a very hot, very sad engine! Tonight I pointed a timing light at the car- one I have just bought second hand off trademe. The timing was waaaaaaayyyyy advanced. like maybe 20 degrees? its now running much smoother and far less smoke from unburnt petrol- although that has me stumped as I thought to much a retarded ignition timing would cause unburnt fuel? Anyway now its better but it still bogs down ever so slightly as I try to pull away, like as if the hand brake were on. I think its maybe the SU carb dashpot oil is too thin so the needle rises to quick and leans it out. The same happen if I floor the throttle hard- it bogs. But if i give it loads, a little more slowly, it revs well, smooth and loud. I took a short clip with my phone- its a bit noisy as the fan was on and well..its a bloody phone video innit. But you can hear the right sounds in there at times ... Still some adjustments to be made but overall I'm happy. I was just going to give it another tweek when the fuel ran out So that's that for the evening.

yeah ours is the 2l. Good ol basic engine. Understressed but slow engine. But with a turbo bolted on.. Ie the 2lt they end up being stressed more.

No goodies I'm afraid. I was just wondering what engine it had. We looked at possibly putting a hairdryer on ours but with a bit of searching it seemed that they are very inclined to crack heads/overheat often as people run them harder with the extra power. So we'll just stick with trundling along for now.

Wow- thanks for great info/heads ups guys. My reply is late as we dont have interent where we live so its only when we get into town I can check. I'll set up a search on trademe. Cheers for link to 'how to info' spencer.