yoeddynz

I finished my filter. Made a little adaptor to suit the SU carb. The filter just slides on in place via the rubber seal and a Jubilee clip holds it in place. It fits in perfect and has a nice cold air supply straight into it... For winter I may well have to block that hole...although this car has more issues in winter..like being so old it doesnt have flow through ventilation out the back to extract condenstion. and the fan is weak. It'll mist up bad! I need to get one of those oldschool after market rear window demisters. In fact some vivas had then standard as mine has a place for the switch. The engine bay pretty much complete. Only thing to go in now is a water bottle on top of bulkhead for windscreen wash. So the filter being done I made an extra heat sheild from stainless to protect the brake servo from exhaust heat... Then I pulled out the wiper motor. So easy on this car- the heater matrix removes with about 8 screws. I love old cars like this. Then two nuts and the whole wiper assembly is out. I stripped the motor to check all was right- like the brushes etc. I had removed this two speed wiper from the yellow Viva to replace my old one speed system (old cars eh?...) so I had to work out the wiring to run it using a spare headlight switch. I managed to get it working right including the self parking and was chuffed! While that lot was out I filled all the cavities behind the bulkhead and below the screen with wax- decent Bilt Hamber stuff I brought back from the UK. With that back in I adapted the heater control surround to take a push button switch for the windscreen wash. My car originally had the standard basic model Viva manual push button wash, like a water pistol, that you had to keeping prodding in and out to squirt water (it was craaaap- old cars eh?) I also fitted a little led that will light up when the cooling fans come on just so I know. I now need to make a windscreen wash bottle and fit a pump I took from my brother scrap corolla.

Cheers. sitting in it with fire going drinking tea. Its lashing it down outside. Cosy!

ah yes. Back in nam. I remember the sweet smell of dog cooking over fire.

Ahh- you might be right about it being set at 4 cylinder because when I gave it a little rev it didn't go as high as i thought it should. It does take the signal from the negative but doesn't matter which coil if the engine has all the emissions shit removed, as both my coils are functioning all the time. I'll try it switched to 4 cylinders next time. If so then it means its still idling too fast dammit.

Finished fitting my old style Bogantastic rev counter, boost gauge and wideband gauge. Calibrated wideband and then started engine. Hey- it all works Now with a readout from the wideband I worked out why the engine was bogging down- I had set the mixture too lean. I have thought all along that I had it set too rich but that was only because the choke was out. I had the choke out for the fast idle. I had it at a fast idle because once engine was warmed up it would bog if I gave it some throttle and I thought this was due to the carb having a too light a weight oil in the damper. But actually the mixture was still too lean. I gave the mixture screw a full turn with my ultra sophisticated shortened stubbie screwdriver (nothing else would fit between carb and radiator) and it ran loads better. Still bogs ever so slightly but I have yet to properly set timing, due to a lack of a timing light. In fact given I had just marked the dizzy before removing it ages ago and just plonked it back in place I'm pretty happy. I'll play some more with the mixture when the timing is set properly and once I have the filter in place as that may make it a touch richer? So now at Idle, slightly fast at about 1000 ish, the wideband reads around 14. Before I made it richer it was sitting around 15 and would lean out to 16- 20 with a slight rev. Now If I give it a little rev it reads richer at say about 12/13. Quite interesting- its gonna be fun using this. Just earlier I finished my custom (bodge) stubby filter. I had chopped the cheap Trade me filter down ages ago. Tonight I made a little back plate in a smaller diameter to suit the space I have. I used some thin alloy sheet, made a form from some hardwood ply and hammered out a new shaped back plate. I then cut a section out of the rubber shoulder and super glued it to a diameter that will suit my SU carb. I have used Araldite to glue the filter element in place on the back plate. Tomorrow all I need to do is weld a lip onto the plate I made ages ago that will bolt to the carb. It should work well. And it cost bugger all which makes me happy

Keep a look out for some victor steels. Thats what mine were before they were widened. Or ask Vivaspeed (geoff) on here as he still has some nice oldschool 13" alloys kicking about I think. My Viva is looking seriously sky high now compared to yours.

wayne patrick the auto trimmer in chch races his cresta with a 350bhp 3.3. He loves the engine.

Second that- photos please. Hannah had a mint Victor FD wagon in england. Lovely cars but always imagined what it would be like with the big 6. Huge engine bays! Most in the UK end up with 8's.

Finally spent a little bit of time on the Viva while waiting for some parts to arrive for the housetruck. I have been very slack at working on this car. Just silly little jobs to do but I keep putting them off. I must just crack on with it! After taking the car cover off I checked the fluid levels and both were spot on- which is really good as it means the engine water seals are all good. I started it up with the help of a jump start as the battery is really old and pretty much had it. Sounded good but is running rich. Must finish making my air filter. And once I have fitted the wideband gauge I get the mixtures better. I started on fitting the rev counter, boost gauge and wideband gauge. When I pulled the wideband gauge out of its box and saw the massive plug on one end I panicked. curse word I thought, i'm going to have to make another big hole in the bulkhead.... But luckily I remembered the big factory hole for the original loom was there to be used. Phew. But what to seal the cable up with? I checked my supplies and had no grommets large enough to use. But wait, whats this? Hey, its the original grommet stashed away in a bin full of odds and ends. Cool. I sliced the grommet so it would fit over the cable and squeezed it in place. Ahhhhhh. Bliss. After all these rather exciting events I set to work making some little holders for the two gauges. I used the vinyl I had got in Chch and some 4mm ply. I'll fit them in place tomorrow. They will be tucked out of the way on each side of the steering column. I really don't want to have lots of extra stuff going on. I want it to stay simple. Not even sure if i'll refit my parcel shelf as it doesn't really hold that much, makes it hard to get to wiring under the dash in the future and makes the footwells seem that much smaller. I decide later once car is all sorted. But I do want to have an centre armrest after having one in my Rx3. So good on long trips. I'll have to keep a look out for something that might work in the future.

yeah i got one of the supercheap flaring kits and it works really well. New brake lines just look so sweet and it'll show you care come cert/wof time.

curses our slow broadband- it keeps hanging. Oh well. I'll keep trying.

Heres a picture of the handbrake mechanism that should be on your 1800 axle. I thought I still had photos of mine after I had reconditioned it all but I have deleted them I'm afraid. Hope this helps though...

Fuck yeah! Fuck yeah!!!! Awesome link. Gonna make a cup of tea and sit down for a watch. I love programs like this. Oh - and I want sideburns like his ( and also to be able to ride a bike that fast without leaving dirty things in my pants) Cheers man!

Yep. Just enjoy the fucker eh!

You could just ditch the emissions crap and keep the carbs- they might work better? Wheels- shiny. hmmmm. Are you still gonna get rid of slush box?

Hey what a bloody choice first car! Yeah- everything is available new for these eh including brand new shells. I have always liked these since when a lad and local petrol station owner had one parked outside his work. I too would stick with a shorter engine- like a 4 or 8 so keeping the weight back. Loving that dizzy bodge.

Cheers guys- what cool comments given that this a isa car forum and not a motor home forum. In fact- i have had a better response from oldschool dudes than I have from two motorhome forums I have posted it on. I gave up posting on them ages ago as I think it was not plastic or 'clean' enough... Paint it beige? he he. I could get the steel wheels banded.... Yeah man- thats the complet works of gary Larson. Love his stuff and we saw those books going cheap in the Oxford Borders bookshop and couldn't resist. They are heavy fuckers and need chaining in place when we drive. There is a aussie fella who does cartoons in a similar vein to Garys. Called 'insanity streak'. Not always as good as Larson's but still some funny ones... http://www.bullspress.co.uk/united-king ... k-samples/

I could get some posh alloys at least eh. Plus an induction kit and shiny tip for exhaust.

Shit yeah- at times we hit 3500!!!! Quite honestly the old truck went really well. Like Cam had told me a while back that its low geared so rather than slogging its revving. so we just drive slower. I reckon Takaka hill when we do it in future will be no lower than third gear needed.

Cheers guys. What amazed me was the cool response both on the road and from all sorts of people who 'just popped in for a look' while we were parked up. Truck drivers liked it, waves from big bus drivers and tourists were wow'd. We had one Russian guy who now lives in Chch and he wants to build one soi he just had to come by and check it out, asking all sorts of techy questions. A builder from Germany said "no way could you get away with building something like this in Germany" due to tough as TUV regs (I don't see why though- if its a load being carried on a truck then why not?) Oh- and we passed a tractor. Yeah man- I was like "I'm gonna have this tractor on the next straight" to Hannah and yeah, next clear road, I opened it out and let all 150 ponies unleash fury. It was a pretty modern tractor too... He reckon we must have hit 80 at least!

Just got back from our first proper trip away in the housetruck. Man it was cool. So much chilling out was had- we finally got to properly just sit back and enjoy our new home in an amazing enviroment. I'll sleep tonight and probably dream the sound of waves. We started out trip off last monday after a few last hectic days of final little jobs including building an extra folding support for assisting with rolling the pop outs in and out. I can just take the weight to 'walk' them but Hannah cant and its awkward. So I built an extra frame work that hooks onto the rope rail with adjustable legs. Then with a wheel on each of the two outside corners the popout is then free to roll right on in with out any heavy hernia inducing lifting. Once this was built, tested and ticked off I had to build a storage box to hold the frame plus some stabilisers I had built. Oh yeah- I built some stabilisers as well. They are just there to stop the truck rocking in the wind. So I built a nice big box which is bolted up under the back. Also blocks of wood used for levelling etc will go in there too. So come Sunday night after final packing of gear and a shop for supplies when the roadside outside was clear we took off out Taylor dam for the night. And a lovely peaceful night too. The truck seemed easier to drive but I think thats me getting used to it already. Monday morning dawned blue and chilly. Off on our trip! We drove out to the local truck stop, filled up and then while on nice hard concrete in warm sunshine we greased the kingpins. This is a job we used tow do often on our Bedford TK and it makes a huge difference to the steering efforts. The Hino has powersteering which can hide stiff kingpins and greasing them can get missed till they wear out so its a job I want to keep on doing. We also bled the clutch slave but I think it or the master may need new seals. Greasing the kingpins at truck stop.. The driver of this Kenworth wants to build a housetruck- he had a good look about ours while I sat in his cab pretending to own it. The Kenworth has an 18 speed auto which he said couldn't be easier to drive. Oh and his truck does 1.85 km per litre of diesel.... Then we hit the road and the first test was how the truck went over the dashwoods- just a 200 meter climb out of town but twisty. It was fine- down 3rd gear which was slightly too low- 4th being to high but thats what I expect in a truck thats only got a 5 speed box. The handling is quite wobbly- i spoke to several truck drivers at the stop- they all said it'll be a handful due to its age, the length, the hight and weight over the cab plus the fact its on leaf springs. They all just said slow down, chill, dont give a shit who is behind me and pull over to let anyone past. One said take all corners at least 10kph slower than the recommended speed signs. So I slowed down, Its low geared and starts revving its tits off at above 80kph. So I sat on 70. Cruisy as! Very little traffic. One thing I noted was how polite cars and trucks were to me. It was really good. We got lots of waves too. On way to Kaikoura coast.. We made it to our favourite camp spot just north of Kaikoura and within half an hour had the truck all set up. I then mucked about jacking the front up onto blocks of wood so to get it level. Lovely evening and so peaceful. The intention was to stay just two nights but the next two days were pretty windy/wet and we changed our minds deciding to stay an extra night. tHen another, then another. It was just so nice there. We collected driftwood for the fire and I made a trip into Kaikoura for more wine on my bike. It was pretty laid back. The first day of cold weather brought loads of snow on the mountains looking over the spot. Magical. Went running/cycling. Coming back to the truck with the fire going and having a hot shower then chilling out with yet another hot coffee looking over the beach was heaven. Oh yeah- the shower works bllody well- first time we had used the trucks shower since we built it and we had fears the old califont might not be good enough but it was awesome. ' I had borrowed my mums proper camera and took many many photos. Here is a selection of some. We took some of the inside because I don't think there are many up to date photos of the bedroom etc. Today we drove back and filled up the tank again. The 220 km trip used 50 litres which works out at 12.5 MPG. I'm pretty happy with that really. I was hoping it might be around 12 as our TK would do 15 but weighed 2 tonne less plus offered much less wind resistance. My brother had come over from Nelson on Saturday and stayed the night in the spare room. He took these two photos on the way back. So now back at home there are some little jobs to do like make some proper rear steps that attach to the deck, get the 240 camp powersupply cable then a electrical WOF for that. Then its off again and back to that working melarchy... bugger. Kind of used to this long 'build a home' holiday idea but unfortunately our savings are seriously dwindling.

Yep- worth the money I guess as they look fucking good.

They are lovely! Did you polish them yourself or get them done? wow.

Swap it for the girl on the ball?.....

They are up at $279 on the website. I was going to get the DB gauge but like the idea of this one (cheaper) and with the graduated led scale around the perimeter that I can set.