yoeddynz

but the mr2 was already a kiwi car so it should just be a case of re- vinning it. Not compliancing it. Anyway..i wouldn't care if it was national or labour but whats in the pipeline is that the current govt want to get old cars off the road and raise the average age of nz cars. What i've heard is they are seriously thinking of bringing in the scrappage scheme ala the uk. Which was a big mistake. But this should be in another thread eh. And its not just about politics (he says with ronald key in his sig..) but old cars. Which is sort of what this forum is about...

yep- The national govt are planning a big attack on old cars- getting them off the road. Apparantly the ave age of nz cars is too old making us look like a poor country So any excuse to try and fail old cars and keep em off the road will be used. Hence a perfectly good mr2 now needing compliancing.

back from our break which involved driving our slow as 2.4 diesel 4wd hiace around the south island looking at places to park a housetruck (mainly queenstown) Now back into it and then we both got a nasty cold Kitchen work... almost finished- just some little finishing touches....... :-/

Imagine many many of them little fluffy monkeys packed into the walls- what great insulation! And a good talking point. Though some people frown upon using monkeys etc for such things. But after a while they would begin to smell

Well we've hit a milestone - the interior is almost all panelled out and its really feeling like a nice big blank canvas/wooden box to start building cubboards, benches, shower etc into. We are off on holiday to q/town with my brother who is over from the Uk so its nice to have got this far an know that when we get back its a lined out house to build into. We still have the ceiling to put up but that should be quick and easy. All the wiring is in place now too. Anyway- we cleared it out gave it a clean tonight and took some photos- I have tried to get shots that show how roomy it feels but its tricky. Its got a lovely warm feel to it from mix of darker woods. And one of the floor boards creaks when stood on- which is cool. Today I celebrated and got ready fro out road trip south by building this... Its similar to the one I made about 3 years ago for the last house truck we built. As we are going to be camping out in some bloody cold areas this will be handy I think. It cost all of $6 to make- it would have been less but I had to buy a bloody hinge Once in chch tomorrow night we will crank it up and burn off the paint. Maybe cook some bacon on it

Two little clips/tags hold it at bottom- try sliding a butter knife in between dash cluster and dash to unclip them.

yep. Coming down friday. Leaving early. Got a list of car rude to sort! Planning to try and get to firestone to have tyres removed off cracked dunlops And hoping to pick up some steels for the viva. If it doesn't work out can you think of any one else with 13" steels of a viva? Can still bring those bits for ya.

what rims did you get? I'm after some too!

check out vauxhall viva owners club forum. There is shit loads of info on there - anything you need to know they'll help. Anything will go into viva engine bay- its pretty big eh.! Someone in england put a jag straight 6 in one. What a cool concept!

get a tube of cheap as builders silicon and fill up the void around the 2 rubber support things, let it set over a couple of days. sorted! knock be gone its what they used to do on hotted up chevettes in blighty

I love series 3's. Heres our first one in the UK..£600 and no rust. But I would LOVE one in white- I have only seen a few white ones over there. Anyway- can that chassis kink be pulled out?

Wicked little chevette- well done! I was watching it and am always tempted to get another (would be my 6th) and will do one day- I have a brand spanking new 2.5 turns lock to lock steering rack I brought over from the UK for a chevette. But i want to try it in my viva. There is a fella in Nelson breaking a hatch- he offered the whole car $100 to me. If you need parts pm me and I can always pick them up and I can bring them down to CHCH as I'm down there fairly often. He wont sell me the rack dammit! Interesting that kiwi chevettes held onto the poppy inny lights a lot longer than UK ones. I think they look wicked! And I dont think UK chevettes never had headrests till quite late? Chevettes handle wicked- man I miss them.

sweet- cheers. we try to fit it in tight otherwise the poly falls out while putting up tonque and groove. We wont be short of heat for now- we have bought a wood burner cheap on trademe- picking it up at end of month. Its a fairly big house one with a wetback- just to see us through until I get around to building my own one. Its already much much warmer than outside with no heaters but for our body heat and some lights. The rimu we have been busy putting up is looking amazing! so happy with it. Hopefully we should have enough of it to cover the main areas that will be seen. then fill in the bits behind where benches will be etc.

slowly ticking along- its getting warmer feeling inside with the wood going up. Outside almost all done too- just some more windows to fit - still 3 windows to make. I was fitting the brand new locking door handle we had jus bought that morning. I hopped down the steps and one foot went too close to edge tipping step and I went down hard landing my dodgy knee onto a paving slab. New door knob smacked something too. bugger!.. Heres some shots- insulation going in on popouts- will be thicker on main walls and ceiling. and the door frame- lovely colours... so nice I took just a photo of the wood. very warm colours- wod is a mixture of Rimu, Miro and macrocarpa.

cheers guys. It is feeling cosy now. still a few gaps to cover like around the popouts- i need to go to bunnings in nelson and get some of that fluffy(?) door bottom seal for the bottom of popout where it will run over floor. I have tonight almost sealed off the back and the kitty cat was stumped as to how he gets in with door shut. So we have now included 2 cat flap holes- one from ground into bike storage box and one from there into truck through another hole. he loves it! will get photos... The door does indeed open backwards but unless your a dwarf its easy to open from standing on the deck. There is one truck ive seen where door slides into wall which is a neat idea but we always planned and wanted a proper old second hand wooden door for full effect - we love the door in all its old dirty water stained wood looks.

Yeah there are 3 windows to go in on the front. One big stained glass one in the middle and smaller leadlights on each side. It looks terrible the way it is. I can imagine most people who have been watching the truck get built as they walk by must think the same.

some updates. We have almost finished putting up all the batons and flashing around the windows. I have yet to make proper removable 'rain deflectors' over the windows. But for now it look great we think. Very happy with the look. The last of the ply is up in place on the roof facing parts of the upstairs rooms. We've put in a door for access out onto the roof from the bedroom. So just some cappings to finish it all off up there. We mounted the Cedar/Rimu door into the frame I built from Rimu and Miro. It looks great and fits well with the other wood and marine ply.. And we put in the little window we had restored. It was going to be fixed but we couldn't help but to make it an opening window. Its lovely and will be nice on a hot day... Next on list after the batons are all done will be starting to line the inside out with the 500 metres of Rimu cladding we scored a great deal on. I took some photos tonight at sunset - because the sky was pretty... but i missed the bloody sunset Anyway..

This car is wicked! I just re-checked the thread updates and fuck that turbo is huge- makes the little old garret going onto my Viva's 12A look tiny!! When we recently put our van through its wof they one of the failures was the exhaust not ending beyond the body work... but I have seen loads of dumpys ending under the car. I guess its where you go for the test!

Here's a taster of the floor going down.... And I almost forgot the sink hole. Mustn't forget the shower hole... Here's it is after we finished last night... So happy with it. Its just the look we want and we got the rimu bloody cheap too!

Ohhh lots of questions... I have only had experience with wood from what I have learned by building the last 3 trucks- everyday I learn something. Give me metal anyday and I'll machine it to death but I dont think i'm very flash with wood. Luckily we like our trucks to look rustic eh because they certainly end up that way. Flashings.. we have loads of them planned. All the windows need batons around them, the joins between the sheets will have batons over them. Once this is done then I will make shutters/big 'rain deflectors sort of things. We want to avoid rain getting near the windows just so the glass stays clear on rainy days so I can look out with my cup of tea. The popout roofs... Yep. they have a 100mm drop and then curved as well so the water runs to the corners. It then drains out via 16mm alloy tube that runs down inside the steel pop out frame. The ply is covered in the same rubber paint as rest of roof. I'll put a photo up which will make it clearer. Insulation....Yep. There will be 40mm thick polystyrene under roof and in the walls. There is 30mm under the floorboards. It was meant to be 40mm but I made a bit of a fuck up in my plans (which I must add are constantly changing here and there with other mini fuck ups) I'm gonna add some photos to thread now of new floor.... alex

Time for some long overdue updates I think... The veranda floor we made from two sheets of ply( we had got one free so thought why not) was wet between the sheets. That had to go. we had planned to get rid of it but nearer the end of the project. Down went the ecyluptos decking we got from plankville. Very strong and is NZ grown so we begin to offset our carbon footprint that is the Orang-utan blood covered hardwood ply. We have spaced it apart 2mm and it will now not act as a swimming pool. We finished the last of the main outside ply work. We are very happy with it. It still needs the batons and window flashing fitting but its all weather proof now. I've made corner cappings using the tablesaw out of cedar and these have come up great with danish oil. Replacing the base of frame with treated pine. First few sheets up on offside. Cladding front.. We have made gutters on one side- the side that gets more rain. Will put up other side soon. They are 25mm x 1.6 alloy channel and work well. The copper piping connecting all the gutters eventually runs down to deck level where its filling buckets quickly! Two more windows have gone in with about 6 more to go in - the extra light from each one fitted is great! Next up was the pop out holding system. I welded in some tube through the steel work at bottom of frame. once pop out is ..out.. a 10mm bolt will be slide in place each bottom corner- this will stop it swinging in. Then I started getting paranoid..what if while I am drinking my cup of eastern Mongolian scented grass root tea whilst pondering what dreams I may have caught in my dreamcatcher when the bolts break- hot tea all over lap and my monthly edition of 'Friends of the lesser spotted Tibetan weevil' magazine. So I built some extra stays that brace against the rope rails. Then the fun bit begins- putting the floor down. The floor needed painting first. We have become used to the p/outs being in and now they are out the extra space is lovely. Red primer. Topcoat.. The Rimu wood flooring is very rustic. Full of holes but it sands up really well. My brother is over for the week so he has been helping. Yesterday we finished both p/out floors and now the batons are going down to lay the main floor down. 30mm of insulation under the rimu will get rid of that cold steel feel. Cant wait till it all down as this will transform the feeling inside. A staged photo yesterday...shavings are real- imported from some famous carpentry place in the black forest, Germany. My grandads old plane. The new floor begins.

hannah and i met this young fella near high st, chch. He was sat in his hc viva. He had ran out of petrol and was waiting on girlfriend to rescue him. It was standard. Looked so cool against all the modern shit. Fuck he was happy- he loved his little viva. I like it when i meet young folk who are passionate about proper old cars- gives me hope.

Cool- I'm glad you saved this! We cant have vivas going to the scrap yard now!

righto. Heres some photos of the new 'skin'... ;D We have put it up this time so that all edges will be covered/overlapped. The walls dont touch the steel at the bottom- there is a 5mm gap so water will run off and not get drawn up like with the pine. The corners will be covered by 50mm cedar angle cappings we are making on the tablesaw. I love the smell of the cedar when cut- its the same smell as a good pencil when sharpened. I have yet to fully finish the remake/design around the popout openings but it will possibly be using more cedar. Previously the cladding had swelled up so much that the opening was squeezed inwards and the popout's jammed. Not anymore. We have a load of treated pine batons stained a dark colour- these will go up over the joins between the sheets and at every 300mm to break it up. Saying that I am quite relieved because it doesn't look anywhere as slabby as I thought It might. (did you see the use of technical terms such as 'slabby'- I like to throw them in here and there to make myself appear all professional like). These same batons we will surround the windows with. All joins between sheets, around windows, down the corners etc have been siliconed. But this wont be seen as they will becovered with said batons. Alloy gutters will be added soon to stop water running down the side. The sheets were first coated with Seasonite, then once up we coated them with Wolmans which is a rain repellent. Its great- water just beads and runs off. And finally the whole truck will be driven into a 'Carcoon'. Carcoon have received an order from me for the biggest Carcoon they have ever made. This will be hermetically sealed and when we want to enter the truck we will wear special space suits that I bought off ebay USA, apparently last used in ET. Here is a view from the back- the sheet on the back near doorway has just had a coat of wolmans hence it looks wet- it dries clear. And yesterday we also discovered that water had got in between the two sheets we had put down on the veranda floor. We had used two sheets for added strength. bad idea- I take the blame...my mistake and honest..I am learning fast! : Anyway... its all gone now, the steel is being repainted in black hammerite then we have proper decking to go down- which we will have gaps between and water will just drop through. No walls will touch decking so the cant draw water up. Looking forwards to the decking as the ply was bloody ugly! We want to redo the ceiling above too- but not urgent. Back to the truck- its sunny and its meant to be 17 degrees by the middle of the day! alex

Today we finally started to remove the cladding. Boy was some of it wet on the back. we found some lovely patches of mould ! So as much as i was very upset about having to remove all our lovely wavy edged pine when it came to actually taking it off it was a real relief- especially when finding all the mould. And the marine plywood we are replacing it with goes up so quickly and easily plus the rain aint getting through! happiness. some bits of the cladding are warping outwards- and breaking the screws to the process :-/ Also notice the one near the top of pop out- its done a funky double curve thing and has bowed out in the middle. And heres some wet wood porn for ya'll... With some sexy closeup mould shots. hmmmmmm. Hopefully we will keep getting sunshine as the ply is going up quick.