yoeddynz

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.

looking sharp! One day i'd like to get all the bolts done on a project. Would save so much time and be really satisfying!

This afternoon we finished behind the cab. Would have been done earlier but we decided to drain the cooling system, flush out the heater matrix and refill with new antifreeze. All bloody 23 litres of it! The heater was full of sludge- I guess being a nelson truck perhaps it wasn't used much? It was soooooo satisfying to back flush it and see all the crap come out! The heater works really well now! Anyway- here's behind the cab- still some detaiing to go in place yet... next job is ply the rear room sides. I hope the weather stays nice.

I'm sitting here having a well deserved cup of coffee. I had a bit of a drama last night with the lift up bedroom floor system. I rigged up four of mitre tens finest cheap zenith pulleys to the brackets I had welded to the frame ages ago in the build and hoisted away- once floor was as high as it could go i secured the rope and jumped outside to tilt the cab. But it hit the floor bottom!!! I was sure I had designed it with enough clearance so I took a look at the pulley system. The problem was that when they got near to the top they started to want to pull sideways instead of up. A new system was in order which I put in this morning. I have welded another bracket in the middle of the floor at the front and then made a bracket to hold the top pulley off the rafter. And I only need the two pulleys as its easy to lift. With this in place I can lift the floor right up with space to go. And now the cab tilts lovely! The scuff marks from the cab roof... So now its tilted we can put ply up behind the cab and stop cold drafts! woo hoo. I'm happy. Plus I could make a little window so I could sit inside with a cup of tea and look at the engine...

naaahhhh- you can do it ! do it for the team! Then we can all watch that way. It would be a cool conversion! And when it comes to wiring you just need lots of cups of tea- THAT is the secret!

So far 4 sheets of ply up in place- we now have covered the sides of front room. We will work our way down after doing the rear room. Then begin removing the pine and replacing it with ply. I will put up photos later on once more is done as for now its doesn't look that pretty.. but the ply will look nice once we have battens up and windows in place. Today it started to rain again so we have started walling the section behind the cab where the shower will go. This means finishing the 2nd floor out on to the roof. took a while to decide on design of opening- it has to be big enough to feed a bed into bedroom etc Its freezing inside with a the cold wind coming past the cab so it will be great to have this covered!

cheers dude- I'm a bit happier about it now- yesterday we fitted the first 3 of 22 sheets of ply! this time we are starting at the top and working down! Already feels cosier, The ply goes up one gazzilion times faster than the pine and this stuff will last. doesn't look as funky but will be smart when finished. Hmmmm ~ Flax. we used to have some massive flax plants in our garden. I remember making all that flax stuff at Whitney street school. memories...

not bad at all. They have that nice period sort of look about them.

Bloody rain! Not much done on outside. We went to Christchurch and picked up 22 sheets of 5.5mm marine grade ply plus some cedar for cappings. Oh and also a visit to Musgrove's to sift through all the reclaimed timber. Got some great Rimu and Miro for our door frame. The piece of Miro has the most amazing patterns I have ever seen in wood. Beautiful! I will put up a picture. So over the last few days we have been doing some work on the inside. As soon as the rain stops we'll start putting up the ply. Finishing the bedroom floor- some insulation. Insulation everywhere - this is important!