yoeddynz

I have thought about that.. Ive actually got a SU hif turbo carb I bought from prozac ages ago as a spare for the Elford turbo 12a. And there's possibly enough room to sneak some tiny turbo in there down low. But apparently the bottom ends on these engines don't hold up to much.. although just an extra 20 ponies could transform it into something that won't hold everyone up and make it a better daily prospect. But then cert...

I thought I might try on top of the updates and post more often so avoiding such a long catch up session giving a subsequent easing of pressure on my brains hard drive. Distributor time. I had two dizzies. One was from this engine and one from Andres stock pile. I took then both apart and rebuilt one from the best bits. The original has at some point in its life had a proper battering. I reckon it can only have been from the weights breaking away and smacking the inside. I cant think of anything else that might have caused it? I also discovered that the early dizzy has a smaller amount of advance allowance of 25 degrees. This is specced for my lowly 7.0 to 1 low comp engine. At the risk of upsetting the initial running I have swapped in the shaft and weights from the other dizzy to allow for a full fat 33 degrees of advance. I do plan to uprate this engine if it seems OK. My near future plans are to swap out the current thicker head gasket for a standard one and have a much more useful standard comp ratio of 8.5 to 1. I believe (hope) I'm correct in that this is the way that Vauxhall changed the compression on these engines. With it all painted black and looking about as sexy as a distributor can look I fitted the electronic ignition module. Quite neat it is too. Then I slung the lot into the block and moved on to the next item.. Radiator fan. All the fans I have sitting on shelves collecting dust are suckers. I wanted a pusher to mount in front of the radiator because there just isn't enough room for a sucker plus it looks ugly. So off to the local wreckers with a peice of plywood cut to the size of my radiator front. After 5 minutes I found the ideal fan sitting on the front of an old Mitsi Pajaro. A few bolts removed and it was mine for $10. I got home and discovered it fitted perfectly within my Radiator, almost clicking in place Old mounts removed, new ones cut from some 1.6mm steel and welded in place with nuts welded in for easy removal. A bit of paint and it looks all good to me...

@ carols husband and lothar- are the good rust free ones in the UK expensive then? Or still cheap because of no stupid scene tax Ie Ford, VW etc

Hannah would have been ok if she had a beard like yours But it might ruin other things in life.

He he he..... yeah nah. That moss/lichen is staying put! I know Hannah is eyeing it up and desperately wants to clean it off. Hey Im after one of the external sealing rubber things that go under the nut holding the wind screen wiper axles in place. I'll give you a call. Maybe Geoff has one? Geoff? Calling all Viva owners.....

Cheers fullas. Yeah it wasn't a fun day that. Hannah's face has already healed really well and she had some stitches out yesterday. But her back will take a good while to get better Staying active is helping but sleeping is very tricky as her back stiffens up. So I shall let her cherry pick from the awesome Viva jobs I am gifting her

Woahhhhhhhhh. Its been a while. I have been picking away at little bits here and there and in the last two days put in a bit more effort. I thought I’d better do an update as it’s a great way to motivate myself and actually see the progress. Last time I left you with a photo of the engine bay painted. The car went back on the hoist then I finished making brake lines. I finished cleaning and painting the front brake calipers, mounted them up and cut/bent/swaged/flared and fitted the brake lines to suit. I then decided the shiny new brake lines made the axle look very messy indeed so I just had to remove the lines and paint it. Overall it makes working on the underside so much nicer and looks good for the WOF test too. New seals in the freshly painted master cylinder and bench bleed it before bleeding the system. It was a slow process made faster by using a make shift pressure bleeder and bike track pump. It got even faster when I discovered the loose leaking union on the opposite side to where I was sitting. Brake pedal came up well and they feel good. There is a few years worth of rust to score off the discs on the first application though. People size their wheel dish or lack of road clearance with a phone as a scale. Well here’s a new one- check out the size of my enormous axle… While the car was up I ran some nice thick cable down to the front for the starter.. Oh btw..I had previously forgot to mention the rusty bits along the gutter drain lip over the rear tailgate (hatch..) opening. Well. There was rusty bits. Now they are gone. It was a tricky lots to replace with compound curves but its important. Luckily it was solid around all the hinge area as I could see that being a right pita to fix. So the only rusty bits left are some little bits on the doors and another patch on the tailgate (hatch…..) plus weld a check strap retainer back in place for the passenger door. Then I think I can safely put the welder away. The rocker cover had ugly breather vent tubes sticking right out the top and this had to change. Chopped them off, altered the interior oil splash guard to suit a rear mounted exit pipe so I can hide the breather hose away. Then a flick of filler and a coat of finest spray can paint and it looks much better. The old tube was a tad messy anyway.. Modded the splash shields.. Painted.. I had to modify the inlet manifold too. Same reasons- ugly outlets with no thought to a tidy engine bay. I removed both, welded them up and filed the lot smooth. I then machined up a new boss with a tapered thread to suit a different pcv valve and welded it in where it will work better with the new hose layout.. Hannah painted the engine and bell housing satin black. I refitted a cleaned up alternator Andre gave me. Cheers again Andre. The car previously had a generator fitted with an ugly control box. No no no. That wont do. The alternator looked exactly like the ones in the Haynes manual but it had the lugs orientated wrong ie it was made to mount on the other side of the engine? Then I noticed its front half looked symmetrical. Spot the difference in these two photos… Yep- undoing the front half and spinning it around 120 degrees allowed the alternator to mount on the side I wanted. Clever chaps. So I altered the existing generator bracket… and it all fits fine now. Yay- now I have 35amps of charge capacity to play with. I can probably find a suitable tape deck to run along with a really old inefficient amp. Then play suitable old 60/70’s music as I hold traffic up every where. Yes. Then we slung the shiny clean 1159cc power plant back into its home. Painted the grill area black as well so to work in better with the planned GT grill. I remounted the cleaned and painted wiper rack but will need another tapered rubber seal thingee I’ve yet to source. Painted and fitted the hinges in place. Then I cleaned and stripped the Stromberg carb. It was dribbling out the bottom when I had been checking the engine ages back and I found some hardened perished O rings. That’ll go back together and then I’ll make a little alloy pulley to suit the cable pull offered by the later preferred Viva HC throttle pedal I’ll be fitting. Hannah took the terrible old dash top rescue under her wing. She carefully filled the cracks and missing section in the replacement dash top I was given and made it very neat indeed. Big thanks to Hannah for her patience exceeds mine on those jobs. Then last weekend she celecbrated her fantastic job by sailing a jump on her old Fat Chance mtb and landing in a not very Danny Macaskill sort of way. In fact landing on her face. So as a treat she got a helicopter ride… Hannah is healing well and I have lots of Viva jobs lined up for her to cheer her up. I’ve painted the light brackets and swapped out one of the manky headlights for a good spare. Painted the back of the headlights to tidy them up. Next job will be the wiring and check, rebuild and add the Accuspark electronic ignition kit my Dad brought back home after a family holiday. Hopefully with that I may well be able to reliably sample the full 50bhp that this little engine might muster up! That is a about it for now. Very happy to get that off my chest. I might just go out and do some more! It quite a fun part of a resto this. Pick up bit, clean it, paint it, fit it. Good music, good coffee, helpful fluffy cat and you’re sorted! Here is a photo of how the engine bay is looking at this point in time..

LoOk ing mighty fine ! Are you going to get a sweet huge wood burner ? I'm guessing your land is rural one or two so pretty easy to just install any old burner?

Looks great next to the other Firenzas. I'm so impressed with that centre console you have built. Very tidy work!

If you remove about 2 ft from that Celicastang ride height it might almost look half as good as the Offroader....

Looks so choice. Wheel and tyre size perfect. Congrats you and all that helped. Me likey this car much so.

Not sure why. But I do know that young border collie puppies dont like being driven at speed up that road in a suzuki Vitara and will spew up on the rear seat.

Did you check out lake chalice too? Great biking around those parts. We took our '84 Nissan 1.3 racing sunny up there. It just made it.

Cool ! Btw. Takaka Lawn bowls club will be opening soon.. I'm damn keen on doing that again. !

Same for me. 30th sounds good.

Its like this only the gun aint so posh looking. My one is more plastic... http://www.earlex.com/earlex-hvlp-spraystation-hv5500/

I just edited your post as you had 23rd Sep.. I think it'll be pretty damn busy every where that labour weekend. Shep said some big motor bike club is doing its nationals then. Vintage club? They are doing a run over to Takaka that weekend. Should be good. I think they might be going to the same Museum? Hannah spotted something in the paper about it. I'm keen but cant as have prior tings going on (cycling with friends from far far away). Ideas on lunch? Maybe head on out to the mussel inn for lunch afterwards? (or before?). I've not been there yet but apparently is good.

Sounds quite nice. More dortier than it really is. Quite interested to see how you find this driving compared to the old setup. I've been cleaning up the stromberg manifold on my wagon and prepping the engine for big numbers.. maybe 55 bhp. Got my Dad to bring back a electronic accuspark setup for the delco dizzy from blighty a month or two ago as he was on holiday. I never knew about the later chevettes having a better Bosch dizzy though.. could have got one of them! Bugger.

OOOOOHHHHHH nice. Very pretty. Don't lift off.

Wow so lush! I'd always liked them and then after spending some time around Zacs and following his build thread I really starting wanting one. You've done well (actually I dont know if it was cheap or spendy as the listing you put up has gone?) but it looks sweet and those wheels are choice. What is your thing against NZ new? Is it just that the JDM ones are better equipped or something else? Those seats are sooooooo lush. Supportive but also so squishy comfy looking.

For HVLP setups I bought an english made Earlex setup. It cost about $200 or so and Ive painted three vehicles with it. Not show standard but fine for a daily. Probably more my skill level at laying on paint than he machine. Could have sanded down layers in between for a better finish but my patience wears thin rather than the paint...

Ahhh yes... good point. I forgot about that hill thing. Its the same issue for us once we start building on the ridge. I want to avoid anything concrete/heavy/awkward at all costs. Or build a 4wd farm ute/bike thingee. But your land is too steep for anything vehicle like Iirc? Employ Egyptian workers. They can shift rock.

Could you cover it in concrete to hold it together then cut with saw, repeat as needed to sort of turn it into more solid like stuff for shaping. If you know what I mean.

Oooh that's nice.

Takaka museum was great. Up for that again. Shep was well keen due to all the army stuff.