coldturkey Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Same photo but cropped: Personally I reckon the rostyles are the business on this thing, they are about twice as wide as the standards too. Handling dramatically better. I was gonna get them widened but I'll wait till atleast I have worn all the tread away (they were good tyres). I reckon widening them might spoil the look too, it would change it to a more JDM feel rather than the british-ness it has at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how they look with more slammage. Watch this space! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 OK progress! Got shitloads done today and im wrapped. Minimal photos but its the result that counts. Also got my car professionally tinted, was kinda a spur of the moment thing - got it done for half price - but I like it and it really suits. First of all: Vauxhall Viva Spring Versus Toyota Altezza TRD lowering spring: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 Then I chopped off roughly 2 coils of the TRD springs which was as much as I could keeping springs JUST captive (i.e. if you give them a really good jerk you might be able to rotate them) so this is basically the limit of low in the front unless I get creative (cant get shorter shocks for these or shorten them). Had to shave front bumpstops a bit. The front of chassis is now 130mm off the ground. Then I took out the rear springs so I could send em away to get compressed. Also looked rediculous with the rear end 50mm higher than standard and the front lowered. These photos are with the rear sitting hard on the standard unmodified bumpstops. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 Love this angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Small update. I ditched the TRD Altezza Springs a while ago because they were far too soft. I went for Torana 6cyl springs and cut about a coil off each side. They are perfect and the car is nice and even now. Needed to do something about this. (note cable ties!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 So I went to Autolign and bought the shortest eye to eye shocks in their catalog, as the standard viva ones are tiny already. They are cab shocks off a Volvo Truck haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Anyway the standard ones have a sleeve at the top and the volvo ones had different diameter bushes so with went about finding a solution. Big up to the OS boes! Steelies made me the bushes and TenFive helped me get the basterds in (man it was a mission!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldturkey Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Had to load up the suspension a bit to get them in Finished product! Will upload some pics of the ride height when I get a chance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 What's happening here? Nah don't get excited just an 1800 boat anchor/slant going in. Viva's been daily driven and alive since getting it off Lawrence/Coldturkey, progress been a bit slow due to student budget etc, but has had a bit of rust work and tidying up over the last year or so. Busy swapping the 1800 in now so will update soon. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Right, progress: 1800 in, have had a few hiccups and bits and pieces as with anything, but pretty much sorted now. Swap is pretty straight forward its just the little niggly bits more than anything else, that takes time. Anyway, all in and mounted, cables, wiring, gearbox mounts, all that stuff sorted. Got a radiator out of a bluebird of some description at pick a part, chopped and changed and lost the cat on the exhaust, now is single resonator/muffler to a little tip out the passanger side infront of the rear wheel. Seems to sound alright, not sure yet as haven't taken it for a drive yet, only got timing, alternator and a few things sorted tonight, once the exhaust is secured to the underbody properly it'll be ready to take for a burn on the streets, hopefully tomorrow. The front seems to sit a bit lower with the heavier engine which is a bonus too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 So not a particularly happy update here but one none the less. Heading down the road the other day it seems one of engine mounts came fully loose. The rubber mounts on this thing arent symetrical so this caused the other side to rotate and whole engine slid forward a few inches. Not quite sure how as i thought gbox mount would've held it back? I havent had the car off the ground to look yet so i guess that'll probably explain what happened there. Anyway the short/shit of it all is that my fan took a decent bite out of my rad and then smashed into pieces around my engine bay. Hopefully gonna pull engine and all that out of the car this weekend and start the clean up. Also started dealing to some rust. there was a bit of surface rust on the roofline which was getting on my nerves, and holes on the rear corner, and bottom of front pillars. Started sanding them back to see what i'm dealing with so i can get someone to plate the holes. they're not nearly as bad as I was expecting but I'm a bit nervous to start sanding any of the bottom sills as i know there's not much metal left there.. It'll have to be done though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Finally found my old pics of rust work i did on the rear corners maybe a year ago now... better late than never i guess. Goal is to one day do rust cuts from another car so for the mean time just ground out all the rust, primed and bogged the holes It's okay for the time being and a year down the track still looks mint. Paint was a mish to sort, no one makes the 'persian sands' ducolour the car was painted in so just had to get an eye match made. It turned out quite well considering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 loaded up with a pair of 1256's and a slant 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Figured this is probably due an update and by updating it I figure I'll feel more pressured to get it back on the road! This account is semi shared/complicated as the viva is owned by my brother(Duncan) who has been using this account for posting up the log etc. Back in late last year(as above) the viva obviously spat the dummy with throwing the 1800 into the rad, and causing a bit of a mess. We towed it home and it became increasingly evident that it was gonna need some serious attention in a number of areas, which time and money(read: student saving to travel) didn't allow at the time, so the viva was parked up with a cover over it until we can give it the attention it deserves. The rust was one of the main issues which was getting to a point where we can't really put it off any longer. The engine mounts were also obviously a bit of an issue, and considering those were the third set of mounts its had issues with, its broken a few sets we figured its probably time to do it properly. Timing wise this coincided with Denham/73crownwagon dropping a 202 into his CF and flicking off the low mileage 2.3 out of his van. So that happened and we now have a 2.3 for the old viva. My brother has taken off overseas for a year or few and I've now taken this over in the time being, the viva has been pushed back into the garage and is slowly getting a bit of work. The first goal was obviously to get the thing moving and driving again, then focus on getting it legal/dealing to the rust later. The 2.3 had its sump and rocker cover swapped to suit the viva setup, then hurrriedly dropped in, which was to get it moving again then plans to work back and tidy up the job, but of course that logic doesn't work, so the clutch friction plate turned out to be toast(which I should have checked), the pressure plate the wrong size, the engine filthy, the firewall still rough and in primer, thermostat housing leaky, and the mounts still being gay. Teach me for being lazy. But I had the engine running and sorted out swapping over the electronic ignition dizzy etc from the 1800 and saw it run which is always motivating. The 2.3 seemed to run much smoother it must be said, and seemed promising engine wise. Took a bit of pissing around with the ignition timing as that dizzy was a bit tricky, nothing says try again like flames out the carb So the engine out again, I went through and gave it a good clean up, as well as the bellhousing etc, then decided I should tackle the clutch. Sourced a standard 8.5(or 9?) inch pressure plate for an old land rover or something which looked pretty heavy duty, then had the friction plate relined, bearing recored, flywheel resurfaced etc. The ring gear on the 2.3 flywheel was rough and had some pretty ugly grind marks on it, but the 1.8 wouldn't suit the bigger 2.3 friction plate and the dowels wouldnt' suit the bigger pressure plate in their current position. So I heated and swapped the good ring gear onto the 2.3 flywheel. Next issue was to make an adjustable clutch fork pivot to suit the different height pressure plate, so tapped a thread into the bellhousing and turned up a threaded adjustable pivot to take the place of the originally pressed in fixed length one, and locking nut to suit the job. Clutch setup done and engine painted! Also chucked a new cambelt on while the engine was sitting there, and gave the firewall a quick fill and paint where it had been massaged with the 1.8. Got a brand new diesel bluebird radiator to suit as well which will do the job. Next issue: Engine mounts. The engine mount design in these coming off the crossmember is pretty much an unsupported trapezoid which was a terrible idea at best, paired with unsymmetrical offset stud supportless rubber mounts, add 38 years of abuse and these pedestals off the crossmember seem to have gone out of shape, causing me all sorts of grief with engine positioning, mount alignment and extra stress on the rubber mounts. So i'm now at the stage where the stock mounts can meet a grinder and I'm just gonna have to build mounts from scratch off the crossmember. So the grinder took out the mounts for the moment, as I couldnt' really get a drill in there to drill out the spot welds with the crossmember in the car, so they are cut down below flush for now, then later will be drilled off completely. My current thinking is to run plates off the crossmember with mounting tabs on them, with a leaf spring spec bushing, then some seamless tubing with a support leading to the plate on the engine. Should be a solid, unstressed design which will manage the forces in any direction, with some cushioning. Think vaguely something like this: Engine mounts are the current focus but there is some serious cancer in the viva which i have slapped POR15 on to prevent worsening, but will need to put some new metal into at some stage. The brake master cylinder also started leaking so I have pulled it to rebuild it. Any suggestions/experience on building new engime mounts is welcome! Drop by the discussion thread with any thoughts/ideas/criticism. Unfortunately I have very little time to spend on the viva due to work and all sorts, but I make time where I can. Long term plans still include hopes of rebuilding and working the engine, which should be a little easier now working in the trade. Discuss/help/abuse etc: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/28065-estate-s-vauxhall-viva-estate/page-5 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estate_ Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Slow going but I haven't updated this in some time! So here are some odd pictures I've scrounged up. There were heaps of better ones... somewhere... I will put some others up if I find them Fantastic original mounts: Be gone: Now this is gonna kinda set the tone for these engine mounts, I'm no precision engineer, so I seem to have been more on the overkill side... okay completely overkilled it in material choice but hey. Decided to go with the mount type I was pondering above with a tubular spec mount running leaf spring type collared rubber bushes. So finding it a little tricky to find nice thick tube I decided to bore it out of 2" mild steel round bar, bore it out to suit 1 1/2" OD, 7/8" ID collared bushes from the mount shop. This left me with a good 6mm wall thickness tube. These were purchased, the bar bored and we got an idea of where it was going I used 50x50x5 RHS as the main supports of the mount, notched with a 50mm holesaw to give me two bits like this, which I could then weld up at work 12mm plate was used and I made up some pads to bolt to the engine itself, got some tabs lasercut and after final engine position was decided it could slowly all get tacked up. Crossmember out, everything welded, painted. Big thanks to Sheepers for helping out with TIG welding those big fucking 12mm plates to the tiny crossmember which I wasn't game enough to tackle with my skills and a MIG. The subframe and everything around the running gear of this thing it covered in a mud/sand/oil/??? treacle sludge which is sweet so spent lots of enjoyable hours cleaning that shit up. Anyway subframe all back in and everything looking much nicer! Will continue update later, running out of time, but there are the engine mounts at least 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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