The time has finally come to "ruin" my long term viva estate project. Having been a long time lurker enjoying and gathering inspiration from your builds for many years. I naturally thought of creating an account to document the progress on retro rides. So here is the story of me and Opal the viva so far. I bought the car at the end of 2019 after the local council had placed a notice of intended removal. She had spent 10 years slowly deteriorating from a nice usable car into the rotten mess it became on the side of a busy London road with many of the gentrified residents complaining over time. During its stay on the streets of Croydon, crystal palace and Selhurst Opal featured in the "Let's see the abandoned ones...." thread on the forum a number of times.
I'd known of the car for a while having driven past on multiple occasions. She was always very distinct covered in moss, having flat tyres with a mass of notes under the wiper offering to buy the car. I would add my own with each passing. One day i awoke to see on social media the cars intended fate. I didn't like it. Luckily due to the attention of Opals imminent peril the owner was easy locate.A deal was struck with no questions asked to stop it being weighed in. Once home i inspected the cars condition to see the full extent of the rot. it was to much for me at the time so i got her running and made sure the running gear was functional. Quickly mothballing her for nearly a year while i rebuilt other cars.
During and after the second covid lock down. i repaired the majority of the serious structural rust. But kept the cars identity as she had become a landmark for anyone from the area.
During the of summer 2023 i managed to use the car but it was plagued with issues. Not a surprise considering how long the car had sat mostly dormant. Usually i would replace the majority of consumables before driving but unfortunately parts availability for classic vauxhalls is virtually non existent. I decided to collect the bits it needed while attempting to use the car in the meantime which leaded to me missing many events i wanted to partake with this car.
During ownership of Opal my life has been relatively turbulent moving around the country often. Once again in September 2023 a life event meant i had to move from Lancashire back to London selling every vehicle owned other than Opal a plan was made to load my entire life into the back of her and make the journey down south. At this time she was suffering from a very worn gearbox. Due to the lack of parts availability mentioned above, this had to be replaced with a smaller 1159 HB viva item rather than the original with the corresponding flywheel and a miss matched clutch to get me going which took a massive amount of R&D to make functional. I managed to drive her 310 miles over two days with many breakdowns and failures. one being a total wiring loom failure while night driving causing the lights to die . Needless to say i had to stay the night at a hotel and wire the necessary items to be safe and get me home in the morning. But Opal got me home!
Once home i decided enough is enough. I want a car i can use and not have to keep off of the road for months on end. Not only that but time ( and the journey ) had not been kind on the rear end of the car. now needing a rear valance arches etc. This is where
we are now. ive sold the vauxhall engine, gearbox and other original parts. The plan going forward is to install a Saab b204 with an rx8 gearbox with all of the necessary supporting mods. Of which i will tackle one system at a time. While also tiding some of the previous repairs and removing all traces of remaining tinworm.
So thats the history of me and Opal so far, I will update as i progress with this project. having no time frame for the project i do not know when this will be. I also have no power goals or want to use the car for any track days etc. The plan is a usable daily driver keeping the cars patina and therefore still recognizable as the car which sat on the side of the road for so many years. I look forward to reading your comments opinions and even criticism. Thanks for reading.
