|
|
|
So... I got board, have just moved house and wanted an cool classic project, and this is what happened. I took my Off road / Green laning toy the Rangerover and made it better for the long journey (changed the wheels and tyres) so it looked like this then I hired this and collected the 68 bargain Viva on the trailer Under the bonnet what's that we see there... yep you guessed it a wasp nest Rear shot the boot was full of loads of things, so much so I havnt even looked yet!! although I did find this really cool horn!! Hoping to be able to use this! More stuph in the boot!! and more spairs I did find a full set of these babys too as well as 6 wheels!! It also came with an engine and box! but doubtfuill these will get used in this project tho as I have plans for somthing a little bit quicker! Having had a look underneath, it needs a new boot floor, and new rear strut tops, new sills and some small patching works else where! apart from that its just the usual cosmetic works especially around the arches! but I have a cunning plan for that too :-)!! So this is my new project! Muchas Thanks to Roy (Mightymork) for coming with me to collect the car on sunday night, the small mini road trip from shropshire to north wales should have taken about 2 hours round trip, but ended up taking nearer 6 hours! ow thank you sat nav! there should be a button on those things that say I hava a big trailer and no I wont fit down small piddley lanes!! Car is now at home in Hampshire... Bring on the Build!! :-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good effort, now get building.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok, so Progress on this is painfully slow to say the least! mainly due to a funding shortage with my overtime being axed. Anyhow, some progress is better than no progress. Firstly I built a garage to complete the works, 5m x 4.5m, not the biggest but the best size I could convince the wife that it wouldnt intrude in the garden. Then I got the viva into the garage Ive started the strip down, all the interior came out pretty painlessly, and I have discovered that the floor pan is in remarcable condition all things considered. Rear Foor Pan Front Floor Pan. There is one little hole, and some crusty stuph, but that will be very simple to fix. Then i stripped off the badly attached front wings and was greeted by this on the drivers side There is some old poor quality repair sections that i am going to need to remove before i can start to replace the rot, but the majority is in ok condition. The other side is in preet good condition and will only need light repair I think. The inner wing is not too bad, and once I have removed the old battery tray etc I think it should repair up ok Last week I struck Viva gold with an ad in the exchange and mart. A job lot of HB bits including body panels, so I now have 2 perfect doors, a perfect boot lid, front and rear windows including good window seals, another front wing ( in very good condition) and boxes and boxes of bits. I have also managed to source a genuine GT bonnet which I'm chuffed to bits with (photo to be uploaded soon) The only major headache I can see is sorting the rear wheel arches out which after some digging have revealed that they are all filler! does anyone know where I would get new rear arch replacements from? I'm hopefully going to be getting the new sills and inner rear wings sorted soon and then the welding can begin. Sorry for such a slow and poor update, but hopefully things will start moving along now! cheers Rich
|
|
|
|
PhoenixCapri
West Midlands
Posts: 2,682
Club RR Member Number: 91
|
|
|
Sweet, looks like a really nice project Another RWD retro to come play on the track ;D
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm sure I've seen HB wheelarch repair sections on eBay from time to time, or you could try the Vauxhall Viva Owners Club web forum www.vauxhallviva.com
|
|
|
|
carmad
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,000
|
|
|
Awesome first time I have saw you thread welcome to the retro rides Hb club
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That looks like a good project and good luck with it.
I am very jealous of your horn of plenty tho,It looks very woooooowwwwwwww
|
|
Last Edit: Aug 4, 2011 16:44:21 GMT by mark0polo
Maximum signature image height: 80px
|
|
|
|
|
Another viva on retro rides! Good to see some progress at last
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cheers for all comments hopefully Il be able to get some good photos up soon of the repair and alteration process!! This is my first RWD, and I'm really looking forward to having a bit of track fun!
Droopsnoot cheers for the heads up, il have a look on that website over the weekend :-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
going to be a good project, I'm going to strip my HB down this winter but not looking forward to seeing what metal or lack of there is in it!
|
|
|
|
|
v8jim
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,304
|
|
|
well thats a cool first rwd car hope you have plans for the suspension because they are a bit twichy even more than an escort lol
the retro rides hb club must have quite a few members now
|
|
Max sig pic size: 80px
|
|
|
|
|
Lot of HBs on here at the moment , good stuff.
Garage looks a good size too - good luck !
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
goodluck with the winter stripdown graemew I'm sure it wont be as rotten as my boot, a few weeks ago i dropped the spanner in the boot and it fell through the floor lol!! lots of new metal required at the back end unfortunatly. I have been assessing the sills, and i can report that i need new ones and new inner arches Filtch panels. I'm hoping to have the rott all gone by christmas!
V8 Jim, I do indeed have plans for the suspension, basically a full upgrade if you have any sugestions tho I would love to hear your advice!. I'm also upgrading the brakes too probably to manta ones or similar.
The engine that is going in is going to be a Mazda MX5 engine, although there is still some debate as to which engine and weather i put a turbo or supercharger on for some extra boom! it isnt going to weigh much so I'm still pondering!!
Coggers your very right there are quite a few on here atm I went onto the how many left website to get an indication and i think it listed somthing like 18 left, i recon they are all on RR lol! Thanks for your interest :-)
|
|
|
|
djefk
Part of things
Posts: 844
|
|
|
Updates please! I'm sat in China with nothing to do at the mo except hang out on RR so I'm giving all the authors of my favorite threads a good prod if there's been no news! Help me out!
|
|
|
|
retrotoe
Posted a lot
anything rusty
Posts: 1,361
|
|
|
got one these underated cars,do honestly think next mk1 escorts.whats plan want fit bigger engine in mine,good luck keep pics comeing
|
|
|
|
carmad
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,000
|
|
|
Hb club on here I wonder how many there is ?
have you bought a good welder yet?
|
|
|
|
qwerty
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,410
Club RR Member Number: 52
|
|
|
Sounds like its gunna be a brilliant project! MX5 engine and box should make it quite sprightly as well!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 18, 2012 11:49:30 GMT
|
Good Morning Campers, So its been like an age since I even looked at the viva, you know the usual things get in the way, work, the wife...life a new engine in the cavalier because the last one went pop! favours to mates etc all in all i have all but lost a year of my life!! So being spured on from Gathering and the Great Dorset Steam Fair I have started work on the viva with the end goal being get it on the road as soon as possible!!. Basically this car prior to my ownership lived in north wales its entire life, and the past 10 years it lived in a valley in a very wet field where it seemed to rain continually and thus got very very very rotten. Now when I got it i expected it to be pretty bad, although if I'm honest it is boarder line ruined! but I'm not going to give in on a project coz it needs loads of welding. Ive done a 10 week course Il have you know so it will be fine i tell my self...hmmm Firstly I need the car in a position to work on it! one side at a time me thinks Right then it was wheel off and this is what i saw. This is a photo of the drivers rear wheel arch Nice hole at the top by the shocker mount... and a glance towards the rear showed this.... Yep thats right I can actually see my house from here lol So the solution is obvious, cut the rot out and replace with new.... easy he said.. holes made Hole started to be replaced with new metal Just so you all know and start thinking by heck that welding is poor, your probably right me extent of welding consists of a 10 week course at college for the beginner.... and thats pretty much it! so its going to be a steep learning curve. Although it may not be pretty it seems to be strong enough so I'm going to roll with that for now! View from the inside of the boot, you can really see how bad the rot has progressed around the vehicle. The next problem I had was that for the next infil piece i needed to join it up to the inner wing....spot the fail! that has all rotted away too god damn it lol! so the first thing i need to do is start to re build the inner wing so I can attach the new outer wing and sill. I need to do it this way you see becuase so much of the wing is rotten and missing that the only known point i have is at the rear of the new sill once I have installed it. then I can work the rest off that as a locator. Firstly tho i need to start the fabrication of the inner wing. As you can see the majority of the inner wing lip that the outer wing stitches to is well not there. after a good while of fettling and fabricating on my bench and vice I managed to weld in this infill piece its a good start although I have loads more to do! So back to the sill idea. Here is a picture of the existing outer sill still in place like the rest of it completely rotten so I cut that away and find this... Heres a photo of whats to come in the boot lol everything is rotten! ANyway I have now removed the rottern inner sill and tonight Il be starting the repair sections for that! once the inner sill is sound I can get the outer sill in place tacked on, and can then start the rest of the inner arch fabrication. Eventually Il get onto the outer arch lol!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 18, 2012 17:55:11 GMT
|
Ok Guys, so need a little advice. Tonight i offered up the new sill to the drivers side, and as a patent part guess what it doesnt fit right. now i have made the bottom of the sill tie in with the floor pan sill lip as that really cant change and it wouldnt fit otherwise. I am however left with what you can see below. The question I have for the RR fountain of knowledge is what its the best way to make it fit at the door shut. At present my theory is to remove the lip at the top and weld it along the outer vertical and the base of teh door shut. I hope that makes sence. Thanks all pics below
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 26, 2012 11:41:06 GMT
|
So small update. the under side of the car is a right mess, covered in under seal and very messy...solution its booked in for shot blasting on the 17th October... 3 weeks away but the earliest I could get! hopefully when its back il be able to see what exactly is going on!
|
|
|
|
|