1976 Viva E Coupe - Update (fo' real... ish)

[Colonelk]

After this thread.... retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=63152

Whitbytom kindly passed on the sellers details, he seemed quite hard to track down but eventually did, and arranged to go and see it the next day (yesterday)

High Wycombe to Blackpool..... google maps says 3hours 40.... at 7.30 am we set off expecting traffic....

(massive thanks to dad for the lift!)

Got there at 11.30am, quick bite to eat and then knock on the door. The chap who owned it explained how it just wasnt getting driven enough any more and he didnt want it to start deteriating any more and so was sadly selling it on. He'd owned it since 1991! and kept it garaged most of that time (thankfully as its not far at all from the sea!)

looking over...


Test drive.... drove nice as far as steering and braking and shifting was concerned, engine was rather rattly (one tappet refuses to shut up!) and the fan belt was about to make a bid for freedom but otherwise I was a happy man. It needs a fair bit of TLC but the main bits are sound. Excellent

After a cup of tea and a chat, we agreed to buy the car there and then, tightened the belt, check the fluids, pumped up the tyres and then I was off! The rad looked okish, and the coolant hoses were all tired but didnt look perished.

My joy at my purchase was soon sullied when I left the comfort of the local 40mph zone to discover a fairly horrific grinding vibration between 42-49ish MPH, it seemed ok at 52ish though so I thought that wasnt too bad. Onto the motorway..... hoping to cruise about 60ish and the grinds back 62ish sees it quiet so I press on at that speed. This was maybe a tad optomistic! ;D

30 miles down the road and as I tried my overtaking skillz on a lorry I turned into a mobile sauna. Oh balls.
The heater matrix feed pipe had split.


Thanks mr RAC man! he said the fan belt was too loose and tightened it up for me, shadowed me to the services then pronounced it all good and sent me on my way.

So take 2..... out the services, about 2 miles down the road..... hmmmmm whats that burning rubber smell? me? or has a lorry had a lockup (there were lots of fresh skid marks). Alt light comes one...... boooo thatll be me.

Hello mr RAC! again!


Second RAC man a lot friendly, explained he'd done his apprenticeship when vivas were new and sorted me a new belt. The chap on the phone at the call centre also chatted to me about an HA van he was doing up!

Think I saw a certain blue Jetta from here go by tooo......

Anyhow, set off again and now at a more lesuirely 52mph happy cruising speed. Lorries didnt like me much, but I wanted to get home! We stopped at every single service station on the way home to give her 10mins rest, and it did the trick! Only took until 1am to get home! ;D

Saw a few spots but sadly didnt have my camera to hand as I was driving. Saw another poor devil in warwick services who was obviously having a similar time to me..... reliant 3 wheeler, modern car next to it and RAC man the other side! spewing a lot of smoke and lots of head scratching so didnt want to trouble them.

Anyway..... HOME!


YAY! and I'm in love with the daft thing already. Its so basic it doesnt even have Hazard lights never mind a ciggy lighter or anything But it drives soooooooooooooooo nicely. And the headlights are better than the ones on my Senator!

Ignore the gunk..... coolant remnants








Its going to need a bit of bodywork, but it all looks to be fairly easily saveable (famous last words!) Worst bit of grot is the front of both the sills.

Plans are....

new hoses, service, wheels, drop, enjoy!

VERY happy

[whitbytom]

Brilliant!

Was glad to be of some help, and glad it's gone to a good home!

By the way what happened to the n/s mirror?

[craig]

Glad that it's not being raced/sold for profit. Looks like you got a good buy there. How come my mirror is on the door and yours are on the wing?

Keep us updated on it.

PS brace yourself for the "nice Cortina" comments

[tri]

YAY! Glad it went to a good home!

You gonnna just restore, or got modding plans for it?

[briandamaged]

Great to see one that's been looked after to the extent that the tartan bits on the top of the rear seats hasn't disintegrated in the sun....always the sign of a cared-for Viva.

Craig was right in the other thread...bigger-engined Firenza sales took a huge nose-dive in the aftermath of the '73/'74 fuel crisis, so Vauxhall dropped 1256 engines in the Firenza Coupe bodyshells, and renamed the more-door 2.0/2.3 Firenza the Magnum.

From memory the 1256 doesn't go badly considering it's only pushing out 57bhp, they are revvy little beasties as well for a three-bearing crank.

7" rims will fit under those capacious arches. That would look the mutt's nuts on some slotmags.

Top purchase!

[Colonelk]

thanks guys, I'm really really pleased with it.

The passenger side mirror was my fault, on the first RAC visit I noticed it was knocking the bonnet , and thought "Ill just adjust that round a little bit" SNAP! Came off in my hand. He (the previous owner) supplied me with some spares though so its all good. I don't know why these are on the wing and some are on the door though!

My main plan is to solidify it, sort out any crustyness, make the engine reliable, some rims and a drop and thats pretty much it. Itll probably evolve as time goes on, but that list will do for now. Gotta find where these horrendous driveline noises are coming from though. its a real low 50-60hz type vibration / grind at certain speeds and extremely horrid on coast down. My moneys on diff or a bearing in the gearbox unless anyone else can point me in the right direction! gotta check the gearbox oil actually..........

Brian..... yeah I wasnt expecting much from the engine, but she does the job and when running right should be quite characterful I think Any alloy wheels will be out of my 'stock' of 4x100s (yes I know its 4x4" don't worry ) but thats quite small at the moment being either a set of 15x8s(!) or some 15x7 BBSes with tiny tyres on.

Any info on these 1256 engines? are they hydraulic tappets on these? as my noisy one very very occasionally goes quite. think Ill have to give it a bit of an overhaul. if its a 3 bearing crank I take it the bottom end isnt the strongest?

The interior isnt perfect (rip on the drivers seat) but pretty good. Anyone know if these were ever fitted with inertia-reel seatbelts at any point? its got fixed ones at the moment

[Colonelk]

oh and I'm taking it to Billing this weekend, so need to sort a few hoses and can hopefully pick up some more bits for it there

[briandamaged]

No, they are straightforward OHV pushrod lumps, and were never that quiet on the top-end...I've had a couple of Chevettes in the past and both of them sounded like sewing-machines. The bottom ends are plenty strong enough for sustained 70mph motorway running, my last Shuvit regularly went all over the UK at 80-85 with no problems at all. Just keep 'em fed with oil and water and they'll keep on going.

Gearboxes were never the strongest....I broke the output shaft on my last one and threw a recon box in it about 6 months before I stopped using it. I'll ask Daddy Damaged because I have a feeling that both the engine (which only had 20k on it) and gearbox were mothballed in his storage shed in 1995 when I scrapped the shell......I'll ask him what happened to 'em.

[DavidB]

Awaits 'stick a redtop innit'. Don't stick an XE in it.

[kee]

no not an xe, an LET

looks in cracking condition, i really like the shape and style of these cars.

[craig]

Vauxhall say to do the tappets when the car's running but i just got mine hot and set them. It's real quiet on tickover now. The intake should be 0.006" and the exhaust should be 0.010" unless you got the high compression engine then they are both set at 0.008". There should be a mark down by the dizzy stamped H or L. I think the high performance engines were painted red too but not sure, never seen one.

[Davenger]

Legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good save!

[xbo11ox]

What an absolutely lovely machine. Nice one and extra big propz for deciding to buy it and drive it home there + then. Do you mind me asking, how much you paid? Feel free to tell me to mind my own business of course.

[coggers]

Good save

And in the best colour too

Inner wings look good too

[pbottomley]

I shall be at billing, do pop over and see us ;D ;D look out for the fat sod who just put an engine in this today in order to get to billing:




we had to swap the engine due to a slightly worn piston ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Keefy]

GREAT purchase!!!

[snoopy]

looking good, I still have some long feeler gauge strips we used at the dealers in the 70's for setting the tappets running as any worn rockers chewed them up a bit.
the high performance red engines were in the HA vivas from memory and were not 1256 but 10something.
vauxhalls idea for selling the pile of then discontinued firenza bodies they had left.

[grizz]

100% top purchase.

I love these cars.

Based on the V8's that used to race in South Africa.

[oli8925]

Well I'm a little bit jealous! Give me a coupe anyday! She is a beauty, and of course in the best colour Monaco White I do believe, or at least that's what mine is...I think.

As has been said the tappets are quite noisy on these. Mine were pretty bad when i got her and was one of he first things I looked at. Now running a lot quieter, but still not exactly silent.

I've been pleasantly suprised by my 1256. Pretty slow i have to say, but suprisingly strong at top end. For overtaking use, I have pushed the engine to a nudge over 5k revs in 4th, thats about 80-90, and she still feels like she has something to give and still pulls strong. Although i won't push her further, partly thanks to the nasty vibrations I get through the pedal at that engine speed

Peter and other experienced Viva owners may correct me on this, but in my brief time of Viva ownership, I think I have learned that there was a crossover point in 1975 (typical as mine is a '75) where the compression was upped from 8:1 to 9:1, and possibly the cam from the HB SL90 was used, but that may be all 1256's.

7" wheels will fit under the arches, but with real tyres on I'm not sure you'd be able to have them under the front arches due to them scraping. I have 7's on mine but they have come straight off my Mini and hence have 195/45 tyres...quite low profile. This also means they are 13% out on the original wheels, so my top speed is a fair bit lower...can get very tiring. So i would advise going 5.5/6 at the front with the right profile tyres or go 14 or 15". I'm looking to get some wolfies with chunky tyres, and hopefully 7 wide on the back


P.s. I think the red engines were the HB SL90 (don't know if they did similar things for HA's) which had the 'Red Pack' upgrade. Not quite sure what this included though.

And I believe the official bhp figure for the higher compression 1256's was 58 not 57

Enough ramblings, enjoy your tail-happy bundle of joy!

[Colonelk]

heh thanks guys. Was looking through the user manual earlier and on high compression cars peak power is at 5600krpm! so these are revvy little engines then! Got to get a revcounter I think.
Went to billing in it, which was good fun. She didnt miss a beat apart from blowing the exhaust -> head manifold. Picked up a set of gaskets and new hoses from the autojumble though so I'm happy. Had a good chat with Pbottomley and various other lads from the Viva Owners Club which made me feel a lot better about the car. Got to sort the prop out apparently, as my vibrations are the UJs being buggered. Thats top of the list along with the exhaust. Also looking at discreetly adding some stereo facilities!

-Whilst digging through my barn for bits left over from my Firenza, I found a 7 dial dash that I thought Id sent to Coggers as a freebie, but apparently not...... my friend says it wont fit though, and TBH I'm loving the dash in it at the moment! Any gen on whether it does?

-Anyone know what thread the wheel studs are so I can get some wobble nuts in the right fitment?