Engine rebuild? ........get a professional!!

 A while back, my son and I decided to rebuild the engine on 'ANA'. I managed to purchase a supposedly commercially re-conditioned block complete with new pistons. We did everything 'by the book' as far as possible. Engine complete it was installed back in the car and after a few attempts it started and settled into what seemed a nice even idle speed. No smoke, no alarming noises and we began to congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

A new reconditioned carb' was fitted, I converted to accuspark ignition and an electric fuel pump and checked the timing as accurately as possible using a strobe.

Despite all our efforts once out of the garage it just had no power especially on our steeply inclined uphill drive. I tried everything but nothing seemed to improve matters. 

Time passes as they say and I must admit to losing enthusiasm for removing the engine again to find the problem . In my seventies now I find that sort of work in a small single garage challenging to say the least and my son is in a wheelchair so the heavy work is really left to me.

Getting to the point where I was contemplating selling the car, my dear wife reacted with horror at such a suggestion. Our Viva has been in the family since 1979 and holds many family memories such long holiday journeys that are steeped in the car's  nostalgia.

'Old school' mechanics who understand these engines are now far and few in-between and are really only comfortable with plugging an engine into a diagnostic computer system. One guy was really honest and said "As it got a carburettor?"  when I replied in the affirmative he said.....

"Sorry, I can't do those I have never really had much experience with them."

After a search on Google I found a company in Stockport called 'Ric Wood Motorsport' and rang them. I was delighted when a lady called Karen answered and was not phased by my mention of  troubles with a forty-eight-year old Viva giving a very positive " I am sure we can help with that" 

Ric Wood I began to realise was a very talented guy designing, race cars, and engine builds. He drove a Nissan Calsonic Skyline at Silverstone recently for example. 

I was to learn that his love for engine perfection was not just confined to exotic saloon race cars as he put the Viva on the Dynamometer rolling road. He rang me with his verdict...............

"You have done some thing very wrong with this engine" was his starter.

" I have manged to increase the the bhp, but there is something we need to investigate further to see what the problem is" was his straight to the point assessment.

Cutting a long story sideways his investigations found the wrong pistons in the block amongst other things and some major surgery was suggested. A complete rebuild was required.

In the very short time I had known him, I realised he was a perfectionist and probably one of most talented engine builders in the North of England. 

As time waits for no man especially at my age, I just wanted to get the Viva finished properly after all these years of restoration work.

His offer of making the humble 1256cc engine in the Viva run like a 'Swiss watch' was taken up and I left her sat amongst the more exotic machinery in his workshop.

A re-bore and skimmed block together with new high compression pistons was a start together with a complete overhaul of the cylinder head. An unleaded conversion was requested by myself which seemed sensible whilst all this work was being done.

He was right, it did run like a Swiss watch....certainly as good as it had ever done.

A little more exotic than a 1256cc Viva..................... Ric's V8 Holden Commodore

painted in Garth Tander's Holden racing team colours.

Ready to go ......... .ANA's new engine.

                       

'

Stromberg carburettor

Recently purchased a reconditioned Stromberg150CD to replaced the original in 'ANA'. I rapidly ran into a few problems when I realised the fuel intake tube was 'missing' with a threaded hole instead.

Old Stromberg 150 Carb fitting

New Carb threaded fitting

This was originally designed for a direct threaded pipe intake similar to a brake pipe union. I decided to use a barbed threaded fitting to a rubber tube. Finding the thread size was not easy....Imperial?.....Metric?......BSP?.....NPT? 

I tried M10 x 1.5 ; 3/8 UNC ; etc, with no luck.

After some head scratching I found it was M10 x 1.25. So if you have this problem converting to a 'push on' fuel pipe fitting, this is the thread required :)

   

wheeler dealers.............

Old Vauxhall Vivas especially the Magnums and Firenza coupe often seem to attract modern flash alloy wheels like a moth to a flame. My old bog-standard 1256cc 2-door HC Viva would, in my opinion look a little over-dressed in chrome or mat black  'go-faster' wheels. Built for comfort and not for speed 'ANA' the Viva has the sensible steel wheels with chrome hubcaps that were supplied on the Vauxhall assembly line in  December 1973.


Sporting her newly sprayed 'Yellow Gold' colour ( same colour she was born with) her wheels were looking a little down-at-heel to say the least.


Not one to see a lady looking sad, I had all the old tyres removed by a friendly local tyre depot and took the wheels to 'Stockport Powder Coating'  Grit blasted and powder coated to something like the original silver colour. Back to the friendly tyre depot who shod the  four gleaming wheels with new tyres.......... 


Not exactly flashy chrome - but 'ANA' looks happy in them, and that's all the matters...................

New wheels man.......newly powder coated wheels for 'ANA'
 HC Viva  Chris Hill Copyright.

Windscreen wrangling.......fit a classic windscreen in ten minutes (or so)

Paint and headlining finished..................and now to put all the windows back.   Like fitting a headlining I have never, ever, had the occasion to fit a windscreen in a car. But, I took them out so I should be able to put them back in especially with perfect new windscreen rubbers. What can go wrong??

Ready for a bit of windscreen fitting............'ANA' the Viva after the re-spray.   Chris Hill Copyright.

Not exactly correct that statement.... many years ago I took a Viva side window out to replace the rubber. I tried putting it back with a piece of string like the book says....it was a complete failure when the string broke !!   Loosing faith in that method I tried the hard way with old spoons and lots of swearing. Managed it in the end, but it was a pig of a job.

So I searched 'Google' and lo and behold a Mini owners forum described that exact method (old spoons). So I put the new rubber on the front screen like it suggested and managed to fit the bottom and two sides, so far so good.........and ground to a halt on the home run with the top two corners and the top of the windscreen. Using old spoons and soapy water I gave battle levering the rubber channel over the glass. Over one hour later with an occasional impersonation of Basil Fawlty threatening the car with a 'good thrashing'  I succeeded  with very sore fingers, two bent spoons and my dear calm wife looking around the garage door and asking why I was hitting the windscreen with a bunch of twigs and shouting  "Right.....this is your last chance !" 

I am here to tell you...........THAT IS THE VERY WORST WAY TO PUT A WINDSCREEN IN............there IS an easier way. My wife suggested a professional windscreen fitter. I ignored this lack of faith in my manly abilities and decided to go back to the Indian Rope trick piece of string method.  I actually bought a long length of strong nylon cord actually made for the job....not like the cheap garden string I used last time. You feed the cord all along the rubber glazing channel with the two ends coming out of the bottom centre of the channel. With my glamorous lady assistant applying pressure to the rear windscreen I pulled one of the strings and as if by magic the the rubber flipped over the window flange like it should. I worked progressively in both directions with the two ends of the string occasionally helping matters with a silicone lubricant spray.
Corners need a bit of muscle power but the whole job was done in ten minutes.......most of that time was putting the cord in the channel!!! 

Both side windows were done in the same way, taking about five minutes each side. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy ( well actually silicone spray or WD40 works better)

Flushed with success, I decided to put the new chrome faced nylon bead into the centre channel of the windscreen rubber.  At this rate I should be finished in ten minutes, (what can go wrong?)

I had bought the special tool used for fitting aforementioned bead and realised I did not have a clue how to use it. Again I looked on YouTube, etc, and found a video of a professional windscreen fitter using one.  He did a whole screen in a few minutes so I tried to replicate his method by feeding the nylon trim/bead through the diamond shaped loop and opening the rubber channel at the same time - it just jammed and bent one edge of the 'chrome' surface.

I began to realise that perhaps these bead fitters come in different sizes or perhaps I just did not have the 'knack' no matter how I tried. Trying to suppress my altar ego Basil Fawlty and the desire to throw the bloody thing to the back of the garage, I came up with a cunning plan which I commend to you........

Inserting bead/chrome trim into windscreen rubber.       HC Viva  Chris Hill Copyright

I put one side of the bead/trim into one rubber channel and then used the tool to push the other rubber channel over making a snug fit, this can be done quickly with practice along the 'run' with a bit of lubricant ( warm soap water) to help. Corners are tricky as the bead is straight originally and tries to go back to that shape, so keep downwards pressure on it with your free hand whilst using the tool to lock it into the rubber channel. If that fails........give it a good thrashing !!!!

Not a pretty sight................Original rear windscreen rubber before removal prior to car being resprayed.  
   HC Viva  Chris Hill copyright.

  

Get ahead - get a headlining................

After forty-two years, the interior 'headlining' was looking very sorry for itself. A large split had developed and the white vinyl material had turned yellow in parts with age..... a bit like me.

Time for a new headlining.........sorry state of the original in my HC Viva

Old headlining about to be removed........holes are where the right hand sun-visor is located.

With all the glass removed for the re-spray this was a convenient time to renew. Like all the challenges that this restoration has thrown at me, I was about to attempt something I had no previous experience with. I was once again on unknown territory. In my professional life as a press photographer non of these skills had ever been required. Fitting a pre-1980,s traditional car headlining has become something akin to Zepplin building even if you are in the car trade!!!!!!!!!  Cars now have pre-formed, press-fit interior roof lining which is a very easy job compared.

So..........after plenty of research on YouTube, Google, etc, also surprisingly the official 'Vauxhall Viva Service Training manual ' titled 'Body- HC Viva' that for once had a very useful few pages on this.

So ...............I first removed the old headlining. So far so good. Lining material is held in place by tensioned steel rods that are placed in sequence and it is important that you mark them somehow to enable them to return in that sequence.

New headlining was sourced from Ebay and cut from an original pattern together with the 'pockets' for the loops. Place the rods into the pockets of the new lining in the same order as they came out...........I marked No1 as the one closest to the front windscreen.

New headlining.   Viva HC  Copyright Chris Hill

Rods are tensioned back into their nylon cups in holes on the side of the roof. I found that the considerable tension had split some of these nylon pockets and for a while progress stopped dead. I found similar nylon 'cups' on Ebay that were actually for a MK1 Ford Escort with a slightly larger (1mm) diameter and they fitted perfectly after drilling out the hole to size.

Using a tin of contact adhesive purchased from 'East Kent Trim'  the edges are glued to the top window openings all around and then the waste cut off. I did this a bit at a time and found the adhesive actually very forgiving enabling me to occasionally to take the material off again and re-tension it if it seemed too slack.
Plastic clips were used to keep in place until the glue was dry.

Clips used to keep headlining in position whilst the contact adhesive drys. Pictured is the front windscreen opening and the wires are for the interior light/rear view mirror assembly.                   Viva HC blog. Copyright Chris Hill 

Altogether not an easy job especially putting the interior light/rear view mirror housing and sun-visors back onto the now pristine headlining.......you have to cut into your newly fitted headlining to fit all three items. I would not like to tackle this job with the front/rear windscreens and rear side windows in !!

New headlining fitted and awaiting fit of sun-visors.     Viva HC blog  copyright Chris Hill

Painting a Viva part 2.

Spraying a car in a small single garage is not the easiest things to do. I had removed  most of the large panels ( doors, bonnet and boot lid ) and these were actually sprayed outside on a couple of those rare warm, windless days. Remainder of the body  was a struggle because of the lack of space in the garage, but with some perseverance I eventually managed it.

Panels sprayed with cellulose 'Yellow Gold' and the paint ready for 'mopping' with Farecla finishing compounds. Glass front and rear and side were not re-fitted until after the paint polishing/compounding. Vauxhall Viva

After a couple of weeks to let the cellulose harden, I  decided to 'colour sand' the already decent finish. This is done by wet flatting the paint again with fine 1500 grit and then using two grades of  Farecla fine finishing compound ( Farecla G3 and Farecla G10)together with a 1200 watt heavy duty polisher. Polishing part is known as 'mopping'  


I used a Silverline polisher which takes M14 fit 150mm polishing sponges..........blue sponge for the first polishes and soft red for the fine finishing polishes. Silverline polisher is about £50 which is cheap compared to others, but I am not going to use it everyday like a commercial car body finishing company so I thought it was good value...and so far it has done the job. It starts slowly when first applied to the paint to avoid 'burn' and can be used a different speeds. Method I used is to spray water onto the sponge, add a small amount of compound to the centre of the sponge and then spread it around the area with the sponge without the polisher turning. Start polisher at a lower speed and then work to higher speeds with more Farecla compound applications. It is hard work to do a whole car, but well worth the effort.  You will get some 'spray' from the water mixed paint/compound, so I cover any glass or rubber strip because it is a pain to clean off afterwards.

One of the excellent uses for this polishing method is the ability to remove small paints runs from the sprayed cellulose. In my small garage I found that it was easy to knock my elbow on the wall  behind when making a 'pass' with the spray gun.......this then slows the gun and a small run can develop. After the paint has hardened I flatted the 'run' with 1200/1500 grit paper and then polished using the Farecla compound. If you ever do this be very careful during the flatting and visually check continually against the light to ensure you are not going through the paint surface onto the primer. If you have big time runs through bad spray gun set-up and technique, it is often better to flat and paint the panel again.

Painting a Viva.............

Some twenty years ago 'ANA' was re-finished in the original 'Yellow Gold' colour by a friend in the motor-trade.  I had struck a deal with him to do this in return for my taking the photographs at his son's wedding.   He did a reasonable job of the the body (he did not do the engine bay) but I noticed a couple of years ago that a rash of 'blisters' on the wing tops was starting to appear in the cellulose finish. These were not not caused by rust as the wings were replaced with new at the time and the car has been stored in a dry garage since then.

After some research I have found that these can appear years after the paint was applied. Apparently water trapped in the paint layers can expand under cold or hot conditions causing these blisters to crack open the paint surface. Moisture in the paint at the time of  spraying can lie dormant for years until it is exposed to temperature/humidity conditions where it expands ruining the otherwise good finish.   A word of warning 'ANA' was stored outside during the winter whilst we rebuilt the engine and front suspension a couple of years ago and covered with a waterproof 'car cover' .....the cold moisture conditions under this 'cover' would seem responsible for the 'blisters'

I had never been too happy with the finish of the roof  which looked as if a 'rushed' job had been done with a poor gloss finish. This together with scratches on the doors and boot-lid acquired over the last twenty years I came to the conclusion to re-paint, despite looking cosmetically reasonable to a superficial glance...(the car I mean not me)   :)

After some experience doing the inside of the boot and engine bay previously I decided to have a go at a re-paint with cellulose.  

A word of warning if you are thinking of using 2 pack paint. Deadly isocyanates in the paint are not really for the DIY enthusiast - it can kill you.  Even the use of a full carbon-filter mask will be as much use as a chocolate fire-guard, as the professionals use an air-fed 'helmet' complete with gloves and overalls as isocyanate can enter the bloodstream via the eyes and skin.

So cellulose was my paint of choice.....using a professional twin filter mask.  I had previously used a cheap gun with reasonable results so I decided to invest in something around £60 and learn how to use it properly.

As most people will tell you preparation is everything and I spent most of last winter flatting the paint work with wet and dry paper through various grades from 240 through to 1200 grit.

Both windscreens were taken out and all the removal panels such as doors, bonnet and boot-lid removed until I had a car shell on wheels. A thin (3mm) white coach-line was removed to be replaced eventually with an identical one as applied originally in the factory.  

Finished bonnet moved to the conservatory for safety whilst the rest of the car is finished in the limited space of our single-car garage.

Armed with my new spray-gun I decided to make a start - I had fitted a pressure gauge between the airline and the gun to fine tune the pressure from the compressor. Compressor also has a pressure gauge but knowing the final pressure to the gun is useful to say the least. 

I found that adjusting the pressure before spraying the best way to go........initial 'set-up' of the new gun showed that the 'material' (paint) adjustment screw was too far out (rich) giving a thick coat that started to 'run' immediately.  With much a trial and error I experimented until the spray pattern and paint delivered seem to be just right and I proceeded to hone my non-existent spray-painting skills on the underneath of the bonnet. After the gun was set-up I left the adjustments as they were. If it is working - don't try to fix it - is always a good maxim I find.

Re-paint for my HC Viva in the original 'Yellow Gold'

One bit of advice I learnt the hard way, was to try the gun on a sheet of masking paper every time before starting on a new panel. I did not do this when starting on the all important top of the bonnet ( hood to any American readers) and the paint came out initially in 'globs' perhaps caused by not cleaning the gun properly between uses. A few trial runs over the paper had things back to normal much to my great relief.  There are many articles and videos on Google and YouTube by experienced professionals that are worth watching to learn the basics of cellulose spraying, but like most things in life I find that actually 'doing it' teaches you more than any video. One thing I did learn from YouTube is that amongst the guys who know what they are doing there are a few who make a pig's ear of the job..........so be careful who you copy.