Viva La Viva.......

Surprisingly for a Vauxhall Viva enthusiast and owner, my first car was a Ford - a Ford Consul Mk1. We all make mistakes during youthful car purchase exuberance and many cars of the 1950,s and 60,s had so many inherent 'mistakes' in their design, especially the amazing ability to return to their original state of iron oxide particles within a remarkably short period of time. Many young innocents on a limited budget bought into this era of rust buckets and I was certainly no exception.

Fifteen pounds in cash money was handed over in 1963 and I was the proud owner of 'KDM 158' - a light blue 1954 Mk1 Ford Consul complete with American design influences like front bench seat and column gear change. Perfect from this particular child of the sixties.

Fifteen pounds? I here you think. Not a lot of money...true, even in 1963 when this particular Consul was nine years old. After a few days of ownership a closer inspection of this Ford product of the brave new world of 1954 revealed serious corrosion in the floor beneath the bench seat. Yes, oh yes, I know I hear you all say, “why did you not check before buying?”

Youth is often impetuous and I certainly fell into that category with my rushed ambition to be a car owner which was still a big deal ( for me at least )in the early sixties.

A local garage welded the worst of the rot so that I (and any passengers) would not collapse through the floor complete with that front bench seat onto road. Price for the job? More than the car cost me....I was learning fast !

This rapidly became my first attempt with car 'restoration' but there is only so much can you do with a newfangled idea called 'fibre-glass' and my efforts were nothing more than cosmetic. Poor old Mk1 Consul showed other serious nasty traits other than rusting before my eyes.......... it held the road like a drunken sailor on its cross-ply tyres. If you tried any country bend with something beyond 'sedate' she would bite you big time and go into a blood curling sideways slide with your knuckles showing pure white as you hung onto opposite lock, showing a religious fervour you never thought you had by praying for the bonnet to return to a straight and level direction parallel with the road, not at ninety degrees to the hedgerow flashing past (like my short life) the chromed 'rocket' bonnet emblem.

I have had other Fords...Anglia; Sierra; Fiesta and Escort for example,so I am certainly not anti-Ford, despite my early inexperienced adventures with the Mk1 Consul.

Everything of that period seemed to have serious tin-worm. I bought a second-hand 1962 VW Caravanette and that was just a nightmare of rust ( I wish I had kept it they are worth £20 – £30.000 now!!!

So you seem there is a common factor here – RUST – and a convenient link to the our main subject …. the Vauxhall Viva.

I had owned a couple of Vauxhall 'HA' Viva vans and they were fairly problem free actually lasting a reasonable time before the tin-worm began to show. So in 1978 I invested £1100 in a 1974 Viva HC saloon in bright 'Yellow-Gold' … a Vauxhall colour of the 1970,s that I liked – and still do !!!!!

'ANA'....... summer 2012

'ANA 78M' had been well prepared by the car dealer and highly polished both inside and out, with the interior exuding a pleasant furniture-wax aroma. A careful mechanical 'once-over' and test drive showed no obvious problems, so the deal was struck and a relationship with this particular Vauxhall Viva started that still exists.

The dreaded 'tin-worm' began to show after a year or so.....like most Vivas. Vauxhall had included some protection inside the wheel arch half-way up the wing, but the rust bug chomped inside this and the dreaded corrosion line eventually showed on the exterior of both wings.

'ANA' was very much a working girl during the late 1970s and early 1980s transporting me on assignments as a press photographer. Family holidays to the Scottish Highlands and even the South of France were all taken in her stride. Driving from the north of England via the French Autoroutes with two young children in a Vauxhall Viva could have been problematic. Thankfully 'ANA' never missed a beat with her brand new yellow tinted headlamp covers ( then required sur la continent ) and was the cause of much puzzled stares and glances when parked near St Tropez harbour overlooking the super-yachts of the uber-rich.

Vauxhall Vivas are a rarity in St Tropez (even then).......if you want a 'head-turner' in that beautiful sun-kissed locality, forget your Lamborghini or Ferrari .....cruise the sea-front in a bright golden yellow Vauxhall Viva !

Face to Face with a Citroen GS Club.........South of France 1979

Loch Ness..........1980

Surviving into the late 1980s 'ANA' had been relegated to a second-car role

with upstart Fords taking pole position. Commuting a few miles everyday with my wife Denise became the norm and even becoming a hack transport for my teenage children was now fast becoming her last duties before she went to the scrapyard to rust in peace.

Serious structural problems were now beginning to show in sills and inner wings. The brave little 1256cc engine was very tired so it was decision time and a heartbreaking last drive to the nearest car-breaker seemed to be the only way to go.

Early 1990s before restoration..........

Cars do not have a soul, they are just made of metal by people to transport other people for a few years and then melted down to make more cars that transport people, etc and so on........

Cars may not have a soul, but it is suggested that humans do. I hesitated from turning the ignition key for the last time and a family conference decided that she should stay and be re-built. Rebuild a humble Vauxhall Viva ? Why? I am not sure why. Perhaps it was all the memories that were invested in her now rusting body.

I am still not really sure 'why' some twenty years later.

A Vauxhall Viva that has seen many years of British weather and winter salted roads is not a pretty thing. 'ANA' was certainly not one of those cars that was purchased from new and then left in a garage to be found many years later with 5,000 miles on the clock and an auction price to match. Poor old ANA had seen much better days as she sat forlorn in our single garage with almost every panel and structural component tainted by serious rust.

I did not have any of the required skills to take on this challenge. My world had been newspapers and my mechanical ability hardly stretched to changing a type-writer ribbon ( remember those?) I went to a secondary school that seemed to have only one ambition for it's pupils who lived near local heavy-engineering companies (remember those) and that was to join these companies with some basic knowledge of metal-work and engineering science. I actually had an O-level GCE in 'Engineering workshop theory and practice' but making a steel fire-poker or brass tankard was not sufficient skills for the job at hand. I must have been away when they covered 'how to build a car from the ground up with a MIG welder'

Right......where to start ?.......buy a MIG welder ! An acquaintance who was actually a real welder taught me how to write my name with the 'MIG' . An easy exercise if your name is 'HILL'

A trip to a steel stockist to purchase ( oh, yes, you guessed it )........steel sheets suitable for car repair use. I naturally over-ordered and still have one sheet propped up in the garage with bits of 'new' Viva shapes cut from it.

Some of the rot found after removal of the front wings

Serious corrosion in the inner wing had to cut be out and a repair panel welded in.

Car restoration seems to be influenced by a strange natural law. This manifests itself as work undertaken reveals even more work to be done. Repairing one part reveals another rotten part. This is cut out and reveals even more problems.

'Why did I start this?' must be muttered by most people faced with attempting restore an old car that has near terminal corrosion.

Old rotten wings were taken off to reveal old rotten inner wings. Old rotten outer sills were taken off to reveal old rotten inner sills, and so on.

Driver's side new wing is spot welded on as original on the upper flange. Inner wing ( flitch ) repair panel can also be seen in background

Rusted rear wheel arch is cut-out and a repair panel fitted. 1993.

Confidence began to grow as metal cutting and welding skills were improving and I managed to replace rotten metal on the inner sills and replace the outer ones with new parts. This revealed some rot in both front floor-pans. A few pokes with a 'Manchester Screwdriver' (hammer) found that 'some rot' was actually 'all rot' This nearly defeated me as my heart sank, realising that I would have to fabricate these intricate shapes. It is easy to think that the bit you put your feet on in a car is just a flat bit of metal – it certainly is not!!!!!

I used to think that - until I cut them out and realised that the angles changed constantly together complicated by strengthening corrugations stamped into the metal. I set too with a wooden metal-working mallet and did some real 'tin-bashing' checking progress at intervals with the originals. This was a long job which fortunately I could do outside during one sunny summer ( remember those ?)

Rotten rear valance chopped out and a new panel ready for welding.

New rear valance panel being welded in

'ANA' almost became a 'new' Viva as most things were slowly replaced with newly purchased body parts or fabricated bits of metal. Rotten box-sections, wheel arches,etc, were all repaired. During the 1990,s scrap-yards were full of old Vauxhall Vivas and health and safety rules in these yards were a thing for the future. I would spend my days off wandering these glorious palaces of fallen metal.

“Any Viva,s ?” I would ask ?

“Sure, what yer after ?”

“Oh just about everything” I would truthfully reply.

“Help yourself, just bring 'em to the office after”

I was happy as a pig in muck as I wandered through these old cars piled three or even four high. Morris 1000,s, Jaguar Saloons, Ford Capri,s etc. You name it they were all here together in one large automotive geriatric old folks club, swapping yarns of former glory years whilst awaiting their turn to be recycled into something shiny bright and new.

For some reason old Viva,s were always at the top of the pile and I would have to climb up to see what was worth saving. Doors, bumpers, seats, lights, etc were all detached and lowered down until a pile of Viva treasure trove was ready to taken to the 'office' to haggle a good price.

Sometimes entering the 'office' was more of a dangerous task than climbing to the top of the car-pile. They always had the proverbial 'junk-yard dog' chained nearby who would rush to the end of the chain and become a blur of fangs and noise.

“Come in.....he's O.K” said the scrap-yard man.

“All bark and no trousers” he quipped

“What yer got ? He asked casting an experienced eye glance at the pile of Viva bits.

“Give me twenty quid for that lot and yer can 'ave the rest for free” he suggested a deal I could not refuse.

“ O.K.....I've only 18 quid in cash, will that do?” I asked stroking the junk-yard mutt who really only wanted to be loved.

“ Cheeky sod.....O.K....... nobody wants Viva stuff any more. I got one o 'dem silver droop snooty things coming tomorrow if you are interested?

“Nobody wants 'em and nothing really fits my Viva” said the guy who sold a 1962 VW Caravanette for 100 quid and restored a Vauxhall Viva instead.

So, my dear reader the lesson is now crystal clear ….... always view the future with perfect 20/20 vision and buy the modern equivalent of Split-screen VW Caravanettes (and HPF Droop snoot Viva,s) by the dozen and your old age is financially secure. A few modern E-type equivalents will not go amiss either. A note of caution here the 'Classic car' press always seems to be full of pictures of old barns chock full of old cars that are beyond saving and only worth the scrap value. Investing in old motors is not without many cautionary tales of woe.

So I would go back to work with my new found Viva bits. Most ended in the wooden frame-work at the top of my garage 'just in case'. Tons of 'spares' that threatened to fall on my 'project' below were stored until the invention of E-bay and a lot of the surplus was sold off.

Cars sold as 'spares only' always amuse me, as the 'spares' everybody wants are the ones that always fall to bits and you are only left with the parts on an old motor that everybody has, and nobody wants. I recently saw an interior light cover for a Viva on Ebay. They were made of a special Vauxhall plastic that were designed to self-destruct after 10 years and fall to bits. It was possible to buy these as a spare during production for about £1.20p ….....the Ebay example was surprisingly pristine and must have been stored on cotton wool in a dark cupboard for forty years and it sold for £50 - all for a piece of plastic about three inches long!!!!

So when I was removing Viva spares I never realised that if I had slipped a few dozen of these in my pocket I would be up by a few thousand by now. I would of course be very careful and not to flood the Ebay market all at one time :)

I did have plans to put these back into production but after a few hundred sales the price will obviously come back down to £1.20 with production costs at £2.00 so perhaps it would be better to invest in my old favourite - brewery products. I always lose money on my brewery investments, but for some strange reason I am always happy with the dividends.

I digress.........'ANA' restoration progressed through the early 1990,s and all the body panels were replaced including the bonnet that had been bent by exuberant No1 son

has he tried to 'help'

A refurbished engine replaced the original and 'ANA' was re-sprayed in her original 'Yellow Gold' As the project neared completion in the mid-1990s I started to lose

interest, mainly because most of the serious challenges had been overcome.

Re-conditioned 1256cc engine being fitted as part of the 1993 restoraion

Without the challenge I turned to other interests and she languished in the garage until recently buried in bits of wood and things in a house that need a convenient home just in case you need them. New Vauxhall products came and went …..several Astra,s and a brand new company Vectra for example, until disaster struck and I was made redundant. Gleaming new Vectra was taken back by the remains of the company and I was left with old faithful.......a Vauxhall Viva that seemed to say..........

“New girl gone then?” In a patient sort of way.

I was now 'retired' with time on my hands and no excuses to finish the project I had started many years ago.......more to follow........soon !  :)