From a Magard snoot to the real one.

[Jon-HPF]

A bit sooner than i anticipated - but , with the engine out and being rebuilt , i thought id tackle the snoot conversion on the viva
Steel wings off along with the magard snoot , battery tray removed (bit of rust in usual place ! - will move battery over to n/s cos it looks a bit bare on that side . Bit of welding needed - got full set inner wing repair panels .
but first i have to try and get the new fibreglass wings and the snoot nose to fit before any inner wings are repaired.

[Jon-HPF]

tackling the fitting of fibreglass wings at present . Bit of a b itch getting the fit correct around the leading edge of doors ! decided to make up some brackets rather than just self tap onto "A" pillar .
Once again - my viva doesnt dissapoint in terms of rust !!
The o/s "A" pillar was better than the N/s one - just had to weld in a plate from the sill onwards . The area around the lower door hinge on n/s was very weak so cut out the outer a panel skin then cut out 3mm plate sections to beef up the pillar then repalced the outer skin. At this point my mig wire ran out , so diverted my attention to the lower screen corners , as this is a favourite place for rot on vivas , mine looked ok , with just a few pinholes where the top coner of wing butts to (so they wouldnt be seen when the wings were on) Obviously another design fault so rather than just fill em in - out came my favourite tool (that dremill thingy) .
cut out the old steel and removed the large blobs of rock hard sealer - which was obviously the cause of the problems in these corners !
made up some steel plates after first using card templates .
Down to machine mart in the week to get more welding supplies

[Jon-HPF]

Got more mig wire - Hlafords - damn expensive
Welded repair patch n/s screen corner , trial fit of o/s wing - seems ok , just needed a little taken off the top corner at the door.
Uses stainless steel washers/nuts to weld captive nuts into "A" pillar , seemed a better way than just self tapping

[grandas_shed]

great job u doing there m8.
i enjoy keeping an eye on your progress on this car, nice to see that it has not gone to the scrap yard like a lot of those in the past did.

[Jon-HPF]

Thanks, yeah ur right , if only we knew then what we know now , i dont think anyone would scrap a car!
We recently sent an escort mk 4 , 1992, 2 door for scrap cos of a broken exhaust and ropey engine - just think , if we'd kept it for another 20 yrs it would have been a great donor shell for some RS enthusiast.
But being practical (and with no storage space) , thats where many a good car has ended up
One of my first Firenza's was a 72 , 2000 SL , which i saved from the scrap yard in 1981 , as a 9 yr old car at that time , it was is far worst nick than my current viva which is 34 this year so it cant be all that bad !
cheers - jon

[Jon-HPF]

Decided to cut out a previous repair at n/s front of sill section , couldnt find any 1.2mm steel so used 3mm sheet plate ! should be nice and strong anyway - just need to fabricate a proper section to weld to the new sill and attach to a pillar - should be fun.

[phil dawson]

Great work there Jon, keep it up.
Refreshing to see the rusty sections disappear and new ones welded into place.
Awesome!!

Phil

[Jon-HPF]

Thanks Phil - hope your firenza is taking shape too ! havent done a lot on the body side this week - just starting to line up the f/glass cut back wings with doors and bonnet line so hopefully the snoot nose should fit ok , before getting the suzuki engine back from machine shop - had new rings / big end and main bearings /crank polished/ head skimmed/ valves reseated , been mucking around with that all week - fitted new oil / water pumps , got new clutch to go on etc , looking to get the short block back in car on weekend cos i aint got room in the garage for all the bits! Also managed to get some Vitara engine mount rubbers (bigger than the SJ's) plus a bigger Vitara rad and some other bits n pieces from a local scrappy . Got a webber carb off ebay .
So , when it all goes back together i should ?? have a decent power plant which hopefully wont blow blue smoke out the rocker box

[Jon-HPF]

Ok - its back to the bodywork - namely the front slam panel, which is looking decidely flimsy with most of its structure removed in order to accomadate the proper snoot light boxes . The back of the headlight panel on my original snoot is cut away just enough to get access to the lights , but it is tight! This is probably because the rad has to be attached there as well .
seeing that i have devised a different mounting arrangement for the suzuki vitara rad - i dont need all that metal - so out with the grinder This gives plenty of access and hopefully a bit more air flow to rad but its now in need of reinforcement
Braced across the entire length from underneath the slam panel with angle iron then used same angle iron to brace the 3 vertical points .
Not entirely pedestrian friendly , but hey, the original snoot nose cone is quite heavy for a bit of glass fibre !
Now plenty of access , just need to seam weld the slam panel to the angle iron - its alreadt welded from underneath.

[Jon-HPF]

Slam panel all braced up - now back to those "A" pillars n/s one just needed a bracket welding on to hold the lower part of wing , used 3mm thick steel strip and welded on stainless steel nuts.
Finished off all the welding then ground back / anti corrosion painted then zinc primed ready for seam sealing . Also cleaned up the inner floor well and welded about every inch - didnt really need to do this as the outer repair was continually welded anyway!