My first Viva - 1972 Deluxe

[Paul Dawson]

This is my first Viva so any advice or suggestions are welcome please.

The car was owned by the same person from 1st January 1972 until 2002. The second owner then used it as a daily driver and had it MOT'd locally, but don't think had much servicing or maintenance done on it. The mileage is showing 55k, so I am assuming that is at least 155k.

The MOT expired in November 2011 and the car had been driven until October, but in my opinion wasn't really roadworthy (see below re. lack of brakes.)

Here's how it looks













Bodywork:
I know that the rear end of both sills and the inner wings have gone (when I washed all the mud out quite a lot of the inner wing came out as well!) I think it's had replacement front wings at some time and done reasonably well judging by the panel lines and paint match. I think the floor is reaonably solid, and the rear wheelarches seem OK. The o/s/r arch is crusty, but not holed. There is a hole behind the rear arch. I am sure there is more corrosion to be discovered.

So it needs some welding, which I am hopeless at

Mechanical/Electrics
It needs a good service, the engine (1256) runs but not well, so oil, filters, plugs, points, HT leads, valve clearances, grease points etc won't go amiss. The brakes are useless, none at all at the rear, no handbrake, fronts pull to the left. The indicators flash very slowly both directions. The starter is slow. (Battery has been tested and is good. With engine running it shows 13v across the battery so the alternator seems to be OK.)

My initial plan of action is:

A. To give it a thorough service
B. To fix the obvious problems - indicators (I suspect the flasher unit), brakes, passenger seat is loose, battery is loose (wrong one so the bracket doesn't reach), steering rack gaiters, strip out or replace some dodgy additional wiring added over the years, starter motor
C. Then the bodywork - I spoke to a local bodyshop, he suggested I got it MOT'd to highlight the areas which he'd need to focus on and then bring it to him. What I think I shall do is to scrape off as much crusty bits as I can and lay bare any problems - treat any surface rust with Dinitrol, then send it to the bodyshop with everything on show.

I have sent off my membership for the Club, so hopefully before too long I shall know where to buy spares from. In the meantime I'm trawling ebay for the basics.

Haynes manual is on the way, to join the ones for my '72 Triumph which was my first car, and my '72 Escort which is how I found out my welding skills are not very good. (Both cars long since gone. I've been messing with modern stuff recently - but got fed up of needing to use a computer to fix cars.)

Any thoughts, suggestions or advice gratefully received. It always pays to listen to people who know a car inside out.

[dann01]

Hello and welcome

You certainly have your hands full, but from the looks of the pics, she looks worth saving, especially since she's a 2 door.

Your welder friend is quite right, sort out the bits that need it to get her road worthy, and then do what you can as a rolling resto. If you need to lay her up later to sort big stuff out, then at least you know where you stand.

Feel free to ask any questions. Plenty of folk on here to any questions. No question is too daft.

Good luck with the resto. Have fun.

Dan

[pbottomley]

No question is too daft.

Ohhh do you feel lucky punk??????

[mazzo]

Welcome and good luck.

Seems a nice little car and the problems are small, so it should provide you with a solid classic car once you've finished.

You are doing the right thing by being a bit ruthless with rust. Don't go mad but if you are having a bodyshop doing some of the work for you, they will probably appreciate the fact you've uncovered the crusty bits and removed them - not least because it will give them more work to do and hence a bit more money.

Recently (as in last weekend) I discovered the cruddy work that a bodyshop did on my car back in the 80s. They had simply knocked rusty metal inwards and then glass fibred or filled over the top. The result now is fairly large areas of roof, wings and doors need big bits of metal welding in to cover the rust which has spread fatally under the filler. I DIDN'T know they had done this at the time!

Look forward to seeing how you are getting on with yours. Ask as many questions as you like from the community here because you'll find not only are they helpful but they enjoy sharing their experiences - good or bad!

[droopsnoot]

Nice to see another local car, hope to see you at some of the shows in the area - I try to do a few at Cholmondeley Castle, Bodelwyddan and there's a new one not far from there this year.

Out of interest, what's that big red beam that runs under the drivers seat?

[Paul Dawson]

The big red beam is a bit of wood holding the clutch pedal down. The clutch was sticking, so after running it for a couple of hours I got the clutch free and just wanted to avoid a repeat performance.

Well I've no idea how folk do threads here so I'll just keep adding bits of progress (or lack of) as I go along and see if anyone has any ideas to offer.

I had a bash at the indicator problem this afternoon - all I found is that it isn't the flasher unit, which wasn't the type I was expecting:



Two pins on the back, one with an ignition fed 12v supply, and the other running to the indicator stalk. To test the flasher itself I cobbled together a couple of 21w lamps in parallel



Tested on a leisure battery the flasher works fine. Then I transferred it to the car battery, also works fine. Then I ran a 12v supply direct from the battery to the flasher unit - it works at about 50%.

So I figure there must be some cruddy connections in the system which are going to take some sorting out. I've cleaned the battery connections, tested it with a jump lead to make a good earth, cleaned the fusebox and connector blocks - no difference as yet.

[mazzo]

Start with the earth to the lights themselves. That's usually the problem.

[Paul Dawson]

Start with the earth to the lights themselves. That's usually the problem.

Thanks - I shall give that a go.

[Paul Dawson]

Growl - taken the indicators out, cleaned them all, wired secondary earths. Wired directly to the battery they are bright. Running via the car's wiring loom they are dim.

So it's not the earths - I think there's a bad connection somewhere in the live feed. It's the same both sides, so hopefully that narrows it down to before the individual wires to the indicators themselves.

Headlights are fine - so it's on the ignition side of the electrics.

On the wiring schematic there is a resistor wire shown - anyone got an idea where that is?

[droopsnoot]

The big red beam is a bit of wood holding the clutch pedal down. The clutch was sticking, so after running it for a couple of hours I got the clutch free and just wanted to avoid a repeat performance.

Ah, I see. I used to have the same problem, and cut down a small piece of wood to wedge between the pedal and the front of the pedal box.

As for the resistance wire, it runs inside the wiring loom behind the dashboard and you''ll have to take the loom to pieces to see it, but it's only used to give the coil a lower voltage at all times except starting, instead of putting a separate ballast resistor somewhere.

Another thing might be the column switch, especially if the problem is there on both sides. Makes you think it's more likely to be the feed into the switch than the switch itself. Can you follow the voltage through the system and see with a meter where it drops?