1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

This is an area for discussion about Restoration issues.

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby michaelmate » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:42 am

Good work , look forward to seeing the project progress . :pics:
Projects........Projects........Projects!
HC 391
User avatar
michaelmate
GT Viva
GT Viva
 
Posts: 217
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:16 pm
Location: Mid Devon

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Fri Mar 01, 2013 10:29 pm

too busy work wise today to get chance to provide any updated piccies , sorry :whistle3:
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby hbpeter » Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:09 pm

Brilliant, if the floors are good and it runs ok, maybe not as bad as it first looked. Never heard of redex in the oil before. Be a good idea to change oil and filter before you run it for longer periods.

Peter
Reading between the lines, dangerous if your waiting for a train.
User avatar
hbpeter
Register Rep
 
Posts: 10915
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:11 pm
Location: Thornaby, Cleveland

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:34 pm

hi,

washed (in complete darkness with an LED headlamp, so not exactly the best wash)>

Image

Image

still not a pretty sight :o , sharp eyed viewers would however noticed the original Viva club stickers are in tact and still in good condition :)

Image

I treated the passenger floorpan with the phosphoric acid and a wire brush. so when i left it it had a slime mush of rust brown goo left on the floor.

I can back the next day to take a look and the liquid had evaporated (the fan heater is still installed) , leaving a clean floor. the rust had mainly dissolved and turned black, leaving a floor and the blue paint showing.

the neat thing is the remaining "black" residue is stable and hard and can be painted directly over.

i did a stamp test on the floor pan and it is very solid so even if the rest of the car turns out to be a headache, the front passenger floorpan is good to go :)

said floorpan, i had brushed it with a wire brush to check for loose stuff etc.. may give it a second brush coat of the acid as some untreated brown bits showed through after the wire brushing.

Image

Have been removing loose rust in the boot wells and under the bonnet as well as duct taping over the topside holes so as to keep the rain out (it is stored outside).

not had a lot of time to work on it though so will resume rust stabilising somewhen this week possibly.. stopping the rust cycle seems a good start , before attacking the holes and cosmetics.

Redex in engine oil..

I used a bit of logical thinking with redex some years ago, it is napthan which is a petroleum based detergent/lube and at the time i had had bought for next to nothing a rover 820 off somebody as it had an engine problem.

The service history was huge and all related to a problem with sticking valves one one cylinder. sure enough it would randomly lose a cylinder and not return it for many miles , which was rather inconvenient, not to mention dangerous.

I had a chat to an ex rover engine guy and he confirmed it was some design clearance issue. this most likely that meant even the smallest amount of oil caking onto the valve stem would make it stick..

i lobbed half a bottle of redex into the oil, it is a gum dissolving detergent, it will co-exist with oil.. the car was cheap, if it didnt work, nothing lost etc...

within 10 miles the problem vanished and never came back.. i was happy , the former keeper less so as he had driven it 20k with the problem (masochist?!). I drove that around the country for a couple of years and eventually disposed of it when the front suspension went all odd.

I did similar with an old carlton, drove that until 195000 miles, the end of life for that car was its bodywork fizzed away and at that time the need for a car for work meant i had no time to spend trying to patch it up.

The only caveat i would say is don't use it if you think you may have a weak head gasket as a peugeot 306 had unknowingly been bodged to hide a HG leak and the redex found it and cleaned out the bodge nicely.

but then as i suspect engine flush has a similar behaviour then it would equally be unwise in that extreme.

I have the new oil filter and oil on standby.. need to check the fuel tank to see what condition it is in. unsure as to why it was unplugged from the pump. could be somebody wanted to try and fire it up without putting fuel in the tank , or the tank has a hole in it , pipes leaking etc...

Want to run it on fast idle with the redex in both fuel/oil for longer than the makeshift tank will allow before doing the oil+filter change.

cheers

Bill
HBPeter wrote:Brilliant, if the floors are good and it runs ok, maybe not as bad as it first looked. Never heard of redex in the oil before. Be a good idea to change oil and filter before you run it for longer periods.

Peter
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:40 am

a quick non update..


the weather , work and the repair work on my other car (chevette) means i have had no time to spend on sparky.

He does however now have a cover so is protected from the rain and the temp controlled fan heater still lives inside so the internal rust has dried or is drying out which should arrest it for now.

As soon as i get the time free again I will attack the smaller issues that cause the most problems (such as small rust holes that let water, in windscreen rubber etc..) . the more demanding stuff will probably be addressed when we finally get a summer :)

If anybody bumps into a source of inner door panels then i need a set ideally, or individuals will do too, especially if blue ..

cheers

Bill
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby Paul Dawson » Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:02 pm

Hi Bill

Good thread - thanks for the details, it makes good reading.

I've never heard of the Redex trick with oil, but I am now wondering if it would work with modern hydraulic lifters. I get a few lads who have bought cheap cars with poor service history and sticking lifters is a common problem. I tell them not to use an engine flush as that is too aggressive and dislodges something into a narrow oilway. I wonder if Redex would clear a partially blocked hydraulic injector without dislodging massive amounts of deposits.

Or is this what something like Wynn's hydraulic tappet cleaner already is?
User avatar
Paul Dawson
GT Viva
GT Viva
 
Posts: 498
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:27 am
Location: Chester

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:14 am

good point Paul, Redex is basically Naptha , a petroleum derived product and wikipedia has amongst its uses :-

Naphthas are also used in other applications such as:

An unprocessed component in the production of petrol/motor gasoline
Industrial solvents and cleaning fluids
A commonly available general purpose solvent designated as "VM&P" naphtha, which stands for "varnish makers' and painters'"
An ingredient in shoe polish
An ingredient in some lighter fluids for wick type lighters such as Zippo lighters
An adulterant to petrol
A fuel for portable stoves and lanterns, sold in North America as White gas, camp fuel or Coleman fuel
A fuel for fire spinning, fire juggling, or other fire performance equipment which creates a brighter and cleaner yet shorter burn
As a coating for elemental lithium metal, to prevent oxidation (mineral oil is also used for this purpose)
As a fuel in gas turbine unit
As the working fluid (and sometimes, fuel) in the (external combustion) naphtha engine.

So as it implies it is used to clean (remove varnish etc..) and as a fuel in its own right.

I used it on a rover 820 ,in the oil, as it had a sticking valve that rendered it a lumpy 3 cylinder regularly . usually when trying to pull away at a roundabout or junction with comedic and dangerous effect.

the ~200ml or so of redex i lobbed in fixed the problem and i did many thousands of miles with it still in there (i paid £30 for the car so it got drove and not maintained, i was a consultant design engineer travelling a lot of miles and it didn't owe me anything so no oil changes).

It was scrapped in the end when the front end steering went all ill and was going to be expensive to fix.. the redex made it a perfectly nice car to drive for the time i had it..

I would hazard that it will clean in the same way as the flush you mention and that may be the same stuff inside anyway.

so to avoid over zealous cleaning and possible debris issues then use a small amount. I use it as an engine flush in higher quantities , especially worthwhile for a 29 year old car with 32k miles on it i suspect.. the evil sludge will need breaking down somehow, an oil change won't remove it on its own.

the car with 32k miles is my recently acquired chevette which i am currently preparing for road use, it has done under 1000 miles since 1998 and still has 155R13 ( goodyear grand prix s) tyres with 5-6 mm of tread on em on it :o

cheers

bill
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Wed May 01, 2013 3:26 pm

hi all,

i do still exist :)

my viva lives under its cover most of the time as i haven't had time to do much.

I have managed to find a carburettor service kit for it and have taken the carb off ready to be done.

The fuel pump was had it too and leaked, plus there was hardly any pressure so i bought another off the bay and fitted it.

this new life of fuel pressure revealed an overflowing carb bowl problem, hence the need to dismantle and clean up the carb, float jets etc..

at least she is dry inside and out and kept covered from the sun :)

If anybody happens to come across some blue door cards for a 4 door 72 saloon then could they give me a ping please.. even if they aren't blue for that matter :)

cheers

Bill
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby rallylad11 » Thu May 02, 2013 8:15 pm

Where did u get the carb kit ?
AVM670M
9C11DDX143573
User avatar
rallylad11
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2012 1:10 pm
Location: Galley Head, Southern Ireland

Re: 1973 (registered) Viva HC SL restoration XHK 343L

Postby cheviva » Fri May 03, 2013 9:55 am

hi

its the kit in the pic. i got it from... Australia via ebay ..



grrr "The image must be at least 0 pixels wide, 0 pixels high and at most 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high. The submitted image is 583 pixels wide and 778 pixels high."

somebody needs to change this size limit as it is too small and for portrait it makes it even sillier.

bill
User avatar
cheviva
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:44 pm
Location: Sussex

Previous

Return to Restoration

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests

cron