Heh, quite agree with the salt thing although the local councils round here aren't exactly over mad with it as its Rural and iced up single track lanes wouldn't be the same if they salted em
I have an update on the Viva, which has been named Sparky as my partner said the colour looked like electric blue.
I am not sure what exactly the colour is called but i think its the same as the one in the forum top logo
Anyway.. today Sparky got a wash, washed off the moss, dirt etc.. Used a soft floor brush and some generic car shampoo from a local factors (washing vehicles isn't something i do a lot , but then my other vehicle is an LDV convoy).
The paint isn't too well, lots of white spot oxidisation, some rusty bits on top etc.. the chrome trim is ok, where it isn't bent.
the clean has uncovered the fact that a red vehicle has been scraped down the passenger side, leaving a dent in the passenger door and wheel arch. This will be something i will attempt to fix with a panel beating kit i bought a year or so ago ..
The fan heater that has lived inside in the footwell for the last day or three has dried out the inside nicely and the rubber mallet confirms the rust on the floorpans is surface and they are solid.
I have applied phosphoric acid to the passenger floor pan with a pain brush and worked it into the rust. this stuff dissolves the rust but doesn't dissolve steel and when it has finished you just wipe off any residue and you are left with shiny metal..
it is like that stuff halfrauds sells in 90 ml bottles, but i got it in 5 litre bottles from here >
http://www.bonnymans.co.uk/products/pro ... uctID=6183£19 for 5 litres of strong phosphoric acid, as opposed to £7 or whatever for weak 90ml blahrust from halfs.. You can tell when this stuff is high concentration, it is clear and slimey.. at lower concentrations it darkens.
use of goggles and gloves is wise, it takes a lot of washing - dilution to get it off your hands. that is my public service announcement, from experience
I tested it on the floor pan of custard first, my yellow chevette which is receiving parallel restoration work.. the battery tray had gone on it and the drivers side floor was very wet.. again caught before it became serious rot.
Will go back and see how that went tomorrow perhaps. got to zinc paint the now de-rusted bits of the chevette floorpan first. her blog is on the chevette owners group site.
The engine! - Sparky is a 1256 with the cake tin filter + carb as expected. Last time i visited i removed the plugs and poured in some redex to each bore. Checked it had oil in it and that it looked usable etc.. lobbed some of the redex in the oil too (i have done this before on other vehicles to great effect, ask for details ).
this will help degum - carbon the oil side before i change the oil - filter etc..
This time i thought i would try and turn the engine over , a couple of nudges of the crankshaft pulley nut before the engine decided to budge (guessing sticking rings). Then decided to crank the key once i had a battery fitted.
she turned over, slowly at first but then picked up speed as expected with the plugs out
so it turns
Next i stuck one of the removed plugs onto a lead, rested it on the brake servo, cranked the engine over, no spark..
popped the dissie cap off, poke the points with the 11mm spanner i had ready to take it out if needed.. At this point i was reminded quite sharply that i had left the ignition on ... owch..
I retrieved the 11mm spanner from about 20 ft away
and turned the ignition off.
redneck style i turned the engine over by jamming a big screwdriver across the starter solenoid contacts so as to get the points to sid on a lobe. they wern't opening.. except for when i pushed em open with the spanner earlier.
out came the screwdriver, ah this takes me back.. tweaking the points base plate and scraping off corrosion from the points.. finally got them about right visually. they opened/closed anyway..
lobbed the cap back on, cranked it and a spark on the plug, yay
Stuck all the plugs back in and put the leads back on.. poured a bit of fuel into the carb and turned the key.
The engine spluttered, fired into life then died one the fuel vanished. The pipe to the tank from the fuel pump was disconnected when i bought it so i used a pierce of hose from the pump into the redex bottle which i had now filled with petrol.
i used the redex bottle as it was clear so i could see if the fuel was going somewhere , i.e. the pump works
the hose fitted it nicely too.
the choke cable is seized, and due to the carb design if you cant move the choke cable then you cant manually push it. So i popped the lid of the air filter box, ignition on, big starter solenoid shorting screwdriver at the ready and cranked it over while placing my hand over the air inlet to the carb.
a few turns and vroom, it started and ran, left it running for a bit, the exhaust wasn't blowing and no nasty smoke out of it either.. phew..
turned it off after a bit as there was no fanbelt, so fitted one, another ebay purchase, got two, the other one for custard as that still had the original one on it and it looks well ropey/thin/frayed.
It was fun persuading the alternator to move, my friend mr rubber mallet helped it down low enough to get the belt on. then the fun of levering it back up again to tension the thing and do the nut up.
poured some water (well washer fluid as its all i had) to top up the radiator.. it wasn't empty so that was a good sign.
fired it up and left it running until the redex bottle ran out.. all seems functional
All this was done in the dark this evening, my LED headlamp being the main saviour.
I did take a couple of pics of the cleaner sparky but as yet haven't transferred em to the PC. flash photo's at night never look that good imo anyway ..
maybe take some more tomorrow if i get chance in the daylight.
bill