vauxhallviva.com

Also trussing along the sides to the firewall since I'll be doing a LOT of floor mods...

Yeh looks like its good and sturdy i assume your planning on doing all the mods and metal work on the spit, ive been adding steel to the front legs and had been concerned about things moving, but all good.

Decided to beef up the inners of the front chassis legs.

Ive plated over the subframe mounting as they will be solid mounted so the extra thickness wont be an issue.

Made a start on fitting the battery cable and then onto the brake pipe, with the exhaust so close to the body and chassis rails i had to reroute slightly to avoid excessive heat, although they will be shielded aswel one way or another.

Surprizing myself at how much there is still left to do, as the engine is so tight for space the bulkhead needed some heat shielding so no time like the present to sort it out.

i found the cheapest place was CBS this seems to be good quality stuff, but it took me waaaaay more time than i thought it would.

some more heat shielding to do on the battery cable yet.

Keep at it Bill, won’t be long until you have the best Viva on the planet! Absolutely no detail overlooked.

rizzo wrote:Yeh looks like its good and sturdy i assume your planning on doing all the mods and metal work on the spit,

Yes, as much as possible. I'm too old to crawl underneath, so it's much better to bring the mountain to Muhammad.

Couple more pics to show what I'm up to (I'm trying hard to not hijack your thread, but may be failing):

Jeez how much have you cut out???

What's going in there???

Kraken wrote:Keep at it Bill, won’t be long until you have the best Viva on the planet! Absolutely no detail overlooked.

Thanks, well you think you have covered most aspects but things keep cropping up

wolf wrote:

rizzo wrote:Yeh looks like its good and sturdy i assume your planning on doing all the mods and metal work on the spit,

Yes, as much as possible. I'm too old to crawl underneath, so it's much better to bring the mountain to Muhammad.

Couple more pics to show what I'm up to (I'm trying hard to not hijack your thread, but may be failing):

2019-01-31 22.03.32.jpg

2019-01-31 21.57.09.jpg

I wish i had used a spit at the start of my restoration, i'm not exactly a spring chicken either so it would have made it easier for me aswel lol.
Have you just cut the arch out there or are you into the boot floor? i assume it will be tubbed?

Why not put the battery cable inside the car instead ? Must be much easier to protect ?

rizzo wrote:Have you just cut the arch out there or are you into the boot floor? i assume it will be tubbed?

It's still very much up in the air on how much I'll have to cut and move around. Getting the rear suspension instant centre to a reasonable position is priority #1, and it very much depends on the ride height, which then determines if I have to raise the trunk (sorry, boot) floor, and go to full replacement rear tubs. My hope is to only have to modify the existing inner wheel housings (basically square them up to the inside shock tower wall) but it already looks like I will have to notch the existing rear frame a bit too. I'll be making an all new crossmember and using coilovers for the rear suspension, so the existing shock towers can be filled with tire. Once I get the 9" axle housing narrowed and in there to see where the suspension mounts end up, I'll have a better idea of how much more work is ahead. As for the wheel arches (if I understand that term correctly), I only have to stretch the front of the wheel opening about an inch forward (just the part below the SL side moldings), and that's quick and easy. The tires are only 26 x 10", so they're not pro-street monsters, but they sure do look big on this little car.