Hello everybody!

[thomas]

Hello everybody, I'm a new member here, would like to introduce myself. My names Thomas, I live in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, I have just bought a 2-door HB Viva, I've wanted one for years - since I think when I first seen a blue Viva GT pictured in a Vauxhall range brochure, "Vauxhalls Stylish Breed for '69" - 69 happens to be the year I was born too, the one I've bought was reg'd in April 68, so its older than me, I'm hoping it's known to the club and members here, it's FHF 101F ( a Liverpool area plate) recently sold (on ebay) by a nice chap in North Wales who is delivering it tomorrow. My father and grandfather both owned HC Vivas when I was a nipper and I grew up with the Vivas and learned my way around cars working on them as 'helper'. This early interest lead me to train (C&G Light Vehicle Body Repair etc.) as a panel beater in the 1980s with a now defunct Vauxhall dealer in Renfrewshire, Scotland. I left the motor trade after my apprenticeship to pursue a degree and career in IT and have had varied subsequent jobs in that field but my heart has always been in motors and the Viva was something special.

Recently when my Mark 3 Cavalier which I've owned this last 16 years, became overdue for replacement, the idea of something older rather than newer appealed greatly and though I was after a exceptional Chevette - as I've owned a few of them - the HB Viva captivated as some unattainable dream car would, and now I've got one I'm delighted and still in a state of disbelief.

I've a lot of reading to do here on the forum, it's a mine of information. I'll sign off now, be sure I'll have some more specific matters to post on when I've acquired a clue and the car itself is here. This is the ebay listing for the car I've bought, I'd appreciate any comments or info anyone can give me on it based on the description and what can be discerned by those in the know from the photos and so on.

[bedfordbad]

Hi and welcome to the club forum, I would recommend you join the club (if you are not already a member) ,to gain the most from this forum and obvious insurance and parts discounts, newsletter ect, Your hb is known to the club and is in the club register...Your hb looks like a bit of a bargain to me, and a nice bit of film history too..... very nice.. Please feel free to ask any questions and post more photo`s ect......

[thomas]

Thanks for the cheery welcome, bedfordbad.

Joining the club seems very likely some time soon. I had thought I had finished with motor cars as a consuming passion and my interest in motorcycles has waned a bit too - though I still keep one of them too, but they never leave you. In the process of house moves over the years though so much literature, tools, garage equipment and so on were foolishly discarded. The car as detailed in the ebay listing has a Chevette 1256cc engine, it has a brake servo in pictures there, someone on vodc has suggested that's also Chevette, Im not sure if it has front disks and so on but many of these questions will be anawered when the car is delivered, I will have to decode the vin and spi plates to determine the original specification of the car; appropriate contemporary door mirrors will have to be sourced and fitted as it has none (nor wing mirrors happily which I dislike), an alternator conversion, electronic ignition all seem sensible modifications to crack on with if these haven't been done yet. I'm sure there'll be teething issues galore to sort out but with the support of the members here, it'll be a doddle and good fun.

Right now I can't seem to get any smilies to display either in the posts or to the right of the message editor here, where just the codes are displayed, get 403 Forbidden responses, suspect it's an administrative thing. I tend towards the verbose so the odd smilie can lighten the otherwise slab like blocks of text I churn out.

I like the HA in your avatar, the yellow GPO ones were as uncool as can be imagined for so long, great to see they are really becoming appreciated now.

[hbpeter]

Hello and welcome. Nice car, well done for buying it. Yes the car is known to us, the servo might be a HB one, some models had them fitted with the option of disc brakes. If its got a servo it should have discs. The discs only came as standard on the '90' models, but most cars have been converted from drums by now. Ask any questions you like.

Peter

[thomas]

Thanks Peter, I wondered if it might be a 90 (though irrelevant with the engine change), the tags will tell for sure, I'm not certain if '90' designation would be recorded in the log book under model/type, these things in those days were pretty inconsistent. It might have had the disks (if fitted) and servo as optional equipment too, but it's not in any way a performance car, as long as the existing kit is serviceable there should be adequate braking. I'll have to grapple with these issues sooner rather than later as the MoT looms sometime in March, I'll likely put it into the local garage for a pre-MoT well in advance. Scrutinising the pictures, the n/s wiper is hanging over the rubber and sitting on the scuttle, it might just need tightening on the splines if the splines aren't worn, a quick fix for that can be cobbled up. I notice the rear bumper looks a bit askew too in some photos, pointing upwards a little bit at the extremities. I'm not anticipating any problems with it and will take my time to familiarise myself with its foibles.

The DVLA's online tax check site is down for maintenance, so I can't yet look it up to see if the change from 1159 to 1256 has been notified; I could have clarified these things as I'm just off the phone to the seller, but there's plenty of time to sort things like that out over the coming months.

I just need to find a new home for the Cavalier I'm retiring at the end of the month, it'd be a pity to scrap that, future generations will curse us for so ruthlessly and casually scrapping so many good and iconic motors due to mere corrosion, much as we here do wince at the Vivas, Firenzas and Magnums nonchalantly discarded in the 70s and 80s.

[thomas]

It's arrived, half-an-hour early, still dark(ish) out but here's some quick snaps.





The Cavalier is growling at the upstart, 20+ years its senior, that's supplanting it.

[BobbyMel]

Hi, it looks a good un. Hope you get all the enjoyment from it that you expect. Hope to see it in some shows this year.

Bob

[thomas]

BobbyMel Wrote: Hi, it looks a good un. Hope you get all the enjoyment from it that you expect. Hope to see it in some shows this year.

I don't know about that anytime soon the paint while shiny is awful up close, some nasty sags and runs, very orange-peely over, especially the roof, which looks as if it had a vinyl roof on under the paint! It is now and probably forever, work-in-progress, it isn't without some issues; perishing this and perishing that, it's not free of tin-worm either but nothing irredeemable hopefully, it has intact thorough underseal coat down below but could be a horror story unfolds. Looks a million-yo-yos but it has to be reliable and usable too, goosed battery plus lazy if even functional dynamo does not make a handy runabout, not without an impractical support vehicle shadowing it.

I'll post an oh expletive 'why didn't I just buy another motorbike' thread in the not too distant future.

[dann01]

BobbyMel Wrote: Hi, it looks a good un. Hope you get all the enjoyment from it that you expect. Hope to see it in some shows this year.

I don't know about that anytime soon the paint while shiny is awful up close, some nasty sags and runs, very orange-peely over, especially the roof, which looks as if it had a vinyl roof on under the paint! It is now and probably forever, work-in-progress, it isn't without some issues; perishing this and perishing that, it's not free of tin-worm either but nothing irredeemable hopefully, it has intact thorough underseal coat down below but could be a horror story unfolds. Looks a million-yo-yos but it has to be reliable and usable too, goosed battery plus lazy if even functional dynamo does not make a handy runabout, not without an impractical support vehicle shadowing it.

I'll post an oh expletive 'why didn't I just buy another motorbike' thread in the not too distant future.

The best works in progress are the ones you can use and enjoy... Get the reliability issues sorted, and everything else will fall into place over time... Would be nice to see at Billing.

Dan

[steff]

Thomas

Welcome to the fun. There are a few owners up here in Scotland so any questions ask away or send me a PM and I can pass on some contact numbers.

Steff
HC496