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Kilbroney show 2019. Not the best day of my life I'll tell you that ! Fan belt snapped on the way to the show but we limped to the nearest town and got a belt and a few spanners from the auto parts and I changed it at a petrol station next door. This was the fan belt that we pulled off a spare engine when it broke in 2017 so it did ok. Things were going nicely after that until I had an unfortunate run in with a 4 legged friend about 2 miles from the showground

I had already travelled the distance so I attended anyway but it definitely put a dampener on the day.

To try and cheer me up 1972 Nail let me drive his Firenza around the showground, how many of you have got to do that ?

It cheered me up to no end, in fact I tried to talk him into swapping with me, maybe some day David.....

Here's a specially commissioned painting my girlfriend had done for my 21st birthday based off a photo taken on a run. It hangs up in my room pride of place. Its so detailed the artist even included the scratch on the passenger wing !!

2020 and lockdown has struck. This provided the perfect opportunity to do all those Viva jobs I hadn't taken the time to sort before. 2 new engine mounts were fitted as one of the old ones had split. I had a huge holes in the gearstick boot and could see the ground when in 1st and 3rd but I found this one on a spare gearbox I had and it is in pretty good order. Then I fitted all the Gaz gear but we have already heard plenty about that.

Next were those pesky Rostyles. They had somehow been painted back to front before I got them which was bad enough but I was keen to get on the road so I used them as they were. They were getting very rusty and flaky now and Dad had recently purchased a blasting pot so it made sense to get them sorted. Blasting, priming, rubbing down and the painting was done at home and I was quite pleased with the results. Painted with F@#D moondust silver.

Painted photos

I was informed that the correct Mountney Viva steering boss was for sale on eBay. After purchasing it, a genuine recovered wheel was bought and a pack of these badges for the centre cap to take the plain look off it. I think these badges were originally for keyrings.

The wheel is much more comfortable and definitely improves the drive

Badge fitted

Looks great!

Nice work, really looking good and look forward to seeing it in the flesh before too long