Sylva Restoration

2010-05-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

As if to break the habit of a lifetime (or at least, the last few years anyway) I'm continiuing to get on with the rebuild of the Sylva.
Having continued de rusting the chassis (hammerite is the work of the devil, it's either gone or it's stuck like you wouldn't believe) I decided that today, the suspension arms would get some attention.

So, out with Mr Angry Grinder again and the wire brush. Four trailing arms and four wishbones have now been done. They were all in quite a state, but they're looking quite nice now. First coat was silver zinc rich paint, but it's quite unforgiving to get a finish on it and leaves lots of brush marks. All the parts will be getting some thin coats of black in the next few days.

Paint & Rust

2010-05-02T03:04:00.000-07:00

Or, how to get rid of it.

The chassis of the Sylva was originally coated with hammerite and what appears to be some kind of flexible base coat - in places.
Where the paint could be seen, it was still in good order. This was probably as a result fo recoating over the years. Where it couldn't be seen it was either seriously bubbling, non existent, or could be peeled away in sheets. Not good.

Here's the inverted chassis with the remaining panels removed. This is with some of the rust and paint removed with the flat wire brush in the angle grinder.

I'm now at the stage where all the remaining paint needs to come off in order that I'm able to refinish a sound chassis and provide it with a durable coat of surface finish.

My good friend Mango has some sort of arrangement with a local media blasting person and it seems that might be a possibility, but I'm unsure of timescale. In the meantime, the trusty twisted knot wheel in both flat and cup form will be pressed into service with the angle grinder. If an area can be confirmed rust and paint free, it will get a quick coat of zinc rich primer to keep the rust from reappearing. Then we'll see where we are after that. Hopefully all these rust free areas will eventually all join hands and I'll end up with a decent chassis again.
I also have four wishbones, four trailing arms and a crossmember to do. The other front upright is nearly there. After that and with a refinished chassis, I will be able to have a rolling chassis again. Pics to follow once the shed is tidy and worth taking pics in. I've learnt the hard lesson of a tidy workspace being nothing less than 100% essential.

Take a break.

2010-05-02T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well that was some break.
I havne't been completely dormant since I last blogged on here, but if I'm honest hadn't done much worth reporting on either. I'm in the fortunate position now of being involved with a small racing team which has rather taken my attentions away from the Sylva. This may sound bad, but the good outcome is this has now reawakened my interests in the car and the project is moving again.
Since I last updated this resto, I increasingly became aware that the chassis had more issues than could be practically resolved by the method I was attempting to employ. That of restoring the car a bit at a tie without a complete stripdown. This was, in hindsight, a narrow sighted and probably naive approach.
I'm now aware that a full strip down is the correct approach and to cut a logn stroy short, that's what I have done. As we speak the chassis is sitting in the garage completley stripped down with the only items remaining on it being paint and rust, which seems like anothe place for a blog entry...

Next Project...

2009-01-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

Notwithstanding the fact that the Sylva restoration is still very much ongoing, I have pretty much decided what will follow it. Some time ago I put virtual pen to paper and designed a mid engined sports racing chassis. I was looking to pen something that fits my own size and also reflects my love of various 1980s sports racers such as Visions, Mallocks and Pilbeams. The finished car will of course look nothing like any of the above, but they have certainly influenced what I have drawn. The drawing above gives you a rough idea without giving too much away...

2009-01-25T03:59:00.000-08:00

Not a great del to update of late, but I have become a bit more active on the Sylva mailing list of late, so here's some pics to fill in a bit more detail.

To start with, here's the car as it was.

I then ripped the old engine out - engine bay was a total mess.

Bit of cleaning up and then the engine was mocked into position.

Engine mounts finished

Chopped up an old bike manifold

A bit nearer to a finished manifold.

That's pretty much where we are.

The front suspension is also off being refurbished and the engine has run in the chassis - see the videos to the right. I hope to have the gearchange done this week, followed by taking it all back out again to refinish all the paint in the engine bay.

You'll see that I am very much a novice welder. This leads to a huge amount of, let's call it finishing to my welds. It is far from ideal, but I am slowly picking it up. The exhaust manifold has been especially challenging as it is very thin material, but it is pretty much there now. I kept the heat low to avoid blow through and accepted the resultant welds for what they were. The angry grinder is leaving a finish which is a bit less embarrasing.

Engine mounts were much easier being heavier material.

Frustrating.

2009-01-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

Since the angle grinder incident, I've had to take things easy.
Restricted movement in the finger due to the scar tissue. Decided to have a go at it today and the wound started opening up again - not good.
I suppose, I have to be very carefull for the next week or so.

To keep things going, the carbs are back off and I have stripped the float bowls off in readiness for a full strip to make sure all the float valves and jets are clear. Then they can go back on along with the airbox, or the part of it which will fit. I am keen to retain this as it helps the engine to run nicer. Need to use a brass wire brush to clean the old paint off the airbox and carb tops. The airbox will also give me an ideal template for cutting the bonnet when it eventually goes back on again.

Angry Grinders....

2009-01-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

Angle grinders are often referred to, somewhat affectionately, as angry grinders. It's a strange relationship that the wielder of the angle grinder has with this particular power tool. It can rip your hand or fingers off and the sparks can blind you, but still we love them.

It takes a real idiot to mishandle an angle grinder and one moment of inattention can lead to a nast accident.

As you can probably guess by now, this very thing happened to me earlier as I cut off the end of a reundant chassis tube. The resultant gouge on the knuckle of my left index finger led to some exposed bone. This could easily have resulted in me losing a finger. Even if it could have been reattached, it would undoubteldy have led to some loss of mobility or feeling.

I have been a musician in excess of 30 years now and that would have been a major loss for me.

Please remember.

Always wear protective eyewear.

Always wear a pair of suitable gloves.

Treat the tool with the utmost respect.

Remember, it could maim you or possibly worse.

That is all....

Engine Start

2009-01-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

Quick posting

after my previous trials with the crank pickup - it wasn't actually plugged in as I had the plugs mixed up - I subsequently tried it the following day. It coughed a few times then spluttered into very very rude life.
That beig done, I did the next and most obvious thing.

Yep. I ripped it straight back out again. I need to clean and paint the engine bay and tidy up where the modifications wer made to the chassis tubes. Once all that is done, the new engine mounts will be painted, the engine cleaned and tarted up and then it will go in for keeps. After that it will be gearshift time. This is already very much in hand.

Electric Hoist Upgrade

2009-01-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've had one of the inexpensive electric hoists for some time now and it has been great. It removed the crossflow and gearbox and I used it to lift the bike engine in and out while I made the engine mounts.

All that time it was mounted statically from the roof joists using a monster sized wrecking bar as a support. This worked fine, but being static it wasn't as usefull as it could have been. So as I now want to haul my engine back out, drop it at the side of the car and clean the engine bay, I decided it was time to enable some movement of the hoist.

Basically, I have bolted 40mmx40mm x 3mm equal angle to the side of each joist with bevel cuts at the ends to allow them to sit right on top of the wall heads. This was done on two adjacent joists with the angles facing each other. I then made up a trolley which the hoist bolts to and this has 5 roller bearing each side mounted on M10 bolts. The trolley was made such that even if all ten bolts were to fail simultaneously, the layout of the steel would prevent complete failure.

Steel cost £12
Hoist cost £40 a couple of years back.
Bearings cost £4 for all ten.
Bolts cost About £1.50 but I had to buy a tenner's worth from Screwfix.

That's a good value addition to the shed of Zil for under £60 all in.

Hope this is of help to some of you and remember, you are responsible for your own safety. Make your own decisions and accept responsibility for your own safety and well being.

Check, check and check again.

2009-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

The last few days continue to be productive. Not huge amounts, but just getting there. Having fitted the sump, I then tagged up the CDI unit and clocks so that I knew which wire was which. This was all done via reference to the factory wiring diagram and a multimeter.
That having been doen, I temporarily installed the fuel pump and some new fuel hose.
I then made up a short wiring loom which provided allthe necessary connection for the ignition. The only thing missing was the female plug to go into that funny looking plug which comes out of the ignition pickup coils on the crank sensor. More of which later.
Put it all together, filled the sump with oil and cranked it over. Checked for fuel to the carbs - yes, fuel is there. Opened the throttles slightly, verified that fuel was misting into the intakes. Still no signs of life. Came in, checked my wiring again and finally decided to check the pulser coil for continuity. Took that funny looking plug back off and traced it down into the crankca..... hold on a minute, this doesn't go into the crankcase, this goes into the alternator. Felt down by the crankcase where another lead was found lying with the right plug on it. Not one of those funny ones. By this time it was 10.00pm - no time to be still doing such things far less trying to crank an engine over.
Tomorrow just better be a good day...

Lowered Sump

2009-01-04T09:10:00.001-08:00

The ZX10 shares the sump design with the ZZR1100 and as such is of a very deep design. This makes it awkward to keep the engine high enough in the chassis to have sufficient ground clearance and low enough to clear the bonnet. There is also the question of centre of gravity and all of that, but let's not get too fancy. This is a 25 year old kit car with an 18 year old bike engine going into it.
Anyway, to the point.
Thankfully Mr. Kawasaki in his infinite wisdom decided to share the same basic engine architecture between ZX10, ZZR110, ZRX1100 and - glory be - the GPZ900R. The latter has a much shallower sump and one was secured from The GPZ900R shop on ebay which can be found here. http://search.stores.ebay.co.uk/The-GPZ900R-Shop_gpz_W0QQftsZ1QQsaselZ162176295QQsatitleZgpzQQsofpZ0
This has been with me for a while and now that the engine is in the car and I am itching to get it fired up, I figured that the sump should go on now. Saves wasting a sump full of expensive oil.
I also managed to work out the piping for the oil cooler as well.
Next jobs will be filling the sump, and then starting wiring and plumbing.

Fuel Pump

2009-01-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday 3rd January, got a fuel pump from Doug at www.westgarage.co.uk Doug is pretty much the man when it comes to chain driven diffs for bike engined cars and will always be able to srot out any such needs. He has also used the ZX10 engine for years and knows how to use one succesfully in a car application. Came home and decided that the four wires coming out of the fuel pump were two too many. A quick google found a complete workshop manual for the ZX10 and now I know how to wire the pump. Which is nice. The same manual also amanged to confrim which cylinder is number 1, which helps when thinking about wiring your ignition.

Hoist nonsense

2009-01-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

A random thought.

If you ever get the chance to buy one of the cheap electric hoists that are often advertised in the discount German stores - Aldi / Lidl / Netto, grab it with both hands. Many of the things I have acheived in this rebuild would not have been possible without one. I think I paid £40 for mine and it has proven to be absolutley invaluable.

The only restriction with mine has been that it is mounted in one static position and only does straight lifts up or down. I intend mounting it on rails which will run alongside the joists of the garage. That way, I will be able to crane the engine out and then drop it down at the side of the car. This will make it far far easier to get the engine bay cleaned and painted. This is another simple and inexpensive job that will make life so much simpler.

Exhaust

2009-01-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

This really was a job that I did not want to do. The thinnest pipe you can imagine, a rookie welder and it's the only set of pipes I have to do the job. Great.

Just to recap, I was taking a set of motorbike downpipes, chopping them up and then converting them for use with the same engine being used mounted 90 degrees round the way in a car. And the pipes must for in between chassis tubes. I originally tried cutting one of the pipes and stretching it with a pipe expander. This completely failed to work as the stainless steel is much tougher than the manual tool can ever deal with. No deal.

So, as below, the recently acquired Clarke 160E was pressed into service. Finding the correct voltage for welding this material was much tougher than the engine mounts had been. Too little and the parent metal fails to melt and the bead sits on top. Too much and you blow right through the thin pipes. I think I got there in the end, but it isn't a job I would care to repeat every day in life. I have actually got a little inverter now and would be keen to add a tig torch and try tigging some pipes just to see how much easier that would be, as it definitely has the potential to leave a much nicer finish. The image on the right is of the almost finished pipes which have been removed from the car for finish welding. This job is just about finished now and although it would be unnaceptable for some of the big budget guys, it is more than acceptable for me bearing in mind what I started withm what I have to work with and what I am trying to acheive.

It's been while...

2009-01-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a long while actually - March of 2008 was the last update. Couple of things happened. Firstly I had to suspend things because funds were very tight and my welder proved to be a piece of junk. As is usually the case, I persevered until I had a solution worked out. An old but decent Clarke 160E mig welder was procured as was a cylinder of Pub CO2 and some suitable gauges. That being done I was now in a position to get on with making up my engine cradle.

Quick diversion - in the interim, I had got a hold of some Westfield Megablade headers. Lovely bit of fabrication and fitted the engine very well. Unfortunately, they did not fir the engine in the frame at all well. I briefly considered chopping them to suit, but it really made more sense to sell them on and bit e the bullet. The Bike headers really made the engine sit too high and everything was very much a compromise, so the decision was finally made to fit a lower sump and have the exhasut out the nearside - like everyone else. As you can hopefully see on the left here, the westfield pipes were very nice indeed, so it would have been a real shame to take the angle grinder to them.

So, to the engine cradle. Having been fortunate enough to get a hold of some 20mm square box, some 40mmx20mm box and some 30mmx33 flat bar, I set to and started cutting and welding. The engine has ended up solidly mounted and it is extremely gratifying to see it now resting where it should be.

You will also see that it all still looks a little grotty, but we really are now getting to the stage where it will soon be time to say that making stuff will be finished and cleaning / painting can ensue.

It's in the hole.....

2008-03-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Time for a short update. After finding a home for the old Ford engine, a quick cleanup of the shed meant that I was now in a position to bring the Kawasaki engine home. This was duly done and I have now craned it into position. It fitted first time, but not as I would have like it, so a chassis tube has been cut out and will be replaced with a new one in a slightly different position.

Everything still looks grotty, but I'm fine with that. I see no point on cleaning and painting things until the fabrication and hacking is all done. So, here is a picture of the car, as it stands, in all it's grottiness.

Most pleasing of all - those are the bike headers I got with the engine and they still fit. Custom ones would have cost £350. That's way way more than I could ever afford, so I'm very pleased.

Electrolysis

2008-03-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Now that I have some rusty bits removed from the car. I'm going to want to get them cleaned up and ready for refinishing and that is where electrolysis come in.
Not the procedure for removing hair, rather the rather nifty process whereby rusty car parts can be made not rusty with some basic and easily available houshold items. We need a plastic tub, some washing soda, a steel bar or two for use as anodes and a DC power supply. This will not make pitted metal smooth, nor will it leave it shiny, but it will remove the rust and that is good enough for me. I can't really afford media blasting and powder coating so I like the sound of this method instead.

Clear your feet son.

2008-03-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

That was one of the first things I was ever told when I were a lad starting out in the world of the workplace. Well, today I thought I had better practive a bit of that. Bits have been coming off the Sylva at an alarming rate and I couldn't help but set about them with the wire brush at the same time. The net result was that the place was very untidy and very messy into the bargain.

Today, a couple of hours has indeed 'cleared my feet' and the old shed is a bit more appealing as a place to spend an hour of an evening.

Both top wishbones are now off and brushed down as is the steering rack and one of the uprights. Speaking of which, Viva uprights may sound arcane, but for a light sportscar, they are so much more appropriate than the Sierra ones which all those MK, MNR and GTS owners are forced into using.

Slowly but surely

2008-02-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt that every rebuild or restoration project has the downward curve at the start where it's all about dismantling and cleaning before any rebuilding and putting back can begin. I am still firmly in the initial phase where I get rid of everything I want gone so I can see the wood for the trees. This is strangely satisfying. The knackered old Ford Crossflow - gone. The horrible carpets - gone. The very 1980s bucket seats - gone. The flaking paintwork and rust which lies underneath - going, going and hopefully some time soon, gone.

As of today having removed the seats, I discovered what I believe to be the part of the car which is in the worst condition and I also rembered one of the more interesting aspects of the chassis design in the process. The centre section of the chassis is a steel monocoque and the front and rear sections are steels paceframes. In an open topped space frame chassis, the centre passenger area is often the main area of weakness and is reckoned to be where torsional ridgidity is at its poorest. That is why it is satisfying to see that my car uses moncoque construction to overcome this issue.

The not so good discovery is that this moncoque section is where there is some corrosion to one of the panels. The upside of this is that it will be relatively straightforward to deal with, involving no more than cutting out an 'L' shaped section around 45mm on each side and around 350mm long. Other than that, the chassis needs nothing other than wire brushing and painting. Thankfully, the project continues to be enjoyable.

Not a sportscar

2008-02-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Just found this pic of the golf at Forrestburn last year.

This will be where the Sylva gets back to strutting its stuff once it lives again.

Nurse, the wire brushes...

2008-02-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

Since I decided this was going to be a bit more than sticking a new engine in, it has become clear that there is a power of derusting and painting to be done.

Strangely enough, this does not make me at all sad or depressed. It's just a job to be done and as I have said before, it won't cost a fortune and I have nice little shed to work in, so why complain ?This is the nearside front of the chassis and shows the Viva crossmember bolted into the Sylva chassis. This is it looking a bit better believe it or not. Next task is to remove the radiator and all remaining hoses and to remove the remainder of the wiring room forward of the bulkhead. None of this work is difficult and doing this makes it all a much more pleasant task and generally a bit more 'doable'.

Restoration

2008-02-16T08:41:00.001-08:00

I didn't really set out to do a restoration, all I had in mind was to rip out the old xflow and replace it with something a bit healthier - either a Ford Zetec or a Kawasaki ZX10 engine, both of which I have here. Removing the old lump was a simple and enjoyable process, but it did make me realise that I would never be happy sticking a new engine in the hole without at least refreshing the rest of the car whilst I'm at it. It certainly deserves it. I have a garage, tools, lights and no budget, so why not take my time and end up with a result I can be pround to attach my name to ?

Current plan is to divide the car into three section. Not physically, just areas of work. First I will install the new engine and refurbish the engine bay and suspension. Then I will tidy up the bit where the driver sits (Cockpit is such a grandiose term, don't you think ), after that the wire brush and paint will see some action on the rear chassis and axle. I work better with small but achievable tasks rather than overwhelmingly large jobs that seem intimidating.

History

2008-02-16T08:22:00.001-08:00

My car was built some time around 1983 according to the DVLA. As was often the case back then, the registration process was sketchy and I had a degree of digging to do in order to get my hands on a correct V5C document. Suffice to say I got there in the end and it is now a Sylva Leader, not a Vauxhall Viva.

I bought the car from the second owner who had owned it from the early 1990s. They had run it for one summer, put it into the garage and there it sat for the next 17 years.

Getting it to its temporary home I discovered a strange spec. of 1300 xflow breathing through a single 45 Weber 45DCOE. I also discovered a basically sound car which needed a bit of tlc to get back running again. A few weekends work got it running in time for a track evening at

Forrestburn hillclimb. It never really ran all that well, but Iwas at least able to discover a fun to drive chassis which was no real surprise. Things went rather slowly at that point. I still had no garage to keep it in and the car continued to slowly deteriorate. Fast forward to the spring of 2007 and I came into a small inheritance which was enough to fund a small garage if I built it myself. I was only too glad to do this as it meant I could quite literally stop the rot with my little Sylva.

Job done, but still no real progress until early 2008 when at long last I got some lighting into my garage / shed. Screwfix came to the rescue with some little halogen lights. Which are all mounted up and the place lights up like a Christmas tree. Time for some restoration and another post.

What is it ?

2008-02-16T08:14:00.001-08:00

The ugly little bleeder I am restoring and updating is mostly a Sylva Star which was the first car ever to wear the Sylva badge. I say mostly because mine isn't quite as simple as that. It has alloy side panels and the rear body section of a Star, it also has Vauxhall Viva suspension. Thos things make it a Star. The twist comes when you walk around to the front though where it no longer looks like a Star. Instead, the front section of a Leader with it's flared wheelarches sits where the Star one piece moulding would have previously been. I have two theories on this front.

A) It has seen some 'action' and the Star front end has been replaced by a Leader one.
Or
B) It is some sort of interim model which is a late Star but with an early Leader style front.

Whatever the case, it is neither one or the other. That's why I refer to it as a LeadStar and probably always will.

Have to start somewhere

2008-02-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

This blog is borne out of regret
Regret that all the cars I've had in the past I never ever bothered to keep decent records and pictures of. I don't want that to be the case with this one, so what better way to do that than to keep a blog. Here it is the day it came home, poking its nose out of its new home, wondering what on earth happened. I promise, it's going to get better from now on, look I even bought it some nice new tyres.