Hi Steve. I hope you and your family are all keeping well and all is good in your world. I must say I kind of miss your videos and hope all is good with the Viva mate. I know it has been said not to worry or feel you have to keep posting videos to keep us all updated but I'm sure many of us are wondering what came next. I'm sure it must be pretty difficult trying to balance a family life and job and also keeping on top of such a demanding channel as Retro Rebuild. Anyway, I just want to say not only on my behalf, but on behalf of all of your subscribers and viewers regardless of weather you continue, Thank you. Thank you for all of your video's, they have been awesome. Not only have they been extremely interesting and informative but also great fun to watch your journey as you resurrect the good old Viva. In addition, your personality, humour and delivery have made them so watchable you should have your own TV show. Anyway, all the best, Take care buddy... and keep eating the Knoppers!
Just a quick Hello, chin up and wishing you well. There's quite a few people looking forward to hearing from you whenever you are able to make an appearance on the old TH-cam 😊 Must be a few 🕸in the viva by now.😮
Hi Steve, hope you're well and things are good for the new year. Miss the weekly updates on you and the viva. Would love it if you ever find the time to give us a quick update that would be great. I know the constant TH-caming can be tough and real life is much more important. Just wanted to know if you and the family are doing ok, see how the Viva is looking, and more importantly....Did the garage ever get tidied!! Wishing you all the best from down south.
Knoppers! Yay! Haha Take er easy, I have a similar addiction to snack cakes, had to have the wife stop buying them to keep me from eating them. Dropped 10lbs from just that. Stay healthy!
Always found spraying the bonnet hinges with WD40 if you don't open your bonnet frequently. My HB Deluxe90 4 door seized the drivers side hinge ( bonnet ) recently. 😮
Been a while and know you are having issues. Hope to see you back soon, I too am have issues, and always enjoyed your Sunday updates. Hope to see you buzzing again real soon mate.
Sean Harding.... another great one. Love that green Viva. Lowered, a V8 under the bonnet. Oily rag look. She'd be sweet. Cool in an estate, too. Only ever heard about the Colour Tune method. Thanks for showing it in action. Very interesting. Keep them rolling, bro, we love it.
Yes the road trip is coming . If you come round my house i will get the tea on and have a choc digestive waiting . Also i will let you use the loo 😂😂. Peace .
It was like watching Starsky and Hutch as you rolled energetically over the bonnet!! lol. Glad you managed to track down the Colortune - I seem to remember I used to use it without the plastic/mirror extension as you have a good line of sight into the plug.
Aww, the good old trusty glass sparkplug! I've got one of those but I haven't used it for years as the cars I have now are all fuel injected and you cannot tune them the same way as you do with a carburettor as they vary the mix based on feedback from the sensors in the exhaust. However back in the day, before fuel injection, with a bit of patience and mucking about you could get some really good results with one of those things. Depending on your carb, the band with orange specks in it can be quite wide. I used to have a Stromberg Carb on mine and I would tune for efficiency rather than performance so adjusted the jets all the way down into the blue and then adjusted it back a bit until the orange flashes started to appear. Don't go too far into the blue though because, although you will get awesome fuel economy, the car will be a bit sluggish and the engine starts to overheat on long journeys. I think the instructions say use in cylinder 1 but I think that was just for ease of access. Can be worth checking on the other cylinder's as well, especially on old engines, as worn valve stem seals and piston rings on any one of your cylinders that can let excessive oil in to the cylinder can really skew the results if you are just basing your tuning off a cylinder with any such defect.
You'll never be as fast as my old lump of porridge & rust! Down hill, following wind, Rostyle wheels, M1 no cameras back then, fastest Viva in the whole of the wild west- needle hit 110!! (Knackered speedo may have helped...engine rebuild afterwards may also tell a tale...)
Sounding well nice Steve, not seen a Colourtune for a good few years..! What’s next on the agenda, can’t wait for the first long run out with you..! Looking forward to next weeks as always mate, I’m getting me head down for nights tonight as well , have a good shift 👍🏻❤
I hope you don’t have to drop that gearbox on the ground. Even with a ramp they were the most awkward box to refit. Mind you, we didn’t have transmission jacks back then.
Alright mate!! Steady away on that fruit 🙈 sounds sweet there, not sure if I heard a grumbly bearing on tick over or it was the good old North East weather 🤔 fair play to ya out in that!! Was never keen on those colourtune gadgets.. but if it works why not!! Ya getting there 👍💪
You should take the 12 volt feed for the carburettor solenoid from the 12 volt side of the coil because when live the solenoid is open letting fuel flow and when the ignition is off it is closed cutting off fuel, if you use a permanent 12v supply then the solenoid will be open permanently and allow for flooding and also drain the battery when left.
I have heard it rumoured Steve and on good authority that they have 2 Christmas cracker tool kits on the Space Station for emergency / last resort repairs 😁 , who knew 😂 but Ofc they took the BANG BANG out of them first 😉. Gosh haven’t seen colour tune since I was a wee lad, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and yeah she sounded A1 👍🏻.
Never seen that spark blue/yellow tester thingy with mirror before. Interesting. Does sound better. Looks like it was flip flopping in between. Do you have to do that for the other three cylinders or one is fine? Speaking of life changing food avenues I’ve stopped eating chips, well for the most part 😂 always gotta have a little candy laying incase the sugary get low of fuel 😅 ⛽️⚡️
Thanks mate, there's a few things in the pipe line and I've got a few good ideas for when I get moved to a new house, hopefully this year! Stay tuned 😃👍
That's the best it's been running since you got it. You could put a pipe fitting on the air cleaner to accept the crankcase breather pipe to,although it can affect the mixture setting.
Great vid Steve as usual. Glad to see you finally managed to get yourself a Colourtune!! Top piece of kit that is...I remember my Dad swore by his many years ago. Glad to see you're a proper Geordie who likes proper music (AC/DC)...glad to see you're making positive changes to your lifestyle too...I know it's hard, but it's for the best in the long run. It doesn't look like there's much left to "Borrow" of that other Viva now! Is it even worth saving now or has it pretty much become the donor vehicle for the yellow one? A pity, but there's no shame in making one awesome Viva out of two slightly broken ones 😂 Look forward to the next vid...that engine , as always, sounds sweeeeeeeeet! 😊
Hi Steve, I’m an avid follower of your brilliant TH-cam channel and I was wondering if everything was ok as we haven’t seen or heard from you for a few weeks..? I really enjoy your videos and they really make my Sunday mornings ..! Hope we hear from you soon Take care Kindest regards John ( the ex- snot green viva owner 1988-89) 🤣
I might be wrong but the thrum sound that you hear while the engine is idling at around 12:13 might be your thrust bearing on your clutch assembly whirring up to speed and vibrating on the gearbox drive shaft or even your viscous coupling on the cooling fan. If it is the fan the noise will be the fan wobbling on it's axis as it rotates. You can check by either waggling the fan back wards and forwards. There should be no play in it. Or you can stop the fan (start the engine with the fan held stationary) and see if the thrum noise goes away You will want to get that sorted as the vibration wrecks the journal bearing on the water pump impellor that it is bolted onto causing the water pump to leak. The viscous coupling unbolts from the fan and was a common component for many cars of that era and not just Vauxhalls.
Grieves me to see a Conifer viva donating parts, however small. Got the I pad well away from the garage whilst watching so as to ensure DNR 503K did not see one of her sisters being attacked with a Christmas cracker screwdriver.
We all have a christmas cracker screwdriver in our tool boxes! Are Knoppers a local fix as I dont see them in Bristol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 A bit Starsky & Hutch rolling over the bonnet!
I have still got my colour tuner sum ware It was used a lot back before my new cars become Fuel injected now I have diesel cars, but I don’t think it will work with them
Hi Steve. I hope you and your family are all keeping well and all is good in your world. I must say I kind of miss your videos and hope all is good with the Viva mate. I know it has been said not to worry or feel you have to keep posting videos to keep us all updated but I'm sure many of us are wondering what came next. I'm sure it must be pretty difficult trying to balance a family life and job and also keeping on top of such a demanding channel as Retro Rebuild. Anyway, I just want to say not only on my behalf, but on behalf of all of your subscribers and viewers regardless of weather you continue, Thank you. Thank you for all of your video's, they have been awesome. Not only have they been extremely interesting and informative but also great fun to watch your journey as you resurrect the good old Viva. In addition, your personality, humour and delivery have made them so watchable you should have your own TV show. Anyway, all the best, Take care buddy... and keep eating the Knoppers!
Well said that man.👍
Just a quick Hello, chin up and wishing you well. There's quite a few people looking forward to hearing from you whenever you are able to make an appearance on the old TH-cam 😊
Must be a few 🕸in the viva by now.😮
Miss the sunday vids, hope all is well.👍🏻
Hi Steve, hope you're well and things are good for the new year. Miss the weekly updates on you and the viva. Would love it if you ever find the time to give us a quick update that would be great. I know the constant TH-caming can be tough and real life is much more important. Just wanted to know if you and the family are doing ok, see how the Viva is looking, and more importantly....Did the garage ever get tidied!!
Wishing you all the best from down south.
Missing the viva vids
Your dads got some cracking cars there, I wish I lived next-door to him 😊
Thank you mate, he loves his cars 👍
Missing my Sunday fix of the viva. Hope all is ok up there
That's what i call devotion .under the car in a thunderstorm.
Thats definately bunsen blue. Id say its spot on. Have a great week. Mitch.
Devotion or madness 😆 thank you mate 👍
Ah the Gunson's Colourtune where you desire bunsen blue as I recall. Fairly sure we also used to use it to set the timing. Eeee nostalgia :)
Wow, Colourtune...takes me back to working on Viva's with my Dad in the 80's. Loving your journey with this old girl, keep going !
Knoppers! Yay! Haha
Take er easy, I have a similar addiction to snack cakes, had to have the wife stop buying them to keep me from eating them. Dropped 10lbs from just that. Stay healthy!
I love the Starsky & Hutch Bonnet role 😂
😆👍
1st car I ever smashed, apple green Viva back in 1984 in Salford
Missing ya, buddy! Hope you are all good!
Great work my friend. Definitely sounding better. Keep plugging away and before you know it, she'll be finished.
I remember colourtune back in the day but we couldn't afford it then. If i bought it now i wouldn't know how to use it 😏👍🇮🇪
She is sounding great - brilliant efffort from where you were
Thank you mate 👍
Hope your ok Steve 😊 missing your vids!
Haven't seen a colourtune since I had a Mk 5 Cortina, nostalgia or what, great vid mate, keep em coming.
Sounds great defo bunsen blue great videos
It's a BLUE 💙 From me. Just a little tweak from this and that. Then away you go. ✔✔
@steve we are increasingly worried. I appreciate its private but we do care. Youve grown a lot of followers. :-( Please tell us You are Safe. 😞
Blue-lilac. Perfect!
Thanks mate 👍
Hope you are OK? Missing my weekly dose of Viva - looking forward to the next issue.
Always found spraying the bonnet hinges with WD40 if you don't open your bonnet frequently.
My HB Deluxe90 4 door seized the drivers side hinge ( bonnet ) recently. 😮
Haven't heard anything from you for a while, Steve. Hope everything is OK 👍
it's getting to the exciting stage; the road test is looming! top work Steve👍
I can't wait! Thank you mate 👍
Hi - hope all is OK and that you are just on your hols - waiting to here how and get an update on the progress of the yellow peril. All the best.
rain or shine . you are the man
Nice one!. Been hanging for an update!... 🙂👍Nuff said!.
Great camera effect before jumping in the Batmobile! She sure is sounding sweet mate 👍🏻
😆thanks mate 👍
Glad to see you giving it a wash. :😀
😆👍
steve she has come along so much, proud of ya!
Thank you mate, appreciate it👍
Been a while and know you are having issues.
Hope to see you back soon,
I too am have issues, and always enjoyed your Sunday updates.
Hope to see you buzzing again real soon mate.
Making me smile, as usual!
Brilliant! Thank you 👍
Sean Harding.... another great one. Love that green Viva. Lowered, a V8 under the bonnet. Oily rag look. She'd be sweet. Cool in an estate, too. Only ever heard about the Colour Tune method. Thanks for showing it in action. Very interesting. Keep them rolling, bro, we love it.
She'll get some love in the future on the channel mate, yeah sleeper viva sounds like a good idea, thank you 👍
The Viva's getting better and the weather is getting worse
Thats class that you have the old school tech tools that the viva may have seen back in the day 😎 purring away nicely 🙂
Thanks mate, I borrowed the colour tune of my dad, if there's an old school car tool he's probably got it 😄 yeah she's sounding canny👍
Sounds well I remember my dad using colour tune to set up the carb on a mini. Good job!
Ah class! Thank you mate 👍
Sounds really sweet, Steve, Great work !!
Thank you mate 👍
Love the look of the old green viva estate, thanks for stopping by 😊
Sounds sweet well done.
Thank you mate 👍
Where u gone dude, im clucking for some proper telly, looking forward to the next installment
Hi Steve
Great to see you making progress.
That sounds sweet now mate u have done well with it
Thank you mate 👍
The viva starts up nicely. 👍
Thank you mate 👍
It's the Summer Holidays coming up get the kids to clean the garage for 50p and a knoppers bar 🤣
Yes the road trip is coming .
If you come round my house i will get the tea on and have a choc digestive waiting .
Also i will let you use the loo 😂😂.
Peace .
Love these videos.....keep up the great content!
Thank you mate, appreciate it👍
Don't you just love British summer time!
😆 👍
OK Steve, hope all is well with you, missed your Sunday morning shows, again i hope all is well mate.
It was like watching Starsky and Hutch as you rolled energetically over the bonnet!! lol. Glad you managed to track down the Colortune - I seem to remember I used to use it without the plastic/mirror extension as you have a good line of sight into the plug.
😆 I borrowed it off my dad, although I do want to get myself one 👍
Aww, the good old trusty glass sparkplug!
I've got one of those but I haven't used it for years as the cars I have now are all fuel injected and you cannot tune them the same way as you do with a carburettor as they vary the mix based on feedback from the sensors in the exhaust.
However back in the day, before fuel injection, with a bit of patience and mucking about you could get some really good results with one of those things.
Depending on your carb, the band with orange specks in it can be quite wide. I used to have a Stromberg Carb on mine and I would tune for efficiency rather than performance so adjusted the jets all the way down into the blue and then adjusted it back a bit until the orange flashes started to appear.
Don't go too far into the blue though because, although you will get awesome fuel economy, the car will be a bit sluggish and the engine starts to overheat on long journeys.
I think the instructions say use in cylinder 1 but I think that was just for ease of access. Can be worth checking on the other cylinder's as well, especially on old engines, as worn valve stem seals and piston rings on any one of your cylinders that can let excessive oil in to the cylinder can really skew the results if you are just basing your tuning off a cylinder with any such defect.
😃Thank you mate, thanks for the info👍
Starts great now and idles nice making great progress Steve well done 👍
Thank you mate, she's sounding canny ain't she 👍
that colourtune is fab. i have used it on one of my lawnmowers and sorted the mixture out. its a top piece of kit !!
Sounds on the money 👍🏻, loving the tester too. Top effort as usual chap👍🏻
Thank you mate, appreciate it 👍
She's soundin lovely now
Thanks mate, yeah she's sounding canny👍
You'll never be as fast as my old lump of porridge & rust! Down hill, following wind, Rostyle wheels, M1 no cameras back then, fastest Viva in the whole of the wild west- needle hit 110!! (Knackered speedo may have helped...engine rebuild afterwards may also tell a tale...)
😆 class! 👍
Sounding well nice Steve, not seen a Colourtune for a good few years..! What’s next on the agenda, can’t wait for the first long run out with you..! Looking forward to next weeks as always mate, I’m getting me head down for nights tonight as well , have a good shift 👍🏻❤
Thank you mate, not sure, keep on hacking away at the viva, got loads of plans for the channel that all count on me getting moved, I can't wait 👍
You know i love the green viva estate more than i do your yellow one .
Sorry to say that when i know the green one will be alot more work and welding.
Where are ya Steve?. Got an Aberdeen lad here sweating buckets. 😂
tell you what its in pretty good nic, it'll be worth a few bob when you've done it all up, good video
Hello,it's running nice,the road test will be great to see.the Colortune seems to be blue so it's setup perfect.
Hello mate, she's nearly there! Thank you 👍
I hope you don’t have to drop that gearbox on the ground. Even with a ramp they were the most awkward box to refit. Mind you, we didn’t have transmission jacks back then.
Hi Steve are you ok mate or just taking a break hope you're well many thanks John
Good stuff mate, sounding sweet. I was working outside in that weather this week trying to prep wheels for painting, what a pain in the backside.
Thank you mate, we've just got to get on with it haven't we, British weather 😄👍
Alright mate!! Steady away on that fruit 🙈 sounds sweet there, not sure if I heard a grumbly bearing on tick over or it was the good old North East weather 🤔 fair play to ya out in that!! Was never keen on those colourtune gadgets.. but if it works why not!! Ya getting there 👍💪
Alright mate, moderation with everything now tho odd apple or banana not too much😄 possibly mate I need to investigate 👍
You should take the 12 volt feed for the carburettor solenoid from the 12 volt side of the coil because when live the solenoid is open letting fuel flow and when the ignition is off it is closed cutting off fuel, if you use a permanent 12v supply then the solenoid will be open permanently and allow for flooding and also drain the battery when left.
I'll check it out mate 👍
Sounding good 👍
OOOO...what a lovely blue?!!!! 🤣🤣🤣
😆👍
I have heard it rumoured Steve and on good authority that they have 2 Christmas cracker tool kits on the Space Station for emergency / last resort repairs 😁 , who knew 😂 but Ofc they took the BANG BANG out of them first 😉. Gosh haven’t seen colour tune since I was a wee lad, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and yeah she sounded A1 👍🏻.
😆 thank you mate 👍
Never seen that spark blue/yellow tester thingy with mirror before. Interesting. Does sound better. Looks like it was flip flopping in between. Do you have to do that for the other three cylinders or one is fine? Speaking of life changing food avenues I’ve stopped eating chips, well for the most part 😂 always gotta have a little candy laying incase the sugary get low of fuel 😅 ⛽️⚡️
Sounding lovely, what next after the clutch?
Thanks mate, there's a few things in the pipe line and I've got a few good ideas for when I get moved to a new house, hopefully this year! Stay tuned 😃👍
That's the best it's been running since you got it. You could put a pipe fitting on the air cleaner to accept the crankcase breather pipe to,although it can affect the mixture setting.
Thanks mate, yeah I need to sort out the breather pipes 👍
Four weeks without an update, he's either on holiday or he's overdosed on nopper bars ;-)
Great vid Steve as usual.
Glad to see you finally managed to get yourself a Colourtune!! Top piece of kit that is...I remember my Dad swore by his many years ago.
Glad to see you're a proper Geordie who likes proper music (AC/DC)...glad to see you're making positive changes to your lifestyle too...I know it's hard, but it's for the best in the long run.
It doesn't look like there's much left to "Borrow" of that other Viva now! Is it even worth saving now or has it pretty much become the donor vehicle for the yellow one? A pity, but there's no shame in making one awesome Viva out of two slightly broken ones 😂
Look forward to the next vid...that engine , as always, sounds sweeeeeeeeet! 😊
Hi Steve,
I’m an avid follower of your brilliant TH-cam channel and I was wondering if everything was ok as we haven’t seen or heard from you for a few weeks..?
I really enjoy your videos and they really make my Sunday mornings ..!
Hope we hear from you soon
Take care
Kindest regards
John ( the ex- snot green viva owner 1988-89) 🤣
i am his son, and Steve is alright he is just taking a break.
Did you know that your Viva HC is ULEZ compliant!
I might be wrong but the thrum sound that you hear while the engine is idling at around 12:13 might be your thrust bearing on your clutch assembly whirring up to speed and vibrating on the gearbox drive shaft or even your viscous coupling on the cooling fan.
If it is the fan the noise will be the fan wobbling on it's axis as it rotates. You can check by either waggling the fan back wards and forwards. There should be no play in it. Or you can stop the fan (start the engine with the fan held stationary) and see if the thrum noise goes away
You will want to get that sorted as the vibration wrecks the journal bearing on the water pump impellor that it is bolted onto causing the water pump to leak. The viscous coupling unbolts from the fan and was a common component for many cars of that era and not just Vauxhalls.
Thank you mate, I'll check it out 👍
Hope your ok , missing your videos mate
Im sorry to say but all rain does is make cars rust and the grass grow , all of wich equals work .😂
Nice to watch another video though .
Cheers mate
Yep time for a vrx engine transplant😂😂
Grieves me to see a Conifer viva donating parts, however small. Got the I pad well away from the garage whilst watching so as to ensure DNR 503K did not see one of her sisters being attacked with a Christmas cracker screwdriver.
😆 she'll get some love on the channel in the future mate, hopefully the not too distant future 👍
My heart aches for the green estate.
Give him £50 for it and it can reside in your driveway 🤗
She'll be brought back to life eventually 👍
@@RetroRebuild That's great news!
Does anyone know what has happened to Steve?
no, i have emailed him twice
I've emailed to hope he is still with us 😔
Let’s hope he’s alright it’s been months…anyone live near him who can try asking someone
Hope he’s well. I have enjoyed watching his videos on his viva
@@42osullivanI'm worried 😢.
Hi, just noticed you've liked some comments which means you're still around! Hope you're ok and can drop a video to let us know how you're doing.
Channel returns tomorrow 👍
@@RetroRebuild Yay! Christmas has come early :)
We all have a christmas cracker screwdriver in our tool boxes! Are Knoppers a local fix as I dont see them in Bristol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 A bit Starsky & Hutch rolling over the bonnet!
😆 they're from aldi mate 👍
Not seen a new video from you in a month now. everything ok?
Im worried too
Wonder what happened to this Channel I hope he is well really enjoyed this kind of stuff
Channel returns tomorrow 👍
@@RetroRebuild brilliant news
Sounds canny sweet
She's getting there mate, I'm loving the weber 👍
Please can we have some new episodes missing them as I had Viva sl 1256cc
I think its time you got hold of an hillman imp.😂
Hi mate hope you are ok bot seen a video in a while, I'm starting to get worried
Wow, over 5 months and still nothing. Hope your health issues aren't the reason.
2 months without any update? Hope you're OK mate...
I’d richer it to yellow and then just a shade weaker until it turns consistently blue
👍
I have still got my colour tuner sum ware It was used a lot back before my new cars become Fuel injected now I have diesel cars, but I don’t think it will work with them
Wow, a Viva HC Estate - that's quite a rare car. Is it completely unsalvagable, then?
She'll be getting some love further down the line on the channel my plan is to put it on the road 👍
Hello mate,just to ask if you are ok?
Even not running it may be the fastest in your street