Evening chaps/chappettes, about time I introduced myself. My name's Rob, I grew up around old Opels and Vauxhalls as my dad and uncle always had Senators, Monzas and Royales when I was a kid. Got into mk1 Cavaliers a few years ago and I've had half a dozen of them so far, still got my coupe which is mechanically sound but in a pretty dire state body-wise, but it will live again one day! I've been to Billing for the last three years with the Manta club as well, so I've seen a few of your lovely motors Anyway, last year I found a Viva estate in a shed with 13k miles on it from new and spent the next few months tracking down bits for it and generally getting it back towards it's former glory. Eventually I decided it was time for it to go to someone who had the money to finish the job properly and do the car justice, so of course as soon as it was sold I was on the hunt for the next project. Then this came up on ebay... [img width=800 height=600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/spiney_norman/20130224_163134_zps76606490.jpg [img width=800 height=600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/spiney_norman/20130224_163148_zps90f5ceae.jpg [img width=800 height=600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/spiney_norman/20130224_163215_zpsb5c7ec9e.jpg [img width=800 height=600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/spiney_norman/20130224_163202_zpsa843718b.jpg [img width=800 height=600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/spiney_norman/20130224_163236_zps6fd795cf.jpg Now I've had plenty of mk1 Cavs and my first proper car was a mk3, but I'd never had a mk2 before. I remembered the SRi my Dad had about 15 years ago (A643 NHO - still out there anywhere?) and it was fairly local so after a speculative bid I won it. It was advertised as a non-runner, but how hard could it be? When I turned up to collect it I was told the seller suspected it was a fuelling problem. I spent an afternoon with the help of my dad and uncle, checked everything over, reconnected the wire to one of the injectors and with a couple of gallons of fresh petrol it fired up and ran perfectly. Next step was the MOT, which it failed as expected. It had been stood in a shed for a couple of years, so needed attention to the tyres, brakes, all the usual things you'd expect, and a small patch on the NS sill. With that all now sorted it's off for the retest in the morning, and will hopefully be on the road some time in early March, as soon as I can afford the tax disc! The plan for the moment is to smoke it round for at least a few months, see if I like it or not then go from there. It's a pretty sound car generally, and I'm really looking forward to getting it out to a few shows soon!