The next task is to get the car registered and taxed. It's already insured on the chassis number (to allow us to drive it to the IVA). This will be transferred to the new registration when it comes through. I've got a V55/4 form from the DVLA for first registration of a new vehicle as apart from the engine, everything is new. You're allowed one major component to be refurbished.
I made a list of jobs to do and its surprisingly long. Longer in fact than any of the lists of things to do pre-IVA!
Just a sample of what's planned, from simple things to more involved jobs:
Lower ride height, reset toe/camber
Change oil, change oil temp sensor (leaks slightly)
Set timing to final value of 36deg all in at 3500 after a couple of hundred more miles run in
Open out holes in the body for the exhaust to give more clearance
Refit fog and reverse light below the body so it looks nicer
Fit more powerful fan for the heater blower and wire it up with slow and fast speed
Fit wind wings
Fit sun visors
Make new dash with better tacho position
Refit passenger seat so its more in-line with the vehicle
Refit doors so gaps are even
Paint (including preparing the bodywork
Set steering rack height properly to eliminate bump steer
Should keep us busy for a while!
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Saturday, 16 November 2013
IVA Pass!
Bit of work done over the weekend and evenings leading up to the retest (Thursday 14th November).
Extra ali panel added under the wiper motor, then covered up with carpet.
The bottom edge of the dash had some carpet added under the vinyl to make it a larger radius and also nice and squishy. Bonnet lock key inserts supplied by S&J motors at very short notice. New speedo was installed, I programmed it with the calibration numbe 8662 pulses per mile (tyre rolling circumference (18inch rear wheel with 285/35s on) x diff ratio x number of bolts on the prop that the sensor looks at). Bit of a guess but we checked it against satnav and a couple of phones with gps apps and it seemed pretty accurate.
Sadly Naomi couldn't get the day off work so my copilot was our friend Snowy. On the way we had one minor issue, the battery charge warning light came on so we stopped and investigated. It was just a connector on the alternator that had come loose. Got some pliers on to make it a tighter fit and popped it back on, back on the road in 10 mins.
Extra ali panel added under the wiper motor, then covered up with carpet.
Sadly Naomi couldn't get the day off work so my copilot was our friend Snowy. On the way we had one minor issue, the battery charge warning light came on so we stopped and investigated. It was just a connector on the alternator that had come loose. Got some pliers on to make it a tighter fit and popped it back on, back on the road in 10 mins.
We got there a tad late due to the alternator but the test proceeded without incident. CO emissions were an amazing 0.9% after much fiddling with the idle mixture. Speedo was fine, everything else was acceptable.
Pass!
The way home was more interesting, the fuel feed somehow popped off the carb and sprayed fuel all over the place but we mopped it up with some towels, hose back on the carb and back on the road, home in time for tea.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
IVA
Right then, the big day. 3 years of preparation leading to this moment!
Set off from home at 5.45. Tried to be quiet but pretty much failed immediately. Never mind the noise the engine makes but I accidentally caught the horn when reversing off the drive. Oh well. Drove up and down a quiet road down the back of our house that goes to an industrial estate a few times and did some hard braking from 30,40,50,60 to a stop to make sure it pulls up good and in a straight line. No bother there, the brakes had our collar bones almost snapping against the harnesses. Even though they're not bedded in the brakes are very good. Rattled through a few potholes to make sure nothing fell off, I was disappointed by how much bump steer there was but I can play with the height of the rack so I've probably just not set that correctly.
We then set off on the road proper, it was a bit chilly at 6am and I was extremely nervous so did some bad gear changes, especially downshifting it was jerking around a bit as I wasn't bringing the revs up enough to match. Fortunately the car sounds amazing so you just get your ears blasted with overrun popping and other fun noises so it didn't really matter that I was useless. My hand kept sticking to the metal gear knob and all the dials were virtually unreadable due to misting up. After 15 mins though everything was fine, apart from the speedo which remained misted up for another half an hour or so. More on that later.
The car drove well, even with the mixture not set very well, the timing retarded and using running-in oil. We got all the way to the petrol station round the corner from the test centre (Leighton Buzzard) with no drama. There was about half a tank in when we left and we had used most of that (25 litres or so) for 50 miles, so thats less than 10mpg. This would suggest its running a bit rich (again, more on that later!). It should get 15-18 on a steady run according to others with similar engines.
We got to the test station and went through the test process. The chap was very good, very knowledgeable and fair with his explanations of the few items we failed on.
Set off from home at 5.45. Tried to be quiet but pretty much failed immediately. Never mind the noise the engine makes but I accidentally caught the horn when reversing off the drive. Oh well. Drove up and down a quiet road down the back of our house that goes to an industrial estate a few times and did some hard braking from 30,40,50,60 to a stop to make sure it pulls up good and in a straight line. No bother there, the brakes had our collar bones almost snapping against the harnesses. Even though they're not bedded in the brakes are very good. Rattled through a few potholes to make sure nothing fell off, I was disappointed by how much bump steer there was but I can play with the height of the rack so I've probably just not set that correctly.
We then set off on the road proper, it was a bit chilly at 6am and I was extremely nervous so did some bad gear changes, especially downshifting it was jerking around a bit as I wasn't bringing the revs up enough to match. Fortunately the car sounds amazing so you just get your ears blasted with overrun popping and other fun noises so it didn't really matter that I was useless. My hand kept sticking to the metal gear knob and all the dials were virtually unreadable due to misting up. After 15 mins though everything was fine, apart from the speedo which remained misted up for another half an hour or so. More on that later.
The car drove well, even with the mixture not set very well, the timing retarded and using running-in oil. We got all the way to the petrol station round the corner from the test centre (Leighton Buzzard) with no drama. There was about half a tank in when we left and we had used most of that (25 litres or so) for 50 miles, so thats less than 10mpg. This would suggest its running a bit rich (again, more on that later!). It should get 15-18 on a steady run according to others with similar engines.
We got to the test station and went through the test process. The chap was very good, very knowledgeable and fair with his explanations of the few items we failed on.
The main two items that we failed on were the speedo not working, it thought that zero was actually 50mph. It was working most of the way there but when the car got on the rollers it started playing up. Later diagnosis is that the seal is bad and its got moisture in which has somehow knackered up the needle. I noticed later that there are several bits of fluff floating around behind the glass face so its probably full of crap from being unused in the garage for 2 years whilst building the rest of the car.
The other main thing was the emissions. The passenger side bank was fine and was getting below 4% on the 4.5% limit. HC limit was 1200 and we were allowed to do this at 2000rpm and got below 1000 so that was ok. The drivers side wasn't so good. The best continuous reading over 5 seconds was 5.0%. The tester let us fiddle for a bit but we couldn't get it down. I leaned it off on the idle mixture screws but didn't re-adjust the idle speed screw to match so it kept trying to stall and generally ran very rough. I had so many other worries and thoughts going round my head that it just didn't occur to me to tweak the idle speed, which would have probably sorted it. The HC's were ok but the CO was waving around between 5 and 7% and we couldn't get a stable reading. It would pass with the air filter removed but when it was put back on again it kept dying so after half an hour or so the tester said we would have to call it a day.
I have since taken the car to a garage where some old boys who know what a carb is had a tinker and it all (fingers crossed) seems good now.
Noise test was good, 98dB drivers side, 97dB passenger side.
Other minor fail points:
VIN plate wrong format. Our chassis is 3 years old and the VIN format changed 2 years ago. New plate ordered from Dax.
Edge of bonnet locks too sharp. Dax failed to supply the IVA inserts for the key slots.
Lower edge of dash radius too small. Needs to be 19mm, ours was just slightly less. Re-cover with more vinyl.
Contactable edge on doors radius too sharp. Was surprised by this one but the tester was absolutely correct. The underside of the top edge of the door was a bit sharp. Bit of dremel action will have that sorted no probs.
The tester said other than those minor points (and the speedo/emissions) it looked a well-built car and we should be proud of our effort. The handbrake passed easily, I didn't see the value in % but he said jag based cobra kits often failed on the handbrake but ours was good. Top tip from the forum - drive a couple of miles with the handbrake on before the test to bed the shoes in :)
Back to the garage to rectify and retest ASAP!
IVA toolkit
I think thats just about every eventuality covered.....
We were going to take the other car full of every spare part but the number plate had fallen off and we hadn't had chance to get a new one, and thought it bad enough drawing attention by taking one car with no number plates (although legally in this case) so having two cars with no number plates would be just asking for trouble. Instead we decided to be brave and rammed the boot of the cobra full of everything that would fit, which is a surprisingly large amount of stuff. Managed to get the Halfords pro spanner and socket set, full imperial spanner set, multiple screwdrivers, pliers etc. cordless drill, hydraulic jack, spare bits of hose, hose clips, cable ties, every roll of tape imaginable, rivet gun, rivnut gun, spare wire, electrical terminals + tools, gas soldering iron and 5L jerry can. Quite well prepared, we thought.
Final Pre-IVA interior jobs
02/11/13
Last things before the IVA (on Wednesday 06/11/13) was to finish the carpet and put the seats in for the last time. The passenger seat is a bit on the wonk so I might jiggle it a bit straighter but haven't got time for that now. The tunnel cover was two pieces, one front and one rear. The rear bulkhead carpet then overlapped everything to give a nice finished edge. The front tunnel cover wrapped round slightly into the footwells. The edge was a bit rough here but tucked behind some other bits of carpet so didn't look too bad in the end. Under the dash was all carpeted to protect against nasty sharp bits, velcro'd on for easy access if anything needed looking at later.
One thing we noticed that had been completely forgotten was something to finish off the hole for the gearstick so we just folded the carpet back on itself.
Last things before the IVA (on Wednesday 06/11/13) was to finish the carpet and put the seats in for the last time. The passenger seat is a bit on the wonk so I might jiggle it a bit straighter but haven't got time for that now. The tunnel cover was two pieces, one front and one rear. The rear bulkhead carpet then overlapped everything to give a nice finished edge. The front tunnel cover wrapped round slightly into the footwells. The edge was a bit rough here but tucked behind some other bits of carpet so didn't look too bad in the end. Under the dash was all carpeted to protect against nasty sharp bits, velcro'd on for easy access if anything needed looking at later.
One thing we noticed that had been completely forgotten was something to finish off the hole for the gearstick so we just folded the carpet back on itself.
Wing Mirrors
02/11/13
For a few terrible minutes I thought I was going to have to remove the windscreen to drill the holes in the windscreen surround but just managed to squeeze the two fixings in. Note that the wind wings are a no-no for IVA, I had them on to make sure the position I drilled for the mirrors didn't get in the way of the wind wings.
For a few terrible minutes I thought I was going to have to remove the windscreen to drill the holes in the windscreen surround but just managed to squeeze the two fixings in. Note that the wind wings are a no-no for IVA, I had them on to make sure the position I drilled for the mirrors didn't get in the way of the wind wings.
Last Minute Water Pump Job
I've got some posts to catch up on (now post-IVA!) so I'll try to remember everything I did over the last week.
I re-fitted the water pump backing plate gasket a couple of weeks ago and re-used the old gasket and dolloped some silicone sealant on it but in the back of my mind I wasn't happy. I hadn't run the engine since but I thought I should really get a new gasket and do it properly. Thanks to Adrian at American V8 Engines I got a set of Felpro gaskets for the water pump. I drained the coolant and completely removed the pump, which required the alternator to come off too. A bit worrying to be doing the week before the IVA test but it would help me sleep a little better.
The old gasket came off and I cleaned up the mating surfaces good and proper. I put far too much sealant on last time and it had splodged inside the pump so I cleaned all that up too. Bit of hylomar blue on the gasket to help it seal and everything was back together. Whole job probably took about an hour and a half.
After running the car it still leaks very very slightly but is hardly noticeable. I think maybe I missed a bit of the old sealant when cleaning it up so thats on my list of things to do over winter.
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