First Local meet.

I managed to squeeze a couple of hours last Sunday to pop along to my local meet. I have been a few times before and knew some of the chaps who gave plenty of ribbings as to when will it be ready in the past, so this was my first visit completed.
Plenty of nice comments and nice to see it alongside others.
From Left: AK, GD Mk3, Pilgrim Sumo, My GD Mk4
The red one with stripes is a Dax. I think the other red one may be a Pilgrim Sumo too.

Good turn out of 7 cobs in total on a brisk November afternoon.

Just over 5 weeks to the shortest Day of the year, then Summer will be on the way! :P

First Few Miles

Its been rather busy lately with work and the little man, so not had much time to drive. Had one Sunday afternoon to make some cosmetic updates, like the side vents, wind winds, stone guards and add the plates.

So far I have driven it to work once, and also took the father in-law out one afternoon when he came round, it was more "how's the car getting on?" "oh its done and passed, wanna go for a little drive?" needless to say he was rather speechless when we got back. :P
Then I took it out for another, longer drive round some local lanes last Sunday. Although it was bitter cold, 3 deg's it was a lovely sunny drive. I treated the car with respect and it drove really well.
With the days getting shorter, I can't see many more miles clocking up. So far I have done 190 miles.
Still need to sort out the idle/cruising idle as its still not 100%. But that's bolt on EFI for you. great when set up properly........ Still got to do that bit. But it runs fine away from idle speeds
May even look into the hardtop as I could have used it a bit more this month. :P

As soon as the shortest day has passed, I'll know summer is on its way! :)
Bring on 2011.

IVA Passed. Wooohoooo!

All the fail items were fixed, some easier than others and after just over an hour it passed.

I have handed in the paperwork to my local DVLA office and will be sleeping under the letter box till the paperwork comes through. :D

Wow, what a journey from start to finish.

D Day

Having had yesterday to final check and final fit some major bits, I found that the engine wasn't ticking over as it should, and its first drive up and down the garage block was rather lumpy not running right between 1-2k rpm. So I buried my head in the EFI book of words to try and figure it out. But with no joy.
I had to raise the suspension so the indicators are 350mm from the ground. So a little worried I called it a day. Work has been a bit silly and taken all my time as well as father duties in my spare evening time.

So I drove it to the test which was a great drive, left extra early to take a longer route to bed brakes in and check for gross error while still close to home. Had some fella at my first stop, fuel, coment about my number plate falling off, told him its a kit car and they do that. :)

Image centre caps fitted, nearly forgot. lucky I put them in the boot when they came.

Here we go....
Sadly it failed on emissions, hand brake not bed in enough, sticker for light switch should read side/dip and not side/main. Earth strap from the Tank to the chassis, as he wasn't happy with it being earthed through the neg on the sensor loom.
I had fitted a loom cover in the engine bay and the bolts protruded into the passenger side... doh
Rear Fog light should only come on with side, dip and main. Mine came one separate. Easy fix.
The seatbelt eye bolts undid with him twisting the belt latch, so I must locktite them.
Steering wheel needs to be (E) marked or a certificate of conformity to EU standards?!?!?! I called him up yesterday to clarify it, and basicly the centre boss should compact if your face was to come into contact with it. Never mind the radius's, the centre basically needs to be padded if there is no E mark on the wheel. So that's now an easy fix.
The tester was really helpful on some other parts such as the braided hoses touched the wish bones and I was told to wrap them with rubber hose and cable tie them while it was on the ramp. I also added locking nuts to the anti roll bar tie rods.
He was happy with the drilled pedals as they come from GD, the holes act as anti slip in the way that rubber on your soles presses in. That was his reading or the rules.
So a small list, but plenty to do. Emissions being the big one. It must be a duff spark plug or a blocked injector as it was set up perfectly on the dyno at EDA. So its not timing.

I had plenty of positive comments on the build and lots of attention, lots of people loved the paint job! :P heheh

Wheels are here

The wheels finally came yesterday, So it was straight on with them. But that was it, I had little time to do anything else and was itching to drive it out. Oh well.Lowered onto blocks as I didn't want the body to land on the jack. Its close on the nose!
Image forgot to send the blank centre caps....

Finally looks like a car. So Close!

IVA compliant bits

Had to add the final touches to conform to the IVA rules.

Headrest extensions for fixed seats. 50mm from top of seatI blanked off the side vents and siliconed round the lip as this could possible be below the radius requirements. The N/S has 2 holes with rubber edging.

Label for brake reservoir
Blunted/rounded door handles,
Switches have to labeled, but cos they are within the 127mm radius outside the steering wheel they are not radiused but also exempt. :P
Also had to cover the clock adjuster knob as it may be classed as sharp. (bottom middle dial)
EDIT: The Lights should read "Side & Dip"!

Mirror stub is contactable
Although the rear Fog supplied by GD that matches the reverse light is E marked, it wont pass as it has to be a parabolic lens designed fog lamp.
Front nose will allow the test sphere to enter and fail even with the number plate bar, so I made up a blank plate from MDF and filed the edges round and attached with some P Clips.
I fitted a steering wheel that has radiused edges and no slots like the motolita. Also used the Vecrta stalks as they show the correct symbols. EDIT: The centre of the steering wheel had to be padded for the retest, the inspector felt that it was a hard contactable area!? So i padded it with foam and gaffer tape. Think there will be a pic somewhere.

Boot handle too has some minor edges that could fail the test.

Best Speak to GD about these bits.

IVA put back.

Well today was the last day of the allowed 3 days in advance to change my IVA date. Having spoken to GD and the wheels should be ready by the end of the week, however there is no stock of Toyo tyres in the UK at present! Delay from China has back logged most places. So I may have to get some Michelin's.

So a call to VOSA to get the date moved from the 8th, resulted in a bit of a pause on the phone, and then I was told the next available date is the 29th July!!!!
Wont make the GD track day on the 25th then. :(

Still No Wheels

I have now got everything ready for the IVA. But Image wheels are pissing about with various excuses. I'm gutted as my wheels wont be ready till the day after my test date!!! ArSE!!!
So much for their 6 week lead time. Ordered them about 9 weeks ago. To say I'm Annoyed at the mo is and understatement.

GD have been very helpfull trying to get stuff to me before they went to goodwood yesterday for the rest of the week.
Will re-evaluate on Monday and may have to rebook the test date. :(

So close...

Off to go and throw some blunt soft things about in the garage.

Brakes

2 days before he was born, I got the brakes through.

330mm vented beasties on the fronts may be a little over kill but I plan to make them work for their money.

They should stop me.Using the ezbleed off the tyre pressure, I got all the system bled. Just need to wait for the pads to turn up to check the pedal feel.

He beat me to it.

Our son "Harry" was born Yesterday morning. Mum is doing well after the op as he was bum first.
6lb 9oz

I had already put the IVA date back to the 8th July. Will see how things go, may need a bit longer.

Cheers Ryan, I deleted my last post cos it was a little confusing. ;)

Checking it over

Today was spent checking over some bits. Ran the engine up to temp, made sure the dials and instruments all worked and made sure the fans kicked in. When I was on the phone to GD, I asked them about the speedo, Andy knew roughly what my setup should read in 5th @ 1k rpm = 32mph. So I set about adjusting the speedo as it was reading 130mph on tick over in 5th, lol. just a little over. :P
I entered the number of 30000 that I was told and that was spot on. I will have to fine tune it on the day as that isnt the exact figure, more a ball park number. Also I'll try to adjust it so it reads a little over the true speed as there is less chance of a fail over reading speed than under reading.

Next I plugged up the EFI adjuster box to get familiar with the settings, 15mins later it starts to run rough. Noooo
Panicked I flick through the menus to see what I have unknowingly changed. It starts to cough, missfire and get worse. The throttle does nothing either... stopped the engine, try to restart... NOTHING!





That will be its first 5L of fuel gone then, LOL

Got my IVA date

Well, this will be an interesting month to say the least. IVA test date is 29th June, 6 days after baby due date. Bearing in mind, babies can be up to 2 weeks late.

Still waiting for my wheels to be made too.

Not ideal but no choice really, suck it n see.

Headrests are Wrong

Yesterday Andy phoned me for a change, lol. He had spotted my blog and saw the headrests I made up.
Unfortunately, they wont pass as they have to be "50 mm" from the top of the seat. I'm sure I read it to be 150mm, but re reading the IVA manual 50mm is correct. I'm sure they changed that a day after I made them.
That didn't go down well with my wife to who I told the second pair were right when we made them. Waste of a day really.

Anyway, GD will get some to me before my test date. Oh that came through the "ebay chute" this morning. 29th June. Gulp.

Clutch sorted

After a chat with Andy (again) he gave me a few ideas to raise the biting point off the floor. Last resort would have been a larger master cylinder. And that would have meant a heavier pedal.

I knew I had some float in the clutch fork and reduced this to about 1/2mm then wound a bit out of the pedal adjuster and reduced the spacers that the Master is mounted with. With the help of my younger brother, we managed to get a bit more air out of the slave cylinder. Now it is biting about 2/3 of the travel down. This is while on axle stands and watching the hubs turn. so could be a little higher on the road.
I think my bro shat himself when I told him to fire it up, as he was sitting there :P hehe

Anyway, the clutch pedal is a bit heavy but I have fitted a street Twin and that will be heavy. I would compare it to a truck clutch, heavy but manageable. Unless your a wimp with less meat on you than a butchers pencil.

Fixed seats

My understanding of the IVA rules, to use roll bar head rests, the seats have to be fixed and not adjustable. So as only I will be driving it, once fitted I can set the seat to its optimum position and remove the handle that makes it fixed allowing roll bar headrests to be used.

Bleeding Clutch

In more ways than one!

I bought one of the one way bleed kits and also one of the kits that works off a tyre to pressurise the system. Great idea when you know not to tighten the reservoir lid too much as it pops a thread and then pisses brake fluid out. :(
The trick was to snug it tight till you see the rubber seal touch all the way round. Too much and you can see it lift away about to jump a thread, easy to see now its soaked with fluid.
Anyway once I realised how to seal it, it worked really well, and it took a litre to do just the clutch.
One last pump on the pedal with my wife in the drivers seat, got a bit more air out of the slave cylinder as the bleed nipple is on the bottom.Fluid all over the place, in my hair and on my clothes, but that's another tick off the list.

Need to look into it as the biting point is right on the floor. Ran the engine and tried the gears. Further investigation required.

Steering wheel

I went for the leather Motolita wheel as opposed to the wooden one. I tried both out when I was up at GD and personally felt the wooden one was a little thin and didn't like the varnished feel but they do look nice. So I decided to go for the leather type. Rather pleased with it. Nicely made.With the polished boss attached, it was now a case of fitting 2 bolts with long shanks to act as indicator cancellation. Carefully measured the angle the where cancel switch is positioned to the horizontal and marked this angle on the rear of the hub.
Next I measured the distance from the shaft to the edge of the switch bracket and marked the boss and leave enough of a gap between for the switch to engage.
Drilled and tapped 2 6mm holes and cut the heads off after measuring how deep they need to be.Looking more like a car every day.To do list is getting shorter too :D

Rear over riders

Needed to make some angled spacers as the threads are at an angle to the body and the nuts don't sit flat.
With a marker running along the edge of the "stand off's" giving me the desired angle, I cut 2 pairs out. Made some rubber washers to fit between the stand off's and the body.

Head rests

As I mentioned earlier. My fixed seats will need headrests making up. The standard GD ones are not as big as the IVA regulations need. They need to be 150mm from the top of the seat and a certain width apart. Wont go into it cos its rather boring. IVA Manual.

So I made up some templates out of some scrap mdf (Mk1) Didn't realise about the minimum 150mm from seat top.
These ones are a bit on the small side. So I cut out some others that follow the body curve closely (Mk2), covered with foam then covered with vinyl. I decided for them to fit through the eyebolts as GD's stainless headrest T's have edges that Mr IVA tester may not like. So playing safe.

Didn't take many pics as my wife was helping and after realising the first ones were a bit small we cracked on with the Mk 2'sI hope they are good enough to pass.

Couldn't resist fitting harnesses too. :P