Post IVA Tweeking

Nothing of any real interest but this is a list of things I think I will be looking at over the coming weeks.  I am still waiting for registration document so may well be able to get some of these in before my V5 arrives.

IVA Recommendations 

The IVA man picked up on a couple of issues that were not a fail but he recommended looking at, in no particular order:

1. Drivers side front brake hose - slight chafing on full lock.  He stuck some temporary padding to get me home, however, I suspect the hose simply needs moving round slightly.  The passenger side is fine and the drivers side failed first time as it was kinked.  I suspect I was simply too enthusiastic when unkinking, should be easy to sort.
   
2. Brake master cylinder washers - there are no washers behind the bolts attaching the master cylinder to chassis, easy fix and what he says makes sense. << done
   
   
3. Spacers on brake pipes offside gearbox area - hmmmm, this one will be an absolute bugger to get to!  I need to think about this and he did suggest some simple padding between the brake pipes will be fine.
   
4. Additional infill between passenger lower and upper dash - there is a small space between my lower and upper dash.  No biggie but a suggestion was to try and fill this gap in.  I'm going to leave this one to be honest unless I decide to take the dash out at some point in the future.
   
5. Additional fixings for throttle cable - the cable passes above the driver side wishbone, it needs some sticky pad cable tie holders (which I already have) attaching to it.  Quick fix and stops any premature wear and tear. << done

The interesting and fun list

This is a more interesting list and my thoughts over the last few days, again in no particular order:

1. Wind deflectors - it gets windy driving the car, I am not really that bothered but if I am going to get the wife out I think I'll need to make it a little more comfortable.  Reading on a few other blogs it seems like wind deflectors make a significant difference and they sound like an interesting piece of work.
   
2. Engine Cooling - examiner commented the engine seemed a little hot.  I am not sure if its his experience or actually an issue, certainly from what I read the Zetec runs hot.  None the less I am going to consider some bonnet vents\louvres.  Louvres seem more of a DIY thing I can tackle at home but will need some careful research to make sure I get the right look and effect.
   
   Another suggestion he had in this area was a double size radiator and I see GBS sell an ATR one, there are reviews stating a significant decrease in temperature but they aren't cheap.  I will only investigate this further if cooling becomes a problem.
   
3. Steering Wheel - I must replace the god awful sierra wheel!  Its massive and makes getting in and out difficult and after a while your legs ache.  I have already purchased the wheel and have a boss, I need the adapter kit for the two though.  Now the question is, do I go quick release?  I think I will. << done
4. Immobilizer - a few people have mentioned this to me and I had disregarded it till now.  My thoughts were well if someone wants to steal it they will stick it on a low loader, however, an immobilizer is cheap to buy and will be interesting to fit.  CBS do a Thatcham 2 for £60 and it comes with a nice visual deterrent near the lock barrel in the form of a flashing red light.  It will be difficult for someone to bypass but possible, with significant effort.  I figure though if I go with quick release steering wheel + immobilizer it will put most people off.  << done
5. Map switch - something I may delay until I speak to emerald.  I need to book a RR session once on the road, I do like the idea of a map selection switch from Eco and Power.
   
6. Front indicator extensions - I will be removing the awful extensions, they look stupid.  << done
7. Geometry setup - I am thinking of asking GBS to do this for me; the are the pros.
   
8. Wet weather gear - GBS do a kit but its pricey, at over £600 it includes the doors and to be honest I am not interested in them.  All I want is something to keep me dry should I get caught out, I don't mind getting a little wet.  Soft Bits For Sevens do a kit which is really tidy and will make putting up a cover a doddle, its also half the price.  I will definitely be getting in touch with them. << done
9. Fuel Sender - this one is to be decided once I do some driving.  The gauge and sender are matched but the float isn't right, I have fiddled about and managed to get a more accurate reading.  If it still doesn't work correctly (it wasn't registering above half full) then I will look at some alternatives from CBS, namely a pole fuel sender.  They look more reliable and sensible to me - but I need to match the resistance to gauge. << done (seems good enough and registers empty to full)
   
10. Speedo sender bracket - I know the pulses are right as it passed, however it was a right faff on to get working reliable at the test.  In the end the examiner and I ended up taking some tin snips to the bracket and forcing it to the right angle.  It worked, however, it looks a mess - now is that a problem?  I don't know but I certainly need to at least investigate.  My thoughts are to reverse the rivnuts round so I can easily remove the bracket - at the moment it is pretty impossible to get a spanner in.
    
11. Cold air feed - now this isn't mentioned much so I will need to do more research.  I can't help but think there is a whole load of heat soak going on, maybe it is only a potential problem when stuck in traffic as I can assume there is a lot of air flow when the car is moving.  I can see the logic of a ram air feed (plus it looks nice from the front) and something like a pipercross viper cone filter. 
    
    The viper is fully enclosed to help with heat soak and if I can supply it with a fresh air feed - perfect, its almost straight line from the nose cone.   When driving to the test centre I got stuck in a lot of traffic and the car seemed to hunt a little at low speed, could be the map but I did think it will be sucking in some very hot air!
    
12. High pressure fuel pump mount - I noticed the fuel pump is only mounted via one of the exhaust clamps, it is just touching the bottom one.  It will probably be fine however it will not take long to move it down slightly and ensure it is fixed to both.

IVA Attempt 2 - It's a Pass!

Well, chuffed is an understatement.  First the prep work, far too much to list but in brief:

• Indicators were too short - had to extend them out a little
• Brakes under steering column were rubbing - easy enough to sort
• Lots of fiddly bits of trim that were an absolute nightmare to get to
• Steering column running on brake pedal - move to the left 2mm and my god what a chore that was
• Steering column bottom UJ bolt too small - my bad
• Fog light not turning off when lights are switch off\back on - CBS to the rescue, black box fitted with relative ease

The drive there was awesome as I am much more confident now.  The drive back however was unreal, I have actually built a car that works and is road legal, wahey!!!! Onto registration but for now some pics:

IVA Prep - Dashboard

Plenty going on at the moment and I am ticking a few of the IVA fail points off.  One that I was kind of aware of and that I thought would be OK was the ECU position.  As I have a matrix fitted it isn't in the usual mount point well back in the scuttle.  The IVA man picked up on the radius as well as a couple of bolts missing protective caps.

If you look in the top left you can see how it was:

Thinking about it if the rain hits in the wrong direction its not going to be well protected!  Now, I thought I would try making something out of aluminium - doable but will require a lot of fettling.  

Second thoughts was to maybe find some mouldable plastic - not easy to find and probably not going to work.

After wandering around B&Q for a while looking for a suitable candidate (I was thinking kitchen bin or some kind of round storage box) I came up with this - a plastic plantpot:

It may look funny but its made of strong material that looked easy to work with and it has the perfect radius.  Plus I figure if it didn't work first time then there's enough material in it to have a couple of goes.  First step is to cut out a rough template:

Then it was slow progress trimming it down to fit gradually:

I needed some strength for along the bottom.  Not too fussed about the top but the bottom has the potential of getting a good knock plus its going to rest on the chassis to the left and connect to the AUX panel in the centre.  I opted for a piece of wood which I wrapped with aluminium;  I wanted something I could easily screw into:

The IVA man warned me that whatever I did I needed to consider the bottom radius so I kept the same as the existing dash, I know that is compliant.  Some creative blue peter style craftsmanship gave me the result I was after - plenty of rubber hosing and some carefully placed screws:

I then wrapped it with some offcut carpet to keep the curves nice and smooth, looking good:

Wrap the whole thing up in the leatherette used for the existing AUX panel and centre console to match and fit:

Neat and tidy and it should tick box for the IVA man.  It looks really good, much better and as well as being safer for the passenger it provides some protection for the ECU from the rain.

Result!

Stuart the Mouse!

So I was busy working on the car and I noticed little bits of bird seed in strange places....odd, maybe I spilled some early on in the build?  Alas after taking the AUX panel apart to get to the fusebox - there was some more!  Definitely something going on and after spotting the leftovers of some wiring and trim I realized I had a friend....

Its my own fault really for not keeping the garage tidy, spilling bird food on the floor and leaving the garage door open.  Two little guys decided to move in and make the garage their home.

I felt a little bad removing their nest but it had to be done I couldn't risk any more damage to the car.  Everything out and the mouse hunt was on!  There was no sign of them but before I put everything back in I decided to check against some slate tiles we have leaning against the wall, bam!  Two little critters jumped out and scurried into the abyss of stuff all over the garage floor.

My wife and I spent a good 30 mins trying to catch the pair but they gave us the slip.  On the way out of the garage one of them stopped under the car, he thought better of it and scuttled onto the front lawn and he was away.

Trip to B&Q to invest in a strip for the bottom of the garage door and also cleaned everything out so there is nothing in there to tempt them back:

Hopefully that is the last of them and I can concentrate back on the remedial work.  In six days time I will be at the test center with my tick list complete.

Luckily in this instance no real damage had been done but it was a close call....

IVA Attempt 1

Well, its a fail...but that was expected and I am really pleased :)  After much scrambling about and last minute windscreen wiper "fiddling" she was ready, albeit filthy:

With my wife driving the "support car" full of tools we set off late evening, weather held up and luckily we were not rained on.  The drive to the hotel was enjoyable but I was very nervous after all I had put this chunk of metal together that was moving 60mph down the road.

Put her to rest overnight in a cover just in case it rained:

Early start in the morning straight to the test center in rush hour traffic I had developed a fault.  I couldn't get the car into gear whilst warm and right outside the test center I had to turn it off, put it in gear and drive in - good first impression!

The car failed on a large number of items all of which were minor, some missing trim, my speedo wasnt working properly, cables needing tidying up slightly.  The major items I passed on, all of my windscreen, wipers and washers all were fine.  Emissions and noise test were fine (although it took an age to get a pass and we ended up spilling coolant out of the header tank everywhere).

Waiting on my final list and to book the retest but I am very, very pleased!  IVA Attempt 2 coming up....