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Post by James on Jan 21, 2015 19:05:26 GMT
Hi R2S. In answer to your earlier question we went to the test with standard MX5 185/60 tyres on the 14 inch rims. This kept our speedo readings super accurate. Others have passed with 15 inch rims like you have but if I were you I wouldn't test with massive tyres on top of that. Have you kept your donor wheels and tyres?
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Post by James on Jan 20, 2015 9:00:51 GMT
Thanks Stuart.
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Post by James on Jan 20, 2015 8:59:06 GMT
Passed IVA yesterday. It's almost exactly two years since buying our donor car and the build has been very engaging and rewarding. The height of the rear lights was solved by adding spacers between the top of the shocks and the space frame.
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Post by James on Jan 7, 2015 14:07:02 GMT
Brilliant Marmot0! Hopefully joining you soon. James (DeBoRah)
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Post by James on Dec 31, 2014 22:15:06 GMT
Lovely. Happy new year to one and all from James and Larry on the DeBoRah build. I hope we all meet up when we're behind our respective wheels.
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Post by James on Nov 30, 2014 12:29:46 GMT
Thanks, once again, for the suggestions everybody. I just read my last post back and it sounded a bit churlish. Apologies - just frustrating.
Stuart. Thanks matey. Actually, lifting the body was our first thought but we would have to undo all the sills which are really tight and have no extra overlap to re-drill and attach plus we are reluctant to reconfigure the rear brackets now they are being used for the exhaust etc. Padding out the front if necessary would be easy I guess but the sills represent an issue.
R2S. Yes indeed. The sill/floor (and a few little wiring issues) make us think that raising the space frame would be better if possible.
Marmot0. I guess we all want to do this thing without drilling too many extra holes through the gel coat. I'd be happier to bang on some brackets/trailer lights if I knew I was going to re-spray. It was always the plan to go full Aston Martin original metallic (that's why DeBoRah is the colour she is, but, you know, things are totting up and we are not sure we can afford it so we don't want to drill when we don't have to.
I suppose we are all guinea pigs in a sense. One day there will be a definitive, predictable and elegant answer to this which doesn't necessarily mean cobbling together something in order to guarantee a pass. We are going to whip off the shocks at our weekly session on Tuesday night and take it from there.
All will be well! Probably won't retest now until the New Year. But we'll be ready!
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Post by James on Nov 28, 2014 9:49:17 GMT
Here is a rule that seems so obvious in retrospect....
If the wheels are connected to the shocks and the shocks are connected to the chassis and the body is connected to the chassis then no amount of messing about with the sub-frames will make ANY difference to the ride-height of the body. We spent three hours replacing the four M12s that bolt the rear sub-frame to the chassis with longer ones and then packing them out with 25mm of washers (80 in all) between the sub-frame and the chassis. To remind you, we need 23mm of extra height at the back for the rear lights to pass IVA. When off the stands and re-measured it was the same height as before - EXACTLY the same height as before. It's obvious really - if the top of the shocks were mounted to the sub-frame then we would have achieved our goal. But they aren't so all we have done is change the geometry of the rear suspension. But of course, the distance between the wheels and the chassis is exactly the same. What a frustrating and disappointing waste of time.
We have no room for adjustment on our new MX5 rear shocks.
We have bought and love our 14" MX5 wires.
Our speedo test was the most accurate the inspector had ever seen. It's tested at 35, 40, 50, 60 and 70 mph. Our read-out was 35, 40, 50, 59, and 70. He said it was a bit too accurate as it doesn't give us any lee-way. (He said he tested a new production car recently that read 70 and was actually doing 57 mph!)
Our test centre is a 200 mile round trip. We have to borrow a trailer from someone miles away and we can only test in the afternoons. No time to do any real modifications on site.
We spent days and folding money modifying and finishing our dash. The speedo is completely sealed, finished and inaccessible unless we pull the dash off and trash the cluster again.
Our tester would seem to be (let's say) 'thorough'. He doesn't seem to be a chap who would let us get away with painting half the inside of the lenses out. I maybe wrong - but can we afford to go all the way to Carlisle and fail again?
We could put bigger tyres on and hope he doesn't notice. But he said he'll be looking out for bigger wheels and will re-test.
By sticking with standard MX5 Parts throughout we thought we were doing exactly the right thing. Minimising the risk of not passing.
The only thing we can think of now is removing the shocks, drilling out the studs at the top, replacing with longer bolts and packing with something substantial between the shock and the chassis to depth of 23mm. With what, we don't know.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
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Post by James on Nov 18, 2014 20:00:44 GMT
Thanks Marmot0.
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Post by James on Nov 18, 2014 19:58:52 GMT
OK here goes - the points we failed on in case it's useful for others (remember, this is our first build). No excuses, but here we go-
RS3. Rear registration plate. The space on the back of the body for the plate is not big enough. It was a fail because we didn't make a permanently-fixed back plate (alloy or similar) to go behind the number plate of size 520 x 120 mm. No part of the plastic plate, it was explained to us, should be unsupported.
RS12. Our 'wing mirrors' were the right size but didn't extend far enough to see the required height and width beyond the rear wings. We thought we were OK but Stuart was right - you need some seriously absurd mirrors to pass or some massive long stalks.
RS1. Stupid this one. No anti-slip rubber on the brake pedal! Our fault and really annoying.
RS6a, RS11a. When we filled up with petrol for the test (they won't test without a full tank) and with our 14" wheels the indicators and the brake lights at the back were less than 350mm from the floor to the bottom of the lenses. We spent so much time making sure the reversing light and the rear fog lamp was over 250mm that we didn't check after we filled up with the other lights. This is something to be super-aware of. Using 15" wheels and bigger tyres will work. But just using standard 14" MX5 parts like we have made us shy by 23mm! And that's with new shocks.
RS6. The advice for the IVA form is to state that the axle weights for the front and rear of the car is 500kg for each. However, the front of the car is heavier than that and should be stated on all paper work as an axle designed to take at least 520 kg and probably should be nearer 600. The calculated IVA weight was 519.05KG. The rear was 442.95 kg. So a fail on that. We can sort this out by submitting a letter stating the amendment to the stated weight baring properties.
RS1. Fuel line markings missing. So we showed him our receipts for the fuel lines which clearly stated the required DIN numbers etc. He was OK with that.
RS2. Split pin missing from the front offside top suspension nut. Fair comment. Something we inherited and should have noticed.
RS7. Two small grommets needed on the fog and reverse wires. Also fair comment. Must've been a late night worrying about the fog light cancellation regime.
Many of these could have been sorted out on site (we took tons of stuff with us) but we knew we were going home. It's easy to sort out most of these but there'll be some head scratching over the light heights. We don't want to change the wheels and re-test all of that so some spacers are going to be needed twixt the sub-frames and the chassis. Maybe. We'll let you know.
Still. Could be worse. And everyone at the station loved the car. I think I still do. I'm sure I do. Really.
BTW. The ABS was perfect in the test.
Nearly there.
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Post by James on Nov 16, 2014 14:57:11 GMT
Excellent news on your test marmot0. Well done. I hope we do as well tomorrow. Let's compare test centres! Best, James (DeBoRah)
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Post by James on Nov 10, 2014 16:38:52 GMT
Thanks, Spudman. Looks like we're all making good progress now.
Just a quick note to say we got a date for IVA which is next Monday 17th November at 1.00pm (they don't do morning appointments for cars at the Carlisle VOSA centre unfortunately). Am I right in thinking someone else has IVA the same day? If so we'll be thinking about you.
BTW. When you fill in the IVA application form remember that your VIN number mustn't have any letter 'I' s in it. I know this has been mentioned but being an idiot I forgot so the 'I' in REPLICAR caused the test centre to contact me and tell me the rules (it's a fail apparently). They have changed it to REPL1CAR (with a number 1) on the paperwork but now I have to alter the manufacturer's plate that I stamped out in aluminium. It will only take a second to alter with a hammer and a small flathead screwdriver. I should be able to do it without removing it from the chassis.
Anyhoo. My next post will be a report of how we get on!
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Post by James on Oct 23, 2014 20:47:47 GMT
(Almost) ready for IVA. Waiting for a date now. Any other last minute advice - all welcome!
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Post by James on Oct 23, 2014 20:43:32 GMT
Looks like it's off with the headlamp cowls to replace the winkers due to Stuart's excellent advice.
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Post by James on Oct 23, 2014 20:33:52 GMT
Got you Stuart. Thanks. We've got good speed now with the winkers but hear what you're saying re the wattage. I was worried that the big rubber ones supplied seemed to stick up into the beam of the headlights too much. We will replace before IVA. The number plate lights have already been modified using aluminium self-adhesive tape to eradicate backward-facing white light. Keep looking - we need all the help we can get! Thanks again.
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Post by James on Oct 23, 2014 20:12:29 GMT
We are using the original donor seats for the IVA and we will probably keep them. We are beginning to like them. A lot. Unpretentious, cloth, battered and used looking. Free. What's not to like?
Isolator switch visible on drivers side. Also our choice of mirror. They work well, are IVA OK and cheap. Love the black simple racing style and the position. Utilitarian. Anyone want to buy some brand new chrome bullets in their boxes? BOGOF?
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