russ
Junior
Posts: 25
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Post by russ on Apr 2, 2013 21:22:11 GMT
Hey Mat, all I will say is it damn cold, wray up warm, including your legs and take a flask..... Help!!!! I sound like my mother  |
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Post by mathew on Apr 2, 2013 21:23:44 GMT
Early forecasts are predicting rain on the day too!
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Post by Stewart on Apr 3, 2013 15:50:24 GMT
With the noisy lifters, you could try removing them and soaking them in petrol for a day or so, giving them a good squeeze regularly to get the crud out of them. Had the same thing on my race engine and this helped a lot.
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Post by Toed64 on Apr 4, 2013 16:33:09 GMT
Your reversing light didn't seem to be working in the vid. Looks great, good luck.
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Post by mathew on Apr 4, 2013 16:53:18 GMT
With the noisy lifters, you could try removing them and soaking them in petrol for a day or so, giving them a good squeeze regularly to get the crud out of them. Had the same thing on my race engine and this helped a lot. Ive had the car running almost every day since and the lifters are as quiet as a mouse now (sort of!). Much better than they were sounding in the clip. |
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Post by mathew on Apr 4, 2013 16:55:58 GMT
Your reversing light didn't seem to be working in the vid. Looks great, good luck. Thanks. I noticed the issue with the reversing light a while back. Everytime i would engage reverse gear the meter fuse would blow taking the dials and and the light with it. Just by chance i sorted it this morning. The problem?........the earth feed had become detached from the light! Re-attach it, all now works fine. |
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Post by mathew on Apr 22, 2013 21:22:26 GMT
 Tomorrow is the big day. Ive spent all day on the car, going over everything thrice! Had bit of a scare when i tried to start it earlier and everything was dead! Disconnected the battery and then reconnected it and everything was fine again. Ive convinced myself it's going to fail on something so not expecting a pass first time. Even so I'm like a little kid at xmas here with the excitement! I shall report back with my findings tomorrow. |
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Post by driver on Apr 22, 2013 22:16:24 GMT
All the good luck too you
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Post by jgilbert on Apr 22, 2013 22:52:31 GMT
Matthew,
Best of luck tomorrow. Keep us posted. Fingers crossed for you.
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Post by scooby1929 on Apr 23, 2013 12:03:58 GMT
Yes Matthew best of luck for tomorrow.
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Post by welshy1 on Apr 23, 2013 18:10:02 GMT
Good luck for tomorrow matthew, fingers crossed for a pass.
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Post by mathew on Apr 23, 2013 19:50:42 GMT
Bit of confusion with my last post, i didnt realise the time. The test was today. 6.30am, trailor turns up, the Exocet gets loaded on and away we go!
Bad news - it failed. Good news - only minor things.
The test itself didnt get off to the best of starts when the tester climbed into the car and used the fibreglass seat to prop his weight against. What followed was a horrible sounding crunch! Luckily the seat was intact and i made sure from then on in that everytime he would get in or out of the car i would support the back of the seat to avoid anymore stress on it.
So to the test itself.....my god they are thorough!
There were some bits he wasnt happy with which were either factory fitted or to the IVA manual so begrudgingly had to pass them. An example was the harness bar which i had bolted in place with M8 8.8 bolts (the minimum requirement). He wanted it welded. The rear led lights seemed to be an area of concern for him due to led's not being very visible from angles, these were e-marked so had no choice but to pass them.
Anyway onto the fails, starting with the main ones....
First up was the speedo reading. When he was doing 50mph my speedo was reading 30mph. When he was doing 70mph my speedo read 43mph. A huge difference by any means. This, i think, is down to the speedo giving a kmh hour reading (all the speedo readings were the exact kmh equivalent of the mph speed he was testing). I had replaced my instrument cluster a few months back so it may just be a case of changing the speedo dial for a mph one.Hopefully.
The next one was the noise. 102dB (max allowable is 99). Unsure yet how to sort this as i really dont want to be faffing about with a new silencer.
Ive routed the front to rear electrics through the tunnel. He wasnt happy with it being close to the cat/exhaust and wants some sort of heat shield fitted. Easily done.
Numerous bolts requiring nyloc nuts. Bit of advice for anyone reading....make sure every bolt has a nyloc/locking washer.
Side repeaters. These failed the 5degree visibility test. He wants to see them on stalks protruding out as far as the outside edge of the wheel arch. Its going to look utter shit but will be a temporary measure.
Sharp edges - the pedal assembly and surrounding gubbings could be reached side on through the frame. Like many have already done, a simple blanking plate on the first triangular section will solve this.
More sharp edges - The rear of the chassis! If you look at your car from the rear you will see the two round ends of the frame (some have stuck round reflectors on these bits to give you a better idea of what parts im on about). Well the edges of them were less than 2.5mm. Again, no big deal just something a bit more rounded needs to be attached.
The handbrake light and low brake fluid light decided not to work on the day. I will need to investigate this.
No 'DOT' symbol sticker near the brake fluid pot. I didnt bother putting one on as i genuinely thought the cap, which has all the information on it, was good enough. I was wrong.
And thats pretty much it. Brakes were fine, emissions sound, self centering no problem. As i knew it would be needing a retest pretty much straight away with the speedo issue i wasnt too bothered about trying to fix every small issue there and then.
All in all a good day out and i got to drive the car back home 50miles! All i can say is ....wow! The exhaust was popping and banging like a TVR, the seats were super comfy, the handling is ridiculously good and i even got a thumbs up from a guy in a Maclaren MP4.
Im pretty much flat out with work for the next few weeks so wont be getting a retest just yet, although may book it in with the aim of getting a date for maybe 4 weeks time.
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Post by driver on Apr 23, 2013 20:51:53 GMT
Make him pay for the seat!!! Did he give you a hard time driving the car back home as I would be worried about that?
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Post by mathew on Apr 23, 2013 21:04:06 GMT
I checked the seat over and theres no visible signs of damage to it and there isnt anymore flex than was already there. My sister did the exact same thing to the passenger seat a few weeks back.
That's what i forgot to mention, he had a problem with the PAS being removed. He was under the impression that it had to stay there. He said if i wanted to remove it then id have to change the entire steering column for one which was designed for a non PAS car. He didnt put this on the paper work but said will phone me in a couple of days with the decision after querying it with his superiors.
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Post by jgilbert on Apr 23, 2013 21:59:32 GMT
Hi Matthew, disappointed you didn't pass but as you say small things and easily fixed by the sound of it.
If they raise the PAS removal as an issue a word with Stuart maybe in order as many have removed this and passed!
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