Thanks again for the comments guys - I am sure many of you have seen already on facebook, but I guess I probably should update you all on how I've got on with the IVA.. but first (to keep you in suspense), I probably should get you up to date with some more pics and updates on the hours I've been spending in the garage over the last fortnight!
A bit of branding!
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Wing mirrors fitted on the top tubes
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Cable tie bases glued around the grille opening and black grille mesh fitted
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When we got it out of the garage, my brother took some nice pics (which show how good an iPhone can be in a decent photographer's hands!), which are quite good:
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A quick snap when I took it up for emissions/brakes check:
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Since then I have had a busy couple of nights, adding even more edging (I bought a 50m roll of edge trim, and probably used about 30-35m of it!), nut covers on everything (with judiscious use of the hot glue gun to hold them in place, thanks to Mazda's liking of an 11mm bolt), wrapped the back section of the exhaust and sorted out my rear brakes so the handbrake worked.
Then we get to this morning, where we loaded my mate Steve's Landy with half the contents of my garage (so we had the ability to fix pretty much anything!) and all of my paperwork in a nice big folder. Then we headed from home over to the test centre. We were lucky with the traffic and got there about 20 minutes early.
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So after a brief photo break, we were greeted by out tester who said he was looking forward to testing his first and last Exocet - it transpired that due to DVSA rearrangements, he was due to take voluntary redundancy and this was his last test - he even said that due to the changes, and a limited number of trained testers that it was likely that if I failed, I would need to go to Manchester for retest.
So the test began with pulling the car into the test lane where the speedo was checked and deemed to be bang on, so that was good. Next was to pull forward a little for the emissions test - where I had my first worry of the day! I knew the polutants were fine, but when we checked, had seen the lambda was at the top end of the MOT range - and it was the same today. With a limit of 1.03, the first test failed at 1.031, but a second test (with me holding the revs steady at 3000 - the top of the window to get everything stable between) saw the second result squeak in at 1.030! At this point, my mate was looking anxious, and thinking we were failing at the first hurdle - but we carried on!
Next was the check of edges and projections - which was interesting to watch, with our tester clearly having a thorough eye, and a system that he had used on many vehicles - and picked up a couple of small issues - the cable tie ends on my side panels were facing inwards, so we re-did them to be on the outside away from the occupant's legs, the bottom of my dash (which I had decided to ask about, rather than pre-trim) needed some trim sticking on, and we needed a little extra edging on the handbrake cable joiner. these were all swiftly sorted by digging in to my mate's little bag of pre-prepared bits, with no need to deploy the Landy-workshop! It was clear that despite being his last test, our man was going to give us a proper, but also a fair test - and was happy to talk through what we had done, and how he thought things would be appropriately resolved.
We then looked at the fuel filler and I offered up pictures of the earthing and vents on the tank, which were all ok - and there was no mention of needing a drip-tray under the tank (I had not fitted one, and had wondered if that might be a point for discussion - but was happy that it went unmentioned, so was ok). The lights (apart from headlights) were tested too, and deemed all ok.
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Next, I drove onto the large 4-post lift where I sat in the car while I was raised and asked to turn the wheels lock to lock - and came across another couple of small issues with one of the front brake hoses needing its clip adjusting to prevent rubbing on full lock, and a couple of sections of pipe/hose needing rubber overlays adding to prevent rubbing, which Steve duly dealt with quickly, while I sat in the car and chilled!
The headlight check was next - and the tester commented that he wasn't a fan of the "Chinese special" headlights as the beam pattern wasn't great, but he was happy enough to accept them, as they were aimed ok, just not brilliantly defined (I explained that they had already been improved a little by changing from the original bulbs to better ones).
Next stop was to roll off the ramp and to check the weights - with the corner weights working out surprisingly good, given that I had just set the coil-overs by eye! The total weight came in at 700Kg exactly (with approx 45l of fuel on board) - 388Kg front, 312 rear - so with a dry tank and some of the IVA-trim removed, 650Kg would be a reasonable target.
With the weights checked, it was brake test time - and here I was hoping that my sorting had worked (as we were getting close to the end of the test!). The brake test was looking ok until we got to the handbrake - which wouldn't disengage after the high effort test. I had a quick look, and it had pulled so far that the cable had popped loose in the caliper arm - a quick tweak and it was all ok. Thankfully, this then didn't reoccur, and wasn't raised as a fail. with the brakes numbers recorded, we moved outside for mirrors and sound level checks, while the tester took the car round the outside of the centre to check self centring.
When he joined us, the tester was very complementary about the car saying that it steered much more positively than many other kits he has tested, where they may need some help to self-centre, and that the brakes were excellent (so this gave us a confidence boost!).
The mirrors were all checked out ok, and then we came to the noise test - where I had a dB killer bung ready for the bike can just in case, but I needn't have worried - I was safely under at just 90.3dB.
So, with that, the test was over, but I wasn't sure of the final result - we were told to park up while the tester went to crunch the numbers for the brake test to see how it was. So we had a slightly anxious 15 minute wait until he then emerged... with a pass certificate, which is a result - I was confident that I had done my best to build the car properly and try to address as many points as I could ahead of time, so am very pleased that we could get it through first time!
Obviously, we were very happy with that, and so drove home, put the car away and decided to celebrate with a pub lunch and a pint!
Next job now is to fill in the DVLA forms to now get the car registered so that I can get out and enjoy it soon!
A bit of an essay, but I hope this thread has been useful to those thinking about a build - and now I can hopefully update when I get to actually drive the thing properly - and (assuming the registration comes back in time, get to Curborough!)
