I have struggled to find time for the car recently as our house move has been more important. I am having to get rid of a hell of a lot of stuff, moving from a 4 bed house with 2 50ft long barns to possible a 2 bed bungalow with one smallish shed is no small task. Most of the bike collection will have to go, which is a bummer as prices are right down at the moment, I will also have to get rid of my big lathe and most of my tools. Much of it has already gone, I am being careful to keep anything I may need to get the car finished.
It really is very close now, I am trying very hard to get it through IVA first time, although I have yet to find anybody that has achieved that feat. Finding mirrors has been a challenge, all tghe ones I liked the look of were non compliant from an exterior projections point of view. They use a 100mm sphere, anything that it can be touched has to be radiused to 2.5mm, which seriously limits your options. I ordered one set but thanks to Yodel they never arrived, I ordered another set the same only to discover that the mirror glass extended beyond the body of the mirror at certain settings, an instant failure. I ordered another set that I wasn't so keen on, they were really expensive but they are compliant. To be fair they do give a very good view of the rear, the rules say you only need one if you have an interior mirror but as my rear screen is blanked out, I had to fit a nearside mirror too. Although they seem to give me adequate rear view, I will be fitting a camera with LCD screen as well, just for my own peace of mind more than a regulatory thing. It will be mounted behind the steering wheel, where there is an exception for interior projections as the case of the screen is not radiused to the required 2.5mm.
I think they look pretty decent, I don't know how long they will last in the harsh environment of living near the sea, time will tell. As long as they pass the IVA I am ok with it. I also replaced the two bonnet catches that I had, they were really close on the radii so I got a pair of rubber ones instead. Here's a thing, certain outlets sell these at over 30 quid a pair as being IVA compliant, which they are but you can buy the same thing from China for just over a fiver, which is of course what they are doing. Just sayin'
The car starts much more easily now I have sorted the chokes out, I think I might bung a new set of plugs in though as I don't know how old the ones in my new heads are, they are different to the ones in the old heads. I am accumulating quite a collection of parts that I thought I might use and haven't, I need to do an auto jumble to try and get some of my money back.
I keep staring at the headlining, which is partly done but has ended up being a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, it has driven me quite mad. It is not unusual to find me now in the corner of the workshop rocking backwards and forwards while uttering obscenities and dribbling uncontrollably. Alcohol seems to help.
I can't remember for the life of me if I filled the gearbox with oil, it kept me awake last night. I think I might have done it but that would have been 2 years ago and I just don't know. I will have to check that. I know I filled the diff, I remember doing it with a pressure pump. For now I will assume I forgot to do it and will have to remove the filler plug and have a look, I want to test the brakes soon and don't want to knacker the box in the process.
Next job will be the windscreen, which will be a cut down Land rover Defender item, which already has the 43R approval rating as specified by the IVA document. Our local glazing company - Beeson's of Boston have agreed to cut it down for me, I need to get a 2 x4 sheet of plywood to make a template first. Rimmer's have the screens in stock, they are only about 60 quid but I will have to go to their place just outside of Lincoln to get it. Once that is fitted I can fit the windscreen wipers that I already have. I the screen goes OK I will need another 2 windscreens cut down for the front doors - why 2 I hear you ask? Well every piece of glass has to have the approval marking and the windscreen only has one marking on it so I need one for each window fitted. It's either that or get custom ones made at an astronomical price. They make all these rules without any consideration as to how practical or expensive it might be, it's very frustrating at times but if it doesn't comply it doesn't pass.
One job I intend to do is to write a build report for the IVA tester, which will include photos of some of the more difficult to see areas, for example I am taking close ups of the seat belt mounts while the seats are out, I will photograph the floor reinforcement panels while I am at it. I have bad memories of when I did my robin Hood years ago and the bloke nearly destroyed my center console trying to look at the brake pipe clips running down it. I had to build in access panels in the end so he could see it was compliant, a lot of work that didn't improve the car in any way. Don't want that to happen again.
Minor update - I sold my lathe so the car had to come out to get the massive lump of iron out of the workshop. I took a quick video while it was out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVDCwHFTP8 Despite a very short drive some problems reared their ugly head. the first was that the glue I used for fixing the headliner is no good in 28 degree heat, the whole bloody thing just fell off. The clutch doesn't seem right - very high bite point, can't help feeling it will slip with the power on. Something's not right with the steering. The front tyres definitely need more air in them, the toe in has not been set yet so that's probably 90 per cent of it. Oh well, it moves and sort of stops. The brakes are nowhere near as good as I hoped, action needs to be taken, it won't pass IVA like that. I think a remote servo for the fronts may be the way to go, I need to do some further testing before I can work out what's needed.
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