SVA man from Southampton called today - we've got a date! Next Friday 5th

Also booked an MOT for Tuesday afternoon to check emissions and have a pro look over the car!

Insurance is also sorted thanks to Adrian Flux

A few things to finish off on the interior:

Carpet of the back of the rest of the tub.

Bottom dashboard trim (radius issues with the way it was)

Shortened the stock gear knob to fit under here!

woohoo MOT pass. Did fail on 3 loose bolts first time through not bad!

Emissions were:

CO 0.97%
HC 151ppm

yeahy!

took video on the way over will process and post some time later!

We got the speedo calculation wrong, thought it was not working but the millage actually went up on the drive. Luckly you don't need that for MOT.

All set for SVA Friday now

Oh and before I forget it stopped raining just before we left!

It failed. However it's not that bad:

1) Seat back strength. As the seats have harness holes in an impact all of the force gets taken up by the back mounts and the seat back. I didn't have evidence that the seat conformed to the M1 Directive 76/115/EEC. I spoke to Cobra after the test and they that they've never had an issue with Roadster 7's and SVA, but the also don't have any documentation to send me, they will call me back on Monday and see if the can sort something out.

Two solutions, get the paper work or weld in a bar higher than the harness holes between either side of the roll bar.

2) Mirrors. Due to the seat backs getting in the way (more than 10%) of the rear view the passenger side mirror becomes a requirement. You couldn't see enough in that mirror. It requires convex glass. (and not just double sided taped on)

Two solutions, find some glass that goes in the existing mirror or replace the mirror.

3) Sheet metal edges on bonnet all round need rubber on them.  Would have done this there an then but I need to go back anyway so no point in rushing it.

4) Glass fibre edge under bonnet requires a radius of 1.5mm. Ditto above

5) Steering geometry - car didn't self centre from full lock my fault for checking the properly. Need to get Camber, caster and toe in setting from Mark or Simon (not that I was able to get a conclusive answer before)

6) Heat shield brake master cylinder and servo - I put an ali sheet on there but consensus was that it would soak up more heat. Fix cover in heat shield, not problem got a box of that in the garage.

7) Brake valve compensator - I used zip ties to hole this up, needs a proper bracket.

8) Design weights were wrong on the form. Car is heaver at the back that expected - probably due to the exhaust. So need a letter from Marlin with new weights. The rear needed to be at least 563 (and the gross put up to cover this)

The collapsible of the steering column was a very close issue but they did pass it in the end after a lunch time chat with everyone else there and a study of the manual.

That was it so all in all not too bad, nothing that can't be fixed. Thanks to Mark the tester at Southampton was nice a guy and very honest about everything all these issue are very fair points and I feel better about driving the car with them sorted!

Interior projections all passed, exterior projections all passed (had to sand down the rear reflectors a bit more, but that was it!)

Emission were still OK, exhaust was so close you wouldn't believe. One pipe was 98.9 and the other was 100.7 with an average of 99.8db! 

Here's a piccy of us at SVA:

A trip to Metal Supermarket in Southampton in the morning to get some steel tube, then a visit from TA member Black-Cat (Tom) in the afternoon. Huge thanks to Tom for bringing his TIG round to weld this bar in for us. He also brough his tube notcher which is an awesome bit of kit!

Tube notcher makes quick work of getting the angles and surfaces right for welding.

Tom welding the underside of the bar - not an easy place to fit in!

The resulting welds!

Bar ready for paint

And paint on the bar

Bracket made and installed for the brake compensator valve. Its now solidly bolted in place with a P clip. Also add an extra P clip to one of the brake lines.

Heat shielding installed for the brake servo and master cylinder

Rubber added to bonnet edges...

.... but ran out of rubber, doh!

Started on chopping the tub so the harness does not rub on the fibreglass

Started installing convex glass in the mirrors.

Lets get the mundane stuff out the way first:

Edge trim now firmly attached to the bonnet and surround

Holes in the tub for the belts to clear

Edge radius on the fibreglass

More stronger clips added to the brake pipes. Zip ties replaced with P clips

Ok I'm officially an idiot. After spending many ours buggering about with a camber/caster gauge make lots of adjustments and getting nowhere. Also measured up my Coupe as a reference. The front wheels have always looked a bit off to me. Turns out I was right. The wish bones are correct left and right, but they 180 degrees up the wrong was. DOH!!! Flipped the wishbone over, now the car auto centres no problem at all!

Note to all builders - make sure the more curvy part of the wish bone is at the front as in these pictures!

With the belts repositioned the boot floor needed to be modified so they clear.

Smoother out the edges around the holes for the belts.

Belt holes all done and cleaned up

All done :)

Sportster through the looking glass

It passed SVA today, thanks again to Mark top bloke!  (couldn't get a pic of us with car due to government regulations, never mind!)

DVLA Inspection took place today so with any luck we'll have a tax disk and reg number in a about a week!

Some final touches to the interior, thanks to Bilal at Strom Motorwerks for the custom engraving

The tax disc and number plate came today! Just need to have some plates made up and its ready for the road

Went for a proper first drive on today. We're really happy and are slowly getting to know the cars handling a bit. Doesn't half go when you put your foot down! Grinning from ear to ear.
 
Even the cold weather is not putting us off (although I think we may need to install the windscreen soon). 

We've done 50 miles today before it got dark, only tiny bit of rain but I'm now grinning like this 

A few pictures from the weekend between filming:

Unfortunately after this we had a wish bone fail which meant joining the RAC and getting the car home on a flat bed, Marlin will send me all new replacement bits but as they are between workshop moves I won't get any parts until next year now. Never mind, gives us time to install the windscreen and maybe do some engine work! :)

Winter Drive Extended Cut:

Due to the car being off the road because of the broken wish bone we decided it would be a good idea to tackle the engine rebuild. This was more planned for next winter but never mind!

The current engine had 111k on it, and with the zone chip started running really well so we were not expecting any major issues. Part of the rebuild will involve dropping an M52B28 crank shaft and M20B20 conrods into the block. This will make it a square engine with an increase in capacity to 2.8ltrs. Further the head will recieve a new set of performance valve springs and a dbilas 282°/272° camshaft. All gaskets and seals are also being replaced.

Head off!

Inspection of the head reveals its in prett y good condition!

Nice tip for getting the bolt out the end of the cam shaft. Put the old timing belt around it, then loop the open end of the belt round the work mate. This locks it in place and allows the easy removal of he botl!

Rocker number out, shaft on its way out

Camshaft and everything else removed from head minus the valves

First valve out, could take any more out as the valve spring clamp we bought was not big enough, needs to go back for the more expensive one!

More to follow!

Rather than buying a new valve spring compressor we decided to make an extension for the curent one. 

After lathing the tube to the correct size with a suitable amount taken out the inside to fit over the clamp it needed holes in the side so that you can still remove the collets after compressing the springs:

The completed adapter attached:

And now in use on the head to remove the valves. Looking at this it would seem that it would have been possible to use it without the extension but it would seems to be easier this way up!

The intake valves and valve seats look great, but the exhaust seats and valves need re-grinding. They are just starting to pit. All in all everything seems to be in very good condition.

All the valves, springs and collets arranged in order waiting to be cleaned up.

 The head could do with a dip, it seems to be nice and straight but I think I'll find a machine shop to double check everything for me!

The head is off to the local machine shop for crack testing, we'll know if everything is good on Tuesday. If it is then it'll get a bit of clean up.

Clean valves! This took a lot of time! The exhaust vales were cakes. Used a technique from Jason (GreatOldOne) placed the valve in drill and used increasingly finer sand paper to take the layers off and then some metal polish to finish it. The intake valves just need a run over with 1200 grit & some degreaser, then metal polish.

This was a 4 hour process with two people and two drills so about 8 work hours to clean them up! Some of them still have a bit of carbon build up but its very small and they still need to be run throug the ultrasonic cleaner and degreaser!

The tops of the valves where cleaned like the bottom half, the centres took a bit more work with sand paper and the edge of a knif blade. The only area left alone was valve seating area, that will be ground in when the head comes back from the machine shop.

Rest of the engine is out of the Sportster, looking a bit empty now.

Engine and gearbox out!

The clutch coming off

Sump off!

6 pistons removed from the block and numbered. They need a good clean and the conrods swapping for the 130mm M20B20 ones. I'm going to check the M52B28 conrods and the M50B25 ones I've got knocking about as well see if there's anything more suitable.

Bores in the block look great!

Flywheel off, had to lock the crankshaft in place with a metal bar between piston 3 and 4 then the bolts came out really easy!

Crank bolt came out really easy - surprisingly!

M52B28 crank shaft sitting in the M20 block - this end will need some kind of spacer for the oil seal.

Crank sits in the block like it was meant to be there - only other thing that need to be tested is the M20B20 130mm conrod with the M20B25 pistons in place to check clearances.

One more picture for good measure!

One question, how the h*** to do you the cam belt pulley off the crank? It seems to be wedge solid. The cam chain pulley came right off the M52 crank so I assume its the same with the M20 except I've got 20 years of gunk keeping it on!