Rounding the Circle

So 5 years ago we visited the national Kit car Show at Stoneleigh when we were doing research on which kit to go with and this year the guys at AK asked to borrow Redmist for their stand!.

Pride immediately followed by panic! particularly as AK had not physically seen the car other than in photo's and I started to worry that our car would not meet the exceptionally high standards of the cars usually on display.

This spurred on a few outstanding jobs, i.e. finishing the boot carpeting and three minor paint repairs from the assembly process.

The paint repairs were entrusted once again to Option 1 and Frank managed to turn these round in a day and to a good standard.

A good clean and polish and then off to the show.

Wendi from AK was quite keen to have Redmist it turns out due to the options we had selected, i.e. we were the only car on the stand with a 'proper' engine ( i.e. carbed) ( no offence to LS3 lovers!) plus the bonnet vents and overriders.

The trip to the show was actually the longest she's done at 50 miles each way and first on motorway.
She ran straight as an arrow and cruised fine at 70 ish - albeit quite deaf when arrived!.

In the event Redmist didn't disgrace herself and looked fantastic on display.

Running in

Typically the weather broke just after I got the registration through but every opportunity was taken to get out on an evening with ever increasing local trips just to build up confidence.

I've now realised that building a cobra replica is a journey and definitely not a destination.

On one of my longer trips, I had steam entering the cockpit - opened the bonnet to find that the Radiator cap had pinged off and the water was boiling out. Fortunately spotted before it ran dry.

To date the longest trip has been 80 miles and I've absolutely loved it. The noise is epic and it really attracts attention - I'm told - I wouldn't know as I'm concentrating so much on keeping the thing on the road and avoiding pot holes!. This is not a relaxed drive as there's so much going on but that's the point of these cars. The seats are really comfy though and now I've fitted the wind wings - they do help.

I've done loads of test drives with friends and family many of whom have helped in one way or another even if only encouragement. A special one was with my dads best pal Bob who has maintained a interest in the project, sort of taking over from when Dad passed.

So I'm developing a list of issues - or as my missus says - opportunities to improve!

My fuel gauge isn't working  - I suspect the sender has failed so I'm planing to swap it for a dip tube type. I've checked the fuel consumption and it worked out to be 16.8mpg which was better than hoped for. So cruising should get us 200 miles.

The suspension needs adjustment, I think its marginally too soft, and the car bounces if hist a pot hole or drain cover. The good news is there's plenty of adjustment so next year will be some trial and error to get this right.

My biggest issue is with the rear end which is clonking a bit when on/off power. Its all pointing to the diff which I didn't recondition, so over the winter I'm planning to remove this and have it professionally sorted.

Oil leaks from the engine. There's a reasonable drip from the bottom of the bell housing. It could be the dreaded rear main seal but on further investigation and advice from Brian at Roadcraft it looks like it could be left hand rocker cover - definitely oil on the fear face of the head. This should be an easy fix and we will see where that leads.

Other things to do include completing the carpeting in the boot, fitting the fire extinguisher, fitting the sump guard and getting some weather gear fitted by AK.

So plenty to do next year!

Registration

So after the joys of finally passing the IVA it was on to registration. There are some complex looking forms to complete but the whole process is documented on AK's website and its worth a call to AK to guide you through to avoid the dreaded Q plate..

In my case, as I have an old engine, I was looking at an age related registration so followed the DVLA procedure for a Kit Converted Vehicle.

So completed the forms, checked and double checked, included the first years road tax and sent them off.

Less than 2 weeks later my new V5 arrived with the car correctly registered as an AKSportscars 427 with a nice little Special Note that Emissions test is visual smoke only. This was a surprise as I had to pass emissions test in the IVA. It may be an error but as its to my benefit i'll await the first MOT and see how that goes.

Armed with the V5 - off to the local car spares place to get my new 'E' registration plates made up, contacted Footman James to change insurance from chassis number to correct registration then hit the road!.  - Magic!

IVA Pass !!!!

My IVA retest was booked for 2nd July - once again at Kidderminster and this time I felt a lot more nervous than the original test - probably because then - I new it would be a fail.

I'd done all my prep, tested, tested and tested again and hoped for the best.

This time there was a different tester and he simply worked off the list of failures and checked there were suitable remedies. This was quite interesting as he had to ask me the precise details of some of the failures and what I'd done about it. For instance - cabling not clipped every 30cm - I just pointed to where i'd added clipping.
Anyhow  - about an hour and a half later - my IAC - Individual Approval Certificate was presented and the biggest milestone in this project achieved - happy days!

IVA

IVA was booked for 2nd May at Kidderminster and I thought I'd left myself enough time to get all the final checks and issues from the MOT resolved however a few sick days, holidays and family do's conspired to pack all the time down to a last minute panic.

One of the main problems I had was with the speedometer not working. I'm using the Tremec Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) wired through to Speedhut gauge. No matter what I tried - I just couldn't get this combination to work - made even harder by how inaccessibly the VSS is with the body on. I decided it was either my cabling ( very likely) or the speed sensor were most likely issues - so faced with no guaranteed resolution I scoured the internet and found the solution on the ETB Gauges web site.
I'd seen that other builders were using speed sensors working off the diff input shaft so next issue was sourcing one.
Now my test was on the Wednesday and it was Monday morning when I decided on the change of plan. A call to ETB and they were brilliant   - dispatching the sensor same day for guaranteed next day delivery. The item arrived by 10:00 am so most of the day went into mounting a bracket and re-cabling the speedo. The ETB sensor is easy to setup and is a 3-wire system requiring +12v. The really useful bit is it has an LED on the sensor that positively shows when it senses a bolt head or lobe.

And - it worked first time so £30 quid well spent.

ETB speed sensor - great bit of kit

So putting all the dash together - last minute systems check  - and no horn or reverse light....
basic checks - 10A fuse blown so changed that - and it blew again! In fact it blew as soon as I turned the ignition on. Cursory checks couldn't find the short and it was 10:30pm  by this time so resigned myself to a fail at the test the next day.

So awoke to an absolute downpour - great!. Fortunately the test centre is only 4 miles away so I didn't get too drowned - but in the spirit of the whole event - on the way to the test centre I had to swerve to avoid a van approaching on the wrong side of the road - and kerbed both nearside wheels!
Arrived at the test centre and fortunately they have an undercover parking area where the tester was waiting.

Given I knew I was going to fail, it sort of changes your attitude to how few failures will I get.

Its fair to say that the tester ( who was very friendly and communicative) examined the car very thoroughly - I was expecting to be there 4 hours or so from other experiences but was actually there for nearer 6! And you don't get any refreshments and there are no facilities other than washroom - so advice is to go prepared.

Every test item in the IVA manual was examined as you would expect. If there were minor items the examiner gave me chance to rectify - for instance I has a wire under the bonnet where a small bit of copper was showing into a connector - just applied a bit of tape and all sorted. What he didn't do was point out every failure as he went - these were saved up to the end.

At the test centre

The highlights:

• Brake performance passed easily - including the troublesome AK Handbrake. 
• Steering self centreing all worked.
• Noise test passed at 98db
• Headlights aim all correct - he was quite surprised about that - normally have to adjust.
• Speedo calibration - the examiner was happy to allow me to calibrate that on the rollers.
• Emissions: - failed initially as had done at MOT - and by some distance on HC which needed to be below 1200. The examiner offered opportunity to adjust things if I felt I could improve matters. My remedy was to increase the idle speed. Originally set to about 650, I raised it to nearer 900 rpm and it then passed easily with a reading around 700-750.

So the disappointment list:

• Horn and Reverse light not working ( I knew about)
• Orange light showing on front indicators below the limit height. ( I'd taped up the inside of the lens but not well enough it seems. Should have used the painted ones in the AK IVA kit.) 
• Rear reflector not mounted with 'TOP' at the top!
• Cable exposed to heat source - one of the plug leads had at some time gained a scorch mark from the headers - so additional insulation needed.
• Steering - N/s front wheel touching inner wheel arch on full lock. I'd had a go at fixing that after the MOT but clearly hadn't worked.
• Steering - coupling fouling Clutch Master Cylinder.( really glad they spotted that one)
• Steering rack - return pipes touching chassis - metal on metal.
• Brake flexy touching suspension arm on full lock.
• Brake flexy banjo's weeping very slightly - possibly down to stress of full lock - not a positive leak so was allowed to drive car home after the test.
• Cable not clipped every 300mm - I'd left one of the clips off when cabling the new speedo sensor.
• Wheel guards not covering NSR and OSF wheels. I'm using Vintage wheels and I knew these were tight - but clearly no latitude given in the test!. This is a weird one as it suggests that the body is fitted at a slight angle - but there is no adjustment as that is how it comes from the factory.
• Radius tests not met - various. The offending items were
• the so called IVA OK Europa overriders.
• the embedded fog/reverse lights in the rear valance. Turns out the black surround needs to be blunted.
• I'd forgotten to fit the bonnet catch key inserts.
• Seat belt fixings not marked as suitable. What this meant was I'd used some Stainless steel bolts in the boot to secure the roll hoops and as they were not marked 8.8 - that was a fail. Pretty sure the ones I used are better than that but easier to change.
• Upper seat belt mounting below reference height. This is a first for AK it seems and as I'm using a standard AK kit and the seats are from AK it never occurred to check this. Essentially the examiner was suggesting the seat base needed to be at least 20mm lower. He also asked me to remove one of the seats to check the strength markings on the top seatbelt mounting bolt. - That was a pain - and annoyingly caused me to accidentally damage the paint on the rear valance!! 

So there you go - the expected failure notice.

At the end the tester said he thought the car was really well built and not to be too disheartened over the failures.

At least the sun came out on the way home so not too depressed - and funnily enough knowing what its like to drive with the sun out gave me a boost towards getting it fixed and on the road.

Next day I called VOSA for a retest appointment and was given 12th June. ( which incidentally was subsequently cancelled by VOSA and rearranged for 2nd July :( )

Stripped off the IVA kit and returned to AK for the next victim! 

I called Jon at AK the next day to discuss the list which he'd already read as I'd posted it on the Cobra Forum. To be honest most of the fixes are straightforward and Jon was chuffed about the handbrake performance as that often gets bad press on AK's.

From the IVA manual - reference height is 450mm

Here's the bit of string used to check the height  - this is from actual IVA test. You should see the rest of the gadget used!

The key issue was the seat belt mounting height - this is first time this has been challenged at IVA. Jon explained that the AK setup was developed with a safety organisation who signed off the solution, including the triangulation design for the boot mountings. He did admit that the top mounting is right on the limit - this because AK try to keep the seat belt mounting within the cockpit.

The only viable solution is to lower the seat base. taking the carpet out below the seat wouldn't gain enough. Jon suggested possibly taking the fibreglass floor section below the seat but I thought that was a bit too aggressive and would cause me other issues. In the end I made my own seat bases out of plywood covered with thin padding and carpet. Not very comfy but needs must. Took me about half day but result is I gained 5cm so am now below the reference height by 2cm - I made my own gauge to check and double check this.

My thinner seat base

Doesn't look too bad

For the remaining items that aren't obvious:

Wheel guards - I obtained some stick on extenders from the internet. They don't look too disastrous and cost about £30 from China. They might accidentally fall off in near future mind.

Horn - I completely re-cabled this and that solved the problem.

Steering fouling the Clutch Master Cylinder: - this was interesting as I'd noticed previously the steering seemed to catch then all freed up. What had happened was the steering coupling bolt had contacted the cylinder and machined a slight groove in the cylinder. Not enough to weaken it or leak - but was far too close for safety. I removed the steering assembly, opened up the mounting holes for the steering bearing and generated better clearance..

Steering lock: I tried using some nylon clips to restrict this but the hydraulic system is way too powerful and just mangled them up. Others suggested using Jubilee clips - but that looks like a real bodge. I couldn't easily source a metal two-piece collar that could be fitted to the rack - then I had an idea to make a set of aluminium washers. These are 1.5mm thick and split - and are flexible enough to spring over the steering rack shaft, then they compress up into a solid stack. Works a treat but took several hours to fabricate. I didn't take a picture but imagine a normal washer with one cut - bit like a spring washer - then you will get the idea.

Pre IVA MOT

I have an IVA date for 2nd May at Kidderminster so thought it best to take the car through a dummy MOT test in advance.
And what a nice sunny day to pick!

The guys at F1 Autocentre in Kidderminster were really helpful and gave it a good safety check.

The good news is the brakes - including handbrake which seems problematic on AK's all passed easily. I'm using the latest pulley system design
The emissions on the SBC 350 ended up OK - well under on CO, very close on HC. They were good enough to test this several times and each time it improved - suggestion is  as the engine beds in it improves but would certainly benefit from an expert tune - if I can find one!

On the to do list - 

Slight leak from front brake flexy. - easy fix
Rear brake flexies need re-routing to prevent touching body on compression. - Looks straightforward.
Nearside front wheel touching inside of wheel arch (engine side) on full right lock. Left is no problem. Not sure whats happened here as I checked this previously and didn't seem to be a problem. I guess I'll need to insert a rack limit restrictor. The other thing I noticed was on full right lock - the steering seemed to over-steer - i.e. not self centering. I'm thinking the lock restriction should sort that out.
Headlights - tester said he would pass them at MOT - but they are right on the limit - bizarrely for rotation. In other words I've somehow mounted both headlights about 5 degrees clockwise. Easily solved!

Things I noticed on route to MOT station - car was quite jerky/snatchy at low speeds but I'll put that down to bedding in and me getting used to it.
Very soft and bouncy at the back end - so I need to study up how to stiffen up the GAZ adjustable dampers and will probably raise the rear ride height a little.

On the problem list - 

I failed to calibrate the Speedhut Speedometer on the way to the test so need to sort this out as a priority. Most likely a cabling issue.


So at this point I've got plenty of boxes ticked for the IVA but panic will soon set in!

IVA Booked!

So - I've finally felt confident enough to book the IVA test and the date is 2nd May!
The next 2 weeks will be fraught with last minute panics and tweaks I've no doubt and I'm hoping to slot in an MOT test in between. I don't actually need an MOT test for legal reasons but the test will confirm (or not!) that the basics are all OK such as headlamp aim, brakes and emissions, plus I'd be looking to get a proper tracking alignment done at the same time.

Completing the forms for IVA is a bit of a chore but you can now download and submit the forms on-line from the DVLA website.

The forms are IVA 1C - Application and IVA 4 - Amateur Build declaration

The process is you download the forms, complete them and submit them.  You also need to submit copies of your build receipts ( major items such as Kit, Engine and Brakes , your engine age certificate ( if you are using a re manufactured engine) plus photos of your build process.
If you use the on-line system, be aware that its fussy about file types and has maximum file sizes.

The DVLA then apprarise the information you have sent and - if all ok - they send you an e-mail requesting payment (£450) and the opportunity to book a test.

This took about a week, then I called up and paid by credit card and booked an appointment at Kidderminster quite easily.

So I'm now putting together the full pack I need to take with me to the IVA  which includes originals of all documents, more build photos, certificates for fuel hoses, imobiliser etc.

Next couple of weeks will be busy!