08/02/04
Just
the tidy up jobs before SVA now, so time to fit the stainless
bulkhead cover. The body had to be raised by about 20mm on the
offside, this now leaves a large tapered gap between the body
bulkhead 'lip' and the chassis bulkhead. The stainless sheet
is great for hiding this gap and covering a multitude of other
sins,
but how to fill the gap?. In the end I decided to use the spray
expanding foam sold at B&Q, this stuff is meant for filling in
large gaps or holes in brickwork and the such.
So
first off I cut a cardboard template for the cover, once happy
with the fit, transferred this to the stainless sheet. Next I
sprayed the foam all over the surface of the bulkhead, then as
it started to expand, placed the sheet into position. After a
while the foam appears out of the edges and everywhere else where
there is any sort of a hole or gap. Once dry I simply cut the
excess foam off with a Stanley knife. The stainless sheet was
now nice and flat and feels very solid and well supported. The
edges
were then covered with some ally angle.
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Before |
After |
Next
job, the rear inner wheel arches, I had been putting this one
off as I hate, I really hate fibre glassing, still it has to
be done. The Pilgrim inner arches fit fairly well with minimal
trimming,
held in place with a few rivets and then fill in around all
the edges with fibre glass. God I hate this stuff, it ends up
running
down your arm and sticking to everything in sight, but after
a while the first one was firmly in place. The onto the other
side,
did I say I hate fibre glassing ?, horrible job.
Once
that was complete and I had managed to un stick my tools from
the garage floor, time to fill in the front of the wheel arch,
(the hole that lets you see right up inside the body. The simplest
idea to me was to cut out some chicken wire and bend/form to
shape, then yes you guesses it, fibre glass again!. I did the
same for both sides covering the chicken wire with fiberglass.
Once
everything was dry I used 'Wonderseal' around all the edges,
and finished off with normal underseal all around the inside
of the inner wheel arch. Now the boot had sides and is waterproof
the next job will be to fit the boot carpet.
17/02/04
Great
news, SVA date id next Tues, Feb. 24th, although not needed I
have booked an MOT for this fri just to get a change for a decent
test run and get the essentials checked. On the way back from
the MOT I will get the tracking setup and fill up with petrol
ready for the day. I also need to check the Speedo is working
okay.
As
for the remaining 'little' jobs, the front and rear arches have
had the 'gap' filled but I have left out the inner front wheel
arches until after SVA. I also made some side panels for the
area behind the centre of the dash, this hides the heater and
hoses quite nicely.
Bit
of a pain at the moment as I am working away in Crawley, but
I have Monday off work as well, so that gives me the plenty of
time
over the
weekend
to
fit the
Pilgrim
SVA
kit
and
cover
all
sharp edges etc. A bit nervous about driving to the test centre,
after all you loose your fee if you don't make it to the test
centre.
Next
update after SVA...
24/02/04
Whaaaahay,
straight through the SVA, brilliant.
Went
for and MOT first and was well disappointed with the fail due
to a couple of nuts on the suspension I had forgot to tighten,
but most worryingly emissions failure, hydrocarbons on one bank
were off the scale, although Co was fine. The tester said something
was wrong as this usually means un burnt fuel. Despondent I went
home and pulled the plugs, hmmm one plug was a bit wet and smelt
of petrol, replaced it and fired up, the engine sounded better
so let's hope it's okay for the SVA, nothing else I can do now.
Set
off for the test at 7.00 a,m, (Taunton SVA Centre),the boot filled
with just about every tool I own, duck tape, sticky back foam,
tyre
weld,
tow
rope, etc, the list goes on. Absolutely freezing, at least the
heater works fine, on the way the fan belt starts squealing like
a stuffed pig, blast.. still quick five minutes by the side of
the road and I managed to tighten it up a bit. Arrived in plenty
of time and topped up with Petrol.
The
examiner introduced himself and started looking over the Sumo,
at the same time he commented that I would not be able to use
duck tape or stick foam an any exterior sharp edges, as this
was now not allowed, bugger, lets just hope I don't need any.
Fist test, the Emission !, oh dear lets hope I had sorted the
problem, yep no problems at all, he even let me tune both sides.
This
is basically how the rest of test went he was very helpful and
explained he was not here to try and fail the car, just make
sure it complied sensibly with the rules. commented I would
love to borrow some car ramps at some point to go around under
the Sumo with my Silicone gun, to seal any gaps I had missed.
'No problem mate, when I go to break I will leave you car up
on the ramps for you', what a nice man.
On
checking the tyre's he commented that one tyre was strong enough
to support the whole car ! I
put the max power at 3850 on the application form so he tested
the noise levels at 2,800, no surprise it passed at 94dba both
sides. The ETB calibrated speedo was spot on , brakes perfect
and that was it , all over in 2 and a half hours, result....
To
celebrate when I got home I fitted my nice new steering wheel.
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Test
Finished
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New
steering Wheel
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All
in all a very pleasant experience, now to sort out the number
plate.
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