January 2012

13-1-2012

Paid the IVA fee today.  Now have to wait for a date with the test centre.

18-1-2012

Got the car out of the garage to get it all warmed up again after the recent frost. I also took the front wheels off in order to apply the underseal to the wheel arches and to fasten the cables for the outside indicators. The wheels are all back on and torqued up with the extra locking wheel nuts now and should not need removing again. All that is left is to attach the VIN plate, steering cowls which I have now made and put the dashboard back on. I "think" I will also need to add an IVA friendly cover onto the boot panels.

19-1-2012

Put the dashboard back into place on the car and painted the insides of the steering cowl copies I made earlier. (I had missed some areas with the gelcoat, so some black hammerite inside will hide that.). For a first attempt at making copies, they were a little thinner than I would have liked, but they work ok.  All that's left is the VIN plate and possible boot vinyl cover. I noticed that I had forgotten to tie up the (now disconnected) wiper motor cable.

20-1-2012

Chased VOSA about test date. Apparently the forms have only just been posted to the test centre today. Chased GBS for some information about the diffuser and the final bits of information so I could complete the VIN plate. I then engraved the last bits ready to install tomorrow.

22-1-2012

Finally fastened the VIN plate to the firewall and put on the two parts of the steering cowl. So now I can say It's Ready! (I am still not sure about the boot covering though.) I am not quite happy with the finished look of the steering covers I made earlier and will make some more copies which are thicker and stronger. (put on a ToDo list I think!)

25-1-2012

I had to get a USB to Serial connector as my last laptop died and the other doesn't have any serial connectors. I tested this out as I found out why it was poor at starting from cold. The initial injector priming times were far too short. They had been set at around 12ms and should have been around 160ms. No wonder I had to use the throttle to get it started!

26-1-2012

I have decided to cover the boot panels with some left over vinyl which I hope will be sufficient for the IVA.

31-1-2012

Update on the IVA test - It passed first time (Well - with a few little things that could be fixed while there ) So now all that is left is to get it registered and plated. And boy, am I tired after that very cold trip to Nottingham