10th April
First day after a few days away on the Grand Union canal. Several minor jobs done and drove it up and down the drive again quite a few times! Even got into second gear!
Fist job was to fix the dash to the two lugs on the hoop across the chassis with a couple of M5 screws.
Next was to Velcro the roll surround to the dash with 6, 2-inch pieces; again the self-adhesive seems less strong than the Velcro.
As a slight aside I made up a rubber mat for the passenger side. As it will be subject to hairy dogs (!) it seemed sensible to do it for this side rather than the driver’s.
The two trim panels alongside the scuttle were fairly straightforward with the now usual technique of masking tape to mark hole positions and alignment for the two stainless steel self tappers.
I then made up the side screens and hinged them to the car, but I have not attached the straps as I’m not sure where to put them and it would mean two press-studs being in the passenger space which may be an issue for SVA.
I then did a bit of tidying of wires in the engine bay and put it back in the garage, just some SVA bits and the rear wheel arches to underseal now.
13th April
After some advice from Mark Walker, I have put the straps on with them roughly central front to rear and so the press studs on the body come just below the capping strips on the body.
And really, that’s about it for the build diary. I have the rear wheel arch protectors and the boot box to fit, but they will wait until after SVA, as will the tonneau cover.
14th April
I had arranged for the car to go to Paul Aspden at Plays kool for a pre-SVA check and set up the suspension. As I was having a problem with the Volvo, Paul came and collected it that meant driving it down to the pub car-park! I travelled up with him to see where he was and got the train back.
18th April
Car has come back. Emissions are way out and the LH headlamp has no beam pattern, whatever that means. Spoke to Mark about it and booked it in for a visit on May 5th but I said I would try and get a full set of figures rather than just the CO figures Paul did.
26th April
Got it down to an MOT place down the road for a full emissions print out, all of a mile there and back but got upto 45mph and 4th gear. As well as the CO being way too high, the HC and lambda values were wrong too. I suspect that the exhaust leaks may have something to do with it but that the map is wrong too. When I e-mailed the values to Mark, he gave no clue as to what to do, just said it’ll be sorted on the 5th. This makes me think that the map is out even more.