On the Road

Mr DVLA arrived at 3.30pm to inspect the car and by 4.45 I was in their Wimbledon office. VERY helpful staff issued registration number Q 155 TYF. Home via Halfords for number plates,a few minutes sticking the plates on, Alistair mounted one of his cameras on the roll bar and off he and I went for the first drive about 6.15pm. Along Coombe Lane, literally roared onto the A3, then Parkside, the Village, Ridgway and home. Truly wonderful fun.

And that's it for this blog. We'll upload the first drive video at some point but here we are after 2 1/2 years and many adventures, experience, and far more money than I expected. Thanks for reading.

She Passed!

I have to admit that I was wavering between "How on earth can I have missed anything else?" and "They'll find X or Y and it'll be another fail". But it wasn't. Almost perfunctory. Fortunately all the major issues had passed last time and this was all really tidying up. The speedo was OK and the headlights too so Malcolm signed her off. So we loaded the BMW onto Nev's trailer and I drove her home as you are permitted if insured. Fantastic sensation, very responsive, rides well exhaust glorious. Footwell cosy on a very cold day due to heat soak. Lots of looks and comments out of other drivers windows. Back axle sounds noisy but that may be nothing. Very very happy. Now she's wrapped up on the drive and tomorrow I'll give her a thorough clean. When will Mr DVLA come?

I spoke to Wimbledon DVLA - there was a change in the approach from them and they now plan to come to see the car at home. I await the call! Friday looming and the weather forecast is OK but cold!

One more day at the car and Nev was there too, wonderfully with bread and bacon for hot sandwiches at lunch as it is bitterly cold just now. I started off by making a better anti-chafe edge on the bulkhead loom exit then re-attached and secured the cockpit side trim. Following the format Nev had started I edged the aluminium knee roll with leatherette wrapped around pipe insulation. While bits of this were curing etc I made sure all the bulkhead grommets were secure. Next was the missed bolt on the roll bar, bending the copper securing edges on the Nylocs at the top of the uprights, and adjusting the screw on the interior mirror to stop it wobbling. Sadly too much pressure from me and it came off again so we've tried to resecure the mirror base and we'll see if that works. Once more over the SVA fail list. Other than the mirror and headlight alignment that seemed to be it. First though with this cold weather I wanted to flush the engine and cooling system which was full of rust from when the engine was left outside in the rain when taken out of the original car all that time ago. I let the water drain from the bottom hose then flushed the system from the header tank. It took ages to clear and I then flushed the radiator from the bottom and top and up the upper hose into the engine - probably blocked by the thermostat, so I flushed it up the bottom hose and that was better. Eventually the water looked fairly clear so we put in some anti-freeze. The system takes ages to fill due to my home made pipe arrangement but eventually seemed OK and was left running for a 1/2 hour. Finally with Barry and Neville's "near enough" headlight alignment idea (a line on a board) those seemed better. The offside dip still seems low but the headlight "can" can be packed out a little with washers if we need to at the test on Friday.

So is that it? We'll know at 2.30pm or so next Friday. Nev is confident enough to suggest that I make an appointment at Wimbledon DVLA late on Friday afternoon..................................

Letter arrives from VOSA. Re-test will be next Friday 5th at 2.00pm at Yeading.

After nearly three weeks away on business I returned today to try to finish the few jobs remaining. Neville had refilled the hydraulics and bled brake and clutch as well as fitting the mirror and new high intensity rear light. I found some spare rubber tubing and cut a length then sliced it longitudinally to form a grommet for the bulkhead wiring, tidied up the wiring under the dash per the fail sheet, padded the wiper motor and covered the ECU. Doing this I found a puddle on the drivers footwell and found that the plate I had made to cover the unused heater cut out on the bulkhead had leaked when the header tank overflowed. It can wait until after the retest and I'll remove the header tank to get a Sikaflex nozzle into the space. All that remains (we think) from the fail sheet is the knee roll padding for the base of the dash and two things we want fixed - a missing nut on the roll bar and bending the copper plates on the Nylocs at the top of the front uprights. Nev's going to try to do part of it next week between working on the Ultima and I'll go back next Saturday or Sunday for I-dotting and T-crossing and tidy up. Perhaps re-test on 1st or 2nd of December?

Saturday 1st November

Neville and I worked all day to deal with the faults found at SVA. There were actually a lot more items than I had thought. Some were easily dealt with, some less so and I was very grateful for the fully equipped workshop and hoist. Things like the rear wiring grommets, the brake pipes and so on would have been very difficult without the hoist or Neville' welding skills. We must have spent 8 solid hours on it all and I went back on Sunday to try to deal with the rear lights. Nev had found a number plate light which I fitted and an interior mirror about which I was rather cautious (he fitted it later). I made a bodge of the high intensity rear light and Nev had to get a new one - less agreeable to look at but when mounted on a plate will do for the re-test. Overall it was a lot of work, much of which makes sense, but was not obvious ahead of the test.

The SVA Test 31 October 2008

Here we are, all calm and collected at Yeading test centre ready for the 9.00am start. The paper work all in order and I saw that the max power setting for the noise test had been reduced by VOSA to 5800 which was encouraging. Very welcoming inspector Malcolm who started by saying that their speedometer verification equipment was US so he would have to pass us on that if all else seemed OK. The centre is mainly for HGV driver and vehicle tests but one lane is set out for SVA inspections. Those are not just for kit cars but also personal imports etc etc. Nev had brought the car up on his trailer and I had taken as many bits and pieces as I could think of following David Ellistons experience. I was very surprised when Malcolm said that kit car submissions have fallen off a lot and that they only see one every 6 weeks or so nowadays. Doesn't bode well for the industry!

First test was emissions with a warm engine. With all the issues of last week and my being away we had not really run the car since the water temp pick up was installed and there must have been an airlock in the system because as she warmed up she blew clouds of steam via the header tank outlet onto the coil pack. But that was not a test issue and once warm she passed the emissions part easily. All credit to Mazda really because we have not touched the 17 years old scrapyard-find engine other than to remove all the emissions gubbins. Then the car is driven along to an extended length hydraulic lift with steering turntables, headlight aim checking etc etc. Now Malcolm started to clamber all over the car, very thoroughly, looking from tyre rotation to steering bolts, wiring routing and was really extremely proactive, pointing out issues as he went with chafe points and so on. So much so that when we needed more cable ties he suggested that there was a B&Q next door so while Neville was adding lock nuts here and there as they were pointed out I sprinted round and picked up a pack. But he seemed to be making a lot of notes about edges and wiring / fuel lines and even though I was able to add a bit of spiral wrap here and there one thing we could not do was add grommets to points where chafing could occur. Harnesses were a question at first but passed. I was asked to press hard on the brake pedal to enable him to check for leaks underneath and in my enthusiasm pressed the accelerator so hard that I forced the pip off the accelerator cable! Thankfully it landed on the bulkhead and Nev was able to slot it back on.

After this it I had to drive the car along to the weight check and brake test rollers. Weight came out almost spot on to estimate (guesstimate actually) at 603kg without the driver. We had not had time given the other issues recently to have the car MOT'd beforehand and the headlight aim was clearly wrong but I think we had used up our time in the rectifications we had done and Malcolm did not suggest we redid them. We had also hoped for the MOT to give us guidance on the brakes etc. Once the front wheels were in the rollers I was given a meter to strap to my shoe and asked to press it onto the brake pedal to show a number of loading pressures. This gave a series of readings on their brake test equipment with variance left to right and I was a bit concerned since I had re-built the calipers myself. However we passed all the brake tests with flying colours. Next Malcolm drove the car out into their road test area and ran some figure of eights to check the steering self centering (fine) then an emergency stop from a speed I forget - again fine. Then I was asked to drive round to the other side of the test centre where the car was parked in the middle of an open area and the noise test equipment set up. We passed that with 94.8 decibels. (It was the first time I had been able to drive the car for more than 30 yards on tarmac and it really felt great).

Then there was a longish wait while all the data was entered into a computer and when Malcolm came out it was a fail and what looked a long list of points. However he quickly pointed out that the car is basically fine but that the chafe points, the aim of the rear fog lamp, proximity of reflectors to rear side lights, interior mirror wrong type and so on have to be fixed before we can get a pass. The re-test will cost £38.00 and we can arrange it directly with Yeading.

So it was back onto the trailer (and while doing so a youngster passed calling out "Wicked car Mister!") and back to Oakhanger. We decided to check the speedometer against Nev's GPS now that we knew the car was basically safe so set off down the local road (private of course) and I drove as close to 30 as I could for a mile or so while Nev sang out the actuals - we were within 2 mph below indictated 30 which is perfect. The car is very sensitive to steering inputs!

Then off for a discussion and a pot of coffee in front of the fire in the local. Neville very splendidly agreed to come and spend Saturday with me and we would blitz the rectifications. And indeed we got a huge amount done yesterday - my muscles tell me so! Nev really is a mine of knowledge and gets things that would take me days and three retries done in no time. There are a few things left:-

• the fog light aim,
• number plate light (don't buy the LED type until post SVA),
• a couple more grommets needed on the front bulkhead,
• lower dash roll,
• wiper motor and ECU to be wrapped,
• a nyloc on the roll cage mount which the SVA missed but we'll fit,
• bleed the hydraulics because we had to re route the reservoir pipes,
• interior mirror and so on

I'm not sure when it will be best to book it. I've a lot on at work over the next 2 weeks or so.

Build up to S (evere) V (endor) A (ggro)

It all got pretty frantic - but for Neville, not so much me. We had both been pretty relaxed about the SVA date of October 31st and both felt that we would be OK. But suppliers can be a mixed blessing and poor old Neville got caught right in the middle............. I have rarely met anyone who can be so calm in a fire storm, especially since Catherine and I in delicious ignorance of what was to come pushed off for a 30th anniversary holiday. That story is all his and I'll leave it to him to tell the tale.

Neville's Tale:
TW3

The elder generation reading this may remember a satirical Saturday night program called that was the week that was…it was renamed TW3 for ease.. A fledgling Peter Cook and Dudley Moore often appeared; they went on to great comedy.. Something like the week leading up to the fury mot…

All had been going well with the SVA preparation. We had a few electrical gremlins to sort and most importantly needed to fit the screen and seat belts etc.

I spent quite a long time calculating the pulses per mile from the little gizmo id made, then tried to program the vapor speedo….
I gave up and phoned the Vapor company, reset the man said, I’ve tried I replied but it won’t. Press all three buttons he said…..it didn’t say that in the manual…..,it still didn’t work,….have you got it wired direct to the battery,? Wiring modded .., still wouldn’t calibrate, replace internal battery…what internal battery…remove dash remove speedo ,discover internal battery…flat… The local AA man arrived and had a new tiny battery on his van! Fantastic..Fit new battery replace in dash ,re affix dash board..Press all three buttons…nada..Phone firm ..Did you reset speedo by pressing little button grrrrrrrrr remove dash, remove speedo, and press reset. Replace dash … press all three buttons…nada…… grrrrrr phone firm didn’t I say disconnect from car battery… sorry…grrrrrrrr

Spent the next 2 hours going through calibration routine and finally got the sort of reading I was looking for.
Saturday morning..
Took Gloria out in the car for lunch turned on the sat nav to work as my mobile phone blue tooth thingy,,
Drove a couple of miles and uttered an expletive deletive…why didn’t I think of cross calibrating the vapor unit with my sat nav, well I thought if I had a windscreen to attach it too…..
Sunday

At Mallory Park with David Hall racing the Firenza

Monday
Waiting for the windscreen man to arrive… of course he didn’t and I spent some time removing the jubilee clips from the steering rack and modding the bonnet to clear the wings. Also Velcro’s and glued carpet over sharp edges. Finished the bonnet catches etc
Tuesday
After much phoning screen man arrives….2 hours later he departs… screen not fitted… you have to jig it up he said..What’s that I replied..You know jig it up… you could remove the body and bend it to fit the screen, I could get you another screen I could grind this one down ..I was losing my cool… it seemed an age but in the end I asked him politely to leave before I got annoyed…. There was a lot more to this but the 9 pm watershed may come into play…
Called another screen company but they couldn’t do it till the following week… called all the firms locally ,one in Guilford said bring it along.
I spent quite a time making up bits of 2 by 1 and pushed the screen aperture into the closest position for screen fitting. I then mixed up a large amount of glass reinforced resin stuff and squeezed this into the void under the screen frame and let it set overnight.
Wednesday am carefully removed my bits of wood one at a time and filled more void with glass fiber.

mid-day trailered the fury up to Guildford, can you leave it overnight…Ok says I ,dropped the trailer at the yard, picked up senior management and drove to Bath to get some MGB bits…another story…
Thursday morning took the package that arrived in the post ,which I assumed was seat belts into work (assumed ,makes an ass out of you and me)and hooked up the trailer, drove to Guildford and collected the car with screen fitted……yeeee haaaaaa.
Back to workshop and undid seat belt package, wrong… not seat belts but soft edging ..Phone seat belt firm..Seat belts with you this morning sir..Phone Glo no seat belts grrrrrr.
Glo phones at 11 seat belts here! Drive home collect seat belts, get to workshop open package.. Seat belt singular not plural..Grrrrr phone seat belt firm get one more to you next week sir..grrrr I politely explained the error of his ways and said id collect from Hastings later that day… must have worked coz he said it would be ready in an hour!…Carried on with other Fury jobs until about 2,when I said I was off to Hastings Chris, one of the other lads asked what for, I explained the situation and he said he’d get his wife to collect for me! But id still have to get to Brighton to collect from her…it’s a long story….Ok back to the workshop by 6pm,fit final belt and fit seat etc fit fire extinguisher and mirror, and a hundred other things… load up for Friday am

Friday am early start ,drive to SVA at Yeading… I’ll let Neil take over from here……Nev

The tiredness in Tokyo turned out to be food poisoning or suchlike. With a weather eye out at all times for "facilities" I caught an earlier flight down to Hong Kong on Saturday. By mid afternoon I knew I was ill and with the kind help of Adrian, his wife Christine who was a nurse and the hotel, I hunkered down to let it pass. By Tuesday morning I could cope with the dry toast and water and managed the one vital meeting of the HK end of the trip. Then I lay low until mid evening in my room, went out to the airport and flew home. BA flat beds upstairs and quiet on a 747, I love you. We're now Friday early morning and the head-, muscle and other aches are much less.

On my return I found David's excellent pedal rubber, the grille mesh, wiper arms and gear knob waiting, all exactly as ordered. Neville has organised the tyres for today and seems to have got a great price and I'll go over on Saturday and Sunday and get some work done.

Friday evening in Tokyo and I'm finally on my own, frankly jiggered. Catherine sent a text to say that VOSA has confirmed the SVA on Friday 31st but now at 9.00am. Bit tricky as C & I are going away for a 30th anniversary break in the sun that week and don't get back until the evening before!

Finished some work and so before heading downstairs for a quiet meal I phoned Nev with the news. NO problem says he, we're on track, windscreen going in next week, tyres being sorted, bits of trim being done, will get an MOT ahead of the SVA etc. I'm also told that various parts have arrived at home and David Elliston is very kindly sending some pedal rubber. I've got to go to Hong Kong in the morning and will get some great hill walking on Sunday with friends before heading into China but I think I know what I would rather be doing at this stage of the build!

As Catherine had to go out I went back to the car this afternoon. First task was to fill the tank as it said empty on the gauge. But petrol made no difference and a couple of odd things were not working - the Vapor was not reading rpm or water temp, fuel gauge nothing and indicators making funny clicks and burps. I thought it was an earth but as I hunted about under the dash I found a black / red wire from the Sierra loom disconnected and with bare wires. I must have pulled something out but I would rather Nev had a look as he is rather more conversant electrically. The engine ran fine and the lights all work.

Then I took an executive decision, fired up the compressor and took the air hacksaw to the front section of the inner wings since the headlight cans are stone and water proof anyway and are the only thing there. Bingo, no more rubbing. Next I tried to fit the males for the loose cover press studs to the seats. But, or so I first thought, Cranbrook / Fisher struck again - the press studs are for fabric not 2mm fiberglass and so thought new ones are needed. However bumbling around when I got home a light went on - I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to put a screw or rivet through the hole in the male and mount them on the seat surface. If that's correct, apologies Cranbrook.

Finally I dismantled the steering mount and the airflow meter bracket and painted them with blackish Hammerite, then I took a tube of metal polish to the engine bay and cam covers etc, then finally reassembled everything. I think it looks really nice but I may be biased.

There is still a "to do" list. While I am away Neville is going to get windscreen fitment, tyres and harnesses arranged. He also has solutions for the interior - old carpet held in place with Velcro until the SVA after which I can decide on the final finish. Last night I ordered from ebay sellers mesh for the grille, MX5 gear knob (had thought we had one) and Mini windscreen wiper arms. Then from Car Builder Solutions gear lever and handbrake gaiters as well as sealant strip to go between body and bonnet. I forgot to add a stick on interior mirror to the CBS order so emailed them in the hope that they can add it. I'll need to find some sticky backed rubber or something to go on the pedals.

When I got to the car yesterday it was terrific to see the progress Nev had made redressing my wondrous wiring challenges - he had made up a new loom for each of the rear left and right lighting sets and fitted a switch to operate the rear fog light. Headlights work now as well! Plus, big bonus, he had identified a redundant outlet on the engine at the rear of the block, high up, which Mazda close off with a rubber cap. When removed, all the water fell out so by using a small length of hose and taking the temperature sensor itself out of the housing that Vapor supply he was able to fit the sensor to the water temp function on the digital speedo. Really really neat. There is also a fallback wire on the bonnet pull now.

My first task was to use the self adhesive Velcro I had bought to secure the ECU behind the dash - I may add a bit of foam too - as well as the strip of Velcro along the dash top to hold it in place but make it easily removable. Next was refitting the horn push. With age it had become a bit lazy so remained piercingly "on" when pressed in some segments. I tried WD40, packing it out, but Nev's suggestion of some small springs in the holes in the seat under the push worked. I used a bit of sealant to hold them in place while fitting the push itself. Next I had to remove the left side pod to fit the rounded end trim on the exhaust. All the fixing screws came out easily enough but the pod itself was reluctant. It was only after half an hour of wiggling that it came out without damage and I could see that a piece of adhesive tape, used in the body "fit" and left in place by none other than me, was holding pod to upper body. Once removed, it was simple and I cleaned up the chassis rails etc before drilling and fixing the trim with a self tapper after having put some copper ease on the pipe itself in case I have to remove the trim later. I also put copper ease on the screws etc that are vulnerable to water ingress when refitting the side pod.

To address the issue of the front wheels rubbing on the wheel arch liners we had agreed that jubilee clips to restrict the travel might do it. Here is a task that you want to delegate. I put the car up on axle stands and Nev explained how the rack is arranged. So I loosened off the boots, opened a jubilee clip and saw how to fit it. But I smashed my left wrist while at school and have little power in the grip so clamping the jubilee clip end into the screw track with my left hand while aiming a screw driver with my right, all in a position circus contortionists would balk at took ages. Ages, and I needed to get help from Nev. Then you do it all again on the other side! Note to self, if re-doing this remove rack first. And the wheels still rub on the inner arches but Nev and I could see a simple fix for this since the only item at the front of the arch is the headlight can and that is a waterproof plastic can that does not need protection.

I'm off the Asia for 10 days tomorrow but the windscreen fix and new tyres are things I could not risk so Nev will get his suppliers in in my absence. I wonder if I could get a pass for this afternoon after church?

Letter from VOSA asking for more details and a surprisingly friendly remark that I seem to have quoted too high an engine speed. I've done a little more research and found a reference to 5500 as max power and another to 5800 with "a flat power curve thereafter" so sent that off with various copies of receipts and photos that they requested.

Nev's at Spa with the Lotus Cortina and I'm taxiing luggage to University and belatedly weeding. May get to the car next Saturday. I've asked the oracle (well the Sylva Chat List) about tyres and the general consensus is Yokohama AO21R for all round road use, price and wear and the Avon CR500 for similar performance, better wear. Wing mirrors arrived, ugly but E marked and I'm trying to get a "to do" list together.

As I expected, Nev has been able to find the wiring issues and all the lights now work correctly etc. He left a message yesterday about this and also that the oil pressure gauge is working with the T piece we found - 50psi at tickover. The water temp sensor needs inserting into the top hose, connecting to the digital speedo and then that should be it for the instrumentation. We need to arrange several other chunks of work like adjusting the pedal travel, the body strengthening, trim and so on plus of course the tyres, limiting the steering rack travel, etc etc.

So wot'll she do? It depends on the calculations used but it looks like 120.5mph at 6500rpm. Nev tells me that below 20mph/1000rpm it's an accelerative gearing, so frankly, it should be Yummy. And the die is now cast - I've sent off the SVA forms and my cheque for £190.00 and asked for the 31st October, in the afternoon, at Yeading near Hayes. Nev spent Saturday and much of today on the car and feels he is getting to the seat of some of the wiring issues.

Power - Well it was officially 115bhp @ 6500rpm so I'll have to use that. Top gear ratio was 0.81:1 and final drive was 4.3:1 on 14" wheels. My final drive is, but need to check, 3.89:1 on 13" wheels. So wot'll she do?

Nev phoned last night to say that the starter motor was refusing to disengage. This could be starter motor but I had the same thing a few weeks ago and solved it by fiddling with the grey Ford connector from the Sierra ignition barrel to the loom. Nev thinks this is probably the brass contacts in the barrel itself and this may be affecting several things, or somehow linked to the newly connected demisters which also pull power via the ignition barrel. I also spoke to Tifosi about getting a replacement instruction manual for the Vapor speedo. No problem, could not be more helpful and will either email or post one.

Isn't she lovely?

I fitted the bonnet release cable, although leaving a safety release as gently but firmly suggested by Nev after he had to dismantle the whole thing last week when the temporary wire came adrift. Then I plumbed in the windscreen washer piping and tidied up various bits of wire, which included the rev counter lead from the Vapor speedo unit which I wrapped around No 3 plug lead - seems to work exactly as planned. Then I decided to bite the bullet and change the O rings on the fuel injectors in the hope of stopping the petrol leak from one cylinder. I nearly crashed and burned on one of them when one O ring that seats the injector in the cylinder was reluctant to come out. I think I damaged it a bit and it really refused to be removed, so I decided that the ones that seal the fuel rail from the injector would be changed and the other left. Once I had reassembled it all it seems to be OK. I left it to idle for 15 minutes while I had some coffee, then decided to try it out in the yard. There was a lot to clear up and cables to check, plus a seat that would not go back properly until I realised it was the wrong side. But after an hour or so I was satisfied, had checked the steering bolts and wheel nuts, checked the tyre pressures (19psi all round) and manoeuvred out of the workshop. The front wheels rubbed badly on the bonnet on full lock which I thought at first was simply the bonnet leading edge but it's not, it's the wheel arch liners and they will be tricky to reposition. However for the rest, it was great. The engine is really smooth now and responsive and the car just seems to want to launch itself at the road. I had seen that the discs were a bit rusty so I made a dozen or so emergency stops and so forth. The car seems to stop in a straight line and I JUST WANT TO GET MY SVA AND GO!

Things to do include several minor electrical glitches and missed things. The handbrake warning and ignition lights are on, albeit dimly, when the battery is connected. The rear indicators have stopped working, as has the number plate light. The headlights don't work on "dip" but do flash. I have no high intensity rear light switch. The crack to the drivers side of the cockpit (top of where the door would be) is needing urgent attention. The clutch pedal needs adjusting to be level with the other two pedals. But it's coming on!