All Ready for the Big Show - Stoneleigh 2014

Just a last few jobs done this weekend to get the car ready for Stoneleigh next week!

First was to insulate the diagnostic cable from the exhaust heat. Tried several prototypes in the vice to come up with the optimal method. (heated a piece of steel to about 400°C with a blowtorch and held it against it) The foil backed polystyrene insulation just melted and so was ruled out. The self-amalgamating tape did withstand fairly well, but did go quite soft; but by far and away the best for the job was a plumber's blowtorch soldering mat, designed for normal usage up to 600°C. So I cut into strips and wrapped it around the cable, finishing with lockwire.

Not desperately pretty, but will do the trick and thankfully sharp edges aren't part of the test under the bonnet

 Next I had to fill the gap on the rear panel left by what would have been the normal light mounting arrangement. I made up an ally blanking panel and got some natty badges to put on it.




Despite then spending an hour painting the panel I realised it was just a bit too small to get both badges neatly on it, so gave up and just glued the badges on covering up the holes

 

So that completes the last few jobs, other than a clean and polish! Results of which below, although the keen eyes amongst you will spot that the above jobs are missing from these photos, and that's because I did them after cleaning and polishing :-)

The rest of the day was spent arguing and fighting with the trailer to get it ready, including a modification to the jacking mechanism to aid loading and unloading the car (pics to follow) and freeing all the brakes off which were jammed solid.

Busy couple of weeks ahead then - Stoneleigh next weekend, which the orange peril will be gracing the GKD stand (hope to see loads of you there) and then IVA the following week!

There's that horrific steering wheel again - will take off for the show, but put back on for IVA

 Et Voila - Finished! Although I'm sure there'll be another to-do list after the show when everyone points out all the obvious IVA fail points that I've no doubt missed!!!

Thanks for reading...

IVA Date Booked - 9th May

Hello all

Great news - IVA has been confirmed as 9th May! Although it wasn't exactly what you would call a "smooth" application process... The sheer futility and hopelessness of government departments never ceases to amaze me.

After sending off the application I had a call back a few days later to collect payment - although the admin clerk who took it had no real clue about what the test was for or how my application was progressing - not terribly useful or comforting when you're handing over £450.00 for sure. 

I then had another email confirmation, which was fairly bland, but used words like "due to the nature of your application it has been passed onto Technical Assessment team". the NATURE of my APPLICATION? Meaning what exactly? It was a shining example? So poor it needed extra special help from the technical team? Who knows.

Then it finally found its way to my local centre who were very much less than helpful, simply informing me that the "tester was off long term sick" (tester singular... so, what, there's only one person who can do an Basic IVA N1?) and therefore not to expect an appointment for an unspecified period of time!! and that I was to try Britsol (110 miles away) or Southampton (170 miles) for an alternative!

Suffice to say I was less than impressed. I did contact Bristol and Southampton (by the way you can't contact them direct, you have to go through VOSA's call centre who relay messages to and fro... why can't I just speak to them??) who were both exasperated with Exeter's unhelpful attitude and sick of the now backlog of other referral tests they were working through with a circa 8 week lead time...

So with a few more phonecalls and politely suggesting that Exeter might want to look at alternative methods of carrying out the test... they've managed to squeeze me into a slot where an inspector is coming down from Manchester for a half day. Could work to my advantage, pass it quick and then get back on the road home again?? Could work massively against me... "Why have I been dragged down to the back end of nowhere for this chump's car, fail it quickly and then get home" I guess time will tell....

Timetable of events for those of you who are interested and will no doubt follow the same sorry routine:

28/3 - Application sent off, recorded delivery
1/4 - phoned me for payment, essentially just an admin clerk, no help or knowledge of anything to do with the test at all.
2/4 - email acknowledged receipt of application and passed to TaSS (Technical Assessment team) in Swansea
7/4 - passed from TaSS Swansea to Exeter Test station
10/4 - Exeter confirmed appointment
10/4 - email received and letter followed the next day:

 

I'll get up some pics of the car (once it's clean!) of it in its pre-test state and I'd welcome any suggestions or comments people have had as to what they think any likely failure points are.

Slight dilemma in that Stoneleigh is the weekend before this test - do I risk sticking it on a trailer and dragging it 400 miles round trip in case it gets damaged the week before???

Cheers,

Steve