Well, 2nd attempt to get to the SVA will be today.

6 hours exactly till d-day.

Have to leave in 4 hours so bit of luck there's only a couple of small jobs to do!

Thanks once again for the invaluable help of Ned. He stayed till 2:30 and spent hours helping me with stuff that would have been nigh-on impossible with only two hands and probably would have taken me another week!

My girlfriend even chipped in... she's now a dab hand at putting edge trim on seats and fitting nut-covers!!!

Wish me luck!

James

P.S. Oh, and guess what, like the last time, in the middle of a heatwave and drought it's started pissing it down!
Fortunately Ned was on hand with his camera!!!!
Took it for a spin on my private drive anyway!

take2 - 2am

take2 - its finished!

take2 - 2am testdrive in rain

Well done on the prep work, and all the best for the big day from the nightshift here in sunny NI!!

Good Luck
(not that you'll need it!)

Ali

Right, want an early night before the test so better get to bed....

plus.... bored of sticking bits of bloody u-trim on the car!

Cheers,
James

VERY BEST OF LUCK MATE!!!!!

good luck

ATB....


Out of interest how long was it in the making, just to make me feel better...

best of luck, not that you'll need it.

Good luck dude!

Yup he should be there now! Good Luck James, and well done to Rach and Ned.

DLT and Fozzie

good luck mate, the car looks sweet!

Good luck fella! The car looks great!

Rupert

Best of Luck

Mike

Good luck James.

Another excellent colour choice.

David

so, any news (good, hopefully) yet ?????????
waiting in anticipation

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scotty
so, any news (good, hopefully) yet ?????????
waiting in anticipation

---

Is this the first instance of a SVA test running commentary?

LOL, no not quite David! but errr almost.

Fozzie

just out of curiosity, who's sat next to james?

Just wondering if, unfortunately, James fails, will his g/f leave him (for being a failure). If so, she's welcome round my place to stick bits of trim on anytime. Not so sure about the savante (or what ever its called) sounds a bit painful.

any news?

Its all gone very quiet on the texting front,not sure if thats good or bad.

Anyway i would think james has finished the test and should be well on his way home.

I know, but won't post the result......I'll leave that to James

Fozzie

Well it was a fail, but all considering a very good fail - very little to do - I'll leave the explanation/detail to james when he gets home. I work half way home for james from sva centre so he might be a few more minutes yet.

got loads of pics, will post later tonight when i get home. The tester (Ian) was a real star, very fair and explained a few things for us.

oh and the retest was booked there and then

Over to james...

Ned.

ps james don't forget to tell them about the chassis number

[Edited on 26/7/06 by ned]

Blast! Ned pipped me to the post! You stole my wind!

Okay, well we nearly had a very nasty disaster right at the start but will come onto that in a moment....

As for the result... yes a fail.
Pretty bad, with a massive long list of things to do......

1. Fix the indicator bulb that blew on the journey there....

2. Raise the front indicator height by 20mm (I knew the height was 350mm but the extensions I'd fitted to the indicators to get them inside the 400mm limit had caused them to 'droop' down below the height limit.

3. Show him pictures of the lower outer seatbelt mount (guess which muppet took photos ages ago then forgot to take them to the test...)


All in all a pretty bad fail list and could take me a long time to fix!


Cheers,
James

Oh yes, and the disaster.... I nearly forgot to mention it.... first thing Ian asks me is where's the stamped chassis number?..... you can't do test without it and instant fail....

Oh yes.... that'd be the thing I'd got some laser cut plates made specially for and also borrowed Ned's stamps for...... bugger!!!!

Ian says he'd have a quick look around it anyway so I'd have some things fixed for when I re-book.....

As you can imagine I was a bit annoyed with myself at this point.

He then looks round for a few minutes and says "that looks pretty well put together, why don't you run round to some of the garages up the road and see if you can borrow a stamp set and hammer"

So off I run like a scalded earwig and come back £10 lighter and one mobile phone (as depoist) lighter, but with stamps in hand.

I do the stamps there and there and then he carries on with the test. Blinder!!!!

So all ok in the end! Nice one Ian.



Anyway, re-test is booked for Friday lunchtime!

Cheers,
James

Brilliant! well done James.....

Last time we were over I remember a conversation about chassis numbers/plates...

No doubt you will be working around the clock to get that extensive fail list sorted by Friday then!

Fozzie

Well done james,i would think you have completed the fail list by now then

Ian did my retest,top bloke really easy going which helps a lot, he does look a bit like IT Botham though which was a bit spooky

dont bother re drilling the the nose cone to raise the indicators, just use plastic conduit as your extensions and the lens wont droop then.
This is what i did for the re test and i think the parts are in the SVA box.
Rescued attachment MK Indy build pics 168.jpg

well done that man,hoping for a blow by blow account next time our paths cross

Jeeeze man, why not just give up now. If i had that fail list i'd get out the angle grinder and forget it...........

piccies...


on ramps


noise test


finished


on the road


asleep

[Edited on 26/7/06 by ned]

Well done, sounds like a good fail to me..if you see what i mean

Good luck for Friday

Well done matey, it looks dam fine does thet car of yours, well worth the wait building I recon
Another car I won't be able to park next to
I'll have to find another car park all together

Jason

Ah, Mr Droopy

Take a look at what this chap has done = clicky here = , I reckon he has got the right idea and these won't droop for sure (supported in 2 places too!)

Nice one James!!

One of the best 'fails' I've seen!

Right all the jobs done.

Couldn't find the sodding pictures I'd taken so have had to drill out the panel and loads of trim to take new phots.

As for the indicators.... turns out it was a faulty bulb. Could I find a replacement today, could I buggery. So ended up with last minute purchase of new indicators from Halfords. This meant changing the extension and the wiring etc. etc.

Cut some 'wedge' shapes out of ali tube and have fitted them between the extensions and the nosecone. Thus lifting the light at the end.

Job done! But has taken all evening!

Oh well, let's hope all works out tomorrow!

Cheers,
James

best o luck matey-boy

Yep best of luck James!
Keep me posted........

Fozzie

Just heard from James.....

He said.....'Well arrived OK.. and early, you can post that'........



Fozzie

i do believe he's finished

I'm gonna assume he's passed, and hence offer an early congratulations

Well done James, it's taken long enough

quote:

---

Originally posted by ned
i do believe he's finished

---

Ooooo I have heard from James again twice

Fozzie

It was earlier, but, I lost t'internet for a while

yup just spoken to james, he is not very happy.

Oh come on guys this isnt fair. If James cant get to a PC can someone take a laptop to him so he can post the result????
From his last fail sheet id say hes passed - so congrats from me. If hes not happy id guess its cos queue at DVLA is 4 years long and hell miss the weekends sun, and has just seen a forecast for Monday or summat like that.

Sorry Darren but i couldn't possibly say, he was annoyed at me last time for stealing his thunder!!

No, couldn't possibly comment.....
but Ned is right,
James is not a happy ickle bunny...

Fozzie

SSSSSOOOOOOOooooooooooooo


come on............


did he, didn't he?


what happened at DVLA ??????? (i'm guessing that has to be the problem)

BUMP

Ahhh, c'mon, put us out of our misery

Ok, ok.

Sorry for the wait.

Went out right after I got home (after giving Dad, Mum and Sis a ride each) and didn't get chance to go online.

Yeah, passed fine, didn't even have to take the car into the testing bay. He checked the indicator worked in the car park and had a look at the photo of the side panel I showed him and he handed me the pass sheet!

Drove to the gateway to hell that is DVLA Wimbledon....

to find that both the kit car lady and her boss were on holiday.

Begged, cajouled, pleaded, offered bribery and even my girlfriend as payment but they wouldn't do it until kit car lady is back Monday.

I even tried telling them I was meant to be going away in it this weekend to France and that didn't work!

So will see how it goes Monday. Can't afford the time off to go up there myself so will see what I can do. Really gutted as wanted it this weekend.

They even tried telling me it wasn't possible to do it in a day which I know isn't true as Donut did just that 2 weeks ago!


Shouldn't complain too much as DVLA have been great so far with it all, I'm just disappointed. It's like as a kid getting an Xmas pressie with no batteries and all the shops are closed!!!

Cheers,
James

Congratulations!

I was expecting all sorts of disaster after everyone knew the outcome but wouldn't tell!

Have fun!

David

Well done matey, I hope all goes well on Monday for ya

Jason

quote:

---

Originally posted by David Jenkins
Congratulations!

I was expecting all sorts of disaster after everyone knew the outcome but wouldn't tell!

Have fun!

David

---

I got a text from james saying he had a mac in his hand,but he was in the devils nest at the Wimbledon VRO

Well done james anyway

Just a point though, if you register and tax on monday will they jit you for july's vehicle tax ?

Might as well leave it till tuesday and get your moneys worth

yeah well done mate. good on yer!!