Exeter Kit Car Show

I wasn't certain we would make it as I had a number of tasks to do before I could consider losing 4-5 hours going to Exeter.  The morning got off to a good start, I took the 807 to Quedam Tyres for its MOT and it passed so things were looking good.  Then on to Mike the Barber's, no one was waiting and the customer in the chair was more than halfway through his cut - Myles & I had our hair cut and we were home by just before 10:00.  Allanah had spent the night at a friend's house so there was no dancing taxi service required so - time to go to Exeter.

Mud splattered 1 is mine!!!!!!

The sun was shining but it had been very cold over night with a ground frost so Myles and I wrapped up warm and set off.  After about 10 miles I had to admit that not fitting the side screens was a mistake and Myles looked frozen.  Over about 50 mph the hot air from the heater was completely mixed with the cold air coming into the car, lucky that Tricia had insisted that he wore a hat and gloves.









We arrived at the show at around 11:00 just as the car clocked up 200 miles, after a diversion to the public car parking and then back to the club car parking, we parked up in a row of 7 type cars the majority of which seemed to be Westfields.

Myles immediately went to the Westfield drifting area and after parting with £10 when for a spin - literally - video too big to post on the blog

We then spent a couple of hours walking around the displays - Myles bought a balaclava, a Westfield fleece for the journey back and a BB Gun (don't ask!).  He also identified a couple of options for the next project (in his dreams)

The journey home was uneventful, Myles was very warm under all those new layers and we stopped for petrol: 14.11 ltrs to cover >100 miles so over 30mpg not too bad.  When we got home Tricia suggested the two of us go for a spin so we headed North through Ilchester, then on to the Mackrells before stopping at Heck's Cider Farm in Street.  The FW Boot just about took 4 ltrs of cider, <lb of Cheddar and Stilton cheeses and a jar of pickle.  

On arriving home I cleaned the car that has now covered just less than 300 miles.

More driving

The weather has been reasonable all weekend and I managed to put another 80 miles on the car.

The shake down problems now include a fuel gauge that stays on full permanently - on the way up Mudford Hill the car started to splutter and James & I just made it to the fuel station on Reckleford Rd as it cut out; took 21.5 litres and restarted without a problem.

The weather forecast looks good for the next week so I plan to get as many miles on the car as possible before laying up for winter and starting to clear the emergent faults.

Registered & 1st Blat

The Blatting Gods were smiling on me today - I got back from a couple of days at Shrivenham and found a letter from the DVLA stating that the Westfield is now registered with the private reg, there was a tax disc attached and a V948 Number Plate Authorisation Certificate which allows the number plates to be made whilst I wait for the V5C to come from Swansea (already had them!). I put 34 miles on the car split between James & Myles - smiles all round and the forecast is no rain tomorrow.

I've already started to log some shake down problems that will need looking at:

(1) All the instruments are fogging up once the heater has been running for a reasonable time.
(2) The steering column - vibration just over idle.

The Cobra Immobiliser arrived in the post and I'm working out how to fit it and the wheel arch protectors

Visit to the DVLA

Visited the DVLA in Filton, Bristol and after 40 mins (35 mins of which was waiting) walked away with a scrap of paper confirming that they'd extracted £275 from me and - subject to the paperwork all being in order - they'd post out a taxi disc.  Hopefully it will arrive by the weekend and the sun will come out - or at least the rain go away!

Post IVA Upgrades

Not a lot to cover but Mr Postie delivered some bits today:

First thing was a proper +ive terminal cover for the Battery - a little bit bigger than I was expecting but fulfils the agreement with Howard at the VOSA Test Centre to improve in the future.

Then the rear arch stone guards from CarbonMods - I was worried that they wouldn't fit as when I ordered them I selected the FW body but when the order confirmation came through the description had expanded to include "FIXED ARCH".  James held them against the arches and they look very nice and fitted well (hopefully Tricia won't ask what they cost!) they will need riveting in place - 3.2mm black rivets ordered. 

Scanned and emailed my IAC to Westfield yesterday, hopefully the Certificate of Newness will arrive tomorrow so I can finish off my pack for the DVLA registration on Wednesday.

IVA Day

In the queue - naughty number plate!

Not the best of starts - trailer tyre slow puncture/flat followed by the cover being ripped off then traffic and road works conspired to make us 30 minutes late - then met by the inspector who advised that he would be instructing 12 students on the VOSA IVA Inspector Course in the practical aspects of an IVA.........



Things of note - (ie fails that the inspector allowed me to fix!!):

(1) I'd fitted the front number plate with a private number - cars should not be presented with number plates if unregistered (which clearly without an IAC they can't been) - Inspector said he would inspect because the car had been trailered to the centre - no need to unstick it
(2) Exhaust front clamp needed to be turned around to miss the under body "cone"
(3) Self adhesive cable clips not acceptable on external surfaces ie fuel tank for sender cable - ty-wrapped to mounting band



(4) FW Head Light mounting thread needed to be covered - cut end off a 13mm cover, split it and siliconed in place





(5) Battery +ive connector needed to be covered - 10mm(ish) cover fitted - whilst a minimum pass the inspector suggested I might want to look at it again to improve further - (I've ordered proper covers through ebay)







(6) +ive feed to the starter motor needed a cover - luckily I was able to fabricate one with pipe to an acceptable standard as none of my spares fitted


(7) Westfield Tax Disc holder - failed interior sphere test - removed.....

 And in the end - a PASS

The "rule of thumb" test that the inspector applied to the build/fixes was "would a car manufacturer (Ford/BMW/Audi etc) do it, & would you buy it, like that?"

The test started at 08:30 and I was issued the IAC at 15:15 with a 15min coffee break in the morning and 45mins for lunch - managed to get a bacon roll, denied earlier by our tardy arrival, from a burger van down the road from the test centre.

What the collective noun for a group of VOSA IVA Inspectors?

Many thanks to all WSCCers for all the advice and build sites (especially Rhett's and Kevin's), Tigger at Westfield World, Mark Walker at WF for the Speedo Certificate and frequent advice through the build, Bren for transporting and helping work out/fitting the fixes (and on his birthday too) and Howard, the inspector at the VOSA Test Centre, Bristol for talking me through the whole process and giving me advice and time to sort out the fixes.  And finally Tricia who's put up with me for the last 5 months and wasn't looking forward to me coming home with a fail!

Very Happy - just have to get the Registration sorted.

Emissions Re-test

Having sorted out the Throttle Body balancing and got the start and idle sorted both Mark at Westfield and Guy at Omex suggested it would still be worth getting the emissions tested before the IVA next week.  James and I drove the car down and confirmed the speedo was working - until we got out on the open road and over 40 mph it started jumping around - hopefully this should just need adjustment to the sensor distance from the stud heads.  On to the emissions tests

Fast Idle Test:
CO limit 0.2%vol actual 0.05%vol - Passed
HC limit 200 ppm actual 15ppm  - Passed and
Lambda min 0.97 - max 1.03 actual 1.00  - Passed (phew this was what failed before)

Natural Idle Test:
CO limit 0.3%vol actual 0.02%vol  - Passed

They also confirmed that the new bulb had sorted out the headlight dipped beam shape problem and set the head lights for me.

We went the long way home and worked on bedding in the brakes and confirming the fronts locked before the backs - I think they did and filled up the tank which took ~11 litres despite reading almost full, as the tank is 22 litres it should have been reading half full!

First impressions driving the car were:

Upper wishbone and shock absorber  IVA covers

The front of the car is a long way away
The front cycle wings need mud flaps
I need to watch carefully for and avoid pot holes/raised iron work etc
I need an audio warning or self cancelling indicators
All the instruments have moisture in them

I left the car out in the sun to try and dry out the instruments and allow James to washing it while I picked up Allanah from dancing . The final bits of the IVA kit arrived in the post at lunchtime; the first items I fitted were the covers for the front upper wishbone camber locking nut and after chopping off the tip of the dome and splitting the side these were straight forward to fit with a little silicone to hold them in place.  Unfortunately the second set was not so straight forward and required the removal of the front shock absorbers lower bolt.  While I was doing the n/s I removed completely removed the shock to investigate the problem I had trying to adjust it.  Following Mark Walker's advice to action it through it's full range of action and then try the adjustment worked and I refitted both and torqued up all the bolts with James' help. We also re-adjusted the speedo sensor until the speedo worked but can't check for the >40 mph issue.

Total work today 2.5 hrs for me and 0.5 hr for James - total build/rectification time 235 hrs.