Undoing Carburetor Changes for IVA - Part II

Objective:

Went back to the car, taking advantage of the last vacation day. Tightened the "wrong screws" I undid the last time and applied some more force. But the carbs didn't even move. That was when I had an inspired moment... The guys on the videos have driven their bikes recently. My engine was standing for over 6 months. The rubber connections must be so dry that they stuck! Lovely WD40 sprayed on the rubber connections, wait a few minutes, apply a bit of force and...

With the carbs away, I could reach where I needed. Then it was a matter of unbolting the pipes with the vacuum taps and covering the holes with the proper bolts. For future memory, don't know why, the pipe in cylinder #2 had 2 washers while all others had just one. After this, turned the carburators upside down and, from a tighten position, undid the pilot screws (the ones right below the chambers) 2 and a half turns. These pilot screws, as they are named on the Haynes book, have other names on the "street": pilot / slow running / idle mixture screws. After this was done, it was just the tedious job of reassembling the carbs on the block and the choke.

Since I still had some time left, I fitted the caps on the break fluid reservoirs. For some odd reason, they couldn't be in during IVA. Probably I should have placed the caps as soon as the car was back. Although the garage isn't moist, the fluid may have been slightly compromised, but well...

Caps in and I had to try this all out. Battery in, started the car, it worked and after warming up was good on idle (until warm I had to play a bit with choke). If it is started and warm... And there I went around the parking floors like a kid in a merry-go-round for a couple of "laps"! It is ready for the 12th!

Undoing Carburetor Changes for IVA - Part I

Objective:

For IVA, to ensure a smooth pass on emissions, a small trick was added to the intake to let in more air. Also, the carburetors' pilot screws were tightened to reduce the amount of fuel going in. This made the running a bit rough but would reduce emissions. Steve warned me straight away the car should not be properly run without undoing the changes.

After reading the Haynes manual, it seemed I understood the task at hand. Had a couple of hours to spend so went to the car. Removing the airbox was easy. Looking to the link between carburetors and the engine block, I see they are connected by rubber sleeves having 2 bracers. I incorrectly understood which bolts to undo and undid the upper bracers. This required removing the choke assembly first. I also had to disconnect the venting pipe.

Trying to pull the carburetors away was seeming impossible. The Haynes manual stated "ease off" so I didn't want to apply too much force. Then I saw the other screws, undid those too but had still the same problem. In the end, I just gave up. Went home and watched a couple of youtube videos of guys pulling the carbs off their bikes and understood some force was actually needed.

But that had to wait for sometime later. Although I was feeling the pressure to have the car properly running again. Track day season is about to start, registration for the 1st should open soon and I want to have the car ready before registering. But there is the risk of it being sold out (has been so far)...

Switching Rear Lights

(Post dated 2016-04-25, when the task happened, but written on the 2017-01-03)
The car passed IVA with the rear lights on the UK position (RHD). To circulate on LHD roads, they had to be switched.

By the way, the reverse light was not on the car when it was sent to the UK. This was a new imposition for IVA. So this was added. It is activated by a small switch added to the reverse box lever. When the lever is moved to the reverse position, the switch activates.

Switching the lights was an easy job. It just required extending a bit the existing wires to make them "cross-over" and switch the light assemblies. Fortunately the holes could be kept the same.
Images of the before (taken halfway) and the after.

Back from the UK

(Although the post is dated Nov 2015, it was written in May 2016. I thought long if I should or not post about the car until it is road legal in Portugal. I've given up waiting... It should make no difference anyway)

The car arrived today from the UK! Late August it got finally registered. With vacations in the middle it ended up taking longer than we anticipated.

I started looking for insurance to bring the car back. Turns out that I was not able to get any, at least looking on the net and with the few phone calls I made. They would either not cover me for not being UK resident, not cover me because the car was a kitcar, not cover me because I wanted to do a trip to the Continent... I believe there would have been a chance but I would have to pay a non-refundable yearly premium and I said "don't bother to quote" after the guy commented "but it will not be cheap".

So, I had to look for a transport back. Who took it to the UK was not available to bring it back and I had already spoke with a colleague at work whose brother lives in the UK and transports cars around (and also moves crates). While I was waiting for that contact to answer I looked online for others and found a guy, also portuguese and also living in the UK. He was coming to Portugal with a car the following week, he could put mine on the trailer and bring it along, price was good... But (stupid me!!!) I said no, too much of a rush. And thought better I should wait for my colleague's brother because she said his prices were killer, and it was someone I could trust more.
Turns out her brother made me waste a month. There was even a scheduled pickup date that he unscheduled last minute! Then price went up ("it's the refugees' crisis blocking the ferry in Calais and all others went up in price", he said) and it was expensive and almost sounding like a favour.
Went back to the guy I found online. He could bring it straight away and would cost just a bit over what the "brother" asked because he would have nothing planed for the trip back. If I could wait about a month and a half, he could make almost the same price promised in August (well below "brother"'s offer) because he would have time to get something for the return. Only reason the price would not be exactly the one told before was the ferries.

And so, Steve was really nice to keep the car stored until late October. By then, Virgil from Transport Virgil showed up at Steve's place, picked up the car and stored it away for a few days. In between he took the car, at my request, to a test station to get a CO2 measure. I was told that could help with the import process. Turned out I forgot to warn him he had to turn on the fan on the car (it is not automatic) and so the car started to overheat and he turned it off. Since this was a Saturday morning, time was up and no reading.

Virgil was actually a great bloke. We kept in touch by Whatsapp and during his trip from the UK to Lisbon he sent a few photos of the car!

Arriving in Portugal he gave me the chance to show up at my doorstep around midnight or just in the next morning. I wanted the car as soon as possible so he came and by 1 a.m. the car was on my garage! I drove it from the street where he unloaded it until the parking space, dried the interior from the rain and left it there.

More to come soon with what was changed while he was away, the import hurdles, etc.

IVA passed!

After all the work performed by Steve from Aries to make the car bullet-proof, it went to the test. IVA passed first time! The picture shows Mr VOSA Engineer displaying the IVA pass certificate next to the car.

Next step is to register to get the plates. It's basically bureaucracy that takes its time... I hope not too much!

Very big, huge, enormous thank you to Steve from Aries for getting the car up to the task and taking care of everything for me!

Car On The Road To The UK

After having the car with me for almost 5 years (although most of the time in pieces), it went away. After lunch it was tucked inside the van that will take it to the UK for the test. The car will arrive there on Sunday.

Steve from Aries will be going over the car to make sure my build has the security quality to pass the exam, fixing whatever he believes is not up to pair.

The IVA test is scheduled for the 29th June but there is a possibility of it happening earlier.

Legalisation Under Way

Small note to say that the first step to do the car's legalisation is now under way. I've submitted the paperwork to VOSA (in the UK) to get the car tested late May. Steve, from Aries, will be representing me and handling the bureaucracy.

The car is going to the UK early May and I hope to fetch it early June. I've already defined the trip back, doing 300Km in the UK, sleeping in Portsmouth, taking the ferry to Santander (26h on a boat) and then driving another 830Km to Lisbon. Let's see if I don't chicken out of this adventure all alone.

EDIT: I was a bit lazy when I wrote the post above and I think it would be good to add some additional information.

The IVA process is very well organised and easy to perform even from abroad. It can all be done through the web with just an additional phone call.

To apply, one needs to fill in two forms, IVA-1C and IVA-4. The forms are available online at the following addresses:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iva-application-form-for-passenger-cars-iva-1c
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/amateur-built-vehicles-declaration-iva-4
The first requires Adobe PDF Reader to see and fill in. It has to be a recent version due to it using the Adobe Forms functionality. The second form requires Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.

I found the instructions on this forum thread helpful to fill in the form:
http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=13491

Then, I selected a few photos from the kit arrival and the build and scanned the detailed invoice for the kit. On the IVA-4 document I also mentioned this blog as a proof of an amateur build.

Then, through the address below, all documents were submitted (after I asked Steve from Aries to review them):
https://www.gov.uk/apply-vehicle-approval

Since I'm not in the UK, Steve will be my representative taking the car to the exam. From the moment I submitted the application the system started sending him emails. One of them was regarding the payment.

The IVA can be paid in several ways. For me, being abroad, the easiest is by VISA card. That required me to phone VOSA with an Application Reference and give my VISA details to a person there. After 5 minutes on the phone, the payment went on the card and all proceeded naturally.