Changes Done For IVA

I should have written this post earlier as now my memory became a bit fuzzy. But as a bullet list, here is what I can recall was done on the car to ensure it would pass IVA.

My mistakes:

• Tighten correctly the front hub bolts: the lower ones were not fully tight. Seems I may have been luck on the track;
• Fix a bad electrical connection that could explain why my battery was not charging properly;
• Fix the issue with the Digidash being unable to properly state the gear the engine was in: it was a bad earth;
• Tighten and tidy wiring inside the engine bay and on the rear;
• Make a proper aluminium cover for the hole I opened on the tunnel wall near the peddles.

Other Things:

• Fix the rear light that would not turn on (turns out it was a wire disconnected on the loom);
• Add an immobiliser (legal requirement);
• Add a rear light and a connection to the reverse-box to light it up when reverse is engaged (new legal requirement);
• Add the brake fluid reservoir lids with warning switches and wire them to the loom;
• Move horn from steering wheel to dash to not have wires on the driving column;
• Add labels to all indicators and knobs on the panel and put Digidash in "Road Mode";
• The vacuum pipes on the engine block and making the mixture poor when idle;
• Remove the driver seat's slider (to avoid issues with seat height against seat belts' hooking height):
• Tank tape on tunnel top and on the side near the exhaust, to hide the edges of the aluminium panels (on the tunnel is part of my "mods list" to make a "fake leather interior" that will cover this);
• Add gaiters to the reverse box and gear knobs;
• Remove the extinguisher and bracket from the top of the tunnel to avoid "projections";
• Scuff the airbox to make it rounder because of projections;
• Add covers to exposed bolts (specially on the front hubs and lights) because of projections;
• Add some height between chassis and lights to avoid the wheel arches bumping the lights;

All in all, I didn't make many mistakes. But I also did not have the car ready for IVA without going through Steve first...

Last Touches for the Track Day

Objective:

The last touches were done. Bought some gas on a jerrycan and filled the tank. Put back the "gopro" (actually SJ4000) fittings on the rollbar so that I can film this.

Then cut two arrows from pieces of paper and taped them on the car pointing to the tow hooks on the front and rear. It was a suggestion from the organisation that made all sense!

Finally, used my air pump to fill in the tires. I think the "correct" pressure, the one I used 2 years ago, was 1,7bar. I filled them all to that pressure and then left the battery to charge back.

On the non-technical side of things, I went around looking for track-day insurance. Last track day of 2016 there was a collision between 2 participants. I always think it will not happen to me as I don't fight overtakes, but you never know... Turns out there is an insurance company that resells from an English broker for sports teams and track days. Unfortunately this being the start of the sports seasons both here and in the UK has them overloaded with quotes. I'm waiting for a reply for over 3 weeks. Lets see if I can still get an insurance on time. Anyway, and on this topic, the guy explained that insurance covers only damages to the owner's car. Each one should have their own insurance: there are no "guilty parties" on a track and I'm not liable for damage to other cars (but I may be for damage to the track).
I've also scheduled the tow truck in advance. So, my first outing on the track is at 9h00, the tow picks me up at 7h00, enough time to get there (about one hour) and still watch the driver's briefing.

I just hope it doesn't rain. Forecast has been changing and the latest one says it will rain...

Plates and Fire Extinguisher

Objective:

For IVA, and to avoid any complaints about the exposed vertices, Steve removed the extinguisher and it's holding bracket from the top of the tunnel cover. Spent some time putting that back in.

Another thing was more on the "proud" field. Maybe I worry too much about what others think, but I really wanted to show this: I may not be able to drive it on the road in Portugal, but in the UK I could. So I put the British plates on the car. The back one was a no-brainer since it had to go under the light. On the front, mounted it on the nose, attached to the grid, covering 5cm of the nose hole. Both front and back plates are held in place by cable ties. It is temporary (I hope).

Good I registered during the week on the Track Day. If buying just the afternoon sessions it was full. I bought a full day: 4 sessions of 20 minutes each. Seems it will be completely full pretty soon.

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.