MadaboutKitcars

It rained the day of my test all i can say is you will be so excited about driving your Sportster you wont even notice the rain.

Good luck with the test lads. I've been held up yet again! Moving house this time. One day I will drive my sportster, one day!
Alfie

Thanks to all the support, tips, hints and ideas through out the build to everyone on the forum Dunno what I'd do without you sometimes

A few things to finish off on the interior:

Carpet of the back of the rest of the tub.


Bottom dashboard trim (radius issues with the way it was)

Shortened the stock gear knob to fit under here!

Good luck tomorrow

woohoo MOT pass. Did fail on 3 loose bolts first time through not bad!

Emissions were:

CO 0.97%
HC 151ppm

yeahy!

hoto: took video on the way over will process and post some time later!

We got the speedo calculation wrong, thought it was not working but the millage actually went up on the drive. Luckly you don't need that for MOT.

All set for SVA Friday now

Oh and before I forget it stopped raining just before we left!

Well done. Look forward to seeing the video!

Robin

Thanks Robin, speedo turned out to be that we used the wrong number to set the dip switches. Now correct shows about 18mph on the GPS when the needle is on 20.

It counted up from 1.4 to 1.7 miles while out for the MOT run so we knew from that it was actually working!

Here's a clip of the drive to and from the MOT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVxFL7QIrE4

Well done, chaps!!
I love the sound as you go through that tunnel.
Nice to see you giving it some welly on the way

Any problems getting the MOT without a number plate?

Hehe see tunnel drop it a few cogs just wait till I take the plugs out the exhaust!

Well he put it in on the chassis number and put the registered date as 1/1/1988. The reg plate he put down as "not presented" or something similar. I figure when I visit the DVLA to do all the paper work there they would sort any errors in the computer system

Was good fun. Richard had to keep shouting the current speed at me off the GPS unit so I had to cut a lot of video out.

Guys,

good video at youtube and good result to see !

Makes me willing to go with the build, but it's under a cover yet because of building kitchen and lot's of extra room to the house.


I wish you all the luck you can get at SVA.


Peter-Jan

Well we're all sorted for tomorrow now, I think!

Did a few more little things like covering all the bumper edges with rubber looking under the dash for hard edges. Looking for loose bits and pieces and gave it cleaning (got a bit dirty on the MOT drive as the roads were wet)

Fingers crossed!

Good Luck Patrick

Yeah - Good Luck!

It failed. However it's not that bad:

1) Seat back strength. As the seats have harness holes in an impact all of the force gets taken up by the back mounts and the seat back. I didn't have evidence that the seat conformed to the M1 Directive 76/115/EEC. I spoke to Cobra after the test and they that they've never had an issue with Roadster 7's and SVA, but the also don't have any documentation to send me. They will call me back on Monday.

Two solutions, get the paper work or weld in a bar higher than the harness holes between either side of the roll bars.

2) Mirrors. Due to the seat backs getting in the way (more than 10%) of the rear view the passenger side mirror becomes a requirement. You couldn't see enough in that mirror. It requires convex glass. (and not just double sided taped on)

Two solutions, find some glass that goes in the existing mirror or replace the mirror.

3) Sheet metal edges on bonnet all round need rubber on them. Would have done this there an then but I need to go back anyway so no point in rushing it.

4) Glass fibre edge under bonnet requires a radius of 1.5mm. Ditto above

5) Steering geometry - car didn't self centre from full lock my fault for checking the properly. Need to get Camber, caster and toe in setting from Mark or Simon (not that I was able to get a conclusive answer before)

6) Heat shield brake master cylinder and servo - I put an ali sheet on there but consensus was that it would soak up more heat. Fix cover in heat shield, not problem got a box of that in the garage.

7) Brake valve compensator - I used zip ties to hole this up, needs a proper bracket.

8) Design weights were wrong on the form. Car is heaver at the back that expected - probably due to the exhaust. So need a letter from Marlin with new weights. The rear needed to be at least 563 (and the gross put up to cover this)

The collapsible of the steering column was a very close issue but they did pass it in the end after a lunch time chat with everyone else there and a study of the manual.

That was it so all in all not too bad, nothing that can't be fixed. Mark the tester at Southampton was nice a guy and very honest about everything.

Interior projections all passed, exterior projections all passed (had to sand down the rear reflectors a bit more, but that was it!)

Emission were still OK, exhaust was so close you wouldn't believe. One pipe was 98.9 and the other was 100.7 with an average of 99.8db! Test was done at 4350rpm. A bit higher than I though it would be.

Damn - but like you say, nothing that can't be fixed. Here's hoping you can get a retest soon.

Pretty much all the stuff I was worried about passed. The steering and the seat issues are the only bigger ones. Everything else is pretty minor.

I'm not too worried. I'd rather they fail me on these things so I can get them fixed rather than have them look away and it cause me trouble in future.

The rear axle weight as a definite you have to getting a letter from Marlin stating different weights are OK so there was no point in trying to fix the minor stuff there an then.

While I'm still thinking about it:

The handbrake setup had some discussion round it, but I had the donor bentley manual with me that showed the adjustment on the handle and the interior layout with springs etc that compensate for wear. Make sure you take a Haynes or Bentley manual this will get asked!

How dissappointing, I thought you were going to pass!

It's a shame Marlin can't issue a more definative list of things to do to pass the test?



Really good tip about taking the manual, I wouldn't have thought about that.

Halfords sell replacement mirror glass for people that drive to close and smash their wing mirrors. They might do some convex glass mirrors that fit?

The rubber round the bonnet edges and the fibreglass edge under the bonnet sounds really picky? (I suppose that's for when you run into someone whilst driving along with the bonnet open? )

Everyone seems to have trouble with those mystery design weights!!

Like you said, they passed some of the more tricky things which is good news.

Good luck with the re-test!

To get the self centering work you will need some positive camber on the front wheels (that is they stick out at the top) I discovered this when playing with the camber on my triumph based Marlin years ago. Front wheels with negative camber look cool - but just doesn't work very well!

I also read somewhere that the tyres need to be well inflated.

Good luck with the re-test!

Robin

BTW - what was the discussion on the steering about? Were they unhappy with the collapsible boss that you used?

Ahhh now I though negative camber was correct! Doh I'll try some positve and see how it goes (I really don't know much about steering geometry setup!)

Mark wanted to see a collaspable bit either in the donor steering column or along the extender that Marlin supply. There's no obvious bits that collapses on the BMW column, obviously none on the Marlin bit.

I'm guess after referals with the other testers they decided the boss was enough.

Decided to go with welding a tube in on the roll bar anyway, so no matter if I can get paper work or not it will pass. Here's a few pictures of the tube before it goes on:

Patrick,
Just remembered, did you get any comments about your exhaust exit pipes?

Also, can you explain more about the mirrors? Is it that the centre mirror was obstructed by the seat backs?

I guess that the extra seat belt bar must be welded higher than the holes in the seats, or doesn't that matter?

Peter

Exhaust pipes - no issue at all due to the bar I put on the back. The cone thing didn't contact the pipes.

Yeah the problem was that more than 10% of the rear view was being obstructed by the seats when setup to see the distance dots they use for testing. (I think it was more because the tester was shorter than me!). That was the reason why the other mirror had to be tested. Due to the angle and distance from the mirror as the drive you couldn't see all the points in the mirror no matter how it was adjusted.

The bar has to be welded same height or higher. I've got that one sorted. I'll process and post some pictures later. I had a good long chat with the guy that came over to weld the bar in for me (he's done a lot of racing) we went through me sat in the seat and checking heights and where the belts would apply force.

Yeah, just seen your new pictures. Looks like a great welding job done!