MadaboutKitcars

If you go and see your local BMW spares department and ask them to run a report off their computer for the donor car's VIN number. It should give you the date of manufacture and the original engine number. It's not a birth certificate but should be enough proof of the age of the engine. I've usually found the spares guys very helpful.

Secondly, I recommend a pre-IVA MOT test. A second pair of eyes does no harm to check your car before the IVA. I believe it is legal to drive to an MOT as long as you have an appointment. It gives you a chance to bed in the brakes, test the steering self centering and check the speedo.
You can have it officially MOT'd on the Sportster's VIN number but the disadvantage is that you then have to get your car MOT'd every year after your registration (rather than 3 years from the date of registration). Again, not such a bad idea

I had exactly the same experience. He ran the rollers while I adjusted my speedo until it was OK.

I just remembered, they tested my speedo on the rollers up to 70mph. Sitting in a stationary car do 70mph was quite exciting

yeah, it was that same customer services email I tried. They did come back and ask for follow up info which I provided but in the end said they couldn't help. I may try my local (25 miles away) dealer as Peter suggests as I need to pick up one or two parts anyway.

I suppose the V5 only proves what engine the car had at the point I bought it, not what it was originally fitted with. Having said that, it passed the Basic Emissions test with flying colours anyway so I'm not too worried about having to argue the standard down on age.

The text (copied and pasted from Autobionics.co.uk website)below sums the whole experience up pretty well, and lists what you should be able to provide evidence wise and some fairly obvious advice about 'being nice' �� Hope it's not too patronising!

The first 5 minutes might well set the tone for the rest of the test. Your examiner does this day in day out as a job, so it is unlikely he will be in the same state of mental stimulation that you are! Be polite, listen to what he asks you to do and be prepared to do as he asks. Remember to bring a bag or box of basic tools with you so that you can comply with any requests to remove a wheel nut or piece of trim, if you have to run 300m to fetch them when he asks to see something 5 minutes into the test, is only going to add 5 minutes to the time before his 1st tea break, so be prepared!

Do not babble on at the examiner like an expectant father either. Keep close to him, unless asked to move but do not get under his feet, he will likely ask you how things work and might want to know some background to the car. Be honest, don’t waffle, but try and engage the examiner in some of the detail or the history of the marquee, if you get a reaction then continue the rapport, if you get one word answers then give the bloke his space and see if he opens up. Remember, most are car or bike fans so if you can engage it makes the whole thing less tense. We have quite a good rapport with our local test centre now and a little good natured banter certainly lightens the atmosphere.

Different test centres run things in a different order, but things you can expect to happen over the next 2-3 hours are:

Engine and chassis number check, including proof of age of engine.

General check of the interior including seat belt mountings and position, seat fixings, switch operation, warning light operation, lights check, brake balance bar (if fitted) locking mechanism, interior fittings edge and radii conformity, door operation - it must have 2 clicks, latched and shut, etc.

Exterior check including radii conformity, lights position, wiper/washer function, lights function, wheel fixing and security (you might be asked to remove a wheel nut here), bonnet/boot/ clamshell latching and security, number plate position and lighting, etc. If your body has a recess for the number plate, then a new IVA requirement is that a VOSA sized number plate, which is about 10mm larger all round than a standard UK number plate, must fit in this recess. If your recess is tight for a standard plate size then check with your local test centre for exact dimensions.

The emissions test will depend on the age of your engine, so this might only take a few minutes or up to 15 minutes if it has to be plugged into the emission monitoring equipment. Make sure you know what your engine will be tested against and make sure it is set up so it will pass, as mentioned above!

Your car is up on the ramps for a full under body check, which is very similar to an MOT test. You will more than likely be required to sit in the car and operate brakes and steering, etc. If brake lines leak, or snag on tyres at full lock, this is where it will be spotted. Remember what we said about getting oil in the examiners hair? Make sure the motor and transmission are oil tight so it helps give the examiner the feeling that the car has been assembled correctly.

Headlight alignment check. If you have not set the lights up prior to the IVA then explain this to the examiner up front and have the required tools for adjustment in your pocket. We have not yet met an examiner yet who won’t allow you to set this up during the test, so do not waste time trying to do this at home!

Brake efficiency and balance check. This takes a good 20 minutes and tests the efficiency of all the brakes on the car a-la MOT, but the examiner has a pressure sensing pad fastened to his foot to measure peddle effort. He also weighs each end of the car and this allows the examiner to establish if the brake balance is appropriate for the weight distribution. The handbrake will get a good workout here to make sure it works properly and can lock the wheels in less than four clicks. If you want to know what your car weighs then this is the point to ask.

Speedometer accuracy. For this test your car is put on a rolling road and ‘driven’ at up to 70 mph, it’s OK for your speedometer to slightly over read but not under read. It will be checked for accuracy every 10 mph and your examiner might well ask for guidance on what gear to use, etc. to get to this speed. If your speedometer is programmable then explain this to the examiner and have your laptop with you, he will be more than happy to let you tweak the calibration if it doesn’t take forever. Make sure you know what you are doing so you do not spend 30 minutes reading the manual.

Noise check. This will be done outside and involves the engine being held at 2/3rds of the speed at which the engine develops maximum power, whist it’s exhaust noise is measured, so be careful what you put on the IVA form! Your manufacturer might be able to help you here but as a guide, you will get away with saying that a 6-ltr Chevy makes it max power at 4000rpm but putting a V-Tec Honda motor down as 3000rpm is not likely to wash. Remember the examiner is likely to be a car enthusiast too! This test has got stricter for IVA, with noise limits now being reduced to 99dBA.

Mirrors check. Likely to be done outside and will involve the examiner sitting in the car and making sure he can see various fixed points behind him in the mirrors. Electrically adjustable mirrors make this part of the test a breeze!

There may be variations to this depending on the test centre you are using, but remember all centres are ensuring your car complies with the same regulations, so make sure it is built to comply with them and you will be OK.

If you have established a rapport with the examiner then it is worth checking with him after every stage how your car is doing. This way you can mentally work out what you need to do to correct it and assuming its fixable then you can ask the examiner if it is OK to fix it when he goes for a cup of tea. This might sound a bit presumptuous but it is worth it and usually works! Try and keep a can-do attitude towards any running fixes, if you put your mind to it and have the above mentioned spanner handy mate with you you’ll be surprised what you can sort out in 20 minutes. Sharp edges only need covering with foam tape or similar and even a brake line can be temporarily re-routed and re-bled in that time.

Assuming you have managed to sort out any minor glitches and made it through the above then the chances are you will have passed! If not, then try and remain philosophical, if it’s a relatively easy fix see if you can negotiate a quick re-test later in the day and do the repairs at the centre. If not then admit defeat gracefully, there is no point falling out with the examiner or other station staff, as the chances are you will be meeting again in a few weeks. Always remember that if your car has failed, then it’s your fault and not theirs, they are only measuring what you present against a pre defined set of rules, so don’t blame them!

Just a couple of points. MOT testers have a handbook that from the vehicles age and specification gives the range of engine numbers and emission level. Knowing the donor vehicle you can demonstrate the age of the engine by showing it falls in the range listed in the book.

When IVAing my Cabrio I took photos of all the failure items so I could demonstrate on re-test that I had fixed them.

I've been given a date of the 2nd July so a little over 3 weeks of nail biting and wondering what I've forgotten. Cardiff only do appointments at 8 in the morning rather than afternoon which is a pain as at that time of day, a 45 minute journey becomes over 2 hours. I guess I'll have to just be prepared to leave a silly o'clock

Not long to wait, very exciting!!

Went for IVA today and failed On a positive note the tester did say it was a very good build standard compared with most of the cars presented. The list of fail points looks long but there's not too much really taxing. Just need to pick it all off and it shouldn't take too long. It was a very strict test and I know that for some of the items, others have not had a problem with, but when they came up, I just queried the solution rather than arguing about it.

1. Ball joints catching on wheels on full lock
2. NS mirror angle of view
3. Front brake hoses slightly touching suspension parts on lock
4. Rear brake performance @55% - needs to be 60%
5. Secondary brake performance
6. Interior projections - switches & protectors on dash
7. Interior projections - dash radius under right side
8. Exterior projections - front and rear bumper radius on back edges
9. Exterior projections - Rear trailing arm radius under front of rear arches
10. Exterior projections - Bonnet catches
11. Exterior projections - A panel louvres
12. Exterior projections - top flat part of front wing braces
13. Too many side repeaters - should only be single pair
14. Side repeaters position must be within 2600mm of front of vehicle (rear set)
15. clutch pedal fouling slightly on steering column base mount
16. Cap needed on starter motor positive terminal

I also technically failed the check for rear wheel arch coverage at the back (150mm above the hub). It passed on one side but not the other. We checked and double checked measurements and couldn't work it out as there was about 10mm difference on the one side. He wasn't too convinced by the little reflector plates (which only just scrapped though on viewing angles). The rear seat belt mounts were also a sticking point as he was a bit worried about the lack of triangulation to the main chassis. Luckily I had my laptop to hand with some clearer photos of the bare chassis so he was able to take a copy of it to check this and the rear arch issue with his boss (via email). They talked it over for quite bit and decided both were ok so I scraped through there.

The effective upper seat belt mount using the rollover bar cross brace nearly caused an issue (though I'd checked and thought it was well within the limits). The special measuring tool with the bits of string was showing the height off the seat base to be marginal but he was having trouble getting it to sit still. Seeing my opportunity I offered to hold it steady, which of course requires a certain degree of downward pressure and it passed by millimetre or two.

The speedo, which I was worried about through lack of testing was bang on. It read 30 at 30 and 67 at 70 so I don't think I could have got much closer just on a calculated pulses per mile.

In terms of fixing stuff

1. The main issue with my ball joints would be solved most simply by sticking some 17" wheels on though it would only be a temp solution as I have no intention of wasting the money spent on refurb-ing and tyre-ing my donor wheels. I can also go for markIII steering limiters and grind back some unnecessary material on the rod ends themselves.

2. Mirror angle can be sorted with a packing piece

3. Front brake hoses. I had done the piece of fuel hose and a cable tie trick but the tester reckoned you can put a twist in the cable tie the will make the hose move away from the suspension when turning. I'll give it a try.

4. Of the list of failures, the one I was surprised about are the rear brakes but this is because they passed the MOT test @ 40%. I hadn't realised IVA had a 60% higher standard but I still think this is just a case of bedding them in.

5. secondary brake performance. 3 series handbrakes are crap. not much to say there. I'll get some cables made up that allow a higher degree of tweaking compared with my current setup.

6. The dash switches is an odd on. The tester said I was the first person he'd had who'd bothered to use the little loops and they did the trick apart from the end ones which then were becoming an issue themselves. Some sort of thick covered buttresses either side should sort this out rather than a radical redesign of the dash

7. I'd covered but not radiused the dash underside in the area near the ignition key as I though it was in the exempt zone behind the wheel. Turns out that's for projections and the dash bottom still has to meet the general requirement

8. I though this was a bit fussy but apparently it's become something their focusing on now. The forward face of the bumpers were fine but the rear face at the top and bottom wasn't. He said to just slap some edging on to get through.

9. The E36 rear trailing arm is a bit of a rough casting and protrudes down in front of the rear arches. When checked with the cone to test the body line it can be touched and there falls foul of the radius test. I should be able to make some simple cover to go in front of it.

10. bonnet catches will either be heat shrinked or replaced with more friendly items

11. A panel louvres though blunted still failed. He just said to stick some rubber over them. Personally I'd rather just remake them in plain ali as they don't do much in the way of venting.

12. This is the part of the wing brace where it transitions from a rod to flat bar. It may be the way I mounted my wings leaving it more exposed but I've not heard anyone else have a problem with this. A file or some rubber will sort it out

13&14. The side repeater thing is a bit annoying as the rules are ambiguous to begin with. He's suggested I place them on the front wing as although it's right next to the main front indicator, it will meet the requirement. I may also look at moving my little LED ones to a point on the tub within the distance from the front required but also within the viewing angles

15. Clutch pedal occasional fouling. knew about that but thought that as it was the clutch and not the brake it wouldn't be a big deal

16. Positive terminal uncovered on starter. BMW made it that way! It will take all of 2 seconds to fix though.

Well done - very close and nothing too serious.

With my front brake pipe I made a discreet bracket fixed to the top of the main chassis that was angled downwards and to which the flexi was clipped. I didnt attach them to the wisbones at all.

I am suprised about the brakes. Mine were fine even with the crappy metro servo. Handbrake is good also. But mine is e30 based. Perhaps the arrangement is different...

Cheers, Robin

Ian,

That sound like an extremely thorough and detailed examination.

On the upside though, if it was that thorough and that's all they came up with, you can be confident that it's a pretty solid car.

Congratulations. Nothing serious. all the issues are down amongst the worms and the only real 'pain' is the extra 90 quid.

You should still be on the road before summer's out!!

Great news!!

Nigel

Good effort, not too far off!
Sounds like the examiner was very detailed but obviously impressed with the build quality overall. Sometimes they get very fixated on particular regulations in my experience.
Best of luck with the retest.
Tim

Well done for getting all the major parts passed. Some of the more difficult things like self-centering, noise, emissions, speedo, etc you've passed so just the snags to clear up.
I think you've come across a very fussy examiner as I've never heard of anyone having an issue with the louvres on the 'A' panels?


Good luck with the retest!!

Yeah, the louvres were a surprise to me too. he said it was because they protruded by more than 5mm. I'd looked at them as a panel gap and applied the 10mm rule so thought I was OK. he didn't have a problem with the gap between the door and the A panel right next to it that has the same radius filed on it. I wasn't going to argue as there were other things against which the test had already failed that were not fixable on the spot like that would have been. As I only have louvres on the A panels and deliberately didn't have them done on the rest of the bonnet (for this very reason) it's an easy fix.

The other issue I forgot to mention was the heads of the bolts on the front lower arm of the front suspension as they were touching the steering gaiter. He was not personally that worried but said others are fussy about anything rubbing on the gaiter so although he didn't mark it on the form, recommended I sort some thing out like a thinner gaiter for my retest in case I get someone else who then picks up on it. I've just ordered some 10.9 M10 button head bolts so that will solve that problem. Unfortunately there's not enough room for a plastic cap or I'd just do that.

Hopefully I can get things sorted and a retest done in the next month or so. Trouble is with the registration I may still miss the best of the summer anyway.

cheers
Ian

As if failing my IVA wasn't annoying enough, a kind lorry driver backed over my tow car this evening when he missed his turning and obviously didn't believe there could possibly be anything behind him before slapping it in reverse and launching himself backwards.



It looks bad but I reckon I can buy it back from the insurance company (they've already said it's too old to bother fixing) and get it going again for the price of a second hand bonnet of no fixed colour and some brackets. Could do with putting my car fixing effort in other places at the moment though

Hi Ian
Sorry to see this.( I'm on hols in Canada)
If it's any consolation I bought a 330Ci CAT D insurance write off just like yours and bought a bonnet and slam panel (definitely advise you get one too) for £75 off eBay in the right colour and now have it back on the road.
The bonnets for the Touring and Saloon are the same but Coupe and Cabrio are not. Definitely hang on to it.
As a guide to insurance valuation to buy back They make between £700 - £1000 at auction
Have a look at Copart.co.uk

Good luck with your IVA retest - you seem to be making good progress with the annoying mods requested .

Mike

The insurance company have offered me 1500 for the car and 300 to buy back so 1200 if I keep it. It owes me too much not to buy back as I've spent thousands over the last 4 years just on parts let alone the hours I've put in. It's got all new suspension (everything, not just springs & dampers), brakes, cooling system. Once it had finished its towing duties after the Marlin's on the road, I was thinking of putting it up for sale anyway, but hoping to get more like 2K. Even that would have been gutting but the market is not good at the moment.

My other option is to just buy a temporary alternative E46, fit the tow bar and then part this one out, either for sale or my own parts bin. I'll invest nothing in the replacement other than to ensure it will make the trips it needs to and sell it straight on.

I've been quoted just under £260 for the parts I need to put the car back together (pair of headlamps, slam panel & ducting, bonnet, bumper reinforcement bar) and there's bound to be a few other bits n bobs.

Just got back from the DVSA centre in Cardiff with a Pass.

There were a few bits that were still touch and go. I had a different examiner this time, older guy, and he looked at some of the original failure points and thought they were a bit petty and wouldn't have worried him. He did however start picking up on other stuff he didn't like but as it was a retest said it was unfair to pull me up on. One thing was the angle of the rear light clusters pointing up at 45 degrees rather than rearwards.

- near side mirror was still right on the limit of not giving the correct angle but he was happy to accept with a bit of head movement. He then checked the other mirrors and said he could see the necessary view in the rear view so didn't understand why the other examiner couldn't.

- Rear brakes - still not brilliant but my swap with the discs, calipers and pads from my daily driver was enough for me to hit the 62% efficiency mark.

- Rear trailing arms - not that impressed with the two layers of heat shrink over the exposed areas but as I'd done what the other guy asked, accepted.

- side repeaters - he didn't like where I'd put them as they were partly obscured by the edging strip on the wheel arch but they were visible so he couldn't fail it. Recommended putting them on the top side of the front wing instead as then there could be no doubt (I'm not drilling any more holes)

The other major issue of the tie rods catching the wheels was now fine but he couldn't understand why the previous examiner had used that as a reason not to do the self centring test. His opinion was that you just needed to 1/4 turn the steering wheel and see if it centred, not put it on full lock as people tend to think as most production cars won't centre from that position. Anyway, it passed that test fine.


So, now I just need to figure out how to navigate the mine field that is registration.

Great News! Hopefully you can get the car registered quicker than we managed it. It took 9 weeks! Caught the DVLA just as it all had to go to Swansea, no local office could be used, as it had been shut down! Hopefully they've got more efficient at it!
Once again, great job, and great to hear another Sportster will soon be hitting the road!

Rob

Well, it seems the first registration hurdle is getting the forms in the first place. You can download the V627/1 build declaration but not the V55/5 registration which seems bizarre. I'm assuming V55/5 is the right one and not V55/4 but the terminology "Kit converted vehicle" which is what the Marlin qualifies as is not used for either. V55/5 covers rebuilt vehicles so gut instinct is that's the right one.

You have to send the registration fee of £55 (fair enough) but also the tax for the period you want cover. Until the car is registered and I have the V5C how do I know what the tax bill is? I can guess and assume it's pre-2001 rules, but that's an assumption. I may have to pay the 2015 tax band for the emissions bracket for all I know (hope not).

The V627/1 asks for receipts for parts so I can just send the same set I used on the IVA form but they also want "build plans". BUILD PLANS! If I'd had some of those it may not have taken me 4+ years to finish the thing. Do they assume everyone's built a westfield/airfix style kit? I think that may end up an "N/A" unless anyone has some better advice.

DVLA are not there to make it easy!
V55/5 is correct
Pre 2001 will be correct too.
Send them a link to your Flickr account too, with a typical phot scanned and copied

Congratulations and a big well done for getting your IVA pass.
Those guys at Cardiff certainly didn't give you an easy ride but you can be satisfied you've built a car that has passed the toughest inspection.

When applying for your registration don't forget that your dealing with civil servants and not necessarily kit car fanatics. A small picture story of the key build stages (donor car, donor engine removal, bare chassis, rolling chassis, engine installed, etc etc) should make it easy for them to understand what you have built.) I made up a little word document with a short description under each picture. A link to your Flickr account adds further evidence but you shouldn't expect them to have to wade through your thousands of photo's.
I also included a checklist of all the documents, forms, etc I included in the application.
Hopefully it will get done quickly to give you a few weeks of summer fun

Well done, good luck with the registration.

I did a set of photos and description in a word doc for the IVA application so should be able to just reuse that. Can't do anything until the forms arrive so using the time to finish off some stuff I couldn't do prior to the test such as fitting my aero screens, swapping the e36 brakes back on, fitting some even wider spacers on the back wheels and scratching my head wondering where all the nasty bits of rubber trim that were adorning the car a few days ago could possibly have disappeared to

Hi Ian
I've just caught up with this. Many congratulations. A job well done and thoroughly worth an IVA pass.
And now the school holidays are almost over, no doubt the sun will shine and you'll be able to get out there and enjoy it.
Great news. Make the most of it for a couple of months before the summer ends.

Nigel

Well done!

Now comes the ludicrous situation of having to trailer the car to the DVLA, after being allowed to drive it all the way and back to the IVA test.