Sva At Northam (southampton)

[Guest Vic & Wendy]

Hi Guys (and Ladies)

 

 

Well, my SVA date is getting ever near (8:00 am 3rd October at Northam) and I’m more nervous about this than some of the presentation I’ve done in the past.

 

Firstly, I would like to thank Matt and his team of moderators for all the hard work they put into the running of this site. The Quality is absolutely superb and one which we can all say we are proud to be a member of. It would be unfair (even unwise) to forget to mention Tim and Sue for all their hard work that they put into making this an exceptional club.

 

Now to the matter in hand, I would like to hear from anyone that has either Passed or Failed there SVA at Northam ( Southampton) recently. I would like to know if there are any areas in particular that the men in white coats home in on (after all attention to detail is what they are paid for).

 

One last item, a BIG THANK YOU to all those members that have posted topics in the construction section of this website, to the individuals who have their own websites and that allow novices like me to share in their wealth of knowledge, because without this support things could have been so much more difficult.

 

Roll on Tuesday

 

 

Best wishes

 

Vic and Wendy

[Mat-Moo]

Not that is helps much, but thanks for the comments, and good luck

[Guest Ian & Carole]

Vic & Wendy

 

We know just how you are feeling as do all SVA ready builders.

 

Having been there and done it trust me it is NOT as bad as you fear.

 

All the best for the BIG DAY

 

Get your "to do" list and your done!

 

Ian & Carole

[Snapperpaul]

I have feared the SVA for years until Gingerfix explained to me that not that many pass first time, but this was no big deal as you would then get a list of things to deal with and plenty of time to do them. If you have taken the best advise of people that have got through then you should be in a very strong position.

Best of luck.

[Guest Vic & Wendy]

Hi Ian, Carol and Paul ... and Matt

 

Thanks for the kind words, a short to do list will do me just fine.

 

Done my first two miles in the beast yesterday to get the camber and tracking done, in that short distance the smile was from ear to ear. God knows what it will be like when i finally get it passed the test.

 

P. S Ian and Carol, how's that dog of yours the last time i saw him, it was trying to mount Big Lee (i think, glowing bright red from the sun) at Newark.

 

 

Regards

 

Vic and Wendy

[enforcer]

Barney

 

If you search out my SVA thread you'll find a few things that my Inspector wanted fixing.

 

By the way, my brother-in-law is building a 2B in Gosport. Well I say that, he bought his before I got mine in the summer of 2003, built it up to the rolling chassis stage, and since then it has been buried in his garage slowly rusting away (mild steel chassis, and only managed a couple of coats of primer).

 

He's a Naval Officer and currently overseas on a tour of duty - when he gets back you'll be registered and on the road. You'll have to get round there and give him a kick up the backside. (Well actually he is about 6'6'' and 20 stone. Maybe some words of encouragement would be more appropriate!)

 

Rich

[Guest cryoman]

Hi, i passed there 7 weeks ago. The inspector who i had (Andy) failed the LW i believe checks everything and i found him fair but thorough. I failed first time. Mainly radius edges and lock washers, put lock washers or Locktite on everything. Make sure all steering and brake componants have a visable lock mechanism.

 

Good luck.

 

Nige

[Guest Vic & Wendy]

Hi Rich and Nige, thanks guy's, I think I've used nylocs on most things but you know what it's like, there's always the one that got away. Just like the front brake pad retaining clips, I've been meaning to buy them for weeks but only remebered this morning.Went into Halfrauds and the guy on the parts desk say's that these are being made obsolete !!

 

Rich, when brother-in-law returns from active duty, we would only be too please to go and offer some words of encouragement, after what he's been through he could do with a good challange .......

 

Once again all many thanks for your support

 

Vic & Wendy

[Guest Bob's Babe]

Good luck guys,

thanks for the kind words....what I do is so much easier than building a car, get your documents, drive and enjoy!!

 

SUE

[Guest flightless]

I passed there about 3 years ago and i agree they are tough, and after some of the stories i think they maybe tougher than others.

 

In my case he was tough on radiuses, locking nuts (on mine the orginal sierra didn't have locking nuts on the brake master cylinder - you coudl see they hadn't been moved in years - but he failed me on it) the lower steering joint also needed captivating. the only other major part was the lower seat belt bounts he wanted a large square plate as well as the rear seat mounts (i had used a 1" angle across the width of the car but he said that wasn't enough) so i fitted a 12" x 6 " x 5mm plate underneath and bolted it though.

 

I had also not fitted a number plate on the first failure, so i fitted one for the second test and he failed me on the number plat bracket not having a radius (although if i had a number plate the bracket woud not be contactable he still failed me because there wasn't a number plate to cover it up

 

Over all most of the failure points were silly mistakes of mine and of the rest i would say that he was fair (although some did feel a little petty)but i took the attitude to keep my mouth shut and fix what he failed and say thank you when i got my MAC.

 

If i had one suggestion it's take a friend and a boot full of spare parts/nut covers etc - he will let you fix faults if you can while you are their (as long as that doesn't cause another part to need to be retested - eg brake lines) - it also gives you someone to talk to while you wait for all the imported cars to be seen...

 

Best of luck - hope for a sunny day

 

Gareth

[Graham B]

Vic,

Well done. Glad you made it.

 

The Soton centre advises VOSA , so everything is to the book. As a previous response -- thorough but fair. Not open to interpretation though.

 

Its not a bad day if the weather is good. Expect several hours - its not wa 2-3 hour in and out as at other centres. I got there for 8 and left at 16:45 - with a fail list , only 5 or 6 bits I could not fix on site.. It was great fun driving to the centre for the second check ( they only check the bits they failed , not everything again!)..

 

Dont panic...

 

Best Wishes

Graham

[Guest Vic & Wendy]

Hi people thanks for your kind words and support,

 

Well the big day came and the 14 mile drive over to Northam went very well, but unfortunately it went down hill from there. Our tester for the day was Andy, nice chap very thorough 7 (seven) hours later came out with a fail. But reasonably happy.

 

 

1. Edging required for leading edge of cycle wing bracket.

2. Need protect fuel from rubbing against chassis.

3. Original Sierra fuel pipe had Gas printed on it so wanted this piece 4" long changed to match the rest.

4. Fog lamp need adjusting not quite 90o plus sharp edge underneath.

5. Wanted washer jets edges rounded off

6. Hinges on boot lid required edges rounded off

7. Boot lid locks not radiused to 2mm

8. I only had edging on three of the sides on the steering column support yoke.

9. Dashboard edging deemed not to be suitably fixed

10. Instrument facia was .5mm above tadpol edging so requires champhering.

( all the above will take approx 3 hours to fix )

 

11. Hand brake support bracket need fixing to tunnel side to excess movement.

12. Hand brake yoke just catches head of a screw on underside of car.

13. Angle iron cross member which not attached to chassis ( my mis-understanding of the build video so i should be shot for that mistake)

( the above 3 items should take about 4 hours to sort )

 

Now for the BIG one, the bloody (pardon the french) exhaust was 109dB. Andy and another guy were some what surprised at this ( as i was ). Both Andy and other chap said that they have tested a number of Hoods but not with this type of exhaust. At about 3600 rpm there was a strange tone to the exhaust note. So Andy suggested i removed the heat shield which i did and it retested at 105dB ( how strange is that ). To add insult to injury i was asked to remove the baffle because he couldn't get the emissions probe into the exhaust.

 

Andy seemed to think that the silencer part of the exhaust system was too small, the standard exhaust supplied with the 2B kit has 2 down pipes from the original Sierra manifold into to a silencer which is approx 14" long and has a dia of approx. 6" and has a single tail pipe. I thought i read somewhere that this item was SVA complient !! ( I'm running a standard 2litre pinto )

 

 

Anyway, apart from the exhaust not too bad a to do list ...... that's my Sunday sorted out then.

 

Vic & Wendy

[Guest cryoman]

Hi B.R. that seems a relitively straightforward fix list. The exhaust MMMMMMMMMmmmmm. One solution is to make a ball out of 1.5mm mesh and stuff it really tightly full of wire wool. When you arrive at sva (Well out side Dowding and Mills is a good place) ram it up your Tail pipe. This worked for me.Went from 104 to 98Db. Good luck on the retest.

[Guest john]

Hi Barney,

You should be quite pleased with that result, most of the technical stuff like brakes, emissions, speedo, has passed, just the exhaust to cure ( it seems a lot of 2litres fail with the rh silencer, so you are not alone )

The rest is cosmetic and easier to put right.

 

Good luck on the retest and look forward to you being on the road,........with a permanent grin !!

[eddieH]

Vic and Wendy,

 

sorry to hear that it didn't pass but it's good that the list of things to do is pretty short. As for the exhaust, is it possible that RH didn't put any silencer wadding in it? I was suprised by how loud our exhaust was even with a 1.6l engine. At the test it only registered 95 dB so 105 must be absolutely deafening! Anyway, I'm sure you'll be on the road in no time. Best wishes,

 

Edward