Joel

I think I heard in the news recently that Stoneleigh/NAC had been bought out, or at least a new lease given, so I wondered if it would affect the show or prices - looks to be the same as last year though

How long does it usually take from posting an IVA application until you hear back about a date, and is there a number you can call to check progress? I'm starting to get a tad concerned that my application is lost in the system.

I used them as side indicators on my car, but I couldn't guarantee they'd meet IVA field of view requirements.

More...... 23 – Pinto cam cover. Needs repainting. No oil cap - £5.00 SOLD 24 – Pinto standard inlet manifold for carbs - £5.00 25 – Pinto mechanical fuel pump. Used for one summer (approx 500 miles). Excellent condition - £5.00 SOLD 26 – Pinto cam. As standard from 2.0ltr carb pinto. Unknown mileage, looks ok - £FREE SOLD 27 – Robin Hood supplied electric fan - £3.00 SOLD 28 – Pinto Head. From standard 2.0ltr carb pinto. Fully assembled cam/valves/oil spray bar, etc. I changed the valve stem oil seals and the main cam oil seal when I built my car back in 2002, and this head did about 4500 miles there after before I swapped it for an injection head. It needs a good clean externally but it should be good to go otherwise. Cam pulley included. A few exhaust studs need replacing. Cam cover available (item 23 above) - £15 COLLECTION ONLY PROVISIONALLY SOLD I also have boxes of odd carburettor bits (mostly standard weber 2V stuff), a set of Weber 45's and a Bonito Kit car for sale. PM me for details. A bit more..... 29 - Standard RH grille for nose cone - £2.00 30 - Length of dark green vinyl, deep grain leather effect, approx 7' x 4' - £4.00

Having a bit of a garage clear out/tidy - a few bits and pieces that might be of interest to someone. All items should be considered used unless otherwise stated. All prices exclude postage. PM me for more info/photos on any item. 01 – Bonnet Stay, Latching - manual release, 500mm open / 350mm closed. As new, never used. (Europa #BMRCS) - £3.00 02 – 110mm polished stainless steel piano hinge. Undrilled. For centre hinged bonnets, etc. As new, never used - £8.00 03 – Ecotek CB-26P combustion enhancement valve - £20.00 04 – LED indicators, clear lens, 7 LED's, 38mm x 60mm x14mm tall. (CBS #SR1) - £4.00 (pair) 05 – Screen wash jets, anodised aluminium. Fan spray pattern. Very nice - £4.00 (pair) SOLD 06 – Set of 6 dash lights, black plastic 25mm od, 15mm hole. 2x green (indicator), 1x blue (main beam), oil, battery, brakes - £10.00 (set of 6)SOLD 07 – Robin Hood supplied indicators, 3x complete, 1x lens only - £1.00 (set of 4) SOLD 08 – NACA Duct, black ABS. As new, never used. (CBS #NACA 1B) - £3.00 09 – Robin Hood supplied nose cone indicators (pair) - £2.00 (pair) 10 – Filter King adjustable Fuel Pressure regulator with 67mm clear bowl. Only used for 1 summer (approx 500 miles), filter can be replaced. (Europa #FPR004) - £20.00 SOLD 11 – Side Entry demister vents (set of 4). Black ABS. Chopped about a bit but still usable. (Europa #556) - £4.00 (set of 4) SOLD 12 – Robin Hood supplied windscreen pillars (pair), chromed. Riddled with prototype holes but might be useful to someone - £FREE 13 – Standard Pinto Cam pulley - £2.00 14 – Halfords 850mm drive belt (x2). As new, never used - £2.00 each 15 – OMP 2-tone leather steering wheel. 340mm diameter. Boss to fit Saab 900 but could be adapted to suit. Spare horn push. Very nice - £30.00 16 – Extended dummy strut abandoned experiment. Needs welding and cutting to size - £3.00 (pair) PROVISIONALLY SOLD 17 – Robin Hood supplied top wishbones and dummy struts for 2B. Bushes fitted. Need repainting. £10.00 (pair) PROVISIONALLY SOLD 18 – Robin Hood supplied sealed beam headlamps. I think I have sub-looms for them too - £5.00 (pair) PROVISIONALLY SOLD 19 – 2.5” Threaded aluminium collar, weld-in for fuel caps. (Europa #COLA25) - £1.50 20 – Caterham style wing mirror. Universal fitting - £2.00 21 – Zeemeride shocks to fit wishbone 2B (front). Bushes are knackered - £FREE (pair) PROVISIONALLY SOLD 22 – Halfords HIL622 HT lead set (5 leads). I think this is for a Sierra DOHC. Bought the wrong set and never took them back. As new, never used - £8.00

I had a renewal quote letter from Flux this morning, which stated quite clearly that my policy would not automatically renew, so perhpas they've had a change of policy??

Any idea how that will affect us? Is it just a case of going elsewhere or will there be other means to get tested locally?

It's definitely £450 for the IVA test then is it chaps??? I assumed we were voluntary (as opposed to statutory), meaning we had to stump up the VAT too! If not, that's actually good news (in a sickening, soul destroying kind of way).

Can anyone confirm where exactly the VIN needs to be stamped for the IVA test? The IVA manual says "on the right hand side of the vehicle" but the IVA guidance notes say "on the left hand side (as viewed from the driver's seat)" Cheers.

That's about what I was thinking - 1300kg vehicle weight + 4x70kg passenger weight + 4x30kg luggage weight = 1700kg

Would anyone like to hazard a guess at the weight of my wedding car kit? I need the design weights for the IVA application, and I've had no joy contacting the kit manufacturer - no reply to emails, phone number not in use! It uses Ford Sierra donor bits (2.0ltr pinto), exactly the same as a Robin Hood. The chassis is quite a beefy ladder frame affair, with a one piece GRP body bolted on top. Would it be heavier than the Sierra do you think? Any help / guesses greatly appreciated. Axle 1: Axle 2: Gross:

As per the previous post - If you're using the standard sealed-beam units that come with the kit, there should be a clear section near the connector pins, where your side light shines through. You can buy a sub-loom with side light provision for about £8, or the Robin Hood way was to wire in the bulb and just leave it dangling in roughly the right place. My link

Don't go too crazy chopping out the old loom, I don't know what spec car you've got but you may need sections of the engine sub-loom and the odd relay, so try to keep it as intact as possible. I've fitted three premier looms, and I know absoloutely nothing about wiring so you should be fine.

I don't know if this was a recent one or a repeat but did anyone else see a grumpy Jason Plato tearing shreds out of the Westfield Sport Turbo on Fifth Gear the other day? Wrong engine choice, poor build quality, over-priced, etc, etc.... Mixed feelings really. On the one hand Westfield's reputation can be a bit untouchable from within the kit car scene, so it's strangely refreshing to hear some constructive criticism (although this was mostly ranting), but the broader issue of kit-car bashing in the mainstream press always rankles a bit, so I hope it does Westfield no long term harm.

2B for sale on eBay - the actual sale is nowt to do with me, but I built the car so thought I'd give it a mention... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Robin-Hood-Project-2B-Kit-Car-Seven-Style-/110618104745?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item19c15a53a9 It's a 2002 Robin Hood 2B Mild Steel chassis Stainless panels British Racing Green GRP Wishbones 40ltr fuel tank Wide arch option 2.0Ltr Pinto This is a very nice example, clean, straight, nicely detailed. SVA passed and correctly registered. Dry stored since completion last year. Very low mileage (probably less than 500 miles since SVA). Just needs wiper motor. The chassis was etch primed and finished in 2k black. All donor parts were cleaned up, repainted and refurbished where necessary. The engine was comprehensively refurbished and finished nicely in yellow enamel. 2.0Ltr pinto running on ESCII and Weber 2V carb, 205 block, unleaded head from injection pinto. Set-up and tuned professionally by main-dealer Ford garage. Very nicely finished interior. Fully carpeted with black vinyl dash/tunnel top and yellow piping detail. Chrome gear lever and handbrake surrounds with black/yellow gaiters. Momo air-leather gear knob. Intatrim Odyssey seats in black with yellow detail. Drivers seat on runners. 4-point Sabelt Harnesses. Full set of ETB white-faced instruments. 2-speed heater. Large carpetted boot. Lockable boot lid finished in black vinyl with yellow piping. Tiger Racing Chrome wing mirrors. Chromed windscreen pillars. Pepperpot alloys. Forward tilting bonnet with fixed scuttle. Premier wiring systems loom, with multiplug connectors used throughout for quick disconnection of dash, etc. Go on, you know you want to.

Good weather

There's a recent topic on here somewhere called "visit to GBS" or something like that, which you'd probably find interesting reading. Opinion toward the latest batch of Zero's seems to be overwhelmingly positive.

Do you not need a fuel gauge?

A few ideas... If you have sufficient ground clearance, could you drop the floor under the seat by an inch or so? You'd have to make up a subframe of some description, but I'm sure it could be done? If you went the fibreglass seat route, I think you can get tailored seat covers for them, with all the padding you want. You could pop the cover on for when you're driving, and whip it off when your son wants a go?

I've just discovered (very late in the day with the car 99.9% complete and IVA forms in the post), that even with the fuel tank filled to the brim, the fuel gauge is registering less than half a tank! I think it is working properly, just the pivot arm/float arangement needs ajusting to give it a full sweep. Unfortunately this is completely impossible to do without taking the whole body off!! (Model A replica) Now, (bare with me here) If I pull the feed wire off the sender, the gauge reading shoots up to full, so if I'm not mistaken it's the voltage level back to earth that gives you your gauge reading??? i.e. no return to earth = full, and full return to earth = empty?? So, would it be possible to put a resistor or something in the line to artificially affect the reading?

My twopenneth... Anything can be done with enough time, money and skill, but as Rich says it's easiest to build a kit as it was intended in the first place. Having said that, if I had my time again I would have built my first kit as standard for the experience, then built a second kit how I actually wanted it, rather than trying to upgrade the original. For me the car ends up with too many battle scars and ultimately compromised when you start chopping and changing from the original build spec. So a happy medium for you might be to look at other kit manufacturers (ducks for cover ), specifically those that use BMW donors, as you get a vast range of specs to chose from. Even a basic 1800cc 3-series gives you more power, better brakes, etc than a Sierra, for the same kind of donor money. And you can go right up to M3 spec if you want

Well I disconnected the permanent feed to the odometer, and that seems to have solved that problem. The digital display now shows with the engine running, albeit not with the ignition off but that's no great shakes. The run-on problem - I temporarily earthed the alternator casing to the chassis with a jump lead, and the engine now stops instantly when the ignition is turned off, but the charge light on the dash now stays on with the engine running. Does this mean the alternator is screwed or am I doing something silly?

The instructions say the white/black input wire is for various types of sender, and either way the speedo works with either input wire connected, and I'm not sure that's related to the vanishing odometer issue? The run-on problem is just as if the ignition is still on.

Afternoon all. I've got a strange problem with the speedo on the Badsworth. When the engine's running, the digital odometer dissapears!! When the engine's not running, it appears again. I've absoloutely no idea what's going on, and I can't imagine Mr IVA/MOT will be too impressed with the mileage permanently stuck on zero, so any ideas greatly appreciated. Otherwise the speedo itself appears to be working fine. It's a Green Gauges digital speedo using a megnetic reed switch. Wired as follows: Green > Live Feed Black > Earth Brown/Grey > LCD odometer (for permanent display with ignition off) Red/White > Illumination *White/Black > Input from speedo sensor (Magnetic reed switch) *Red/Blue > Input from speedo sensor (Magnetic proximity switch) The wire for the LCD odometer is getting a constant + with or without the engine on, so there doesn't appear to be any problems with it dropping power. *On a slightly different note, there's 2 input options depending on what type of sensor you have, but it's a bit confusing as a magnetic reed switch and a magnetic proximity switch are effectively the same thing aren't they? Either way, it works whichever wire you choose, but I guess I should stick to using the white/black wire? And on another slightly different note, there's a problem with the engine running-on after you switch off the ignition, but I don't know if the problems are in any way related? Cheers

Ah-haa, just what I was looking for. Thanks for that.