Big Jim

Check how you've got the headlights wired, the diagram is on our website under "build tips"

You can get the Cobra clubman seats in, but you will need to be brutal to get the one in the passenger side, as the passenger side of the car is considerably narrower than the divers side. I once had a pair in my mark 3, the passenger one went in with "selective" use of a garden spade as a lever!! I have also tried the "classic" seats that you can buy at the shows, yes they go in very easily, but are useless at holding you when you get "enthusiastic" on corners, in fact they only lasted 1 month, then they were removed. I have these in now, and they are brilliant! Better quality cloth, and the seat shell was actually made to fit the car, prior to them being covered. They are NOT a straight forward bolt in job though, they're designed for rally cars, with side mountings, so I specified just what I wanted to the manufacturer (who is local'ish to me) and we modified things during their manufacture. The first picture is the Motormove seats that I have now and am very happy with, the second photo are the Cobra type (corbaeu) seats fitted previously, you can see how they are jammed in against the cockpit sides

Custom Chrome exhausts have been going for a long time, I used to have one on my car. They are OK for a Pinto, but wasn't up to it on the Vauxhall engine. The other downsides to them are; They are an absolute *bleep* to repack! you have to cut up your packing into 1" wide strips then push it in and tamp it down with a bar or something. Also once you've got a few miles under the belt, you'll find that the roadwheels throwing up road grime etc. will ruin the chrome on the front end of it. As has already been said, the clamping bit is a joke!, it a couple of nuts welded to the pipe itself and they either rip off or just distort the pipe part where it's supposed to clamp. On a score of 1 - 10, they get a 6 in my book. There are lots of better ones out there.

One of the things you must check is the "Date of manufacture" this is usually the doner's birthday, but if you'rs was built and put through SVA, it'll be it's birthday. Then go and look at the "MOT emissions for kitcars" page on our website, this tells you just what you car has to perform at with regards to smoke emissions, the majority of MOT testers who are not used to testing kitcars, forget about this page in their manual, so print it off and take it with you.

Go check it out on our NW website.

I picked up an R reg 2ltr mondeo auto in january with 3 months Tax & test on it for £350, it's going for MOT again tomorrow, and i'm not expecting it to fail. Son in law's just picked up a P reg 2ltr Honda Auto accord, OK it's got a few minor jobs to do for MOT, but no more than a couple of £100 at most, he got it for £200 and it's mint inside & out. There are some cheap motors out there if you look, but with your track record Tim, my money says you'll buy a dog!!

Nope! Ians correct!! I have 2 vehicles who's tax is up at the end of the month, and both their reminders arrived in one envelope as well!! This is simply unheard of!! A government body & common sense?? the statements don't go together!! (& I should know!)

undo the handbrake cable from the actuator, this could then give you enough clearance, especially if the cable has previously been adjusted incorrectly

Yep! you're mad! I hope you've told her not to take her coat off.................................

Yeh! but you probably had your "Shopping clothes" on.

Personally, I think you're getting wound up over nothing. you won't use maximum BHP at all unless you're on the track, and the slight differences you mention about performance can come from day to day, morning to afternoon. If you want to lower the carb from the bonnet and you have a friendly and competant machine shop, remove the carb from the manifold, remove the manifold from the car, then get the fitting surface where the carb sits skimmed as far as it will allow you. you can also skim a little off the fitting face to the engine at a slight angle so the manifold will "lean" downwards a couple of degrees. you can't take much off, just a couple of degrees, but it will make a difference in lowering the carb. The other thing is looking to see if you can do anything with the engine mountings, can they be fastened from underneath, instead of being on top?

I started at 15 with a Lambretta scooter, it threw me off for no apparent reason so got sold straight away! Honda 50 sports. Mother wouldn't let me have anything bigger, hated bikes!) BSA 250cc C15, Never actually rode this one, got knocked off the honda the day before I was supposed to do the swap at the dealers. ........ along came a spell of 3 wheer car ownership, BMW Isetta, and Bond mincar........... BSA 250cc Starfire. Blew up 2 engines in that! (claimed under g/tee) BSA 600cc M21 sidecar outfit. Generally abused that, knackered up 3 sidecar chassis with "excessive" cornering forces. Plus rolling it, bike over car. BSA 500cc DBD34 Goldstar Cafe racer. THE bike of the era. (some good stories attached to that bike!) Triumph 650cc sidecar outfit. Had to go when the Mrs couldn't fit on the pillion due to the bulge in her belly, she wouldn't ride in the sidecar. ............... a few years of car only ownership followed.................. Kawasaki 250 trail bike. For playing on and going to work. (Cart-wheeled that down a few hills!) Yamaha 600cc shaft drive, 4cyl. Excellent bike. Yamaha 250cc twinshock trails bike. i found out that I can only balance on 2 wheels if I'm moving forwards at 5mph at least! Dougie Lampkin I'm not! Yamaha FJ1100cc. The ultimate Sports tourer of the day, smashing bike, until I managed to plant it half way through a mini (Didn't see you type driver!) ......................though my biking years were over, nearly ALL my years in fact.............................. Honda 50ccDAX Monkey bike for transport around the race tracks when marshaling. (This still in the Garage) BSA M20 500cc, 1942 WW2 bike. (In my garage, will be going to Normandy again this year with it)

Right, this is something that I have no idea about, being the wrong side of a lot of years, so am asking the young wipper-snappers amongst you for some advice. A colleagues son turns 17 next month, as is pastering for a car, the insurance costs quoted are considerable for the normal "Eurobox" vehicle, and I wonder if it would be cheaper to get a small kitcar such as thw Banham etc. I believe that there is just one insurance company that will take on youngsters, can anyone enlighten me who and their findings please?

Go and look at the NW website.

If you're going to mount it in the boot, make sure that you use larger pos battery cable, I would suggest 25mm², as there will be an increased power loss over the increased distance. obviously the earth can go straight to the chassis in the boot. As an aside, if you're looking for a decent clamp to hold the battery, get one from a mondeo. or try a battery box made for caravans.

After reading this post, I can't disagree with the findings that old timbo qoutes, they are most likely true, I would however like to point out something. Everyone gets blinkered to MAX BHP the engine puts out, and likes to quote the figure like a badge. WHY? Unless you're screwing the guts out of the engine in every gear, you're never going to use that MAXIMUM BHP. The only time this would be required is on the track, not on the queens highway each day. The vast majority of Hoodies will change up to the next gear at approx 5000rpm, and cruise around 3½ to 4K rpm, they'll never see the upper reaches of the engine RPM chart. This means that a loss of 3BHP at maximum is neither here nor there, and I know what I'd sooner have, and it's not a bloody great hole in the bonnet!

Yes either ITG or pipercross (the ITG is the better one) Pancake filters are only fit for catching the splashes from your brew!

Pete, when you saw them, leave the top portion of the metal inside as a "D" this the gives you the bottom portion as a "U" cut approx 3/8" or slighty more, off the top of each leg, this will allow the door to fold.

Actually Polo one you can use the flap for venting to either screen or floor. a couple of instalations on the NW Website

The pivot is basically a 1" tube with a nylon bush in either side, no lubrication so they wear quickly.

Ok, front springs, you can either change springs to 130lbs if wishbones are still standard, but get some better shockers, throw the Zimmerframes as far away as possible before they put you through a hedge! I have spax units, sorry, they've been on that long, I've no idea the part numbers etc. when you fit the new shockers, beef up the bottom mounting point. If you don't want to change springs, you can stay with the standard RH ones (180lbs) but you then need to relocate the top pivot point of the shocker about 1½" closer to the main pivot point of the wishbone (mine is done this way) The main pivot point is an engineers nightmare! take it all apart, drill the wishbone in the middle and fit a grease nipple. The shaft is something like a long stud, When fitted, this has a tendancy to turn inside the chassis mountings, instead of the wishbone turning on the shaft. so you nead to "fix" it to stop it turning, a few methods have been used, in the photo, that rear boss is threaded, and the nut is therefor a locknut. The other main problem is the chassis itself where the pivot shaft is held, it isn't up to the job, and within a few years will wear and/or crack, you need to beef up the mountings. I added plates with bosses on, and had new pivot shafts made. It's better explaining when you see it. I didn't have a tig welder available at the time, so they got pop rivited on with big rivits and plenty of them. you can see the rear outer one with the locknut, and the inside front plate, this is instead of the RH washers, there is also a plate with a 5mm boss on the outside of the front mounting to give support. They've been like this now for about 8 years and 50 k miles.

Get a caravan and camping booklet from your local newsagent, there are millions of "5 van" sites around the country (within a few miles of my home I know of at least 4) They are usually farms with a small area of land authorized to allow up to 5 units "camping" for a few shillings you can then make your decision if it;s a motorhome, or B&B

You're entitled to your opinion Robert, as is everyone, but if you'll go back to my original add-post, you'll that I said;...................... *** ****Now for all those people that have ever had twin 40's on a Pinto, the ones that seem to run well I can count on one hand, leaving room for me to add your's on also Bob. You only need to look on e-bay to see how many sets of *Weber 40's complete with pinto manifold* there are, people soon find out that they're crap on a Pinto, and want to get rid ASAP!

I agree whol-heartedly with Comadis.

Shouldn't have fit them in the first place! I do keep on saying it! (not as much now-a-days, but it's still true) there are VERY FEW pinto's out there that run anthing like correctly on twin 40's, and all that do guzzle fuel like it's going out of fashion. Put either a 32/36, or a 38 DGAS, or even bike carbs, but not twin 40's