Since the MoT I've drained the water and petrol in order to move the bottom hose and modify the fuel pump. This will allow the steering rack to be put back against the chassis and hopefully cure the steering roughness. The wheel turns smoothly as does the rack but when connected they suffer a bit.

The exhaust manifolds have been removed to find that the bolts are too long so some shorter ones or some washers will be going on soon. This may have been the cause of the exhaust leak and rattle.

The rear lower wishbones need tightening up but IO don't have a socket to fit so I now have some deep sockets on order.

No new pictures, unless the inside of a side pipe excites anyone.

It's passed the MoT ;-)

Two new fans fitted, they cut in at about 75 deg C which is probably a bit early, but at least no blown fuses and no overheating.

MoT on Friday, so did some more testing today. The speedo wasn't working, the fans don't kick in when it gets hot and there's a rattle near the drivers seat.

It turns out that the fans are blowing fuses (30A fuses in fact) so I've decided to replace them - hopefully before Friday.

Old picture of the fans by the way.

Speedo has to reach 20mph before it starts to work apparently which I've not done yet.

Pretty much ready for an MoT and the SVA.

Got to adjust the headlights and maybe polish it ;-)

Just been tinkering today. Front indicators are on and seem to be at the correct level. Bonnet is on and closes after a bit of adjustment to the curved bracket. Windscreen wipers were fitted and promptly moved the wrong way!! damaging the paint work. I had to remove the wiper drive and reposition the parking tag. Whilst doing that I lent on the exhaust a bit too much and broke a rivnut, I'll have to find something a bit more substantial. Wipers now move the right way ;-)

The rear fog light is too low so I bought a smaller one which is actually bigger than the current one!

I picked up an air wrench in a sale and now only need the air pipe to fully test the air compressor that I bought at an autojumble last weekend.

Here we go ;-)

Only a couple of parts to fit and a bit of tinkering and we should be able to drive it out of the garage.

Phew! Oil leak looks like a loose oil pressure gauge pipe ;-)

We now have one door on - so only one to go ;-)

Doors need to be fitted and adjusted then the interior trim added.

Not much left to do now before the 10th September at Gillingham.



Oh and we have an oil leak ;-(

SVA - 10th September 2008 Gulp!

Both side pipes are on, just completing the foot well carpets, should soon be mobile ;-)

Oh, and Thomas has ordered one of these.


Anyone got a pre '89 Sierra? No really.

Quite a lot going on recently, carpets finished and seats in. That means the dashboard could be finished if only the replacement white voltmeter would turn up!

If I ever do another car it will not have carpets, they have been a nightmare.



Anyway, at last I've moved onto the side pipes, This required a 5" square hole in the body with no way of measuring it from the outside. Ah well they'll just have to be a bit bigger ;-)

The four way side pipes 'push' onto four separate down pipes from the engine - yeah right !! Not only do the four pipes not line up, they do NOT push together. The offside pipes eventually went in with a bit of encouragement from a very big hammer. The nearside didn't want to know so we'll go into battle with them again tomorrow LoL.

Whilst all this has been going I applied for SVA and had to prove I was an amateur builder. Application is made to VOSA an agency of the department of transport and they tell you amateur build status has to be proven to the satisfaction of the secretary of state for transport - that must be some big wig in the government ;-( Scary!!

Anyway that proved a little more difficult than I thought. Firstly they didn't agree with my engine specification (for noise testing levels) then they wanted copies of all receipts and pictures of the build stages. 100 copies and 82 photos later they say it's not enough and asked for more information on the build including a statement of how much the previous owner had done and a detailed list of what I had done.

The previous owner had intended to move to Spain so that may have been a wee bit difficult. I decided the best way would be to talk to the secretary of state or at least his representative at Swansea. A couple of phone calls later to some very nice people in Wales and I had been declared amateur - phew! Apparently my car looks like one built by a very well know professional builder ;-)

I should get a date from Gillingham SVA centre in the next 10 days or so, I'd better get those doors on.

The passenger carpets and seat are now in, a couple of drivers side carpets to go.

The suspension has been raised a bit.

Some more carpet has gone in but still not finished, then there's the boot to do!

Some carpet going in, unfortunately even though I'm using a spray on contact adhesive there's not much of the old vapours to make this part of the build any more fun. In fact waiting for glue to set is as bad as watching paint dry.

The dashboard has a temporary voltmeter in that is black unfortunately but at least now it shows some volts.

Not much happening visibly at the moment, transmission tunnels are in, second handbrake spring is in. I'm just laying out the carpet at the moment.

Front suspension needs to be raised a lot and the rear a little.

Hmm, beginning to look very much like a car now ;-) SVA has been applied for, some tidying up to do to the cockpit, then just need a private road!