Finally most things are fixed although the L200 is still squeaking a bit.

The Cobra steering column now feels rock solid and just needs the intermediate shaft to be cut to length and replaced.

The dash wiring is fairly well covered on conduit of various types. As soon as the replacement voltmeter arrives the dash can probably go back in.

The offside handbrake has been adjusted, it took a full turn so was obviously not set right before.

The speedo sensor has been moved a bit and some additional magnets added to get a more accurate and stable sensor reading.

The doors still need to be done and some spacers under the floor by the seats are needed.

Oh! and we have a new donor on the drive.

Well nearly back to the Cobra, had a bit of a disaster on Sunday ;-)

1. Feed to cold water tank broke (old age, just perished - plastic).
2. Water came through into airing cupboard onto house alarm.
3. House alarm fused and set itself off.
4. No attempt to turn it off would work.
5. Internal siren went off warning of a fire - same system as alarm.
6. Rang ADT who said they would be out on Monday about 13:00.
7. Siren still going off, rang again, spoke to engineer said it would dry out.
8. It didn't.
9. Four hours after water leak the man arrived to shut down alarm/siren.
10. A good cup full of water came out of control box when lid removed.
11. This was 16:00 just as B&Q etc close.

At the same time.

1. The power tripped.
2. Lunch was being cooked.
3. Garage doors are electric, can't get to tools.
4. Manually opened garage, door swung up a bit quick and clobbered my bad knee.
5. Once power was back garage door won't fully close except manually.
6. Moved L200 in front of garage for the night, fanbelts/pump screeching again.

Back to this again ;-)

As I go through the various failures I'll keep a table updated of progress.

The L200 seems to be fixed and I have all the parts to sort out the Cobra. Better go and do something then I guess ;-)

I have to replace the alternator on the L200 before I get back onto the Cobra. Most problems now have a solution but just need some bits to arrive first.

Today has been spent trying to track down another Sierra steering column. I've ordered a selection of wire tidying bits and started clearing up the garage ready for the next stage of Cobra development. Feeling comfortable everything can be resolved.

I feel sorry for my mate Kev who's missing out on a coffee until it's finished.

Awoke at 05:00 this morning, not really my time of day, half an hour before the alarm and felt terrible, however I never could get going until about 11:00 and several coffees so that was not a surprise. A quick cuppa and a bite to eat, loaded up the L200 and at about 06:30 Thomas and I set off, me in the Cobra, Thomas in the L200. After about ooh! 200 yds I decided I needed to put my jacket on, so I surprised Thomas and stopped.

From there on in I was constantly listening for creaks, knocks and hisses but none transpired. It did however seem to be getting colder!! Several times going past lay-by’s I thought about stopping and getting in the nice warm L200, but I persevered and we eventually got to Gillingham VOSA at about 07:20 – for an 08:00 appointment.

As nothing really had gone wrong we had nothing to do but wait – my nerves were at this point on edge to say the least and Thomas and I sat in silence.......

At about 08:00 we were asked to come outside and the 4 hour test started, within a minute we had failed as the doors did not latch in two stages, I thought that was it but the test continued and we had a very good morning with a very friendly and supportive examiner. The guy had been transferred from Derby (I think) as Gillingham had a backlog and he knew the (in)famous Dave Brooks who had given me so much great advice on the car.

We then went through every stage of the test and ended up with a list of what the examiner said were minor fails. Although some may cause me some aggravation over the coming days and weeks.
OK here's the full list -

Washer pipe came off bottle under pressure.
Space between chassis and floor needs filling (under seats)
Seat belt mountings require evidence of strength
Gear knob not radiused to 3.2mm
Indicators and hazards inoperative - (he saw them all working early in the test)
Door latches only single stage closing
Contactable edges less than 2.5 mm (rear reflectors, air ducts on side)
Wiring into boot lid needs a grommet
Wiring to rear fog lamp needs protecting
Wiring under dash uninsulated passing over sharp edge
Wiring behind centre console needs securing and tidying
Steering column mounts no locks on nuts
Excessive movement on steering column
Fuel line to carb needs re-routing
Exhaust holes in body too small
Front indicator wiring not restrained
Speedo sensor wiring insecure
Rear fuel hose needs evidence of suitability
Battery cable requires protection
Park brake inoperative on off side
Speedo erratic above 40 mph

Nothing drastic I think, we knew about the cabling issues and the steering column.

Noise test was 95Db with standard Dax exhausts, steering self centering was OK, brakes were fine apart from parking brake on one side, emissions were ok (off side was close to limit though)

The problems are -

The parking brake because it's a pain to get too.
The erratic speedo because it wasn't on the way there and we now have it calibrated.
The door catches as they are standard Dax ones.
Seat belt mountings unless I can get a statement from Dax they are ok on this range of chassis.

2 hours to go and I'm about to leave !!

Less than 24hrs to go!!!

64 hours to go till SVA.

All done except for the replacement indicator switch. No leaks of fuel or water and the engine starts with no obvious exhaust leak.

I shall now get bored I suspect before the big day next Wednesday.

Here is a picture of the revised bottom hose, it now goes over the steering rack. The rack has been moved back flat with the chassis and the fuel pump modified to allow some gap so we don't have any 'questionable' adjustments for the SVA.

I've also removed both sets of headers (exhaust manifolds in UK speak - but it is an American engine) added some copper gasket seal and used some spring washers to ensure a tight fit against the cylinder heads.

Refilled with coolant so we'll see if we have any leaks in the morning. I need to create a new fan mount as the new route of the lower hose gets in the way of the old one.

Some pictures taken on the way to the MoT. What smile !!