Friday 15 November 2013

Nice but cold first drive out and build summary

Couple of photos after fitting the windscreen and number plates. Think this might be the last weekend before some unsettled weather arrives, I've not got any weather gear fitted, and to be honest don't think I'll fit any ? quite like the look as it is, so its just a fair weather car !





Going to enjoy this !

Update...

Had to go out again the day after these photos where taken, got to make the most of the weather ! nearly 100 miles on the clock, and gave the brakes a bit more welly to get them bedded in, seems to be working and have noticed they work better when they are warmer.

Build Summary...

The Stats...

Nearly 300 hours of build time
Picking up kit to on the road Tax and plates... 51 weeks, That's 1 week ahead on my plans !
Cost... a little over budget, not a lot, and not a loan in sight. (forgot about IVA and registration fee's)
400 tea bags
7 large jars of coffee
7 bags of sugar
200 cigs (Duty free trip to France)
1 packet of plasters
Box of 100 paracetamol
Box of 100 Dihydrocodeine


Made just over £10 from the swear box (10 pence per word)

The look on passengers faces...  Priceless !

OK, putting everything aside, it was fun building the Zero, and even more fun driving it. There where days when everything went to plan, and there where days when nothing went to plan. Any one thinking of building a Kit Car, just do it, you'll won't regret it, because everywhere I went in the last 2 days everyone stops and looks, wishing they could build or have one, nothing but compliments. The feeling that a year ago I had boxes of parts, bags of nuts, bolts, and rivets, metal panels etc all in the garage, now assembled sounding fantastic drifting round a corner is overwhelming. (on a private road ? ).

Would like to thank the following...

2 x Steve's for helping lift and unload the van on day 1
Russ for Engine and gearbox installation
Simon for Engine and gearbox installation and lots more; and company on those days when things  did not go to plan ! ( you know those days ! lol )
My 2 boys; Ben and Alex for those fiddly jobs where my stubby short fingers couldn't reach !
All those at GBS for putting up with my constant visits and questions.
And finally Alison for letting me build it in the first place.

I will update this blog from time to time as things may change, but until then... where did I put those keys.....

P.S.

And the total cost, after everything taken into account, and I do mean everything, I have just enough left over for a takeaway for the family from a budget of £14,000.

Bill.







Registration and fixing some issues

Been 3 weeks since it passed its IVA test, and earlier this week got a call from Ruth at GBS to say my registration documents and tax disc had arrived ! YAY ! So a quick drive over to pick them up and get the number plates made up. Not in a hurry but got over to GBS, got the plates made, and fixed to the car in about 90 minutes ?

OK, now for a few issues which raised their heads within the 1st 10 miles...

Near side repeater indicator on the cycle wing not working, a rather simple fix, just a spade connector had come out of its plug holder, a quick adjustment to the spade connector to make sure it fits properly and it works again.

Speedo not working... Not looking forward too this as I can remember it was a pain the 1st time I installed it due to lack of space to get my large hand and stubby fingers into the transmission tunnel. I had to remove the hand brake cable to get reasonable access to the sensor, and quickly noticed the problem. The sensor had moved very slightly backwards, so was picking up more of the prop shaft flange than the bolt heads.
Removing the sensor was surprisingly easy... except... I dropped the nut into the bottom of the transmission tunnel... AARRRR!!!
After over an hour looking, poking, and bending sticks with magnets on trying to savage the nut I gave up and headed down to the local nut and bolt shop for a replacement nut, got home and the nut failed to fit, only about 1 turn and no more, so its not an M6 ? back down and exchanged for a 5/16" UNF and guess what... that didn't fit either... its going to be one of those days ?
So back to the car feeling rather upset ? and then saw a shinny corner of the nut  just under the diff ! managed to get a stick to knock it into the inspection hole and onto the floor of the driveway, then found out its not magnetic !
OK, now back to the problem, I re-drilled the hole in the sensor bracket so the sensor would now be over the bolt heads and nowhere near the prop shaft flange. Refitted the sensor.

Clutch biting point to low to the floor, adjusted the cable, and of coarse adjusted to far, so adjusted again. Seems to be a bit better, we shall see how it goes over the next few miles.

Back to the speedo issue, After re-fitting the sensor all that was needed was the handbrake cable reattaching. Well with the issues of my arm and elbow injury this was just impossible with one arm, think I'll wait for so help later. Help did arrive later on and all fixed within 5 Min's.

Testing the speedo... had to have a ride out, but time had flown, and it was 8pm, dark and cold, but what the hell. Woke the neighbours up !  he he he .

Next day and windscreen fitting.

All seemed rather straight forward, except fitting the windscreen surround to the side uprights ? seen a few different blogs about this, and basically its a mixture of different ideas. Mine would be to mark out the windscreen surround to the uprights, drill and tap to M6 and use short M6 button head bolts x 10mm long to fix together.
Many thanks to " Fairy liquid" for helping me to get the windshield into the rubbers, and then into the frame.
Well it all went together easily, wing mirrors fitted but the mounting holes had to be drilled out, way under sized.








Time for another test drive... big grin !

So still got the wipe motor, gearing, and blades to fit, think I'll leave this for another day, going to have some fun now, see you soon.

Total time for these fixes ... 12 hours

Total build time now... 280 hours

Tuesday 5 November 2013

It's passed the IVA !

Well its been a few weeks since I last posted a blog. Been busy with house work, gardening before the weather turns, decorating the spare room, building wardrobes, fitting new wooden blinds to the front windows, going away for a few days, and several visits to the local Hospital only to be told that I now have to go onto Insulin injections... damn.

Anyway, 2 weeks ago the Zero passed its IVA test ! Many thanks to Simon and Raf at GBS for all their help preparing it for the test. Their where a hand full of issues which needed sorting before going for the test, some of these I sorted in the last blog, but Simon picked up on  a few more...

Forgot to put some trim on the cut out on the bonnet for the exhaust, For some reason the rear fog light switch did not illuminate when pressed... it had worked before I recessed it in the panel, think I knocked a wire off re-fitting it and failed to re-test. Had a low coolant problem, didn't notice this when I got the engine up to temperature but it was an air lock in the system. Throttle cable needed re-routing and after now returns to "tick-over" properly. I had also put a normal washer along side a spring washer on some of the bolts, the IVA tester doesn't like this, so these had to be changed to just spring washers, or normal washers with a Ny-lock nut. Setting up the speedo, had no instructions on this bit, but it was minutes to adjust by simply pressing a button and going through the menu settings on the speedo.
Finally the low brake fluid switch was not working, bit annoyed with this as it was a brand new item ? The old switch, which was pretty dirty and old was swapped with the new switch and it all worked well, unfortunately it needed re-wiring which added to the labour bill.

So all in all not many modifications to be done, plus the usual changes that GBS do for the IVA, such as extending the front indicators to the correct measurements, adding side a rear mirrors, changing the steering wheel to the large padded Sierra one, and other things they know about.

A few extra items for GBS to sort out after the IVA test....

1) Fitting the boot cover, Having seen Simon at GBS fit one, he made it look easy ? I tried to fit the "press studs" with a hammer and punch and failed ? easier for Simon to do it !

2) Fitting the rear diffuser, simply a lack of space in the garage, and getting access under the car to fit it ? I seem to have knackered my elbow building the Zero and it doesn't seem to bend very well now, and getting the rivnuts in under the car with limited access seemed too much effort, GBS said its an hours job, so to avoid lots of bad language while under the car all day on a cold floor it was a "no brainer" for them to do it.

3) Geometry set up. I've not got the equipment and measuring kit to set up the geometry of the car properly. So ride height, tracking, camber, Tyre pressures, damper settings etc where all set up by GBS. Instead of guessing all these settings and messing around adjusting for hours, and possibly getting frustrated when things go wrong it was another "no brainer"!

4) Registration and paperwork... they do it all the time, and I want it correct first time so I can get the plates on and have some fun !




So picked it up from GBS 2 weeks ago, and had a careful drive home, I had borrowed some trade plates just for the drive home, 2 items raised while driving back... the nearside repeater indicator failed ? was working earlier ? and then the speedo stopped working ? will investigate these in the next couple of weeks, think it might be a loose wire or connector for the indicator and an issue with the speedo sensor ? Will report back in the next blog on these.

So now just waiting on the DVLA for my V5 form and tax disc.