View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook

What is the 2B
[Or, dietary tips for Sierras]

The Build Diary
['99 - Aug. '00]
[ Aug - Nov. '00]
[December '00]
[Early Jan '01]
[January '01]
[February '01]
[March '01]
[April '01]
[May '01]
[June '01]
[July '01]

The SVA
[Did my 2B pass?]

On The Road
[Whats it like then?]
[And now it's been improved!]

New for 2003
[Suspension Mods]

New for 2002
[Engine Mods]
[Fuel Filler]
[Custom Instuments]
[Rear Shocks]

Tricks & Tips
[including do as I say, not as I did!]

Major Problems
[Or how to talk to the Manufacturer]

So you think you've got problems?

Gallery
[Or,some necessary light relief!]

Wifes View
[Or, are you coming out of that garage....]

Links
[Other maniacs who have tried this]

About the Authors
[If you are really bored...]

June 2001

With all the wings in place, I felt that the car was really getting near completion and that if all went well this month I would book the SVA for July, which indeed I will do.

I have (hopefully!) one last moan about Robin Hood Eng. I will forgive bad jigging, cheap parts and bits that don't fit, after all it is a budget kit car and I guess you have to accept these things, especially with hindsight. However, I can't forgive the fact that there are no provisions made for the inner seatbelt mountings. At all. Not so much as a Kendall Mint cake or a Mars bar….. Oh, sorry wrong provisions again. Seriously, there are none and this is not on. Richard Stewart, if you are reading this then please put some on in future.

To overcome this I have run a 11/2" angle under the car which bolts into the rear sub-frame mounting plates with two 8mm bolts each end. The seat then bolts to this at the back with three 8mm bolts and the seat belt goes on the 7/16" bolt provided on the seat by Messrs Recaro. I hope to convince the sva man that the seat is therefore mounted to part of the chassis and that it is thus ok for the seatbelt to be attached to it!

The interior of the car needs carpeting, as there are lots of internal projections to fail the sva on. It also needs lots of foam and tubular pipe lagging stuff around and over things like the bolt heads and wiring clips. These would do a terrible minor injury to you if you hit an artic head-on at 90 mph, and ended up with your head behind the brake pedal or something. Still, if the government wants to save me from myself, I can't do much but be saved can I? The harder type pipe lagging is great for this and the other more flexi type will cover the top sides of the cockpit once covered with vinyl, as an improvement on RHE's bit of plastic pipe.

The carpet that is supplied in the kit is a bit cheap but then it's going to getwet and dirty anyway, so I am happy to use it rather than £50 sq.' ft Wilton or whatever. We have stuck it down with carpet tape so it can be pulled out easily if need be. It's a fiddly job so get the other half to do it if she's small enough to fit in the footwell better than you are!

The side panels inside the car are made of fibreboard with vinyl stuck on and look suprisingly nice once riveted in place over the carpet.

The dash is padded with ¼" thick foam with vinyl. The aperture for the instruments has a piece of ply round it to give it a decent shape. This is glued in place at the top and sides, and held at the bottom by the snap-on edge trim.

The rear deck is made of 6mm exterior ply-wood, which has nice bendy properties to follow the curves of the rear of the vehicle. Not quite bendy enough to follow exactly without splitting though, which is why I made two in quick succession! There is a lift up door in the deck for access to the boot and fuel filler, with a continuous hinge and a lovely colour coded, sva friendly handle from B&Q, who also provided a roller latch for 69p! Until I put a 30mm bar in to stiffen it, this was looking like the cars first truly light-weight component. Again, this is vinyl covered.

I have also spent some time going around the car with u section channel, putting it over all the edges I can find, inside and out. RHE give you quite a lot of this in the kit, but I have so far used another 8m worth from Woolies. This is only 10mm deep and will go around really tight corners- well recommended. The various bits that I couldn't do with this have been treated with black silicone to cover the edges. I did make a major cock-up here though, so be warned thus.
When you buy two tubes of Black Silicone sealant, make sure that one of them isn't actually Bitumastic roof and gutter sealer, and if you don't, then try to notice the difference before you plaster it all over your nice shiny 2B! Needless to say, I managed to do precisely to opposite! And it is bloody 'orrible stuff to put on and take off, believe me, I know!

We did try the car, under push power! The reason was to check out another design flaw that has come to light in other peoples SVA tests, namely the steering does not always self centre. This is a fail on the sva and I was relieved to find that mine self centred beautifully, albeit only in reverse. I don't know if the sva stipulates which way the car is going for this test but I suspect they will not accept my argument that I prefer to drive around tighter corners backwards! Actually it does show some small element of centring so I will wait and see.

June has also seen the addition of headlights, front motorcycle type indicators and bonnet catches. These are adjustable stainless steel ones from Europa spares. The indicators are from Vehicle Wiring Products, another decent company, and are e-marked ovals. They needed to be extended out by 10cm to conform with sva bulls*** but a simple tubular bracket has sorted this and can be taken off soon after.

I will be going to get tyres soon, can't afford Avons like I wanted so it will have to be £30 a corner jobs until the cars power output justifies something more!

I applied for the sva on the 15th June, the test date is 30th of July. Watch this space…….

Click here to find out what happened next...