SouthernGT No6

First big thanks to my wing-men on my IVA test today Mike Pass and Bob Jones, whose support was much appreciated.

It was a roller coaster of a ride few minor fails easily sorted, and a couple of big ones that may take a couple more goes to get right as I have no easy means of testing them prior to a retest. I could not believe the number of things that have worked for literally years in some case that failed on the day. Fuel pump, instrument illumination, fog light and main beam indicator, literally both tested yesterday and working fine. Then the big one, after the tester did a couple of laps of the centre car park to check the self centring of the steering, she boiled over after he switched it off I checked the manual switch and the fan switched on, then noticed the temp gauge was off the scale. No idea why the thermo switch did not cut in, and very worried about any damage it may have done to the engine.

There were some funny bits, best one got in the car did all the light checks then he put the ramp up with me in to check steering etc. Was there for quite a while then heard, we will check the lights, oh well perhaps they have to check them twice. “side lights”, “headlights” “indicator” Hold on I am still on the side lights, headlights next oh bugger that’s the hazards not the heads, “brake lights” hold on I still have the hazards on what happened about the headlights, “fog lights”

Something doesn’t add up here, it was then I looked in the wing mirror and realised while I was sitting merrily in the air a taxi had come in behind me and the second tester was running through a light test with them .

Highlight of the day was when I was leaving a mono had come in I asked if I could take a pic and one of the crew spotted the GT40 and loved it the photo shows the actual moment he spotted it. Also cheered me up as they were in for a retest, so it even happens to the experts.

Please note pictures were taken before we read the sign in the waiting room about the use of mobile phones in the test area. and the ramifications if you did use one.
 

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Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Well done Nick
You now have a snag list from them to work through.
So get those few snags right and it will be on the road in no time. They will only look at the snag list next time.

Ian
 
Thanks Ian,

Just had a chat with Mick Sollis and my glass has gone from half empty to 3/4 full. He said he would be chuffed if he had got a minimal snag list like mine :) my gast has never been so flabbered, as it seemed a long list to me but he assured me he has seen them run to pages.

Feeling somewhat smug at present.
 

Mike Pass

Supporter
All will be well. A few last boxes to tick now and then you will be out frightening horses and small children.

Cheers
Mike
 

NickD

Supporter
Well done, great effort.

When I'm getting mine done i'll be expecting the same reply I had when I was 17 and my first car was being MOT's, Examiner looked at me and said "Do you want to site down for this", he had a list as long as your arm ;-(
 
Well done, great effort.

When I'm getting mine done i'll be expecting the same reply I had when I was 17 and my first car was being MOT's, Examiner looked at me and said "Do you want to site down for this", he had a list as long as your arm ;-(

Thanks Nick, bet you still loved that car, same thing happened to me it was my granddads 850 mini, my Gran let the neighbor use it when granddad passed away. When I passed my test 4 years latter when I was 17 she asked for it back, always felt a bit guilty for taking it but there was no way i wan't going to :) it was a great little car.

Having seen your build, I think you will be fine.
 
I like this list bit, I can work to lists, knocked a few off already and looking into solving others.

Items fixed today

Failure
09D - HYDRAULIC AND VACUUM SYSTEMS
RS13: Components must not leak
Additional Information: NSF FLEXI PIPE BANJO JOINT LEAK

Fix
Banjo was mildly moist so I tightened it up seems OK now.


Failure
25 - HEADLAMPS
RS8: There must be a tell tale when on Main Beam

Fix put lights on main beam tell light came on. Hope it's not an intermittent fix.

Failure
28 - REAR FOG LAMPS
RS6: Rear fog lamps must be fitted with an operational 'tell-tale' lamp (non-flashing) visible from the driving position

Fix

Fog light must not come back on if you switch the lights off then on, I wired it up to achieve this but put a second switch in so you could turn the fog light off without switching the lights off if you wanted to. Unfortunately I did not realise the tester had left the 2nd switch off so the tell light was off. Restored 2nd switch to on tell lamp came on.

Failure

RS11: For European type headlamps with centres not more than 850mm from the ground, the beam image horizontal cut-off must be between the horizontal 0.5% and 2% lines, i.e. the red tolerance band.
Additional Information: NEARSIDE

Fix

I had the lights checked at my local MOT station prior to the IVA the nearside was almost at it's maximum adjustment but OK so was surprised when it failed. Adjusted it to its max but it was still not in spec. Had a think about it an backed the adjusters off from their maximum and the lights seem OK so the fix was basically to turn the adjuster the correct way :).


You may be thinking why has the idiot put up some picture of illuminated tell lights. Just for my sanity really to prove they are working....at present

Failure

GC - GENERAL CONSTRUCTION
RS3: The vehicle structure and all components including their attachment must be suitable and of adequate strength

4) OSR LOWER WISHBONE STRENGTHENING ROD BENT

Fix

Hoping to fix the wishbone tomorrow with the help of a hydraulic press at my local friendly garage. Issue came about when the rear half shaft seized solid on the rolling road due to not enough clearance between the hub carrier and the half shaft CV joint, To get the car mobile we had to use a trolly dolly and I think a protruding part of the dolly must have caught the tube when the car was lowered onto it. I missed it but in my defense, the IVA guys only noticed it from underneath.
 

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Hi Nick,
Congratulations, an easy fail list to work through<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" /><o:p></o:p>
Well done mate – back on track for getting the car to LeMans next year<o:p></o:p>

Regards,<o:p></o:p>
Andy<o:p></o:p>
 
My main IVA failure was on the brake bias. I tried a few local motorsport establishments to try to get the brakes set right. Their methods ranged from just keep trying different settings, (not really an option when you keep having to take it back for an IVA retest every time a setting is changed) to, stick a torque wrench on the front wheel, when you can not turn the wheel at 50lb ft set the back brakes to just come on

In the end I decided the only thing to do to get it right was to bite the bullet and trailer the car down to Southern GT and let Mick set it up using his special pressure gauge method. So Last Thursday I was up at 2am setting off to Southampton and arriving around 7am.

I quickly found out the disadvantage of buying a kit 3rd hand there were some spacers missing from the lower wishbone bolts, I just fitted them as they arrived, and the diagram written by a previous owner on the back of an envelope for the top arm spacers was wrong so the stub axle was under a lot or pressure. Took quite a while for Mick and the team to sort the spacer issue, and set up the wheel alignment.

Really glad I got Mick to do it as no one else would have known about the spacers, or how the suspension should be set up.

Tried setting up the brakes but could not get the required balance, Mick took the bias bar out the pedal box and compared it with one on the shelf. Mine was slightly shorter, once replaced the correct balance was achieved. Unfortunately, it was now time to stop play, lot easier to push around now the tracking is right.

Also met Morten who has a GT Forte / Southern GT project for sale on ebay and is building 2 Southern GT's, and Paul Baverstock who paid a flying visit in the afternoon.

Pictures show SGT workers Nick, Keith the welder arrowed (who spent most of the day under the back of the car having various things dropped on him), Mick the maestro himself working his magic on the lathe, Mick's son Adam also popped in a few times to keep an eye on things and Mick's ever patient wife held fort in the office.
 

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Well done Nick m8 .... gives us ideas if we have the same problem ...
Soon be done .......... When is your retest ? ...

John..

Thanks John,

June 13th, hope it will pass, still a few untested possibles it could still fail on if so just have to keep plugging away.
 
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