I have spent a lot of time on the hot rod recently, the engine is now running, I believe the car would drive and stop, I could actually try that if it ever stops raining for long enough. Both exhausts are made and fitted as far back as the silencers, I still have to make a couple of pipes to exit the gasses near the rear wheels. I will have to check the noise level at some point, it sounds just like I wanted it to, which has happened more by luck than judgement but it may still be a wee bit too loud for the IVA requirements. It will sound louder in the workshop than it will outside but I need to measure it to avoid a needless failure on test day a retest is a 5 hour round trip and a 90 quid bill.
Much of the recent work has been sheet metal work, there has been some reworking needed as I have gone along and encountered problems, the dash proved particularly tricky with my original design not allowing enough room for the wiper mechanism to operate. A redesign sorted that, the speedo now sits in a sort of pod that matches the two cup holders so that's worked out quite well. I need to get a couple of air vents to fit above and to each side of the speedo, the stereo is wired for power but I haven't put in speaker wires yet, I am deciding how many speakers to fit and where to fit them. The unit has 4 x 55 Watt amps built in so it makes sense to use all 4 channels. The doors are very shallow so I won't get any bass out of speakers mounted there, I can't fit pods because it's all just too tight. I think I am going to end up with 2 sets of 6 x 9 coaxials in the box in the back, that should give me maximum sound pressure level and pretty decent sound. I will mount them in such a way that a sub can be added if the bottom end bass is still lacking.
As I have been going I have tried to look at the job as if I was the IVA tester, having spent time with them testing the Dino I now have a much better idea of what the expect, I hope to make less mistakes on this than we did in the Dino, my wallet is very much smaller than Malcolm's, I can't afford numerous retests. I did catch a few things that might have been a problem so I dealt with them to make sure they won't be. I have taken loads of photos and videos that I can show the tester so we won't have to go removing panels - things like wiring runs, welding on the seat belt mounts, that sort of thing.
On the subject of costs, this was always going to be a budget build, I haven't minded waiting for the right parts to come up at the right price, the exhaust is a good example of this. I have had the car for nearly 2 years now, I bought the manifolds a year ago and the silencers about 3 months back, the whole system cost about 70 quid. I had a different set of headers to start with but they just were not right, I could not get the steering linkage to pass so I found the ones I have now at an auto jumble. I sold the original ones at a healthy profit so all in the system actually cost about 40 quid. The seats were 15 quid, the heater box 20, the radiator fans a similar price, it is definitely a budget build. The engine was 150 quid, I had to go all the way to Hemel Hempstead for it but at that price I couldn't leave it. All the rebuild parts cost a fair bit, the cam was the most expensive single item, although the set of followers came close. The carbs came with the engine, the gearbox cost a massive 30 quid, a new clutch the same again. Steel has gone up massively since I started this, a half sheet of 1.2mm thick sheet is now 36 quid, it was about 15 when I started, I still need a fair bit more to get the job done. I like to think that quality has not been compromised, going back to the exhaust the silencers would have been about 200 quid if I had rushed out and bought them from an exhaust shop, they were brand new and OEM jaguar items. So far I have spent about 3500, there is still a lot to spend but I am convinced the car will be worth a goodly amount when finished, there are not many about and they still seem to be popular.
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