19 days left...

18 days left...

Made up some extensions for the front indicators. Basically, the Tiger-supplied indicators are too far from the outer edge of the car to meet the SVA requirements, so they have to be put on extensions. A trip to Homebase saw me return with a length of plastic 22mm waste pipe which the indicators squeeze into beautifully. So these were cut to the right length (about 14cm) and the other end bunged up with the plastic cork from a rather tasty Chilean red. I then chopped a two pieces off some M8 rod which were long enough to pass through the cork and the body with enough left over for a nut on each end. I drilled 4.5mm holes through the centre of these down their length, in order to pass the wires through. Then it was all assembled, with threaded rod held onto the cork with nuts, indicator stuffed onto one end of the pipe, wires sticking through the threaded rod and the cork squeezed into the other end of the pipe. Et voila!

17 days left...

Finally fixed the number plate surround and the rear of the tub to the bracket on the back of the chassis. Also attached the drivers side rear wing, and drilled the holes for the round lights. Takes absolutely ages to make a tidy job of the wiring for these lights....... Having got my wheel bearing (and carrier) back, started to refit the suspension then had one of those horrible sinking stomach moments - there was a nice 0.5mm circle scored in the back of the brake disc on the front passenger side where the lower wishbone had been eating away at it. Ace, so I need to grind down the end of the wishbone. Gave up and had beer instead.

16 days left...

Took a trip round to Neil's and was forced to use the angle grinder on the wishbone myself, instead of the usual I-stand-back-looking-scared-while-Neil-attacked-it routine. A few minutes later, a few mm removed. Should be enough. Put the suspension back together and fitted the stud conversion on the front hubs (replaces the bolts with studs which are fixed in the hub and hold the wheel in place while it's being attached). Finished up fitting the lights on the rear wing, it's looking good now - much more car like. Can't get over how wide it now seems in my tiny little garage (and if one more builder comes over and tells me how small it is I shall start getting offended, okay?) Had the battery on charge for a good while - it was starting to get a little tired. Spent the evening fixing in the interior - looking pretty complete now.

15 days left...

Sunday was a good day - not much done but made me happy (as will become clear). Lowered the front of the car, and raised the back to prepare to put the alloys on there. Beat out the short studs which were in the Ford positions (PCD 108, remember?) and drove home the longer studs into the VW positions (yep, that's right, PCD 100). Fitted the alloys to the back with 10mm spacer plates to put the wheels in the right place and dropped it off the jack (erm, unfortunately literally). The new wheels fill the arches perfectly (though I do have the ride set too high at the back). Pushed her out, and wow..... she really is wide. Barely a few inches either side between rear wings and the garage doorway. Marvelled at how she looked, started her up and took her to the end of the road to see how she felt. Err, very nice! Very nice indeed!!!! While returning I managed a major first - my first pair of black stripes left on the road!!! Still, it's nice to know that LSD's working (and I mean the diff). Parked up and managed to get all the air out of the cooling system at last, and then managed another first - burnt my legs on the exhaust manifold....... OW!!!!!!! Oh yes, and fitted the three mirrors using the uprights as templates to get the side mirrors in the right spot.

• finish nose fixings and spring clips on bonnet
• cycle wings
• front indicators and headlights
• tuning
• holes in bonnet for air intake
• go over every bolt on the car and make sure they're tight and through nylocs.
• add the "SVA kit"....
• arranging insurance
• sorting registration stuff out (forms & inspection) - yes, I know I've left it late, but I had things to do.....

14 days left...

Fixed the front indicators on and wired them up (they're nothing like as squinty as they look in that picture). For now, the wiring is held secure to the nose using cable ties in self-adhesive mounts stuck to the inside of the nose.

13 days left...

Visit from Neil and Paul B (who's just bought a 6.8l V8 for his Ultima). Spent some time doing little jobs, nothing major achieved. Discovered that the newly ground down wishbone was still touching the back of the disc when the suspension was loaded, and apparently only on full lock. More grinding required.....

12 days left...

Disassembled the suspension on both sides to give access to grind the wishbones. Thanks to having wheels etc off, I've got much better access in that area, so attached the spring clips for the front of the bonnet. Also drilled the holes for the Dzus fasteners which will hold the nose securely - can't secure them 'cos I've run out of rivets *AGAIN*..... All looks pretty good but I'll have to sort out the nose/bonnet alignment after SVA, as it's not up to my standards. With everything (temporarily) fitted I still had a slight clearance problem between the bonnet and the cable clamp rod on the carb linkage, so I've filed the nuts on the rod down as far as I can which seems to have sorted it. Run out of fuel, got to get more before I can run it again. Forgot to add to list: fix seats and seatbelts in.

11 days left...

Finally fitted the Dzus fasteners on the nose, so it's firmly held top and bottom now - lovely.... :-) Stripped down the front suspension to allow angle grinder access to those lower wishbones tomorrow. Using the access that gave me, fitted the spring clips to hold the front of the bonnet down securely. Having bought some 12mm x 2mm steel rod, chopped it into 4-5" lengths to make some brackets for the seat pads. Drilled 3 holes into each, two to hold to the back of the pad with self-tappers, and one to screw into the chassis. The bases were fixed down at the front only to the 2 chassis beams which run front to back along the floor, and the seat backs were fixed onto the top of the main crossmember at the back. The pads are wedged in firmly at the bottom rear corner so hold each other in place. Fitted the seatbelts too. I hate static seatbelts - don't think those'll be lasting more than 10 minutes after SVA..... Oh, bolted the rollbar on too.

10 days left...

Neil came round and attacked the wishbones some more. They can't possibly foul now. Put the suspension back together and fitted the alloys to the front. Very nice, much more meaty..... ;-) Spotted another problem though - I've got too much steering travel to the right. Full lock to the right is restricted only by the wheel hitting the wishbone!!! Left lock is fine though. Looks like the chassis has the rack mounts well off centre so this problem was bound to crop up. Ace, got to restrict the rack now.....

9 days left...

Busy day, not much time in garage - cut four holes to allow air into the trumpets on the carbs. Looks, erm, interesting, but I'll get some filters on there after the SVA. (my post-SVA list is way longer than the pre-SVA one.....)

8 days left...

Lots done, nipped to the motor factor to get a couple of 22mm jubilee clips to fix (temporarily) my rack problem. Only needed one in the end. Basically, pulled the rack boot off the left-hand side and tightened the jubilee clip at the end of the rack, to give 1/2" less travel to the right. Works a treat, if anything 1/2" was too much restriction, but like I say it's only temporary. I'll get a bush machined up to fit in there later (probably about the time I get a quick-rack to replace the standard one that's in there.......

Fitted the cycle wings at the front (which have to be the worst quality of any of the GRP parts so far, and that's saying something). Held roughly in place, marked position of the bottom of the wing on the wing stays and position of hole on wing. Drilled wing, marked holes through wing onto stays and drilled them. M8x25 bolt through each hole from the inside of the stay, bit of 3mm neoprene on stay, wing on top then washer and nyloc on top with a plastic cap to cover the nut. Had to take the wing off a couple of times to get the angle of the stays right to give even clearance between the wing and tyre (hammering the stay). I'll have to take them off again later and move the whole front of each stay as they don't quite line up the way I'd like.

Also set the camber approximately on both front wheels (about 1 degree of negative) and the toe fairly neutral, ever-so-slightly inward, to give a little self-centring for SVA. I'll set them up properly once it's on the road.

Oh, and attached the VIN plate to the scuttle.

• front headlights
• tuning
• go over every bolt on the car and make sure they're tight and through nylocs.
• add the "SVA kit"....

7 days left...

Organised insurance through Hill House Hammond on 01733 310899. Good quality cover, 6000 mile policy for me & Sam, fully comp, 100xs etc for 269 quid. Less than it costs for the tintop....... The registration stuff will wait 'til after SVA. The man at the VRO says they much prefer having all the documents including the MAC (SVA pass certificate) at the same time. They do have to inspect the car, but should be able to register it the next day after getting all the documents (so should be on the road on 22nd August, if all goes well....)

Attacked the carbs with Neil's manometer. This is a box with four columns in, and a tube coming from the bottom of each. Each column measures the vacuum on one barrel of the carbs, so by connecting all four up to the take-offs on the carbs you get an instant an accurate picture of the carb balance. So you adjust the linkage to even up the two carbs. This also gives you the opportunity to set the balance between the two barrels of a single carb. We didn't go that far, as they were reasonably even. But getting the balance right made such a difference, the revs rose 1000rpm when we got it right. It's now much smoother at tickover (950rpm), no spitting or popping and much less hesitant to rev.

Adjusted up the handbrake, works fine now. Also taped the ends of the handbrake and throttle cables, so Mr Sva can't be upset at them.

Nearly there now......

6 days left...

The first night off in a good few weeks. I'm tired.

5 days left...

4 days left...

3 days left...

2 days left...

Night off, fairly content and pretty much ready.

1 days left...

Took a trip with Neil to see Simon Marshall, a local Cat owner. His Cat's a bit poorly, mostly down to a leaking head gasket. Borrowed his trailer for the SVA, an absolutely enormous twin-axle braked trailer almost long enough for two Tigers on board!!! Seems very stable, feels nice and secure....

0 days left...

Updates missing (now mostly fixed) - sorry, been having web access problems. I've just passed the SVA, thanks to a lot of preparation and a very nice inspector (called Gordon at Gillingham). More details to follow in the next few days!!!!!!!!

Right, sorry for the slow updates, been sorting things out and exceptionally busy at work!!! I'd been preparing for this day since I started building the kit 15 months ago. I'd advise anyone starting out now to buy the SVA manual (it's only 25 quid) as it's worth consulting from the start. Got an early start, intending to add a few last minute bits of trim. Went to push her out the garage and heard a grinding noise. Oh Sh1t!!!!! The top wishbone on the drivers side was in constant contact with the wheel rim. I don't know how, as all this had been checked in detail after the lower wishbone on the other side met the brake disc..... Too late to make any serious mods, so put a 10mm spacer on the wheel to give sufficient clearance, and I'll sort it properly after the SVA. Didn't get a chance to do any more trimming because of this. Neil turned up with the trailer attached to his Disco, and I drove her on. Strapped down and me, Neil and the lovely Sam jump in and off we trot to Clackett's Lane services on the M25 to meet Ian Martin.

Arrived at the Gillingham test centre at 12:15pm for a 1pm apointment. Ian immediately took the opportunity to attack the car with his huge box of trim. It looked so much neater by the time he'd finished!!! Those naff over-centre catch covers from Tiger were doing their best to fall off the entire time, despite half a roll of double-sided tape on 'em :-( At 1:05pm, Gordon came out to begin the inspection. He looked over the car first, spotted the battery clamp was a little loose - easily fixed. Some of the trim was removed at this point so he could check nylocs were properly engaged etc. No problems yet, especially after all the trim added by Ian. :-)

Moved the car inside, up on the ramps and all underside bits inspected. Handbrake and footbrake on and off repeatedly, steering to lock both ways and lots of wiggling. No problems and onto the headlights. Both needed some adjustment (not surprising - they were set by eye). Sorted and onto weights, with and without driver. Precisely 50/50 front/rear with driver, to the nearest kg. Ace!!!! 364kg front and rear with me on board. 643kg total without me, fairly light for a Six. Brakes were top notch, despite very limited bedding in - max 2% inbalance left to right. 84% efficiency on the footbrake and around 30% on the handbrake, well up from the required 60% and 18% :-) Emissions needed some adjustment, and after the first run the area was too full of HC etc to make a decent check so we left it 'til later. When we went back we got the HC down to 351ppm (limit 1200ppm) and CO 2.18% (max 3.5%) so a pass on emissions :-)

Speedo test next. I'd set this by following Sam's 106 at approx 20 mph (along a bumpy road). I'd added a little for safety. Too much it turned out, I was reading a fair bit on the high side of the regulations. Thanks to having an electronic speedo, adjusted in the right direction and into legal limits. On advice from the tester, made a further adjustment to make the reading even more accurate while the testing equipment was handy, so I now know I'm less than 2mph out between 30mph and 70mph :-) (Very pleased at the tester suggesting we do better once we were inside the limits, makes the difference between someone who simply applies the rules and one who appears to want to have the owners best interests at heart.

I was told at this point everything had passed except the lack of threads through the wheel nuts. Because of that spacer I'd stuck on the front driver's side the studs weren't long enough. He let us file down the wishbone so we could do without the spacer, and took the spacers off the back (which were marginal). He was watching the whole time - insurance requirement, he said. Acceptance was given :-)

At this point he called me into his office and issued a MAC certificate. And I fell over with shock. <GRIN> :-))))))))))))))))) So I can thoroughly recommend Gillingham, and Gordon in particular, as a fair and reasonable place for an SVA. Not necessarily easy, just fair. :-) He invited me into their office while he wrote up the paperwork, where I saw a good number of photos taken at both Tiger's Thorney workshop and at Raw Engineering. Jim appears to be in favour with the testers!

So anyway, after the obligatory photo (which I was forced to do by Ian, Neil and Sam) we loaded her back up and headed home. Car back in garage, Neil kindly returned Simon's trailer and I celebrated with a beer or five. Then bed, to sleep very very soundly indeed......

I must express deepest gratitude to Simon Marshall for the loan of his trailer, Neil Wain for towing, large amounts of support and tuning, Ian Martin for support, trimming and shouting "COME ON!!!" and everyone else on the list for support, sharing of knowledge and experience, and all the help over the last 15 months (in particular Tony Lee and Paul Swarbrick). Just the MOT and registration left...... MOT booked for 10am tomorrow and rolling road session immediately afterwards. Unfortunately I'm going to be too busy for the registration inspection until mid next week, so it's not going to be on the road immediately, but I've waited 15 months - another week's not going to be a huge hassle.....