Mike's Cabrio Build

[Skittler]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Good Luck, Mike for your IVA.
I am sure your enthusiasm and deep knowledge of your car and the IVA rules will preclude a failure!

[milliemarlin]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Hi Mike,
> How long did that take?????
I have been doing some heavy manual labour so read it during frequent breaks while my puny body recovered. It took a couple of days in total.
I think you could satisfactorily argue that the 100mm square refers to thin steel used in production car floors and that your seats are close to the reinforcement of chassis rails and tunnel. My SVA mentor told me not even to bother try to get it though first time but just to get a failure list and work through it. Which is what I did. Still it would be great to pass first time.
> Out of interest, are you Millie Marlin of the Black & Yellow Cabrio fame? If yes, do you have a Sportster too?
That is me. I have been *not* working on the Sportster, nicknamed Mark 2, for some years. I hope to get going again once my manual labour is done.
Paul
PS: I took Millie a show and somebody told me there was another Marlin called Millie.

[bryannewell]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Hi Mike
Good luck for tomorrow
I'm sure all will go well
Bryan

[Mike]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Murphy's Law: The Job takes as long as the time allowed.

So, here I am at midnight, and I've just finished my preparations for tomorrow. It would have been a lot earlier tonight except the trailer board lights didn't work.

Just shows the progress I have made with auto electrics: like a trooper I re-wired the plug, and then both rear lights, and it all worked first time! Whoooh!

All I have to do now is down load all my photos onto my laptop so that I have access to any of them if anything is queried.

No more I can do now - its in the hands of the examiner.......................!

[Mike]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

November 5th 2013 - My Cabrio IVA Day

The day didn't start too well - despite yesterday being a beautiful dry crisp November day, today at 5.30am it was wet, requiring us (my father came with me) to fix a tarpaulin over the cabin. To be fair, the weather forecasters had it spot on, and I had bought one just in case:



Towing with Danny's A-Frame is an absolute doddle - so much easier than a trailer. It makes for a very long vehicle, but as long as you remain mindful of the length and the tendency to cut corners it is so much more relaxed.

Despite leaving ourselves 45 minutes spare time in a journey which should take 75 minutes, the traffic into Nottingham was awful and we eventually arrived 10 minutes late - not a good way to start the test. However, I had phoned ahead, and Martin, our tester, made nothing of it.

Alan Hogg had kindly offered to come along to the test for moral support, along with David Sidall, and arrived in his very nicely prepared Cabrio - it really did make mine look bare, without paintwork.

As soon as we had removed the tarpaulin we were directed into the test bay, and the examination began:



Inside the car he looked for sharp edges - no comment about my gash dash. He used two aluminium half moon dumbells, one 165mm diameter, and one 100mm (representations of ones head and knee) to test for access to sharp edges.
All seemed OK.
Then he looked in the drivers footwell and produced my brake pedal clevis pin! It had jarred loose on our journey to the station, because I had either forgotten to fit the retaining clip, or at some point it had come off without me realising. What kind of initial impression did that create? I felt awful.
Martin however took it in his stride - he's seen plenty of lorries with similar faults where the star washer has fallen off - and accepted I could fit a bolt and nyloc to replace it.

The cabin passed, except for one item - a new one on me - the side windows failed on the edge radius. They had been ground, but because I had presented it without a hood the glass is on show, and it did not meet the 2.5mm radius test.
When I asked how I could remedy this with an electric window, Martin simply suggested fitting rubber channel over the exposed edge with the window up - he is not bothered that they are electric and could go down - he tests the car as presented. So, what I thought was a show stopper was going to be easy to fix on the day.

He asked about my seats, because I have attached the seatbelts to them, and was satisfied by my photos of the seats in an Audi A4, then out of the A4, showing the runners, and fixings, and that I had fitted them exactly the same in my car.

The spreader plates were not mentioned! (Oh, the wasted worry!!).

All the controls were checked, and then he told me the special Fog light switch (which cost me £40) is not compulsory!


Martin was happy with almost all of the outside of the car - he was going to pull the washer jets for lack of radius, and took issue with the radius on the front bumper. He then passed the rear bumpers - made of the same 5mm stainless: but to be fair there was a section about 75mm long were the radiusing had not been prepared very well on the front bumper which I had not picked up. My fault for not thoroughly checking, but I had my angle grinder with me, so could soon deal with that, and then re-polish it at home.

Then another issue - again my own fault: the gash Sierra tyres were different. I knew that - I had deliberately fitted 195 profiles at the rear and 185 profiles on the front, to try to help with self centre steering. What I did not notice was one was one of the rears was a 60 profile, and the other a 65 profile. Twit.
Although I had taken my a spare wheel along - one of my nice new wheels, just to see what happened (as officially I do not have to have a spare wheel for the test) it too failed on a rim edge radius so I could not swap it out with one of the wrong profiles (it was also a different size so would not have been any use).
Alan then suggested we could borrow two wheels fromhis Cabrio, just to get through the test - Thanks Alan - very noble of you!

Before going up on the ramps he tested the speedometer, which was fine - I did well to set it up right with two different wheels on the back axle! I had checked it the day before against my sat nav, and was happy it under read by 2 & 3mph at 30 & 40mph.
The emissions were tested for a 1993 engine, and were well inside the limits.



It then went up on the ramps with me in it, being directed to press the brake pedal, or turn the steering wheel.
There then seemed to be a delay, but dad advised the issue seemed to be the engine number. I had explained earlier I had a letter from BMW confirming the year of manufacture, which Martin was pleased to see and took a copy of. By this stage the test was going much better, and Martin was clearly warming to my Cabrio. he then took quite a while to find the engine number, and then go off and find materials to clean the block, and look at the number with a mirror, and when he couldn't read it, produced some emery paper, and yellow chalk until he could read it. This was well beyond his obligation to test what he could see, but we were close now.



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Next came the lights test. Martin checked the basic functions, then without prompting adjusted the headlights to give the required settings.



The penultimate test was the brake test. Foot brake - both front and rear were good.


But then the show stopper................the hand brake failed, not generating sufficient force. The test reading figure must equate 18% of the vehicle design weight, but did not reached it.But, maybe we could come back to it.



The final test was the noise - and it read 96db, just as my own cheap meter!

So, my initial test was a technical fail, but maybe we could address the small items for a pass on the day.

The Design Weight figures which I had submitted were made up, in the abscence of any meaningful figures from Marlin, and I had probably set them too high.
My car self weight on the day with a tank full of fuel was 960kg.
Allowing 150kgs for passengers they calculated a gross weight of 1,110kg. Therefore my Design Weight of 1600kg was too high. Perhaps if I "re-submitted" my figures the hand brake would be acceptable? martin did the calculations and suggested it was only good for 880kg - so no way.

So we went back to the ramp, and under Martin's direction, and we tried to adjust the hand brake cable, to allow more pressure to be generated. At this point Martin was willing us to pass, he was the one donning the screwdriver to flick the hand brake nylon nut around to adjust the standard Sierra hand brake

.............. but it failed!

The bloody nylon nut would not hold on the standard Sierra outer cable - what a poxy design it is. This was a show stopper. There was no way I could change the hand brake cable, as the standard Sierra inner cable for a disc brake car, has to be shortened, before it can be fitted.

So, despite Alan very kindly offering to loan me his wheels, there would be no point.

My cabrio was recorded as failing the test.

Two sharp edges, one incorrect tyre, and a failed handbrake. (the washer jets were not recorded as a fail)



How do I feel about it?

The test itself is thorough, and I found the examiner (Martin) totally fair, and towards the end, very clearly wanted us to pass. He spent quite a while cleaning the engine block, and chalking it to determine the number, and longer still trying personally to adjust the Sierra handbrake cable while I sat in my car on the ramps being directed to pulling it on and off to make adjustment easier. When it became clear the nut was failing he even gave me the name of a local one man garage with a lift that I could go and change the cable.............and I would have done, were it not for the need to shorten the inner cable as well, which I have never found easy.

From a personal perspective, I'll be honest, there is a large part of me that is very disappointed. Peter Edwardes had encouraged me to aim high, and he was right: why plan to fail. I aimed for a first time pass, and a (sub) standard Ford component has let me down. My car was not perfect - and the tyres, and particularly the brake clevis pin were embarassing, but they, and the two or three sharp edges could have been resolved in less than an hour, and a pass on the day would have been possible. Very disappointing.

On the bright side, I have an afternoons work changing the handbrake cable, and 10 minutes pressing some rubber edging onto the windows, and grinding a regular radius on a short section of the the front bumper, and I'll be able to represent my car for a guaranteed pass.

So close, so close..........................

Before signing off, and despite not quite passing, may I take this opportunity to thank everyone inside, and out, of the Marlin Owners Club, who has helped me along the way. I know people say it, but it is true: without you this would not have been possible. This is going to sound like a BAFTA awards night and it may be unfair to single individuals out for praise, but I do want to thank : Chris Cunliffe, Simon Gregory, Peter Edwardes, and Nigel Beats particuarly for their technical help and advice with my build. Chris Cunliffe, who built the first BMW M50 Cabrio, and drove 150 miles to meet me half way to allow me to try his Cabrio before deciding to buy an M50 based Cabrio kit; Simon will see many of his ideas blatantly copied into my car: Peter has been a great role model with his Sportser build, and offering encouragement, and quite literally, Nigel got my engine going!
Danny - thank you for your support, and the loan of your A-frame, it was simple and relaxed to use - it made the journey so much better: and Cameron, part of your Romero has passed its IVA test - thank you for the loan of your steering wheel!


For those of you too numerous to mention who have had a real input in my car, and you know who you are, who have genuinely affected my final car - may I wish you all a very big thank you.

Last but not least - how do I say a big enough thank you to my wife, Sue, who has put up wiith me taking 8 years to build my car?

Kind regards to you all

Mike


Edit:

I do not understand why the photos have not appeared in their correct positions?

Hope you have all enjoyed the journey - 10,000 visits suggests someone was interested!

[milliemarlin]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

All the best cars pass second time.
Paul

[scott h]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

You should be proud Mike, I am sure there are many owners with a fail list as long as your arm. A few small points to address and you will be there!

[cabrioman]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

So close, but to come away with the very minor fixes needed you must be a happy man.

Well done Mike, only a couple of minor tweaks and your there.

John

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

great work Mike and what a bummer it was a ford part that let it down. I have a spare but old sierra handbrake cable if you want to practice fettling before you do the next real one.
Well done - and a great story to boot.
Now you need to start thinking about what colour its going to be painted...

PS the mnumber of images allowed in a post is limited to 10 (and this includes smilies) but I have now disabled this setting so you can revisit the post and "go advanced" in the edit box and then "manage images" to replace the missing ones.

[bryannewell]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Great effort Mike
I think you can be proud of your achievment
Just those few minor tweaks and you will have the pass you deserve
Go on then what colour have you in mind???
Cheers

Bryan

[Happy_Dave]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Good job Mike, those minor points, whilst annoying, will soon be resolved. If its any consolation my cortina cable is exactly the same however the mot tester fitted a bit of rubber sleeve and a pipe clip to hold the useless plastic adjuster in place! Not sure mr iva would've liked that approach though! All the best for the retest, when are you taking it in?

Dave

[dogoncrazy]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Mike
Thanks for allowing me to ride shotgun this morning , it was a pleasure to at last see all that effort in the metal and oh so close! It failed on a component NOT through bad assembly on your part. Regards Alan

[Peterx]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Well done Mike, great effort and a very near miss. You can be proud that all your own design ideas and fabrication have passed with flying colours.
I'll be interested in your handbrake failure solution, for obvious reasons, and I'm sure you come up with a Mike special that will be much better than Ford. You might need to break in the rear pads to get some better efficiency reading.
I think the comment about the side window glass is rather silly (and the solution even sillier!!) as any modern convertable car windows are the same but I doubt he would have failed it if his was the only problem,
Bring on the retest and registration!!

...peter

[nigel]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Well Mike, I would rate that as a good day.

I bet you feel a bit sore but I would say "congratulations". That's an insignificant list from what sounds like a pretty thorough inspection. The inspector was obviously well satisfied in the way he tried get you through but you were caught by the "rules is rules mate" and unfortunately he had nowhere to go.

But well done. A great car, nearly there and I look forward to admiring it at Stoneliegh next year.

And the biggest bummer .................................................. .............??

"That'll be 90 quid for the retest, Sir". A hell of an hourly rate!!

Now. Colour?? Colour??.......................................... .

[listerjp2]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Mike what can I say you are envied by all and a credit to the Marlin mark. I can only hope that others follow in your footsteps. Thanks matey for making my year and spurring me on to do my stuff on my own motor albeit at a lower level. I look forward to the great yelp of euphoria when you pass. Adrian