I broke down on the way, and didn't look like I was going to get there at all and it's only a 60 mile round trip.
Anyway, once there, the tester made us a cup of coffee, and he wasn't in any rush to get started.
but once started the failure points were:
-Penny washers required on Seat mountings
-Again plates required on bottom seat belt mounts
-Top seat belt mount requires tube trhrough chassis and welded top and bottom (what have others used here???).
-Under dash needs to be covered to avoid wiper motor
- The obligatory lower dash edge needs more of a radius (my foam padding wasn't enough)
-The rear Fog Lamp (one from Lolocost), wasn't bright enough
He said that it would never be sufficient and that I should replace it
completely. -a couple of places in the engine bay, wires needed covering and securing a little better(mainly from battery down, and from heater to main loom)
-Wires in nose cone required better securing
-One bolt on my brake cylinders, didn't have the bolt all the way through the nyloc nut
-emissions failed. first time was 3.52%, so said try again with lower revs, but that ended up higher. Top bloke at least he tried again.
Not a huge amount, some frustrating as I had spotted them before but didn't have time to fix.
There were a large number of things I didn't see him consciously do, but he must have.
He was a very nice, down to Earth guy who chatted quite freely throughout the test, and explained everything we asked. Top bloke.
He even said that I should book the retest for the days that he is in, so that the retest would only be 30 mins.
All in all a couple of hours work, but also require carbs and engine properly tuned for the emissions test to pass.
Incidently this angle was OK, because the "effective height" was the shoulder of the seat not the chassis. If they had gone through the seat the they would have been too low.
They were giving a Porsche Speedster replica (Banham I think) a right going over at the third attempt. They keep sending the MD down with them, who hasn't the foggiest, apparently.
I might try for an afternoon retest, as driving in rush hour for an 8am test is a bit stressful, in an un-tried and tested car...
Regards
