Post Registration 5

Its been a while now since the last post.

The car has been running well and have managed to get quite a few evening drives, there are some lovely roads around which when you time it right are great drives, when you get it wrong they can be very frustrating though stuck behind a slow moving car with miles of double white lines.

Running in is a bit frustrating, keeping it to 4000 revs is not easy and makes overtaking a little more difficult that it could be, not that its ever going to be easy. Sitting low and in the centre of the car makes seeing past cars more difficult so spotting the overtaking gap is more of a challenge.

It's had its first official engagement, acting as a wedding car to transport the Groom to church for a member of the extended family. The day started a little dull but I managed to go for a nice long drive before coming home to give it a wash and brush up.

It was quite entertaining to see my wife trying to get all glammed up for the wedding so I could drop her off at her sisters on the way to pick up the Groom. Its amazing the reaction the car gets in general but with the white ribbons on I even had a bus stop at a mini island to wave me on.






Apart from running in I have still managed to fiddle with the car and have a list of tasks to undertake. So far I have had another go at re-aligning the dipstick, it was far to difficult to get in and out so I have managed to reduce some of the angles and now it can be removed and inserted without too much difficulty.

The carbon wrap on the wing mirrors started to peal away almost immediately so I have got some proper 3M stuff plus managed to find a bonding agent to apply before and have re-done the drivers side mirror. Before I do the passengers I will give it some time to see it stays OK, but so far it looks much much better.

It's difficult to know where to store stuff in the car so I have fitted a map pocket in the passenger footwell. I have one for the drivers side but will see how the passenger one works for a while before fitting.

I have been doing some experiments to see what the actual tank capacity is, when the gauge reeds empty I've filled up a couple of times and each time get about 16 litres in. When I checked again with the factory they said the tank is 28 litres so I decided to check. I put 5 litres in a can in the boot and drove the car until I got symptoms of fuel starvation, I then put the 5 litres in a filled up as soon as possible afterwards, within 2 to 3 miles, I got just over 17 litres in meaning a total tank size of 22 litres, less than the 28 litres I was told.

It's now reached 500 miles so has had its first oil change, I ran the front wheels on to a couple of small ramps to give me some clearance under the sump and then jacked the rear up to make it level. I then checked the level on the dip stick and opened up the sump plug and let it drain while I had lunch.

Before putting oil back in (some inexpensive 10w40 semi synthetic)  I emptied the drained oil into some 2 litre pop bottles to get an idea on volume, I was told the capacity was 4.5 litres, but from what I put into the bottles it was closer to 3.5 litres, I expect the difference could be that I did not change the oil filter and that may not have drained fully. I'll do that at 1000 miles with its next oil change.

Only 1500 miles to go before its run in.

Post Registration 4

Managed to pop to the petrol station between rain showers to fill up, the tank was registering empty but when I looked in through the cap I could see that there was some still showing at the bottom of the tank.
Filling for the first time was a little nerve racking, I suspected if I was not careful it would be easy to over fill and then there would be petrol every where. In the end it was not too bad I used a torch to keen an eye on the levels and of course with proper pumps they cut off. In the end I put in just over 16.25 litres (update correct amount entered, had read the sale cost not litres) with it just starting to fill the fill tube. (update This means the fuel gauge is far from accurate. I think I will sort out a fuel can to go behind the passenger seat and run it much lower, filling when only just under half empty will start to get troublesome).

later I managed to get another 35 mile run, this went well with no issues at all, the fuel gauge does not seem to have moved to much either.

When putting the car away I noticed that the back did not seem to be level, I checked the measurements and the wheel arch and at the lowered flow and it seems to be 1cm higher on one side than the other. As the suspension was set up by Westfield decided to let them have a look at this also. Though with the weather forecast I was not sure when I would be able to get to the factory.

Thankfully woke to a sunny morning so poped to the factory. They checked the oil leak and siad they thought it would be ok it was just suface grease and signs of bedding in, they advised I keep an eye on it and it it does not clear up to go back.

Next Mark had a look at the issue with one side looking higher than the other, he measured the shocks and from the chassis rails rather than the lowed floor, there was very little difference, he did say that during the running in period it could change and it would be worth keeping an eye on the suspension set up. The issue I have is not the suspension but the body work looks to have settled on one side more than the other and needs to be adjusted. This can be achieved by loosening the fixings to the aluminium bracket at the back and adjusting the levels.

I asked Mark about running in, I said that I was keeping it to 4000 revs which he said was ok, he advised that the longer the running in period the better and advised trying to keep the revs down for 2000 miles. He recommended an oil change at 500 miles and another at 1000 with the filter plus another oil and filter change at 2000 miles. For the first couple he said that cheap oil would be ok but for the 2000 change use a good quality fully synthetic oil. I guess running in is not going to be easy but it's not exactly slow keeping to 4000 revs and not using full throttle.

Just need some good weather so I can get some runs in plus plenty of money to keep adding fuel.

Post Registration 3

Build time today 3.0 hours - Total build time 263.5 hours.

Man time today 3.0 hours - Total man time 292.5 hours.

Now to have a general look and check everything is tight or not to tight.

First got the car up on to axle stands to I could have a good look underneath. loosened off the wheel nuts first thought. I could immediately see where I had caught the seat mounting bolts, they would definitely need to be trimmed. Next a general look and check of all the nuts and bolts to make sure they were still tight. I soon spotted a few issues, there looked to be oil leaks from a couple of places, the engine drain plug, the oil catch tank drain plug and from the gearbox.

Found that the drain plugs on the engine and oil catch tank were not tight, guess I should have checked but I assumed the engine would have been tight. Gearbox is more worrying though but as the engine and gearbox come as a unit I think I will pop back to the factory to get them to have a look under warranty.

Everything else looked good and tight with no issues anywhere else visible

Next on to shortening the seat mount bolts. For each nut and bolt I removed the nut, added a washer and tightened back up, then I cut the excess thread off. Once cut off I removed the nut again, removed the additional washer and put the nut back on. This meant that I would have a washers worth of thread showing once complete. It these bottom out I am not quite sure what to do.

Before

After

Next to remove the boot liner, now that it's screwed in place an quick and easy job. Once removed I could see the fuel tank breather. Removing the passenger rear wheel allowed full access. I could then see that one of the cable ties was tighter than it ought. Decided to cut them all off. My initial though was to use some copper pipe cutoffs to stop the pipe compressing, but when looking at the pipe decided that it could cut the pipe so used some of the supplied ribbed cables protector instead. I then reattached being careful not to over-tighten.
With the liner out I also took the opportunity to lighten up the jubilee clips securing the filler, as I think these had leaked a little when I topped the tank up and filled it into the filler pipe.
Once done I put the boot inner back in.

While it was up on stands I thought it may be an appropriate time for the edging in the front cycle wings to fall off, so removed each wheel the edging and tape and then put the wheels back on.

As I was finishing one of Beckis friends arrived who had been following the build. Decided to take him for s spin to check all was OK. When I firsts started it up, it still did not sound right but though if it was related to the pinched breather pipe I would need to let it run for a while to check so went for a drive anyway, within a couple of hundred yards it sounded OK again and the strange noise did not return.

the fuel gauge is now reading empty so I need to go and fill it up to see how much I can get in. Checking with the factory they said the capacity is 28 litres, looking into the tank I can still see fuel so it will be interesting to see how much I can get in.

With the weather set to be poor for the weekend, I am not sure when I will get back out to see how its now running.

Post Registration 2

Managed to get a good drive, went over to Bridgenorth and back via a circular route, about 30 miles. Not totally smooth, but fun. When coasting to a halt the engine would cut out, it would start again so a little worrying. When I got back I wanted to look into the tank to see if I could see the fuel level. When removing the filler it seemed that there was a pressure difference between the tank and out side, which I suspect is not correct.

Popped out again a little later to drop Becki off at the pub, she wanted to show off my new car. On way home it started to make some strange noises, this was somewhat more worrying. Will need to give it a good check in the morning.