Silencer bobbin revisted

For the silencer mount, I'd originally used a renault exhaust bobbin but I found that the silencer tends to twist round due to vibrations from the engine (making the exit closer to the ground). To get round this, I've bought a rover bobbin which is much more solid. The mounting brackets have been modified this evening and given a coat of my favorite paint, POR15, ready for assembly tomorrow. Once thing I didn't realise is that the bobbin's threads are M10 fine and I don' have any suitable fine threaded nuts to use so these have been ordered this evening. Comparison between both mounts shown below.

Garage checks

I arranged for the Indy to be taken to a local MOT center this afternoon using Classic Collections (great service!) so that emissions, headlamp alignment and brakes could be tested.

All in all a good result, the brakes were fine even though I had some reservations since the discs, pads and shoes are all new and haven't been given a chance to be bedded in. I'd taken the boot panel off before getting the car onto the transporter so that the handbrake could be adjusted if needed but, in the end I didn't need to adjust anything.

The headlamps needed a little adjusting but ok now.

The main area I'm really relieved about is the emissions. The limits for my car based on a 1994 engine age are CO <= 3.5% and HC <= 1200. With the engine nice and warm, my results were 1.6% CO and approx 950 for HC.

Aeroscreen finished

I finished off the aeroscreen this evening using my new bending device for the edges. The aeroscreen is based on the MAC#1 style flyscreen, the reason I made my own is MAC#1 didn't have any screens in stock when I called (probably shouldn't have told them I was building an Indy!)

The screen will stay off until after the IVA test so that I don't need to worry about the screens radii during the test. I have noticed that the centre mirror isn't far enough back to clear the screen so I'll probably put some bends in the mirror's stem when the time comes rather than drill more holes in the scuttle to move it's position.

Bending device

I spent a couple of hours today making a bending/folding machine so I can make bends in the aeroscreen. This is made up a of a few sections on angle iron, a handful of bolts and a couple of hinges. The whole lot cost me all of £2.69 for the hinges, the bolts I had lying around in the garage and the angle sections were originally holding up my old fence!

First test piece below, an off cut of 4mm acrylic bent cold. I'm pleased with the quality of the bend and how easy it was to achieve. There are some surface scuff marks which were transferred off the faces of the angle iron so these have been rubbed smooth with some grit paper and given the whole lot a coat of paint.

Next I tried an off cut of 6mm thick polycarbonate (the same thickness as I bought for the aeroscreen). This started to tear at each end of the fold so I either need to go for a smaller bend angle or apply some heat to help, although I've read that this can cause the heated area to become cloudy due to moisture. More testing required...

Headlamp adjustment

I'd set the headlamps up once before but wasn't confident on the alignment so I rechecked them this evening on dipped beam using a spirit level and marking up positions on the garage. A few minor adjustments later and I think they're set up ok.

I've bought a heat gun which I'm planning to use to help make some bends in the lexan for the aero screen. I've read that polycarbonate can sometimes go cloudy during heating up due to moisture so I intend to use the heat gun on some test pieces first to see what happens. I've also found some plans online to make a brake from a few sections of angle iron which I'll use for bending the lexan, job for the weekend...

New fuel regulator

I made a simple bracket to mount the Webcon fuel regulator, both of which are now on the car. I took the gauge off the old regulator to keep an eye on the pressure and installed this inline with the hose to the fuel rail.

I've started the engine just as a check but I've not yet set the pressure. Job for tomorrow....

Dashboard revisited

Something that had been bothering me is that the dashboard flexes a fair amount when the switches are pressed. To give the dash a bit more support I glued a length of aluminium to the back of the dash as shown below.

The circular cut out on the end locates onto a plastic peg thats bolted into the gearbox tunnel top panel. After putting everything back together, I pushed a few of the savage switches and the dash has a much more solid feeling to it.

Whilst I had the tunnel top panel off, I took a few photos of the seat belt bracket mounts for showing to the IVA examiner if he asks to see them.

Couple more jobs

I should have done this ages ago which is to check the radius of the side panel's bottom edge. This is greater than 2.5mm so I don't need to worry about adding any hockey trim along the edge to comply with the IVA radius requirement. Whilst under the car I noticed the two lowest bell housing nylocs had next to no thread protruding through so I changed the bolts for some longer ones and added some thread lock for good measure. I'm not sure why I would have used short bolts in the first place but I'm glad I noticed before I got to the IVA test.
Whilst under the car I also noticed another puddle of coolant. I checked the usual culprits which are the silicone hose connections and found these to be dry. The leak turned out to be coming from the koso water temp sensor I'd fitted to the bottom of the thermostat housing. Getting the spanner on, the sensor felt quite loose so this has now been tightened up. I'll be keeping an eye on this over the weekend for more leaks.

I've finished a bracket for the new fuel reg and this has just been given a coat of POR15 so should be dry tomorrow evening ready for mounting on the car.

Getting ready for IVA

I received a call from the Norwich test centre last friday and have booked the car in to be tested on April the 5th.

I'd heard mixed reports on using U trim and a nut cover on the rear seat belt brackets and that these should be covered with a proper seat belt buckle cover instead for IVA. This is a job I'd been putting off as I'd used Unibond Extreme Repair glue and was worried that any attempts to remove the U trim would end up with the trim breaking off in bits and leaving the belt bracket looking like a mess. Anyway, I can confirm that this glue isn't really up to much as the trim and nut covers came off really easily.
Stealing someone else's method from the LCB forum, I bought some Pajero bracket covers and attached these using cable ties.


I'm not 100% sure whether or not I needed a fuel cap tether since the key cannot be removed from the filler cap when the cap is removed. However, since this is an easy job to fit the tether, I put one on tonight using some soft strand wire and crimps normally used for making pike fishing traces. I made it short enough so that the wire doesn't get caught up when locking the filler cap back on.


I've bought a new fuel pressure regulator from Burton Power. The reason behind this is that the pressure setting on my current type of regulator can sometimes drift after a period of time and I figure its best to avoid the problem before it occurs. I just need to make up a new bracket to support the new Webcon reg before connecting it up to the hoses and locking off the pressure setting.