Awaiting the Handbrake

Still no delivery date from GBS regarding the handbrake, however it is now being tested and checked over this weekend. I would guess that a date for delivery is going to be set this week.....

Anyway, the weekend was not lost. I've repaired and fitted the drivers side cycle wing. A bit of a polish and it should barely be noticeable, serves me right for trying to be clever with the fitting. Either way it is now fixed on using a healthy doseage of the black glue stuff, pushed into the gaps by fingers (wear gloves, you'll look grubby for days!)

Also fitted is are the side repeaters on the wings and the front indicators on the nose cone. The side repeaters are required to be seen from quite far back along the car, so I aimed for seeing them from the drivers seat and you should be ok.

The front indicators though require the extension arms to meet IVA requirements. I originally read it as they have to be 400mm further in from the widest part but it is in fact 400mm maximum from the widest part of the car, hence the extension bars. Also these help with the angles required to meet the IVA too.




I have been spending a lot of time reading through the IVA manual which is leading to many questions being raised about interpretting the wording, however I have decided that 2 IVA tests are a high possibility for a first timer. Saying that though, I will be aiming for the first time pass but will not be devastated if it didn't pass (depending on the reasoning of course!) With that, I have been excessively applying trimmings and covers to help avoid failing on a sharp edge (some of which are ridiculous but rules are rules) and ensuring everything is working as it should....so far so good.

 

 

So as it stands, the car is ready for IVA...minus a handbrake and boot cover, however these will go on in a day once I have them...that is the hold up. So close...I hate waiting!


 

Aimless fittings

I'm at the stage of the build where there are only little things left to do for IVA. I have tried planning some form of plan but I never seem to follow it.

Problems I am currently having:

• Handbrake kit from GBS. This is taking forever for them to sort out, it's been 2 months since having a IVA'd and working Mazda demonstrator and they have only just put the order in with their supplier for a batch of cables.
• Had a little argument with them over the phone about it, amongst other things, needless to say they have not supported their "outstanding customer service" claims. I would say its good...at times, and at others, its diabolical.

• My tracking and steering/suspension set ups are leaving a lot to be desired. With the car mobile, running around the driveway, I have noticed that there is heavy scrubbing from the front wheels when on full lock.
• Solution is to adjust the toe and camber settings. As I have only done this by eye, I'm not expecting them to be any good. The camber on the drivers side wheel was clearly not neutral, sorted that and opened the toe settings a bit. That reduced the problem, did the other side, seems to be worse again...did the drivers side again and have over-inflated the tires, we'll see what this does. Below are the photos before I made any changes.

 

The photos might not show the problem clearly enough as looking but it might give you some idea.

• Steering Wheel Self Centre. This is fixed from the wishbone design. Personally I'm not too worried about the centring but IVA is. I can only test this at slow speeds due to the area I'm working in but it seems fairly solid in the position I leave the wheel in.
• A number of things to check are: wishbones on correctly, wishbones as far back as they go? From looking at the car, they only go one way, and it's also the same way GBS have their Mazda Zero wishbones, might need a call and clarifying.

Enough of the problems, I say problems....more set up features...anyway, I have the passengers seat fitted in. I decided that I can still access the centre panel to fit the handbrake easily enough from the top. So the passengers tunnel went on, pre-drilled holes lining up perfectly (preparation win!) and the seat dropped into the holes made for that to fit in too.....pfft yeah right! Can't have everything go well! For some reason, it wasn't having any of it. Holes made bigger, adjusted and finally dropped in. Not the 5 minute job I planned but it was still all done within the hour.

I also decided to fit the rest of the transmission tunnel. I cut a slot in the top for the gearstick, fitted the gearstick cover too. I have been thinking about this for a while, looking at what trims to get, stainless, chrome, aluminium etc etc. In the end I went for the cheap option. I riveted the cover on using some 3.2mm washers on the back to hold the cover and then fitted some black rubber trim to the 'sharp' hole that was cut. I'm probably going to get some better trim for the hole but generally pleased with the result. Looks almost finished inside.
(I also considered painting the transmission tunnel black, don't think I will but opinions welcome)


Photo time!