Apologies for the complete lack of updates, I just haven't got round to typing up the next phase.

The day after the SVA test I received my fail notice. Four pages of fail points and the reasons for failure, four sounds a lot, but with the fail point having quotes from the manual there were only 1 or 2 points on a page so it wasn't that scary!

I now had a list of things I could work through so I typed them up and stuck them on the notice board in the garage. The simplest ones to work through to start off with were the petrol hose, radius issues and interior problems. I purchased a load of Gates fuel hose from my local motorfactor plus some padding and extra trim from Woolies (fantastic service). 

The first job I did was replace the fuel hose, I took off the top panel to give easier access, jacked the car up and worked out how best to go about changing them when I had a full tank of petrol! I figured that changing the pump side first was the best option and then work backwards to the tank. 45 minutes later and with a really light head from petrol fumes I had successfully replaced all of the hoses. With the panel off at the top I could tighten up the loose bolts and straighten the rod ends.

I placed some trim on the lip of the tub next to the driver and passenger, this actually makes it look a lot nicer. I moved on to padding the dashboard, I ordered an amount of padding from woolies and used the rubber pipe I'd already put on the dashboard as a former for the radius.  I sprayed the dashboard with the glue and stuck the padding to it, to be sure I then added another layer over the top so it was harder to feel the GRP. Once this had dried I cut some leatherette to shape and stuck it over the top of the padding. It looked awful but I'm not exactly fussed as it is my SVA dashboard!

I'd put a plea out on locostbuilders for some SVA friendly mirrors, SteveC answered my call for help and sold me a set from a Honda Cub. I originally planned to only fit the passenger side as the driver side had passed but once I fitted it I couldn't believe the difference. I went from being able to see a small area behind me to seeing the whole of the garage wall! With that in mind I decided to swap the driver's side too as I didn't want saving 10 minutes at the centre to mean me wiping a bike out.

The front radius requirements were easy to resolve, use of more trim and cable ties had everything required covered to some degree. Looking at my list I had to resolve the emissions, exhaust and the rear harness mounts.

My only point of worry was the last two, I could deal with the other one at my local MOT station, they'd agreed to let me use their 4 gas analyser and when I went to do it I was there for less than 10 minutes! They even fitted the roll pin for me. The car now had a map that produced 1.03 lamda and 0.03 CO and 5 HC. All inside the limits and I also knew how to modify them if there was a problem.

I'd agreed with my dad that he would come down and sort out the last two items for me, I booked him in for the Thursday between Christmas and the New Year, I left him keys to the house as I wasn't due home from the inlaws until 1pm. When I got home I found him working on the exhaust as the harness mounts were sorted, not the prettiest solution but it does work.

 I phoned Southampton SVA centre to get an idea on retest times and got an appointment for the evening on the 2nd of January! Another nice drive and I was at the centre with time to spare, it's much easier when you know where you're going! I announced my arrival to them and Brian was with me straight away, he agreed that the first thing we'd do was emmisions as the car was nice and hot. We were using a different machine this time as the old one was out of calibration. I was all ready with my laptop to change things, we ran the first BET test which, this doesn't show you results, just a pass or fail. You get 2 runs and then your results and it's quite worrying! The results popped up on the screen,1.03 lamda, 0.03 CO and 5 HC,  a pass! 1,03 lamda is the highest permissable but it's within limits so that'll do me.

We then pushed the car up onto the ramps and checked it underneath. Everything was hunkdory underneath, everything I'd done was OK with Brian. The ramp was lowered and he got down into the footwell to check the brake pinning, he used a little mirror to check I'd drilled and pinned all the way through, I had so no worries there! He had to check that bias hadn't changed, this would be an issue now as I had no way of changing it! If anything it had improved, no worries there then. 

Next was mirrors, he spotted that I'd changed it and mumbled about having to check that side again, so we pushed the car over to the area and lined it up. He got in the car and checked both sides, with the last test we had to push the car around to test the other side but he told me that was pointless. I got in the car to see what he meant and I could see the whole back wall in my mirrors!

The front protrusions were then checked, all ok, the only thing I had to change was the exhaust clamp at the front, it was protrusing slighty, also the edge trim I'd put on the shield was rather melted after the emissions test! With those bits changed he asked me to drive the car outside which I happily obliged. He then said "I'll just pop inside and get your certificate" Woohoo!!!! He even gave me a photocopy.

He then took some pictures of the car as it was in SVA trim, he obviously felt I was going to change stuff, I'm not sure where he got that idea. All I had to do now was send off the documents for registraiton.