25 August	Made a pressure bleeding adapter from some alloy bar, a piece of radiator hose and a couple of jubilee clips, and managed – with a bit of leakage from around the top of the reservoir – to bleed the front brakes. The pedal now feels much improved. I’ve offered up the sidescreens, shortened them and drilled and located the ferrules. I used a woodworking fixture to pilot the hole normal to the curvature of the door skin. I’ve bolted the ferrules through with 1/2” UNF nuts and capped off with rubber covers in case of an issue at IVA retest. I’ve discovered the screen alignment isn’t perfect –something to address after painting. I’ve made ferrules for the hood sticks – something missing from Gerry’s hood kit!
08 Sept	Today passed my IVA re-sit! A real landmark! The examiner – not the same one as for my original test – looked at all the points addressed, wheel arch extensions, different seats, locknuts on steering and suspension components, spacer on Panhard rod, wash bottle firmly tied. The rear fog lamp was tested, as was the field of view through the mirrors. The brakes were tested again to check nothing had got messed up. I’d arrived just over an hour early, but I was seen to as soon as I’d got the car off the trailer, and by the time my booked appointment was due, I was putting the car back on the trailer again, ready for home! Overall I found the IVA process fair enough, the examiners at Chadderton were polite, professional and helpful. Nevertheless it was quite stressful worrying about the possibility of a second failure! Other things – I finally collected the elusive cockpit carpet set and ‘BMW’  gearbox cover from Gerry at the Donington kit car show. At least this gave me an excuse to have another close look at the Ace on the Hawk stand. Using some budget carpet I already had I’ve been trimming the boot, complete with lift out plywood cover for the spare wheel . Nothing’s glued in place yet but loose fitted it all looks quite passable.  I’ve now made a start stripping down the body in readiness for painting next week. I’ll be sorting out ‘IVA’ parts no longer required, and I’ll add a list in a future post.
10 Oct	The car’s still being prepared for painting – I took a couple of pictures at Christopher Neil’s bodyshop. After three weeks DVLA seem to have discovered my application and a call from them this week confirmed it was being processed. Fingers crossed!