Fast Marina Magazine

Phil is this for the Pickup or the Mk2 Pageant?



Chris

The Ute Chris, it burnt a valve out on the way home from the IOW :-(


Sent from my Flux Capacitor Mk 2

balmy wrote:Good work. Get a valve for next Sunday?

Not got one yet need to get one.


Sent from my Flux Capacitor Mk 2

A little work on the 575 - arising from the ashes.
The rear wheel tubs were badly bashed around from 40 years of earning an honest living..




I spent a while knocking all the paint off under the wheelarch but succeeded in making things somewhat smoother..





The next move will be to add the foam rubber and vinyl covers from an estate to cut down road noise to some degree.

Having done something constructive I decided it would be nice to add some bling - so I fitted my best set of superlites with new tyres..





I had to increase the tyre clearance under the guards by rolling the trailing edge of the front lip forward by an inch.
It seems to be ok now after trying a few full lock turns forwards and backwards..






I also refitted the chin spoiler to check clearance, although it will need to come off again so I can repaint all the front area which was affected by the recent prang.
In fact - I will probably paint the whole front - which will eliminate the pinstripes unfortunately. May have those redone later.
Will continue the soundproofing down the back including the rear side panels.
Am pushing on with preparing the new engine/gearbox for fitting - quite a lot of work considering it seemed to be almost complete...

Cheers all.

Fitted a HID Xenon kit to the van. Much better lighting and a pretty much plug and play!

Fitted a new valve to Phils Ute.



Chunk out of the old one.



Kev had his best Xmas pants on



All a bit green today. Makes a change from the usual orange!

Lovely green that marina cracking car
Ben I thought with HID lamps you had to have lamp washers as well by law?
My factory BM does

JubileeNut wrote:Ben I thought with HID lamps you had to have lamp washers as well by law?
My factory BM does

Don't know... Our BM's all have them and non have lamp washers and haven't had an issue with MOTs on these.

I've got a washer system from a range rover somewhere so could always retro fit that too.

A little bit of reading on legality of HIDs:

Linky

It Depends on how many lumins the HID produces for MOT purposes if car has headlamp washers fitted they must work and cannot be removed If aftermarket kit is fitted we have to give it the benefit of dought and pass and advise
Dave

I see others have fitted HID lamps and the link does outline a few issues.
The amount of cars driving around with lamps incorrectly adjusted is bad enough but I know factory fit do have self levelling where as a retrofit won't as far as I know. Also the reason for washers is due to dirt on the lens refracting light where you don't won't it hence having washers to keep lens clean. The bottom line is you can do what you like but don't moan when it goes tits up with the law or if you crash and you not insured.
I guess you have declared the mod to insurance because if you have not your gambling?

Most people seem to think uninsured drivers are ones who have forgotten to take out insurance but probably more likely they bolted something on which voided their insurance.
Insurance companies do their best not to pay up as my work friend found out the hard way!

I find my LR8 Lucas lamps and Cebie H4 with standard wattage are as good as my HIDs on my new bmw.
Very impressed driving back from the NEC a couple years back.

Simply fitting some decent halogen bulbs helps too. The lights in Helen's Fiat were appalling, stuck some Osram Nightbreakers in there and it's made a world of difference.

JubileeNut wrote:I see others have fitted HID lamps and the link does outline a few issues.
The amount of cars driving around with lamps incorrectly adjusted is bad enough but I know factory fit do have self levelling where as a retrofit won't as far as I know. Also the reason for washers is due to dirt on the lens refracting light where you don't won't it hence having washers to keep lens clean. The bottom line is you can do what you like but don't moan when it goes tits up with the law or if you crash and you not insured.
I guess you have declared the mod to insurance because if you have not you gambling?

Most people seem to think uninsured drivers are ones who have forgotten to take out insurance but probably more likely they bolted something on which voided their insurance.
Insurance companies do their best not to pay up as my work friend found out the hard way!

I find my LR8 Lucas lamps and Cebie H4 with standard wattage are as good as my HIDs on my new bmw.
Very impressed driving back from the NEC a couple years back.

Not too sure how to take that Paul. I have insured the van declaring the wheels, seats and now the lights as I do for all of my modified vehicles. They were happy with the kit. I had to define what model kit it was and they said it was ok.

Since 2012 the manufactures of the HID conversion kits have certainly got their acts together. Early kits didn't have the shields the new ones do so light was probably sent all over the place in a non HID lamp.

I have since checked with the supplier and manufacture: http://www.hids4u.co.uk/hidkits.php?car=1832 and they have confirmed the above. I think it is even on their site FAQ: http://www.hids4u.co.uk/faqs.html

Ben

I am sure you have checked out all the pros and cons Ben as you are someone who takes responsible care when undertaking such mods, however there are many out there that do just bolt things on without checking if it works or will be legal.

I am not even sure that my new bmw setup should have pass scrutiny. It has intelligent high beam so you just leave it on and it draws a box round the cars in front and auto dips the lights and goes round corners and even whips up sponge for pudding later! (Might have stretched the last one there ) the problem is I don't trust it. I still get flashed by people as they think I have not dipped lights as the light output is still up but not in their field of vision. Also I think it dips to late. As I hate being blinded by thoughtless drivers (or steering wheel attendants) I don' want to do it to other either.

It does seem as if the MOT is lagging behind what people can fit and it does not give very good guides on mods?
Rant over

The MOT is to check the minimum road worthynes of the vehicles testable items at the time of the test only. Modifications are not a problem as long as they do not impeade, on the safety of the vehicle and indeed there are several fails, on the computer about modifications. These have been tightened up in recent years hydraulic handbrakes without cables spring to mind. As far as headlamps are concerned we have no way of measuring lumen output so as long as it aims in the correct place it passes. We have had recent communication from DVSA of how to fail stretched tyres as they have only recently become a problem. The MOT could check much more but the price would be much higher. Or perhaps we could go to the HGV system of, six weekly maintanence checks and independent DVSA testers carrying out the test again much more costs, also impractical in my opinion. We have to make the best of the system we have. The other week we had a chap threatening to take me to DVSA because I failed a Jaguar S type where the shock absorbers had been painted in oil presumably to disguise a leak. He said it was to protect them!!!
Dave
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Hard days graft today swapping gear knobs over.. One that came with my Mk.2 Special had insert missing so swapped it over for one that came with my new Mk.1 SDL project.



Don't know what it came off originally, it's the right shape but wood grain textured plastic. Did any Marinas ever have this fitted or is it off a Maxi or something? Looks good enough for now anyhow :-)




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