During the week the car had its final inspection, the Blue Slip inspection which is a safety inspection for unregistered cars. From here it was a simple matter of organising third party insurance, and then heading off to the RMS with all the paperwork.
An hour or so later I was handed the rego papers and the custom plates I had ordered (after handing over A LOT of money). I was finally registered!!!
I headed home and mounted the plates and stuck the label on the screen! I then headed out for my first little "fully legal" drive. It was nice not having to constantly watch for police. Even though I had previously been on the UVP stickers, driving without plates has a certain risk to it.
So now I am finished, properly! I have assembled, engineered and registered a car that is both drivable, safe and fairly quick. Its been almost a year since the first engine start, when I expected to have the car finished in 6 weeks after the engine was running.
So now I have summer to enjoy driving it, in fact I am about to head out for my first real drive down the coast with a few friends.
I need to thank my wife and kids for their patience and help with building the car and fulfilling a dream! I am very lucky. I also want to thank a few people who have helped with build tasks or advice - thank you Steve, Dave, Maurice, Bryn, Andrew and Greg and Sonja from Redback Motorsports. I also want to give a huge thank you to my engineer, Treeve from Kernow Engineering who did an amazing job with the certification.
I would say THE END, but I think this is just the beginning of a new chapter. I will post more about the driving and about the upgrades that are sure to follow.
Well after working through a number of little fixes and answering a bunch more questions, my engineer completed the engineering report and sent it and the application for a VIN number off to the NSW RMS. And they sent a VIN number back!
Here it is (obviously obscured!), stamped to a plate and fixed using rivets to the scuttle. This means all I have left this week is a Blue Slip inspection for an unregistered vehicle, and assuming I get that, front up to the local RMS office to get finalise rego and get my plates.
Only a few sleeps now until its finally registered, and just in time for the long weekend and summer!
The last remaining task from my engineering report was to replace the side indication repeaters. These have to be visible from an approach angle at the rear of the car from 5 to 55 degrees. Because of the height of the rear guards, I have extended these fairly high so they are completely visible from the rear. A quick bit of auto electrical work and these were spliced into the front lighting looms and successfully tested.
So that's it....all tests passed......all engineering checks complete and all issues fixed.....it's FINISHED.
I now place my self in the hands of my engineer and the NSW RMS and await the final submission of my engineering documents, and the issuance of my VIN and plates (which I have ordered!)
Through out the week I have worked on the car at night to close out the remaining tasks for the engineer. I have completed 7 of the tasks and only now need to add some new repeaters further forward to improve visibility from the back. These were fabricated and welded up yesterday and I just need to tidy them up, paint, fit and wire.
I got to have a really good drive this afternoon with some friends, and it was nice to enjoy the spring weather and not have to worry about noise or overheating or any of that other pre-test crap!
During the week the car had its final inspection, the Blue Slip inspection which is a safety inspection for unregistered cars. From here it was a simple matter of organising third party insurance, and then heading off to the RMS with all the paperwork.
