How to register your car as new

Mistake number 1 - assuming registration of the car was simple

Mistake number 2 - leaving it until after the IVA to prepare

This blogpost covers registering your car as new, from an AK perspective, within the UK only and is correct as at the time of writing. Please check for up to date information with the DVLA. 

Registration of the car is straight forward process, however, if you are not prepared you will find yourself in the same situation that I was until today. A car passed IVA but waiting on forms to apply for your V5 which is needed to get your number plate.

For a new registration you need:

1. V55/4 - only available from the DVLA through the Gov.uk website. A form which gets sent through the post as its carbonated.
1. The link at the time of writing is https://forms.dft.gov.uk/order-dvla-forms/
2. V627/1 Built up inspection report.
   1. The link at the time of writing is https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/built-up-vehicle-inspection-report
3. V267 Certificate of newness. Only available from AK Sportscars.
4. A copy of a household bill, such as council tax as proof of address
5. A photocopy of your photocard driving licence
6. A copy of your insurance certificate.
1. This must be a full on the road policy, insured on your chassis number not a laid up policy.
7. A copy of build receipts for your major components
8. Your IVA certificate
9. The new registration fee (Currently £55)
10. The first registration road tax fee (Currently £235)

Optional is your V750 certificate of entitlement to put your private plate onto the car. In my case there was no fee to pay as the registration had never been assigned to any car.

The process

Around 20 days before your IVA request the V55/4 form. There is no point doing it much before then as they change the form often, but it does take around 10 days to arrive and I had to request it twice (once online, once on the phone) before I received it.

As soon as you pass IVA, send AK a copy of the build receipts used for the IVA submission. Essentially all major components (as defined in the V627/1) plus a small selection of other items. AK also need your engine number and chassis number, colour of the car and IVA certificate number (the ZY number). They will then create this form and send it out to you.

Whilst you are awaiting this form, sort out your insurance and prepare copies of this plus your proof of address, driving licence and another copy of the IVA build receipts to include in the submission. My insurer insured it on the chassis number for 30 days so this needs doing just before you about to submit the files to allow time for the V5 to arrive.

Take a copy of your original IVA certificate (for your own records) and put the original into the DVLA submission

Write cheques for the payments to include in the submission (this can be a combined amount with a post-it on to explain the charges. I prepared separate cheques). Note the AK is taxed on "Class 11 PLG over 1595cc" rates and not the normal co2 bandings.

Complete the V627/1 built up inspection report in the following way

Add your name/address/phone number in the relevant boxes. Then:

MAKE: AK Sportscars
Model: AK 427
Colour: Your colour
Mileage: Your mileage
Tax Class: PLG
Year of manufacture: The year you passed IVA/Completed the car
Currently Taxed: NO

Cars	Serial	Origin	Make	Receipts
Chassis	Your Chassis Number	NEW	AK SPORTCARS	YES
Axles		RECONDITIONED	JAGUAR	NO
Transmission	Your Gearbox Make	NEW	Your gearbox make	YES
Steering		NEW	AK SPORTCARS	YES
Engine	Your Engine Number	NEW	Your engine make	YES
Suspension		NEW	AK SPORTCARS	YES

Original parts not used: N/A
Year in which rebuild was completed: The year you completed the car
Was the vehicle rebuilt by you: YES

Sign and date the form. No other detail is needed. Attach your build receipts to this form. To help the DVLA I placed a post-it on the major receipts with plain English what the receipt covered. I also included a post-it with this build diary address in case they wanted to check out my claim that I had built the car.

Once the V55/4 arrives you can complete it using the V355 notes document. Much of this form doesn't need to be completed as the information is on the IVA certificate. Key items are that your car is 2 AXLE RIGID and PLG (Private Light Goods).

Add all the forms together. Check, double check, triple check with an independent person (I called AK and went through it). Then send it all off to the DVLA secure, recorded delivery so that you can track it and you get a signature to confirm receipt.

This is where I am at the time of writing, the forms were sent today and will be with the DVLA by 1pm on Monday 3rd April. I am hopeful that I will receive the V5 in time for Stoneleigh at the end of the month.

Passed IVA

The 22nd March was one of the most stressful days of my life. Up at 3am to get to Norwich for 8am but all worth it in the end.

MY CAR PASSED !!!!!  😊😊😊😊😊

Although the letter states that mobiles are not allowed I managed this sneaky photo of the tester Dennis who was a great guy. He made us coffee, talked us through what he was doing and although he was very meticulous he also recognised a car that had a lot of effort put in and appreciated this. Its hard to explain but he obviously was not trying to find something for it to fail on but by the same token, if there was something wrong its obvious he would have picked up on it too.

Here's how the test went:

• Meet and greet + Coffee
• Initial drive the car into the bay and run it up to temp
• Check of engine bay, VIN number and Engine number
• Emissions test on both pipes as I don't have a crossover pipe
• Move the car onto the ramp and he moves it up and does a number of tests under the car including a full inspection of steering lock and brakes
• down to the ground and full check of lights, then interior and exterior projections
• Onto the rollers for a brake testing
• Onto the next set of rollers for speedo calibration test
• Outside for a drive around and weighing of the car
• Noise test
• Back into the office for weight calcs and final result of test

There are a few items you need to think about before IVA.

• Go with a full fuel tank, this is an IVA requirement for the weights to be calculated correctly
• Cover your windscreen wiper motor with foam as this will fail IVA otherwise
• If you have insurance you ARE allowed to drive your car to and from the IVA test. I checked this with Dennis and he confirmed it to be true (EVEN IF IT FAILS!)
• Do not try to cover the car for transport as the cover could damage your paintwork (I know as I now need to get the rear wing re-sprayed). It came back in the heavy rain and hardly got wet inside. Air flow over the car must prevent rain getting in as much as you would think.
• Take snacks/drinks as you will be at the appointment for up to 4 hours and are expected to help.
• Take as much of your toolset as you can, just in case the IVA tester finds something wrong but gives you a couple of minutes to rectify the issue.
• Most of all be friendly to the tester and present a clean, tidy car. If your car looks a mess he will go over it with a fine tooth combe. If it looks clean and tidy he will be more likely to believe you have done a good job and will go through his tests without trying to find other faults. If you are an arse with him, expect him to do his best to find a fault - this is not anything for or against IVA testers, its simple human behaviour.
• AK can help with these items
• Cover your metal steering wheel centre with foam and leather.
• Cover your side louvres with something blunt (rubber or tubing)
• Ensure your front indicators meet the height requirements
• Ensure the boot number plate light is high enough
• Ensure your head rests are both high enough for the seat belts and high enough for the headrest requirements of the IVA test

So now all I need to do is get through the DVLA registration process.

Final items and Ready for IVA

Its been such a mad rush to get the car ready for the summer that I haven't had a chance to post until now; and that's only because shes now ready for the dreaded IVA test.

Booked for March 22nd, 8am at Norwich.....wish me luck.

So what's been happening I hear you ask (or that could just be the voices in my head)....

When the car came back from having the interior fitted I needed to reconnect the dash. This was a nightmare job as there are so many wires from the first time I did this. The wash wiper wouldn't work which turned out to be the BMW connector pins had come loose. The brake light wouldn't work (because this is switched earth not positive), The horn didn't work (also turned out to be switched earth not positive) and I had to make wiring for the aux power and wire in the immobiliser. Obviously I'm not going to provide too much detail regarding location of the immobiliser but although it takes time to fit, its fairly straight forward and like any immobiliser it breaks certain circuits unless you put the fob near the receiver.

After mentioning it to Jon at AK he said he usually wires up the dash after the dash is covered in leather as it only needs to be done once then - a good tip for next time...

Now onto the final prep of the car. I cannot recommend doing this more as I found a number of items that would have been a definite fail and now I am much more confident.

So onto the local MOT station to have the car setup. They:

1. Aligned the front headlights
2. Tested the emissions, which he said were perfect.
3. Tested the brakes and the handbrake.
4. Gave the car a good visual once over checking for leaks etc
5. Aligned the front wheels

This turned out a few issues which had to be resolved. One point for anyone who is questioning the Hollins electronic handbrake conversion. Here's a picture of the car sat on a tilt and slide transporter going for its interior. Held just on the handbrake on a reasonable angle.

1. The front drivers wheel was catching on the bottom corner of the inner stainless steel wheel arch. It only needed a piece taking out about 3 inches long by 1 inch wide but it did mean adjusting the position of the clutch line.
2. The drivers side headlight only just managed to get to the legal limit probably due to the shape of the body.
3. I had forgotten to put spring washers on my front calipers and seat belt brackets so the seats had to come back out (which also showed interior seating had forgot to put them on the seats too). Easily resolved.
4. A small leak was found on the water coolant hose.

It was this last issue that turned out to be a major issue to resolve. After tightening all the hoses and running the car up to temp a couple of times I realised the issue was not the hoses at all but the stainless header tank that I had paid, as you do for any part on these cars, an extortionate amount for. Basically it had crap welding around the 90 degree joint so I needed to find a welder at midday on a Saturday to re-weld the joint. Luckily Si Smith (another Cobra owner) came to the rescue as he knew someone. A few hours later and a newly welded bottle was re-fitted and all was dry again.

Whilst re-fitting this I also gave the car a full once over, zip ties were added to any loose wires which may have been suspect, bolts that were possibly too long trimmed down and any possible sharp edges removed. This all takes a lot of time to do (2 whole days), checking and double checking lights and fitting any modifications required such as AK's IVA compatible parts which helped fix a couple of last minute non-conformities.

The last task was to calibrate the speedometer. I found the best way to do this was to use the "Drive To Set" feature of the Smiths Flight gauges. Simply start the car with the trip button pressed in for 3 seconds and wait. "DTS" will appear and then press and hold again for a couple of seconds and the display will show "*00000". Then drive the car exactly one mile (on private land of course as you are not legal for the public highway). Simply put the car at the start point and put a marker (I used the tow car) exactly one mile away. You can simply drive around a large work car park to do this, it does not need to be a straight line but it must be a mile. Park up at your marker (or behind the tow car) and then press the button again and it will display "DONE". Switch the ignition off and on again and all should work. According to my GPS Speedometer app on the mobile, my true speed is 28mph when the gauge is showing 30mph so I am well within tolerances (well see on the day I suppose).

One piece of information that I had to figure out was the Tremec T56 Magnum electronic VSS wiring. It has two white wires on the sensor but no instructions. It turns out that the you need to use the red/blue wire from the speedo into one of the connections and the other should go to an earth. I hope this information helps someone avoid the 2 hours of trial and error I had. Once sorted the Accutech reverse lockout sensor worked a treat too. Below 5mph it allows you to easily select reverse but above it starts the solenoid making it difficult to select it.

So now she's as ready as she is going to be. Regardless of what happens on Wednesday I want to thank the following people who have made a real impact during my build.

• My future wife Katie, for accepting this obsession of mine, despite the frustrations and cost of the build
• My Dad who has been there whenever I needed an extra pair of hands
• Simon, who has always offered advise and loaned parts from his car when I needed to check things or parts hadn't arrived in time for things like the car going for its exhaust
• Alan, for being a sounding board throughout the process (and loaning parts)
• Jon and Wendi at AK for putting up with my many questions and clarifications
• The guys on the Cobraclub forum for advice (the good, the bad and the down right insane opinions)

Wish me luck everyone.

Interior Fitting

After the door cards were fitted I sent the car to Interior Seating at Maunside, Mansfield to have a full leather interior, and the boot carpeted. Overall they did a good job, including creating some Velcro removable panels for the battery cover and for going around the roll bars. One issue that arose is that the door panels that you make, if you follow the AK instructions to the letter will be too big as on top of the door card they will put 5mm foam (collapses to 2mm). So, I recommend, when making your door card cut the wood roughly to the shape of the door. Then with the door closed draw around the fibreglass lip that the door rubber sits on and then trim the door card to this size.

Once you have the rough size chamfer the edge and essentially the door card will sit on top of the door rubber ensuring the door can shut properly. In hindsight, I actually recommend doing this bit before bonding in the door lock wedges so that you can ensure your doors are well aligned prior to getting your interior fitted.

This is because when the car came back from having the interior fitted the doors didn't close well and it needed some adjustment. Fair play to Interior Seating as I put the card in the post on next day delivery and they returned it to me the day after adjusted as requested.

As you can see its a very nice final result.

One final note is that when you send it off remember to send off any gear stick gaiter chrome rings as the interior doesn't come with it but they will fit it when making the interior if you send it off with the car (otherwise you have to do it yourself)

Door Cards & Seat Belts

The car is getting its interior next week so it's been a rush to complete the jobs necessary to not need any further fabrication on the interior of the car.

First job was to make the door cards. This is made from 3mm plywood. First draw round the shape of the door and then cut the shape about 1/4" / 6 mm inside that line. Once done chamfer all rounded edges to 45 degrees.

The manual will tell you to drill 10mm holes but what it doesn't say is that the actual clip is offset to where you drill the door card so don't drill straight through the card and door (as I did). This will just mean throwing away the first door card and starting again :-)

The clips (Clip 260) is from Woolies Trim. Once attached to the door just add the door catch and check all is ok.

I found the passenger side to be more difficult that the drivers. The lip on the door is higher and needs sanding down otherwise the door lock will foul on the door rubber.

Also make sure you have plenty of P38 on the door lock metal brackets. If you go sparingly then the jolting of the door will make it break away and you'll have to re-set it from the beginning...guess how I know.....

The seat belts require bigger holes than you might think. The top mounting holes need to be big enough for the ring to screw right up to the mounting bracket and you will probably have to cut the bolt length down so that it doesn't foul on the body after it passes through the bracket. The lower bolts need around a 30-40 mm diameter hole. This is because the body does not sit well into the tub leaving a large gap from the body to the chassis. To ensure safety you will need to insert some spacers into the gap. You'll also need some long 50mm 7/16ths 8.8 High Tensile bolts to bridge the gap.

The door surrounds are simply screwed to the wooden blocks you have inserted. You can trim them just below the door wedges and just after the scuttle to get a better fit (Jon at AK advised he does this). Bolt or tie wrap them to the scuttle.

Finally, I have boxed in the wiring in the boot and the battery area to ensure nothing gets damaged when I have things in the boot. Once carpeted this should work pretty well although I will need to carry a small screw driver in case of the battery having an issue. I have just used spare 3mm ply and some 25mm * 15mm wood beading. The beading was sikaflex into place then the ply screwed to that to allow access if needed.

Duct Mesh & Sealant

It took a little trial and error to cut the mesh to shape and fit it. I have covered the oil cooler, brake duct and triple nose vent hols with 1.6mm stainless steel woven diamond mesh as it looked better quality than the aluminium and square mesh. The disadvantage is that it is very difficult to shape.

In the end I went with the tactic of cutting a used piece of fibreglass to the shape of the hole and then clamping this and the mesh in the vice, using the angle grinder to cut it roughly to shape and then a small tap hammer to bend the metal aver the fibreglass.

Once it has been shaped use tie wraps (zip ties) to hold them in position.

Then add plenty of your favourite bonding adhesive. I've used SikaFlex so I doubt they will ever come off without power tool assistance.

24 hours at a half decent temperature and the ties can be removed (that'll be a week then in this freezing weather).

I have also started to seal up all the holes in the bodywork. Some are easier than others (where the screen pillars come through the bodywork and the roll bar holes) but others, such as the bulkhead holes are much more difficult to access. For anyone reading this before you build one of these cars, seal these up early in the process before you put the wires though, leaving just enough room to put the wires through, then you just have to finish them off later.

Almost all back together

Life has been very hectic with an amazing few weeks in Australia, an MBA assignment to do and of course getting the car back together.

I'm almost there now although it has been slower than expected. It takes quite a bit of time to mask up the paintwork so you don't scratch it, holes need to be re-drilled out and fitting the side vents is somewhat of a nightmare.

I'm getting there now though and I think it looks great so I thought I'd share progress.

If doing this you will be surprised just how many parts there are to refit. So far, I have done

• exhausts
• side vents
• side repeaters
• headlights
• indicators
• windscreen
• roll bar and escutcheons
• demisters
• washer jets
• front nudge bar and overriders
• aston fuel filler
• wheels (well two of them at the moment)

Anyway, enough of my rambling - it's the photos you'll want to see, so here they are.