Lighting

 A small but very important task today, rear lights;

Hmm, those lights look awful in the picture!! I guess it's because the picture was taken quite close, because the indicator bulbs don't stick out to the side like they look, and the reverse and fog lights are perfectly in line!

Anyway, no real issues here. I used stick on paper templates to place the indicator and stop lights, then drilled through the paper. The fog and reverse light were placed according to the IVA. Well, the fog light was, the reverse light was just done to mirror the fog light. 

The rules for the fog light were that it needs to be somewhere between the centre and the drivers side edge, it needs to be 100mm away from any stop light, and it needs to be square on. Drivers side was an easy call, a quick measurement to make sure it was far enough away covered that side of things. The main issue was having the light square on, and half an hour with the 3D printer got suitable brackets to deal with the curves;

Both lights are now very secure and square. Next step is to wire them up.

(Small edit). The gap between the lights wasn't enough for my number plate to fit, so I asked the question on LCB as to whether a 2 row plate is permitted. It seems 'yes', and it also occurred to me that there would be something in the IVA manual, and yes there is. There needs to be a space for a plate that is one of two sizes;

Euro Space option 1 is 520 wide and 120 high

Euro Space option 2 is 340 wide and 240 high

The doubling in height suggests that a 2 row plate is allowed. However, the guidance also states 'A plate hanging from the vehicle with no structure or support brackets behind it would be considered unacceptable. So I need to add a couple of brackets to support a suitable sized gap. Checking the gap with a tape measure shows I have 510 between lights, so it's got to be option 2. Interestingly even option 2 is bigger than the plate my donor car had!