Boot Paneling & MOT Fails

Long time since the last update, so many commitments this summer, time is precious.

The last job I completed was carpeting the boot, although before I did this I wanted to panel over the battery and fuel filler pipe to give a better finish and protect those items. I've put in some angle ally along the bottom and the upright ledge of the boot. I made up an ally panel that angles up to the boot lip and has a hole for the battery cut off switch and the panel is secured using 'thumb screws' to allow easy access. I also intend to fix a tin of tyre weld and basic breakdown kit in the space behind the panel.

Ally panel angled and fitted to lip of boot

Ally bracket fixed to floor

Carpeted and fitted with thumb screws

I felt the car was now about ready for its IVA and before booking it in I decided to get it MOT'd and get some jobs done that I couldn't do (tracking, headlamp adjustment..) The car went to my local, trusted garage. Unfortunately there were some failures, I was expecting the handbrake to fail but not quite as badly as it did, here's the full list of failures. On the bright side everything else passed OK.

• Handbrake performance (12%) a pass is 15% or 18% at IVA
• Brake system performance (49%) a pass is 50%
• Headlamp adjustment (could not be adjusted as there was no "discernible beam pattern")

The garage advised the brake system would improve once bedded in but I drove the car around their yard and it didn't seem right, the pedal is hard (so no air in the system) and braking is even across the wheels so it's not one poor caliper. After some further testing it was clear the servo assist was not working. I've since replaced the servo (not an easy job with the body on and all the other ancillaries around it). I've yet to test this to see if makes a difference.

The garage were stumped by the headlights, they say this usually happens if the bulbs aren't installed correctly, but not the case here. I've confirmed the lights I have are the correct ones as used by the factory so need to look into this further.

The handbrake had always concerned me, I know others have had problems, so I've taken the decision (following others) to go for an electric handbrake solution. I've bought a Hollin's kit that you can see here. I'll be fitting this as a direct replacement for the XJS handbrake, that incidentally was knackered during the MOT when too much force was applied. So that's my task for the summer - get this handbrake fitted and working, sort the brakes & headlights. Disappointed as I'd so much hoped to have it on the road by now..