Saturday, August 05, 2006

Rotten, just rotten


Rotten metal
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Why is it that car jobs ALWAYS get worse not better when you approach them ?

The photo shows the state of the read valance on my Volkswagen Type 2 air-cooled campervan*

With the MOT approaching I thought I’d better start getting it ready. Two jobs were needed before it went for the first attempt – Adjust the brakes and bodge the rear valance.

Brakes. Oh dear. This is supposed to be an easy job. I’d done it on my Beetle in the past but hate it. I jacked the van up so the wheel was a little off the ground. The adjusters didn’t seem to want to move. Thinking better of crawling under the vehicle with it supported only by a jack I got the axle stands out. They aren’t quite tall enough as they are designed for a normal car, not something fat blokes can crawl under comfortably. Anyway, we have a gravel drive with slabs for driving on. No slab where I needed to put the stand though. Oh, well, I hate it anyway so someone who knows what they are doing can handle this one.

The valance. My idea had been to slap a patch over that little hole in it. I have the replacement part in the garage but reckon I need at least two full days to fit it. Of course when I saw this, the patch idea went out of the window. No chance of any days off work this month for me unfortunately.

Sooooo, my new plan is to take the van for it’s MOT on Monday. It will fail. Then take it around to Malc saying, “Get it through the MOT and take all my money.” And cry at the bill. Sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do.

Next year can someone remind the MOT is due earlier than two weeks before it is please ?

*Yes I am writing a lot of keywords in the text. I need to make those Google adverts pay. Please click on them – it costs you nothing and makes me a few pence richer. How else am I to pay for these projects you enjoy reading about ? :-)

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