Its been a week of 'firsts' for me and the van - first MOt failure, first appointment at the van doctor, and first post. Been a 'guest' for about 5 years now since having the van, but finally taken the plunge and joined up. As you can see, the van is Holdsworth Villa 3 in tango orange (its kind bright now, she must have melted the eye balls when she rolled out of the factory in '85). If you're driving around Oxfordshire, you might have seen me, the other half and the van out and about (usually going down to the New Forest or across to the Forest of Dean)
Anyway, yep she failed the MOT bigtime, so I can't put it off any more, shes going to get sorted at the local van doctor. Basically, all the usual rust spots including "offside front seatbelt anchorage, rear exhaust, inner wing subframe mounting, outer sill sub frame mounting, front steps, jacking points, wheel arches both front and rear" - extract from the wrong coloured MOT form (i.e the 'it failed' coloured piece of paper).
Apart from that, shes in pretty good nick, with the Holdsworth interior bearing up quite well and the engine still hanging in there. At the moment shes worth spending the hard earned dosh on, and shes a part of the 'family' so to speak.
I'm seeking advice about taking the interior out and re-fitting - is it hard? and can it be done by me without making it look c##p? I'm OK with the DIY so thats not a problem, but if the interior isn't going to go back properly, shall I make (ha ha
) a new one?And to generate some good karma, I offer this piece of advice to all new owners - rust is bad! deal with it before its too late.
A few pictures of the van to keep you going.
