Just goes to show what a pile of shite week/10 days me and my good lady have had that I'm pleased as punch that the XM failed the MOT . . . on just three pieces of welding. I've been laid up with a virus for the past week or so, it's knocked me for six I can say. Just coming out of it now but still get tired from doing very little.
Feeling a wee bit better on Wednesday morning I decided to have a ride over to Malcolm Lockwoods for some Hydraurinc . . . Hydraur . . . Hydroflush

with the intention of doing it when I got back but was so buggered I spent the best part of the afternoon on the settee. Going to do that this morning.
Then yesterday after pottering around early doors, purely on spec, I phoned the MOT place to see if they had a spare slot. After bringing it down home for a wash and to check the obvious bits, get a couple of tyres swapped from buckled wheels to good ones (from Norman

), check the pressures in the other tyres, which were surprisingly good, a quick squirt of fuel and off we trundle.
I had no idea what to expect with it being the first test I'd put this car through. I know the back brakes are getting towards the end of their life and will need new discs and pads but I thought everything else had a fair chance. She failed on three pieces of welding.

Two small holes on the outer sill, one on each side, and a fair size piece on the offside inner sill. The guy said it was otherwise solid underneath and must have been treated and garaged in its early life, but if I had any intention of keeping it it would be wise to have the sills cut out and new ones fitted. (CMIIW but new sills aren't available any more?) There were just two advisory's - a
product on the headlamp lens reducing output

and the dust cover on the osf ball joint is weak. To say it's the first test I've put it through I'm happy with that. The welding is being done next week, back on the road in a fortnight, and X Rally here we come.
There was one comment he made over and over again - the seats! He said they were the comfiest seats he had sat in in a long,
long time and, at one point, he and his buddy were sat in the car just
getting comfy. 