For Fog's sake...

Monday was a day of mixed fortunes. HMRC informed me that they were satisfied by the payment of VAT on the Twingo released the NOVA document on the car, a major step closer to being able to apply for a UK registration.

However; all was not so well during the evening, I had arranged with the assistance of a mechanic friend to set about preparing the Twingo for MOT.

The first step was to fit the rear fog light, and this was a reasonably straightforward process. Mounting the fog light was the tricky bit, I didn’t want drill into the bumper to fit the light but whilst the car was in the air, it was decided to mount the bracket using one of the existing torx bolt slots used to secure the bumper to the bottom of the car. The bracket needed drilling slightly to accept the bolt, but the position meets the requirement for the light to be between the middle and offside of the vehicle. The existing wiring loom to the nearside cluster was cut and jointed so that a separate feed to the auxiliary bulb could be wired using the channelling behind the bumper giving a neat end result.

                                             

The after market fog light is neatly mounted to the car using one of the bumper fastening bolts. 

Unfortunately the beam deflectors came with instructions that did not include the 1^st gen Twingo, so I have not yet fitted these. I will be speaking to the MOT station I intend to use about them doing this using headlamp alignment equipment before the test itself.

Using a four post lift, we were able to get the car right up to see the condition, the corrosion I had seen from the topside was worse underneath. It is not beyond salvation but it will need a patch repair near one of the jacking points where it has developed a fair rust hole. The worst rot was inside the offside rear wheel arch; a bracket mounted to the body shell holds the fuel filler neck in position. The bracket has rusted off and this will require a new section to be welded in with a bracket for the filler neck to be fixed too. Again this will be a job for the MOT garage to complete before they test the car.

A bracket should connect the filler neck to the inner wheelarch of the car. The bracket has clearly rusted away due to the lack of any inner wheelarch protection. 

The only other bit requiring work are the front strut tops which are badly worn on the nearside, a replacement set has been ordered via Autodoc. Autodoc carry a useful selection of spares for the Twingo including body panels; I feel that this won’t be my last visit to the site.

Once the strut tops arrive, it’ll be time to get them changed and then off for the welding repairs and MOT.