I'm currently replacing the front and rear footwells on my 1931 Box. My MOT man says that the new bits have to be welded all round, even though there is a separate chassis and the original body/floorpan is largely rivetted together.
Does anybody know the official ruling on this?
Cheers, Dave

My reading of your problem would be that your MOT guy is confusing the situation with that of an integral (modern) body shell. The foot-wells on our vintage vehicles, with separate chassis, are not structural and thus do not fall within the terms of the Act.

To be factitious, and if he persists, ask how he would weld the plywood which even some post-war vehicles had for footwells!

Perhaps you should present the vehicle elsewhere.

Mike

Dave,

I would agree with what Mike has said. I also own a 1936 Morris Eight Tourer ( separate chassis like the Seven ) like all Morris 8's from 1934 to 1939 and many other vehicles of the time it's floor panels are made from plywood sections bolted to the chassis cross members and have been from new. I'm sure the regulations the MOT tester's referring to relate to more modern integral body / floorpans.

Jeff

The Colander is made completely of plywood!
Its bonded together with epoxy resin.
Not sure about welding wood, although I have managed to grind it fairly succesfully!!

Why not go onto the department of transport website and see if there is any evidence there?
The worrying thing is that if your chosen MOT man is confusing details like this , what else will he wrongly fail? Remember with the computerised MOT all the failure details are logged so if you went elsewere they can see what has gone on before

Steve.

Dave, may I give you my experiece. I was an MOT tester in the mid 70's. The era of 1100s,minis and Morris 1000s,escorts and cortinas. The directive then was to ensure that any suspensions , subframes or body attachments thereto were sound for an area of at least 12 inches around them. I understand it is now 30 centimeters. Floors were not an official issue then,nor are they now, if they were outside these perameters. How ever If we had a car in with a rotten floor in the drivers footwell for example, we could bring "pressure" To bear to get it done on commonsense safety grounds, but we could not fail it. Of course structual repairs within the scope of official areas has to be of the highest quality. In the case of the Box this is not an MOT issue. AS to the quality of any repair the station cannot dictate the type of repair ,only judge it on presentaion for retest.Spot welded or riveted repairs attatched to well prepaired surrouding areas are fine in your case.Go some where else or ask to see the testers Manual available at the garage. I have confirmed this wth my current MOT test station this morning. keep us posted! Mac

Thanks for all replies. I've shown these to my MOT man, and after consulting the Tester's Manual, he agrees that as long as no vital component (e.g. brake pedals, steering box, springs) are attached to the body, that tack welding is OK.
He was not sure about replacing the floors with plywood.
It's going to be some time before the car is finished though.
Cheers, Dave