My new project

Cheers will look into remote key now.

Wow £59 is really good value for a new fob. Normally can expect to pay over £100 for one. Cheers. I'm ordering the kit now.

Next job. To repair the torn front leather seats? Know any good places that'll do that?

Unless stayin original is a sticking point, why not look at a full re-trim kit from Exmoore trim?

Got my eye on a set for my front seats but crunchy gearbox is getting right on my tits

I want to stay original as it's the ES model with full cream leather seats. It's only the two front seat bases stitching has split where two pieces of leather are stitched together. I'll try get a pic later.

Did you complete the boot floor replacement?
if so, can you share some photos?

i need to do mine ASAP or find a mate/garage. tough decisions ahead

Yeah new floor done. I was very lucky that it really was just the floor that had minor rust. The side plates wheel arches and cross members where all solid and no rust. I painted them with hamerite anyway to make sure they lasted another 20years. I'm working all week but this weekend I'll take pics and post them.

Sounds good. I need to replace the cross members too but hopefully not too difficult. Cool. Thanks.
How long did your take to do in the end?

If you have a whole day un-interrupted then you could easily do it in a day. It took me a few days but that was because I was doing a few hours at a time.
The only thing that gave me issues was the rear seatbelt mounts, the bolts had rusted solid so I had to drill them out and find some new ones.

Just be really careful when cutting out old floor I used an angle grinder but I didn't realise how close to the underside some of the lines were. I came within mm's of cutting various brake and fuel pipes.

Ok, thanks for the advice! I am tempted to do it my self with support from a mate if needed as garage prices are huge! Think my bolts for seat belts may be ok but will replace with stainless steel anyway so future will be easier.

I am tempted to replace using 3mm thick steel plate rather than the standard boot floor so it lasts even longer?

I am also tempted to bolt this base into the car so it can be removed easier in future but need to check if this is MOT pass or fail though.

The boot floor does not need to be welded. It can be bolted as my MOT tester said. The disco boot floor is not structural as long as the seat belt mounts are solid to chassis the boot floor could be made of ply wood if you really wanted

Ideal.

Possible idea is to bolt steel angle iron the length of the side floor adjacent to wheel arch then bolt floor onto that angle. Renew cross members and bolt them to the new floor across the width. Then either bolt to side floor or weld at that point.

Zaky31 said:

The boot floor does not need to be welded. It can be bolted as my MOT tester said. The disco boot floor is not structural as long as the seat belt mounts are solid to chassis the boot floor could be made of ply wood if you really wanted

Click to expand...

Nice to see a diferrent interpretation of the rules, must admit, completely the opposite of what my own MOT tester told me a few years back, Disco's aint changed, neither have the rules, but it comes down to individual testers interpretations I suppose.

I wondered how long it would be before someone said something.....
When I was looking at the best way to do it I got mixed answers some said "it MUST be welded" some saying "I just pop riveted and it's been fine for years"

When I cut out the old boot floor I took the disco to the tester and asked his advice on what to do he said welding. Is best but there is nothing to say you can't bolt or rivet. He even showed me the official testers rule book and it was clear that he was right. He said to be honest the separate body and chassis (non-Monococ) design means if you rolled into the garage with just the chassis with a secure seat and seat belt points it would pass without a body........
He said with regards to non-structural rust so body only rust it has to exceed 50% of the total body mass to fail.

I trust this guy and here's why. The garage is a local authority garage/tester so no incentive to make money out of anyone. This was proved when I took my old Mk 4 fiesta to another garage for an MOT 5 months ago. That garage told me it needed over £700 of repairs to pass an MOT. (I knew it was a load of rubbish) I drove my fiesta away from that garage and took it directly to this guy, 40 minutes later he passed it with only 2 advisories. Since then I've only ever taken my vehicles to him. He's honest but by the book. He's a very rare breed now as I know many garages that have absolutely ripped people off.

I used to use the Ministry of Transport depot, couldnt go wrong with them.

I know the whole rip off garages thing and never used them unless work took priority, even then it was a local trusted one man band who just wanted it in and out and paid as fast as possible.

My point being the interpretation of the rules, as with all things drafted by central and local gov, they are open to interpretation due to the inability of the makers to be able to clearly define the subject.

Oh yes. I see what your saying. This is very true a lot of the wording is 'loosely' put so yes I suppose it is very easy to make assumptions on them as opposed to if it was clearly set out and defined. Having said that I know the reason they sometimes fail the boot floor is based on the rule of rust within 30cm of the seat belt mounts (I'm talking only about boot floor not rear wheel arches) HOWEVER when you get down to the design the boot floor offers no support to the seat belts anyway as the actual mounts are attached to the chassis underneath, the boot floor is simply in the way of these. So based on that I can't see how it can fail if the boot floor is crumbling as long as the mounts are solid. Technically you could leave out the boot floor and it should still pass

I'm happy in the knowledge now that I have found the best testers. I have spent the past 15 years trying to find a garage that doesn't see ££££ signs everytime I walk through the door. I know where my loyalty lies now

Always take mine to authority test stations , always will do , due to rip off merchants around Leeds.