Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
SMASHED GLASS
Have you ever had one of those months where you think that nothing else could go wrong?
It started out with my day driver moaning that the hatch on my Superb wasn’t staying up and was catching him on the head. So, it was a choice of either getting rid of Dan after eight years or replacing the struts… I opted for new struts.
These arrive from ebay and I knew what to do as YouTube is great for things like this and all you need to do is prop up the hatch and pull out one strut and replace, then do the other
one....simple. However, after removing a strut from one side I realised that I had been sent the wrong ones. No, problem, just get the correct ones sent. These then arrive a few days later and now I am an expert and I can see that this will only take about ten minutes, so I thought I will do these just before I start work in the evening. Even though it had just started to rain I knew it was a quick job, and my driver will stop moaning which was the most important thing.
Confidently I lifted up the hatch, removed a strut from one side….and crash….the hatch slams down and catches the strut between the hatch and the bodywork causing a dent and smashing the rear screen glass as it had just caught the edge of it. I had forgotten to use the prop and had not snapped the new strut into place properly which then popped out, and with the other strut being weak it couldn’t take the weight.
I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to the young lady pushing a pram nearby who was in earshot of some rarely used expletives that I have to say I was embarrassed about using.
I stared at the aftermath for quite a while whilst taking in the impact of what I had just done, and the rain was now laughing at me as it purposely increased its deliverance in spite. Fortunately, I had recently bought a large tarpaulin so this was put into use with some bungie-straps.
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Two things to do. One, phone Dan to tell him he was now off until I get it fixed, but at the same time assure him that I had glass cover on with the insurance. Two, phone the insurance to get this sorted with probably two days max off the road.
The insurance company was great and put me through to a national car glass replacement company. However, due to the fact that this was the rear screen, this was not available in the UK and had to be put on back order to come from Germany. An approximate delivery time was five to ten days, but even that could not be guaranteed. But I had no choice so agreed to this, and phoned Dan who of course was not very happy, but was resigned to occupying his time playing golf, which to me is waste of a good walk.
The trouble was that the council compliance/MoT test was booked in at one of the approved test centres the following week with the actual relicensing by the Licensing Department booked in a couple of days later. I did ask my long-standing mechanic who also does MoT tests if it could possibly be put through a test with the absent rear window. He told me that this couldn’t be done as you need to see through the window. I said you could if you remove the tarpaulin. But although he laughed, he said “No!”. I had to ask though. So, the test and re-licensing had to be cancelled.
He advised me to see if I could get a pre-owned one as he knew an independent windscreen repair company who would do the job. Great idea! So, after a while of searching around, I located a matching rear glass, although it came complete with the upper hatch. Fifty quid and another fifty quid shipping was the way to go and I was told it could be removed by the windscreen company. However, although I ordered it there was still the time period for it to be delivered from Manchester so I had to cancel the compliance test and the relicensing. But it arrived and the windscreen people were great and ‘cheese-wired’ it out and refitted it.
Ok, about ten days lost so far but I was finally able to get it booked in for the compliance test. I also took the opportunity to do a minor repair to the n/s rear bumper corner whilst it was off the road and did a brilliant job, even though I say so myself.
The car failed on a defective rear fog light which was really annoying as the relicensing was re-booked for two days’ time. Having taken it back to my mechanic as it looked like the whole sealed unit needed replacing, I was told that the compliance centre had
APRIL 2023 PHTM
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