Back at the windscreen fitters
he admitted he was not an auto electrician. Between us we failed to get them to park. Not being particularly electrically minded myself the 'easy option' was to replace the motor. No point it going to the yard, as LHD cars have a different set-up. It just happened that my brother was attending a Volvo club show (he had a short affair with a Volvo 480 Celebration, but that's history now) which had an autojumble on site. He found one for £15 & passed it onto a forum mate who was coming over for his hols'. So dry once again & soon to have 'parking wipers' once more.
Having asked around about welding those holes up, by chance I learned of a self-employed mechanic who came highly recommended. An English chap, who had set up here. On speaking to him, his background was in Mercedes maindealers, before going it alone. I explained about the holes & he asked about the age of 'Tank', at that time he was 21. Steve said, "Mmm on a car of that age a bit of rust has a habit of being more serious than it looks if it is I'll tell you".
A few weeks later, I set off on the 65 or so miles to Steves workshop. On arrival he'd just finished a job & said, "righto I've got an hour before my next job is due so lets give this thing the once over". He'd arranged for his welder to come over too. I'd stripped out the internal trim before leaving home. Steve checked the rust & confirmed that it was the internal floor only that was affected & that the underside of the car was solid. Welder turned up & said he could sort the holes easily enough. Steve found a few issues:
One front brake flexi was 'bulging'. Something I'd missed
Clutch slave was leaking.
Front bushes were worn.
Of course, he could do the front shocks & springs
He was also happy for me to supply the bits & offered a full blast off of the underside & waxoyl type treatment for the cost of 1hrs labour
After he'd finished, he said, "This is good I've not seen one for many years close up this would be good for my mobile business that I'm setting up if you want to sell" I declined!