When my brother and I bought a Velorex from my neighbour I phoned around MOT centres and found one in Bermondsey who would do a 3 wlr; several places did Reliants but would not do a 2 front-wlr. I checked the rules applying to a 3wlr of that age (1967) and made a check list which I took to the MOT tester to discuss before making the booking (the car was not yet running, but getting close). We took the car to the tester in our van so he could compare it with the check list and tell us exactly what would need to be done. As there was still a lot to do, running it on a quiet local road would be good to get everything tested and running properly during the rest of the restoration work.
Lots of parts do not have to work if they are not fitted, including headlights, so off they came. Although this is sometimes referred to as a "Daylight" MOT, it is actually just a normal MOT, but if you are found driving the vehicle without lights in darkness or bad weather then you will be charged with "Construction and Use" offences. We had to fit a screen washer, so into the foot well I cable-tied a trigger-squeeze sprayer with a piece of thin plastic tubing pushed into its nozzle, the tube fed from the footwell, through one of many holes in the fabric body covering (!) and was glued near the windscreen, it worked fine and was never replaced.
The Tester told us we would have to fit a steering limiter to stop the pinion being damaged by going beyond the threaded part of the rack. As bought, the pinion did have a missing tooth caused by over-running the rack, and an engineer/welder friend of mine hard-welded a new tooth; for limiters each side I just added a bracket and adjustable nut and bolt to the steering mechanism.
The car had not been fully wired, but we did have to add a brake light circuit to the ignition circuit, there was no charging circuit, but the MOT station was only a mile away. There were no other electrics.
We had to get the speedo working, so I constructed a cable and fittings from several old cycle cables, and from the cables I used for the tuning gauges on the timpani which I make. This worked intermittently, and needed frequent wiggling to work properly, but it did work fine at the time of the actual test.
We had also put on new tubes and tyres and a new windscreen wiper. We tidied up the wheels, apart from some fairly heavy rust they were just good enough to use.
All brakes were serviced. The car came with some new cables. The only starter was the Lever pull starter which was a total pain, and I later put a gear on the crank rod end and added a normal car's starter motor to engage it, as the flat wiring in the PAL dynastart could not be repaired by anyone, but for the MOT it was just down to brutally tough hand lever.
Emissions had to be "No worse than other vehicles of its type and age", the tester had owned old two stroke bikes in the past and reckoned that it was about as smokey and noisy as them.
The rear body work was absent, but as none of it was structural this was not a problem.
Having consulted the tester and done all that he asked (plus a few other improvements) we booked it in, drove round and obtained an MOT. We could then drive it on a quiet local road to test its reliability, and make and road-test other improvements. Later we did a full re-wiring, adding all lighting and other electrical items, including wires for Christmas lights!
We used the car for several years then I bought out my brother's share and part-exchanged it for a Trojan needing complete restoration. By the time the Trojan was ready for MOT my local Tester had closed, so GOGGO told me about his, and that is now where I always take DUF. They are very conversant with 3 wlrs and pleasant to deal with. They also advise if anything needs to be addressed.
