Our Van FAILED Inspection!

Well, that didn’t go as planned.

We got our van back from the inspection and were so excited to get it registered and ready to go, but the inspection facility we took it to chose to fail it for some pretty silly reasons. The CV boot had a very repairable tear (which we’ve already fixed) that they refused to touch and the headlights were apparently “too foggy” for them to consider “safe for road use”.

We don’t know if they were just having a bad day or if something else was going on, but what we do know for sure is they wasted our time and took our money. Nice.

So with the little bit of defeat this setback caused shaken off we got to work on picking the van up from Unknown Automotive and had our first real experience driving it. This video is all about showcasing the hilarious features this van has so you can see why we’re so into it, what kind of trouble we got ourselves into when trying to register it, and some of the prep we did for its next inspection.

We took the van back to Alex’s parkade to do some cleaning and repairs, and after a few hours, we should be all set for our next inspection!

The CV boot has been repaired and even though we really didn’t feel it was necessary Alex spent some time sanding, polishing and sealing the headlights. We gave the van a pretty substantial detailing (including doing as much as we could to eliminate the cigarette stench), pulled the leather seat covers off (which lead to us discovering that we had some immaculate cloth seats hiding underneath), and cleaned off all the port markings from the glass.

Our next inspection is booked for the day after this video comes out so hopefully the next installment of our van video series has some good news and we can finally shoot a proper reveal of the Alphard.

At this point, it’s simply become a labour of love because man do we ever love this hilarious van. We can’t wait to get it on the road.

One more announcement: Pop-Up Shop II has been confirmed!

What better way to celebrate what we know will be an awesome summer coming to an end than with the second-ever Checkpoint Pop-Up Shop. Bring your cars, cameras, dogs, vintage apparel, good attitudes and some cash.

There will be: