Four bands·Preparation
After band 04 · before the pitch
Preparation, and the work this office refuses
Preparation happens after the sheet is closed, never before it, because work done first destroys the readings the sheet is made of. What follows is the list of what is done and the shorter, more important list of what is not.
Order Sheet first, spanner second
Why nothing is touched until the sheet is closed
A cleaned engine bay cannot be read for a seep. A dressed tyre hides the sidewall codes and the cracking between the blocks. A cleared fault memory looks exactly like a vehicle that never had a fault. Each of those is a normal preparation job, and each of them deletes a reading the inspection depends on — so the order is fixed: the sheet closes, and then preparation starts against the findings written on it.
That order also fixes who decides what gets done. Preparation here is not a judgement about what will sell; it is a response to a list that already exists on paper, item by item, with the item number from the sheet written against the work.
Done Replaced, not refreshed
What preparation covers
- Consumables inside one interval of their limitBrake pads and discs, wiper blades and bulbs are replaced rather than left to be somebody else's first job, and the old parts are kept until the vehicle leaves.
- Tyres read individuallyA tyre is replaced on its own reading at the inner, centre and outer, not on the average of the four. Matching a replacement to the others on the axle is part of the job.
- Fluids where the record is absentWhere no invoice evidences a change, engine oil and filter are drained and renewed, and the renewal is dated on the sheet as carried out here rather than claimed as history.
- Cambelt recorded as unknownWhere no document evidences a change, the interval is recorded as unknown. It is not renewed by assumption and it is not described as recently done.
- Keys, codes and the locking nutBoth keys tried on the locks and the immobiliser, the wheel-nut key located or sourced, and the count written on the sheet.
- Interior cleaned to a readable stateCarpets lifted where a stamped number or a floor seam sits underneath, boot emptied to the spare-wheel well, and no dressing used anywhere.
Not done Refused on principle
The work that is deliberately left undone
Everything below is ordinary trade practice somewhere. None of it is done here, because each one removes something a buyer would otherwise be able to read for themselves.
No dressing, anywhere
Not on tyres, not in the engine bay, not on arch liners or suspension components. Dressing is the cheapest way to hide a weep, a perish or a fresh leak, and a dry bay can be read.
No filler, no touch-in on a gauged panel
A panel that the depth reading put well away from its neighbours is left exactly as it reads. Making it look consistent would contradict the figure written on the sheet.
No codes cleared before they are written
Stored codes are read and recorded first. A memory wiped before it was written down cannot be reconstructed, and the next person to read the vehicle is entitled to the list.
No polishing out of a crack
A cracked screen, lens or trim panel is replaced or recorded. It is not blended until it photographs well, because the photograph is not what the buyer collects.
Scope What this page is not
Preparation is a list of jobs, not a guarantee
No warranty, guarantee or cover of any kind is described on this site, and none should be read into the list above. What the list is, is a record: each item names the work, the date it was carried out and the sheet item it answers, and that record leaves with the vehicle alongside the findings that were not acted on.
Findings that preparation does not resolve stay on the sheet in their original wording. They are not softened once the work around them is finished, and the closing sentence of the sheet is not rewritten because the vehicle now looks better than it did.