> The MGA grille is a perfect example. There is no "definitive" original
> shape. We have the factory drawings, and a grille made to those
> measurements will not fit any MGA. The reproduction unit on the market >
is not made by Moss Motors, and the market will not support two
> manufacturers.
I was going to bring this up in my original message, but thought I'd be
getting too far off track... now that Kelvin has :) About two years ago
Scarbourghe Faire was supplied with an NOS MGA Grille, SF's plans at the
time were to do take lots of computer measurements and try and reproduce
something as close as they good to that NOS unit. Still no word, but I
think we got the grille back (and have since sold it) for $400+.
MGA bumpers are another fine example. The profile was completely wrong a
while back (Kelvin, have they been fixed?). While I'm sure they were again
made to spec, the spec's for some reason were not what final product
resembled. But in the case of a bumper, where the profile is basically the
same along the entire length, it would be easier and costly to fix.
> The answer is brand named quality goods. Unfortunately the brand
> names that we have relied upon are no longer supported. Lucas, AE,
> Vandervell, Holbert/Eaton are a thing of the past, many have disapeared, >
others have been diluted with sub-standard parts. N.O.S. is not the
> answer either, as Kai has pointed out. I don't care how good the parts
> were originally, I am not going to put 25 year old seals in my brake
> system.
Very well said. I always hesitated selling customers NOS hydraulics,
although they really really wanted them... it didn't both me as much as the
loons who wanted to purchased used hydraulics (not to rebuild)! Lucas
Aftermarket Operations are still pretty active, producing quite a few
things... but many not. I will still scour the globe for Vandervell
bearings and Hepolite pistons...
(hey Kelvin, any word on when proper MGB master cylinders will be
available?!?!?!)
Many NOS components are just not useable for too much anymore. Gearsets, as
I made vague motion to in my last message, were coated with cosmoline. The
lifetime of cosmoline is about two years and then it begins to crack, and
moisture can get inside. NOS TR7 (as an example) gear sets from 1978 have
surface rust and certianly everything before the TR7 too and probably can be
salvaged which lots of hardwork.
I always had a problem when the customer didn't have a proper notion of NOS.
NOS to them meant a perfect original part. No, I do not think so. That
definition is of an ideal NOS part, and applies mainly to electrical items
made by Lucas (those Lucas boxes are hardwearing and keep the part pretty
darned safe). 80% of NOS parts exhibit a tremendous amount of shelf life.
The larger and or heavier, the more shelf life. Instead of being picked up
and moved in the last 20 years, someone would just push them giving them
scratches and removing paint. I have handled some NOS MGB LE wheels which
any one of you would have sworn were used. And by all accounts, they should
be sold as used...
Kelvin's message was spot on in all respects, and all I hope to do is echo
that. As another example, about two months ago I was doing a major overhaul
of the clutch in my TR-6. New cross shaft, fork, doubled bushings,hardened
pin, throwout bearing, etc. Well I had a new cross shaft from TRF already,
but I couldn't get the damned thing to align correctly with the fork
assembly. I finally compared it with my used shaft, and sure enough the
hole for the pin was drilled about two and a half millimeters off. I called
a coworker, who was still at work, and he dropped off an NOS Stanpart cross
shaft (British car parts delivery!) at about 10pm. I took it out of it's
wrapper and so lots of rust scale... oh well. About two hours with some
emory clothe and very fine steel wool, and it the surface was perfect. The
fork assembly aligned correctly and the pin went in without a problem.
TRF denied that the mistake was in their part. Oh well, I swallowed my cost
of $20 for the cross shaft. I didn't bother checking to see if the Moss
shafts were any different...
Cheers,
Kai
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