Competition time.

[RobThomas]

OK, all you have to do to win is guess which 4 out of these 6 rubber bushes have done 38,000 miles from new in 1952 and which ones are the 2 new ones.

Winner gets a Custard Cream.[frame][/frame]

[panky]

Difficult - can you give us a clue

[RobThomas]

C'mon, I could have made it much more difficult by showing 'new' ones I got from a certain place in the West Country many years ago. Then it would be reeeeealy hard to tell which were which since those 'new' ones had rotted out all by themselves in a sealed plastic bag.

[panky]

Shot in the dark - the two new looking ones are new

[taupe]

Thats easy

The two worn through and split with rust stains are the new ones.. the rest are orig..

Taupe

[RobThomas]

Well, the other side is off. Bl**dy nightmare to do on the MM series cars. The exhaust manifold has to be freed off so you can get the torsion bar sideways enough to get it out. The BFH wasn't B enough to slip the arm back so I had to do it like that. Left hand rubbers were much better at the top (Metalastic) and could perhaps have been reused but the bottoms were like the first side.

Interestingly, all 4 trunnions are still the original type bronze ones.

So far I've not had to struggle with any nuts and bolts, they've all come out easily. Most could be spun off with fingers. Must have been made with decent materials, unlike the later cars. The whole of the underside of the car looks to have been painted with a semi-hardening oil-based chemical that has preserved the car remarkably well. I guess if it is still so original and has under 40,000 miles in 60+ years then someone had been looking after it.

[SteveClem]

Some of these new parts are truly rubbish. There was a thread some time ago with a debate about whether manufacturers were making carpy minor parts because owners wouldn't pay for decent stuff. Me, I'd pay more for good quality, but you just can't tell what is ok.