Myles Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Both my sevens need new gaitors and covers to some of the ball-joints in the steering. As usual, I'm not prepared (in terms of ordering things off the web) and would ideally like to sort the cars this long weekend - particularly as I was planning to tweak the alignment on one of them anyway. I did a quick search of the Halfords site - couldn't see anything. Are these the sort of things I should be able to rock up to a generic PartsCo type place and get over the counter without having to spend half an hour describing the damned things (and no, I'm not planning to pull the old ones off unless I've got replacements in my hand...!) Been there - been disappointed - had to put the old whatevers back on!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Paul Richards Posted June 1, 2012 Area Representative Share Posted June 1, 2012 Ring Redline NOW - will put in post today and with you tomorrow. No guarantees, but I've virtually always had stuff next day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team SLR No.77 Posted June 1, 2012 Leadership Team Share Posted June 1, 2012 Myles, if you need to do a quick-fix use a bicycle puncture repair kit - it's worked fine for me in the past although not tried the new Park patch style repairs. Patch repairs will no longer pass an MOT but can buy some time Stu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Machine Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Try a local Motor Factors. What you want is what they do ie. their main business is to supply the smaller garages/individuals who service all makes and carry very little stock. I know our local ones are excellent. Out of interest I was chatting to some fellow club members several years ago at Le Mans. It was a revelation to them that anyone other than Caterham could supply replacements/spares for our cars and that such places exist. One guy had never heard the term 'motor factor' (he was a bit of a city type though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Stu - they are perishing - not perished. Just had both cars MOT'd - but even the 'friendly' garage put them as advisories this year. Paul - I might give them a quick call. 1st-class post to Edinburgh seems to take a day extra (and I don't want to pay for a Saturday courier!) but I'm guessing the parts are pretty-cheap and they're the sort of thing you can shove in the spares drawer without fretting about the investment. In the meantime, I'll also try to get out nice an early tomorrow and put my head round the door of a couple of the factors I know to exist round here (but have never used!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 I've placed an order with Redline - no guarantees whether they'll go out today as there are a large number of people panicking and trying to get stuff for the weekend 😬 In the meantime, I've found a few local factors - will drive one of the sevens around there and see if they can sort me out. I'll probably be easier to say 'the car is outside' rather than play 'guess the donor' or anything like that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bricol Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Caterham rack gaitors seem to be a yearly consumable - I seem to replace mine every year as they perish so quickly at the exposed ends. Ball joint boots - various companies now do spare boots as they are now an MOT fail (I thought they were before to be honest, but obviously not), and your local factors will no doubt carry a range - measure the two diameters and length and I think that is enough. I use my local small factors for just about everything car related - knows my name and numbers, will get stuff without initial payment, and for the odd thing where Halfords is cheaper, he is way quicker/cheaper on everything else. Plus Halfords staff wandering off in the middle of attempting to purchase something, because they where due a smoking break, somewhat irritated me. Bri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Might be a long shot, but ISTR the rack is very similar to an Elise rack. I dont think it an old Mini, but it could be worth a try for gaitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Ah well - in reality, I've got a year to fix it all as none of them (as far as I recall) are actually putting the bearings etc. at risk (yet). I'll try to get them sorted this weekend though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Well the answer wasn't the local factor! Did try, but they only had two varieties in stock - and one of those was for a power-steering system. Must say that given the noise the car makes - and the fact that the two blokes had clearly been sitting around all morning with nothing to do - I was a tad surprised that neither of them showed any interest in popping their heads out of the building to take a look at the car. Could of tried some other places, but needed to get to a post office before lunchtime and wasn't really fancying my chances of success anyway. The Redline order didn't make it in time either - so I've reverted to a fix-it-later approach (I.e. some time before the next mot) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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