One of our members has sent in a note of a worrying situation which he feels may have a bearing on some DIY maintenance work fellow members might undertake on classic cars like the MGBGTV8 and RV8. He heard that a parts supplier was supplying a quantity of parts to a garage that is carrying out the repairs to a fire damaged MGB. The cause of the fire was because the owner had replaced the rubber push on fuel pipes but had not secured them with clips. Whether they had clips prior to the work is not known. The crux of the tale is that the insurance company has refused to pay anything for the fire damage and necessary repairs because they consider the the parts were not fitted properly and not fitted by a professional motor mechanic.

This is of considerable concern because whilst the cost of the parts for this repair is relatively minor and thankfully there were no injuries to the driver or other parties but clearly if in another case the car had developed a fault following DIY work and had mown down a bus queue then an uninsured liability claim would definitely bankrupt most people! Our member feels this is relevant to various types of servicing work which does require good skills and experience - for example refurbishing steering racks or other safety critical work involving shimming.

In many cases refurbished components like steering racks and king pin sets can be obtained where the refurbishment work has been carried out by skilled specialists to a very high standard. Having said that Clive Wheatley mentioned the other day that there are some very poor quality "refurbished" steering racks available in the market. Clive has a specialist in the West Midlands who refurbishes the racks to a high standard on his customers' MGV8s.