Early Girling 4173 front shock absorbers

[wagstefan]

Hi there,

I recently had some original, very early Girling 4173 front shock absorbers in my hands. They have been replaced to the later Girling 4298 whereby the rear ones have been retained longer. The car they came from wasn't driven for at least 25 years.

I have seen early cars being recently restored with these original shock absorbers - e.g. 885013 at classicjaguar.com. And also 885041 seems to have them on it.

My question: is this a pure concourse - trailer queen thing and not advisable for any driving intentions or can you restore them to make them work as being new?! When I had them in had, I could not figure out, how to open them without grinding away some welds with the need to reweld them. Could not see how a technical refurbishment might be possible.

Any thoughts / experiences?

Thanks!

Stefan

[Durango2k]

I saved my original ones (1966). They looked ok, no rust on the chrome pushrod. Just perished rubber and of course paint.

I bought a PU rod, cut it in pieces, drilled holes and fitted the bushes (Hülsen) from the old rubber parts. Then put them in the car. I only drove the car in the yard, where it felt fine, so they‘ll stay, and I‘ll re-check them on the road.

But if they feel stiff and generally „how they should feel“, I‘d keep them.

There is no way to test them by hand....of course you could see an ADAC test lorrie on a supermarket place on a saturday morning and have the car checked on their test stand, and generate a crowd this way , but this means a finished car first.

Carsten

[wagstefan]

Hi Carsten,

How are things going...

Thank you for your reply. But this implies, that you could disassemble the shock absorbers, right?! How did you do that? At least with the old ones, I have no clue, how this could happen?!

Cheers

Stefan

[Durango2k]

Hi Stefan,

No I could not open them. All I did was some grease, a re-paint, and changing the rubber bushes on both ends of them.

Carsten

[budmarston@aol.com]

Hello -

I own 885041. All four shock absorbers are new.

[wagstefan]

Hi Bud,

Have sent you a private message hereover....

885041 is sensational! I wish I could get my early FHC in regard of originality and beauty close to yours.
Cheers

Stefan

[budmarston@aol.com]

Thanks so much for the nice comment!

Extreme attention to detail helped in restoring 885041 to an extremely high level of authenticity. I reviewed Ebay listings and other sources for exceedingly rare parts every day for 5 years - more of an enjoyable hobby for me rather than a pain.

"The E-Type Forum" was unbelievably helpful in verifying authenticity during o41's restoration.

[budmarston@aol.com]

I just checked with Classic Showcase regarding the shocks on my 885041.

The shocks fitted to 885041are new Boge shocks. The shocks were painted a very special dark, smoked grey color that is an almost exact match to the original shock color.