Print

[snurbi]

In the latter stages of rebuilding my bulkhead and having researched the 'best' door seal option I recently placed and order for the COH Baines SRS097 profile that appears to be closest to the original and best performing.
The company have contacted me to say they have no stock and are likely to discontinue this profile as it is slow mover. They will let me know within a few days when a decision is made, but I am not hopeful.
If anyone else was considering purchasing this seal it could only help the cause if they made an enquiry to Baines as it would be a pity if this becomes unobtainable as I have been unable to find anything similar, unless any members can point me at something as good.

[Genem]

Thanks, worthy of a discussion about a bulk buy by the Club I think ?

[GHOBHW]

that is a shame, hopefully they change their mind on it or someone else picks it up, sad to lose bits like this, as the alternatives are usually no where near in quality

[Ndrwdz]

Thanks, worthy of a discussion about a bulk buy by the Club I think ?

Happy to store a load of this...

Andrew
Club Shop Manager

[Eve]

I thought the club's policy was not to stock spare parts? It's not set up for this and frankly is not good at it. Plus it ties up club funds and creates the financial risk of stock damage and stock loss plus there's nowhere to store such stock.
(Last time I looked, the club shop had enough cork wiper motor gaskets to last into the next century  ).
Surely another supplier might stock these seals. Do we know who manufactures them?

[diffwhine]

I currently have three vehicles which will need these seals, so I'd happily support a bulk buy.

[Eve]

OK a group purchase is a different matter 

[Craig T]

I used a lot of this, 11 metres of it on my 109" Station wagon not so long ago and it is great seal. 

Wonder what their minimum order is to run a batch off, 100m maybe, 200m, 1Km?

The series one club also sells reproduction door seals in the series one seal profile. I'm pretty sure it is made by Baines as well, it looks identical material to my IIA seals.

Craig.

[Simon1959]

I need a couple of doors worth

[paulv]

Their webshop is still letting you order and pay for it, also states the maximum length is 50metres at £3.89 per metre might be worth a call to see what the minimum number of rolls would need to be ordered for them to run it.

Baines are not far from me so if anything needs picking up let me know.

[Worf]

I used to use a lot of quarter round sponge extrusion from them, but Baines have also discontinued that. You can still get it at an extortionate price from USA, as that is still used on some light aircraft.

[Genem]

OK, after discussion with Alex, the Chairman, I rang Baines to explore the situation.

First off, the seal is indeed out of stock BUT the good news is that they have more on order, lead-time currently 12 weeks.  Its a product they buy in rather than make in-house. I made a point about 2400 potential customers... So, no threat of discontinuation at the moment but a delay if you are mid-restoration and need it next week, you will have to be patient.

In the general run of things, the Club Policy is to support group purchases and not to try to compete with specialist suppliers to stock readily available products. As Tim rightly says we have no storage for quantities of bulky items anyway. OTOH we do stock things like "correct" bulkhead plates - small size, easily stored and not easy to come by "proper" ones.  We have funds but they are limited, they would quickly be used up if we got into trying to manufacture and stock "unobtanium" parts - a key factor being that the vast majority of S2 parts are available from various sources (or, heresy, there is an S3 part that will do to keep the vehicle moving) so we would be investing in those few parts that are of particular interest to the small minority who happen to own that particular model.

My thinking in this case is that "door-seal that works" seems only to be available from Baines and would be of interest to all of us at some point ?  That would have made a case for the Club getting involved in a production order perhaps - but it seems normal service will be resumed at some point this autumn, so for now there is no need to dig deeper. 

 

Gene.   

[AlexB]

 

Great work by the CLub

Potential problem highlighted, investigated and, for the moment, sorted