Stainless Steel Wishbones are Ready!

[Jeemy]

After almost 18 months, the final design of the new uprated stainless steel wishbones is ready! Some LEC members pre-ordered these but given the time these things take, I am no longer going to put stuff public until its done - well, its done.

Differently to the previous hub runs which were a Group Buy, these are a non-LEC affiliated product and sold by my company SVS under our aftermarket parts warranty. Here are all the details you will need:

We and the manufacturers will offer a lifetime warranty on these parts to the original purchaser - all items have been produced using top quality materials, British stainless steel, and will be individually inspected for faults, pinholes, or weld problems before supply to me.

We have made several changes to the original specification, both of the OEM wishbones, and the stainless steel run that was produced via here a few years back, before I was involved.

• We have had 30 sets of legs so 60, made. Carriers were marked and drilled by program.
• We have had the bosses turned out of solid stainless steel
• The legs were laser cut to get the angles correct.
• We have uprated the tubing support (the circular tube running across the inner section) so these are now heavily uprated instead of OEM specs.
• The carrier for the shock absorbers is now laser cut, as the hole is not a true circle; it has the exact flat section as per the originals.
• Additional plates were made for the bosses to deal with 1mm difference between the inner and outer bushes, and we had to have bosses machined out to fit the anti-roll bars more accurately.
• We’ve increased the flux core material & gas - wire was originally 0.6, we used 0.9 flux core SS 316L wire throughout.
• All material is top quality stainless with equivalent flex and additional strength.
• All products have now gone under a full external inspection for pinholes, weld problems, and are supplied unfinished to ensure no faults could be hidden.

The preorder items are in stock. Attached are pictures of both the production process and the finished items.

All the cut sets (30 pairs total) are ready to assemble, and can be assembled in batches on an 8-week turnaround. Pre-orders were 7 sets so I will be shipping the pre-orders out over the next 2-3 weeks dependent on bushings.

We are now a Powerflex dealer, and can give you discounts on all Powerflex bushings, but the Elan M100 bushings were produced for South West Lotus exclusively. We've agreed with SWL that they can sell these wishbones, and we can sell the bushings, so we can give you 10% off bushings.

Finally, fitment is a 2-hour job which we will discount to £40.

Production time is 8 weeks. This average production time may come up and down but I am concerned first and foremost about care being taken in assembly so nothing will be rushed.

The final thing to note is that we will shortly be able to offer finishing options on these; I am awaiting to confirm these. But primarily, orders will be taken as per LEC rules on a first come first served basis, so to ensure receiving a set, you should order now - you do not have to pay in full but you have to pay a (refundable) deposit.

So onto prices and costs.

Wishbones Themselves

Will retail at £500 each, or £1,000 per pair. You will receive a 20% discount as per the standard discount we provide to all LEC members making your cost £400 each or £800 per pair. This discount must be accompanied by a valid LEC username established 1 month or more on the site.

Bushes
A full set of bushes from us retails at £110.25. You will receive a 20% discount as per the standard discount we provide to all LEC members making your cost £88.20. This discount must be accompanied by a valid LEC username established 1 month or more on the site.

Fitting
We fit the bushings using a press, not a vice. Cost is £40 and this is pre-discounted for all purchases from £70. Coupon will not function for this product.

How to Purchase
1) The easiest way is to purchase via our website. Use the following link(s) to take you there.
Elan SS Wishbones

Click the button above to take you to the wishbones. Add the bushings & fitments below.

Then use code LECM100DISC to get 20% off everything. Shipping is £35 to mainland UK and £60 worldwide.

2) Direct order with me.

If you want to order direct with me, please email me at jamie@specialistvehiclesolutions.com. I will need:

- name & LEC username
- invoice address
- delivery address if different
- telephone number

You will get a mail back and can then pay by bank transfer, paypal, cheque, or any other method really. The site offers all of this but some people prefer not to use websites.

3) Reserve via deposit.

Deposit would secure you a set and may be a solution for those who want to reserve a set but don't have funds right now. The deposit cost would be £300. This can be paid either via the website using this link, or direct to me as per the above.

I'm finding it hard to bulk transfer the pictures from my hosting to LEC, so best link is this:
Pictures of Wishbones

[HJ2]

[Jeemy]

I've edited this post to reflect recent events. I've discussed this with the manufacturer long and hard this morning and at no additional cost but a small delay in average production time, we will offer a limited lifetime warranty to the original purchaser on these items.

[Jeemy]

With the new 6-8 week delivery time, I am revising production schedules as we are not the only fish in the pond. 4 sets ordered so far, so up to 8 more sets will be delivered in 6-8 weeks; after this you would be looking at January delivery roughly dependent on production schedule changes.

[lotusrepair]

Question about the wishbones....
Will they take the stock bushings as well as the new poly bushings.

These are front lowers. Are there plans to make rear also?

Thanks
Chris

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Question about the wishbones....
Will they take the stock bushings as well as the new poly bushings.

These are front lowers. Are there plans to make rear also?

Thanks
Chris

The wishbones pictured are the rear lower. The fronts use a Track Control Arm (with outrigger), not a wishbone at the bottom. There are upper front wishbones, but a different scale altogether.

OEM rubber bushes are no longer available except for some outrageously expensive NOS that pop up occasionally.

[Steve A]

[Jeemy]

Hi Chris,

As correctly pointed out, these are rear lower wishbones, hence the use of the term wishbone, as the fronts I am terming TCA. I've been working on these for over a year, and the next thing I will be producing is front TCAs - tracking control arms. I have been working on this for about 8 months. I would estimate I will put a product forward in another 6-8 months.

As also correctly pointed out, despite extensive efforts by almost all of us to track down (correct me if I am wrong) what appeared to be a pretty simple bush produced by a pretty small French company, latterly bought over by Michelin - the drawings and specs just are not available.

The new bushes are available at a 10% discount off list for the rear wishbones and are made out of Powerflex's Polyflex compound. I can ordinarily discount 20% off Powerflex bushes, but not these as they are licensed, not original supply.

You cannot without 8 sets of luck, remove and replace the stock bushings in these rears. I was desperate under John's advice to fit OEM, but cannot do it - it might cost you £1-2,000 to do so.

Any further questions, let me know and others I am sure will chime in on the provenance of the associated items.

All best,

Jamie

[esprit888]

[/quote]The wishbones pictured are the rear lower. The fronts use a Track Control Arm (with outrigger), not a wishbone at the bottom. There are upper front wishbones, but a different scale altogether.[/quote]

And they look like this if you need some:

Front upper.jpg

[par]

I have now fitted a pair of Jeemys stainless steel wishbones (may well be the first independent person to do so) and on my experience I can highly recommend them. For those contemplating replacing your wishbones I would urge you to check the condition of your existing wishbones as I didnt appreciate how badly corroded mine were until I removed them, both had holed right through under the lower damper fixing point and would be difficult to spot unless you specifically check here.

There were absolutely no issues with the fitting of these parts and are spot on dimensionally, they were an absolute dream to fit in comparison to the wishbones I fitted to my mates TVR last year which were supplied from a TVR approved supplier!

A few pictures from my project thread showing them fitted:-

[Rambo]

That's good to hear Par. I'm sure there will be many of us who find out how bad our wishbones are in the next few years (S2 owners excepted)

[daveiow]