Body Mounts 

As you are aware ’46-’55 cars have a separate chassis with the body is bolted to it. What you may not know is that this “coupling” is not direct but through “Silentbloc” Bushes. These comprise of two concentric steel tubes, one of about ½” OD and the other about 1” separated from each other by rubber. They allow a small amount of movement between the body and chassis and also isolate vibrations from the body, for example; road, exhaust and engine noise. 

Rubber over the age of fifty is generally in extremely poor condition and needs replacing but, until recently, you wouldn’t have been able to, because supplies were exhausted. Fortunately for us, Eric Healey www.healeybros.co.uk has had, at considerable expensive, new tooling made and put into stock a quantity of the appropriate “Silentbloc” Bushes.

Most of our cars still in circulation have been welded quite a few times to remove rust. The areas that are worst affected are the very rear of the car just inside the boot (R Type) or the spare wheel cover (MKVI) where you will see two large bolt heads, the inner and outer rear wheel arches and the sills. These extend by about 12” into the underside of the front wings. The body mounts run along your oft repaired sills to the inner rear wings where there are two mountings and finish with the two in the boot. They sag and the body drops down onto the chassis (sometimes even the petrol tank!) and when the body is welded, no one realises this has happened. The most serious problems occur behind the rear wheels and in the boot floor. In the worst cases, there can be creases in the roof, the rear doors will foul the openings and the rear of the body may tilt to one side! 

As body mounts are now available I urge you to replace yours and, at the same time, using suitable washers, to space the body off the chassis at the rear of the car where it is certain to have dropped. This can be done by supporting the rear on axle stands placed under the front rear spring shackles and then, with the wheels off and all the mounting bolts removed, tapping in Hardwood wedges between the body and chassis at the rear of the wheel arch until there is a gap above the chassis of about 3/8”. You can now fit appropriate spacing washers and bolt everything back together again and remove the wedges. Do make sure that the weight is evenly distributed. 

While you are under the car, it is a good idea to replace the petrol tank straps because they will be extremely rusty and to clean out the nearby fuel and often- neglected fuel filter.