Spare parts

I have just had a very interesting email from John Bradley over at London Taxi Exports, outlining what is happening with LTI spares for our cherished Fairways. The good news is that he seems determined to get round these difficulties, and still remains our best source for difficult to find parts.

Here's his message...


"At present the factory are determined to get all the Fairways off the road so just to make life difficult, they have stopped all production of body parts, plus many items specifically taxi orientated. This action is targeted at the last of the currently 4000 Fairways still out there in London and is a ploy to get the drivers in to the showroom to buy the latest offering. Nothing wrong with that, as it is simply business, and we understand that as we have excellent relations with the manufacturer being the largest exporter of these wonderful classic British cars. BUT what has been forgotten, is that there are probably more private owners now than licensed hacks out there and the paucity of parts is making life difficult for these owners.
 
Many if not all of your list of suppliers are struggling to supply parts and indeed many of the original suppliers to LTI have actually gone out of business including seal, braking, electric parts manufacturers amongst many, so enquiries to most of these folks will only elicit a negative response or a blank look for essential items, no steel panels are now in existence for example.
 
Our strength is our ability to remake many parts and indeed we have a full program of GRP body panels including front & rear wings, hire signs, threshold plates, consoles, visors, end caps, inner wings, etc with many more parts on the way. Also in our program are new Lucas type replacement parts, steel inner sills, outer sills, rear triple panels, steel floor pans, wing repair sections etc plus screen seals, windscreens, rear screens, and literally loads more too many to list."