Washing Tarka this afternoon after a walk in the New Forest in the Autumn sunshine I noticed the off side wing seemed to be a bit lose along the bottom edge. It had never been perfectly straight, but I'd assumed that was just because they are "hand built"...
Closer inspection showed that the front screw was quite lose.
I tightened it and the wing started to move from the inner structure.
Not right!
So I removed the screw and as I pulled the screw out a black rubber "thing" fell out from between wing and chassis.
Cleaned up it proved to be an expanding rubber "bolt": checking the other side of the car it was clear that this "bolt" had never been properly seated in its hole in the chassis so when the screw was tightened it wasn't gripping the hole in the chassis.
Refitted the screw tightened nicely and for the first time the lower edge of the off side wing was dead straight.
I checked all the other fasteners: they seemed to be as they should be.
Then under the bonnet I checked the screws that held the hinges where they fasten to the cowl and the bolts holding the cowl to the wings. The latter were tight, but the former were lose on both sides. They screw into an alloy bracket, but there is no lock nut so I suspect they work lose.
So, after 2 years I'm still finding things to "correct" and I'm starting to think I should take the radiator cowl off and check all the fastenings.
Perhaps even take the wings off...
(Then I could polish the silencers...
)
