So, I went to Allparts, complete with nice printed diagrams, and they looked at me like I was some kind of talking fish. Having wandered off with them for a minute they came back and informed me that one part number didn’t match anything current and the other they could order specially at around 40 quid for the pair.
The conversation about ‘right ends but different lengths’ did not go well. In fact, it went the way most conversations I have with motorfactors go, unless I go in there and ask for what I need very specifically*. Fundamentally it seems based on ‘you’re a girl, you must be wrong’**. I should’ve borrowed one of my right-sexed friends to go in and ask*** :-/
Having informed me that it could not/would not fit; was totally impossible and please could I now go and take my difficult requests elsewhere I gave up and tried my local autofactor who stocks the past 25 years of auto parts manuals on their counter. Unfortunately, the knowledgeable teeth-sucking ‘you-want-what-well-I-suppose-I-can-probably-get-it’ guy is on holiday, and the wee bairn staffing the shop was unable to (a) find the right catalogue and (b) unable to help (though he did at least *try* and they know that when I go in and say ‘I want such and such’ that I’m usually right about what I want).
I’ve spent and uninformative hour trawling the internet trying to find an equivalent parts match, now I’m hunting for an online cataglogue of brake hoses so I can find something appropriate myself. I’ve posted much the same as this message on the DAF Owner’s Club forum, in the hopes that someone can be more specific about the parts. I’ve asked an online brake part supplier for a quote.
I wanted to spend the day reading the book that I’ve stolen from Kathryn (I didn’t expect her to leave it behind when she went to work today, but she has…).
I have another post to do, but it’s shower time now…
* By which I mean, lie. When I order bits for the Minor I rarely say I want ‘Ital 1275 parts’ instead saying that it’s a Mini from 1983 or somesuch, since Ital doesn’t seem to cross reference anymore.
** I do have a chip on my shoulder about this. It took months to build up a working relationship with my local autofactor in Bristol where I could ask for something and they’d trust that it was right.
***See; Chip. Shoulder. It just gets old
