Prior to WWII rubber was not of quality to withstand continual contact with petroleum based lubricants. Because it had never existed, the auto and truck factories used the materials available.
An excellent example of this is grease seals used in early vehicle suspension shackles. These seals hold the grease to remain around the horizontal pins after a pressure gun has forced the lubrication around them.
The only choice of material to withstand years of contact with grease was “cork”. This method is now almost unknown since it was used over 80 years ago. The cork seals were long ago replaced with updated rubber.
The attached photo shows the cork grease seals used in a truck spring shackle. They were recently found in a very old envelope sold at a Chevrolet dealership in the mid 1930’s. This should be a real eye catcher to a perfectionist that looks for fine details during auto and truck judging at shows.
How to get original cork seals? Surprise! Jim Carter Truck Parts decided to re-introduce these for the perfectionist. Yes, they work just as well as modern rubber seals and give that old time appearance. The part # is ME187.
Here are comments from an owner of a 1938 ½. He will not settle for second best! Yes, he used 70 year cork seals, but they were at that time so difficult to find.
Jim,
Today I finally got to this project. Attached are photos of the front L and R cork shackle seals. I prepped them a few weeks ago by lightly sanding them with 600 sandpaper and then clear coated them. The inside hole was too small, when I tried the first one it cracked so I used a round file to lightly file out the inside hole so they would slip on. I also did the rear shackles. I used some epoxy to fix the one seal that cracked.
Thanks again for the seals,
Glen in North Carolina
