Glad to hear you got them sorted Mike, and please accept my apologies for 'hijacking' your thread.
I've been giving a lot of thought to this problem, and fitting plastic caps to the ends of the springs seemed to me to be a blatantly obvious mod that should have been introduced years ago.
Also all the posts about costs has given me some ammunition when mine is finally fixed. I'm giving them a ring tomorrow to see if it's ready to collect.
If I might impinge on your thread further I'd like to let the other interested parties know how this turns out for me.
And a small drain hole for where the springs are seated too.