September 2011
Friday, 30 September 2011
Another busy day.
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I had no work today and so have been able to devote the entire day to the car.
I went out early, bought some rubber to replace the perished strips in the wheel wells, picked up the latest box of parts from work and then headed home.
Rob arrived mid morning and we set to work on the windscreen. The screen seal was fossilised and quickly succumbed to a sharp chisel. The screen came out easily and the spot welded lips of the panels were revealed and completely rust free. I have never seen this before; usually the metal in this area looks like a rust coloured lace doily.
A bit of cursing and contortions and the dash came out too.
We then unpacked the new dash wiring loom and compared it to the existing wiring. It actually looks pretty similar although the devil will be in the detail, no doubt. Rob looked very confident.
Satisfied with the destruction Rob headed home, but I soldiered on.
The rubber strips were removed along with the rivets holding them in place. I repainted the metal strips and then put the whole lot back on. The rubber is a little uneven but it will suffice.
The parcel contained the new accelerator pedal and housing. I was able to reuse all of the old parts from the original LHD pedal box. Finally got it all together and bolted it in but the actuator arm connector to the linkage was on the wrong side. So out it all came, I ground off and welded the connector back onto the other side, polished and replated the arm and I now have an accelerator!
Annoyingly the captive nut holding the eccentric rest from the brand new linkage set fell off; not properly welded in. So that will have to come off and be welded and replated another day.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Electroplating
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Pulled out the Jane's Zinc plating kit and fired it up; a big success.
I'm still waiting on my old collection of GKN bolts to return to me, and in the meantime I hate putting rusty bolts back in. So after a quick clean with the wire wheel on the grinder I popped some into the plating solution; 5 mins hey presto!
They looked so good I replated the pedal blanking plate too.
So far I have got the pedal box assembled and ready to install. I put the steering column cover in first as access is rather tight. It is a repro from SC Parts. It is a really crappy plastic copy of the original, for which they charged me about $100. Needless to say I won't ever buy anything from them again.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Every cloud...
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A phone call from school put paid to all my other plans for today. Youngest son is sick; come and get him.
So I'm now unable to leave the house for the rest of the day.
Small boy settled in front of TV..out to the shed.
A couple of hours of sanding and painting bits, this time in lovely hammertone silver!
Birthday conundrum
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You may recall that a few days ago I got the historic data from the good fellows at Classic Car Heritage Team, giving a build date for Sally in 1967.
Now Philip Porter, reputedly the oracle for all things E type, in his book "Collector's Originality Guide", says the S1.5 cars were made between January and December 1968.
Most confusing.
Mark at CCHT has very kindly sent me a scan of the original hand written leger entry for my car.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Busy Sunday
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The sun is coming up quite early and having woken at 6am I decided to put in a solid day in the shed.
Today I have achieved a lot:
- removed the old steering rack and fitted the new one; despite my trepidation it fitted perfectly
- fitted the new tie rod ends, which seem to be possibly the wrong part
- changed the lower steering universal joint; it was fun hammering out the old caps
- removed, cleaned and refitted all of the front brake pipes; then realised that they didn't need to be reversed, so put them back the right way
- fitted the new braided front brake hoses
- refitted the rebuilt front brake calipers; not sure of the torque settings for the 1/2" bolts so guessed 60 ftlb
- refitted the rebuilt brake vacuum servo
- cleaned the lower steering column ready for painting
It really is very satisfying opening bags and boxes with new parts in them and putting them on the car.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Exciting news!
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I have received the manufacturing data from the excellent chaps at Classic Car Heritage Team.
Email as follows:
"Dear Andrew,
We are pleased to say we have located your vehicle.
The good news is that it is a truly original car; all the numbers you provided match exactly the original factory records.
Details: Jaguar XK-E 4.2 litre FHC LHD
Date of manufacture: 27th September 1967
Chassis number: 1E 34749
Engine number: 7E 14442-9
Body number: 4E 26452
Gearbox number: EJ 15770
Original paint colour: Crimson Red
Original trim colour: Black
Dispatched to Jaguar Cars New York (dealers) on 31st October 1967 Original owner: Arthur McGill, 965 Mangrove Avenue, Sunnyvale, California.
Invoice date: 2nd November 1967
Invoice number: 1/50149
Thank you Andrew for your valued custom.
Yours sincerely and fraternally, Mark Dale.
Classic Car Heritage Team.
PS Andrew if you are happy with our service we would be grateful for a mention on the 'Etype forum' thank you, Mark."
This means it's cake and champers for Sally's 44th birthday on Tuesday!
Friday, 23 September 2011
Up up and away
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After a lot of thought and discussion I have decided to put the hoist pads under the front and rear of the chassis rails to lift the car.
It feels very solid; the only movement on rocking the car is from the hoist arms flexing.
I still don't trust the damn thing though. I'm going to leave the car sitting on the hoist, locked down on the bars, overnight to see if it falls over.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
New tyres and the kitchen sink
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I don't see a problem here; do you (well apart from the remaining rust stains on the washer reservoir.
I have thought long and hard about tyres. I used to have Yokohama A008's on my MGB. They were dead sexy; the outside quarter of the tyre was basically slick apart from a row of little dimples. I have no idea what they added to the performance of the car but they did wear out after around 10000 miles.
I have eventually settled for a far more pedestrian Dunlop Monza 200 tyre in 205 65 15. The tyres have a sensible and therefore quiet tread pattern, and a bit of silicone to maybe stick a bit better. I could have gone wider with the 6.5" rims but I figure these tyres are already streets ahead of the OE ones and there shouldn't be too much lateral movement on cornering. I have stuck with a 65 profile to maintain the original wheel height both to keep the speedo accurate and to maintain what ground clearance there is. And best of all, at $110 fitted balanced and the old tyres removed from the old rims, they're CHEAP! You don't get that often with a Jag!
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Heating up
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I will admit that it was with some trepidation that I approached the job of bending the clutch and brake pedals.
The excellent series of articles by Mike Cassidy available here suggests that the clutch pedal offset needs to be increased by about 1cm, and that the offset on the brake pedal reduced so it is more or less straight.
My major concern was that I wasn't sure what sort of material the pedals were cast from, and that if they were cast iron they might simply shatter.
Needless to say they didn't. Once they've cooled down I'll paint them.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Waterpump on
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I needed to do something constructive. At present most of what I do to the car involves removing crappy dirty broken old bits.
Yesterday I managed to get a few bits painted including my freshly rebuilt waterpump. Rob had rung as he was passing to ask if he could drop in, so no time like the present.
A few minor adjustments were needed with the alternator bracket but otherwise it all went well.
Next step, all being equal, will be removing the old steering rack and replacing it with the new, RHD one.
