Parts, Christmas in April for CD

Recovering from a very busy weekend celebrating a little 'Princesses' 4th Birthday so didn't do much of anything on CD (formerly JJ) today.

Just played around with a little Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish, quite a difference on the areas that I cleaned don't you think? 

Seat foams, diaphragms, battery tray, boot spring etc, kinda like Christmas for JJ, oops, CD.

Have stuff to keep me busy for awhile, will need to place another order soon for some 'mission critical' stuff-brake master cylinders (2) and clutch master as well.  Should also consider new coolant hoses and brake hoses and so forth.
Hope Ya'll had a great weekend as well!
Cheers,
Lynn

0hrs

Heat shields and seat covers

Good afternoon,

Here are the new seat covers and thus far they look to be of very good quality, getting the seat foams next week and will get started on them.  Speaking of parts, will be getting the first (sorry Jennifer there will be more) one next week and then I can tackle a few other issues like the droopy boot lid, the door seals and so forth.  

Today I decided to deal with the asbestos heat shield that looks to be 'melting' down onto the frame rail.  This piece will be going off to the hazardous waste center on my next visit.

pretty rough, the asbestos has been sloughing off the heat shield

Making a new insert for the heat shield, I've found that Hardy Backer board works quite well as a heat barrier 

Completed shield ready for installation

Compare with the first heat shield picture.


That's it for today,  will be back at it next week. Looking over the service records it looks like the Brake and clutch master cylinders are all original,  it's time to either replace them or have them rebuilt, even the original yellow striped reservoir hoses are still on the car.  While that is very cool from a survivor standpoint it's not great if they fail and  they should be replaced too.  Let me know if you have any questions Jennifer.
Cheers,
Lynn

3 hours

Seat runners, felt like Robie Creek. Beading for hood edge.

Took most of the morning to rebuild the seat runners, not only were they gummed up with greasy goop they were bent.  The bend made them bind so they had to be disassembled cleaned and straightened to get them to move. 

I also worked on the hood "convertible top' in American, the previous 'trimmer' had left an exposed edge which looked quite unsightly IMHO.

Seat runners before cleaning

The foam is deteriorating and replacements are on the way from SNG Barrett.
The new seat covers arrived today and look quite nice. 

Probably next on the list, Jennifer said the brakes felt soft and this is likely the reason, don't know if you can see it but they have been leaking for some time.

Unfinished edge to hood, very rough appearance when the hood is up

Beading in place, not perfect but a little better with a more finished edge suitable for an E Type.

I'll try to get some pictures uploaded of the seat covers later but that's it for today, as my Mother used to say 'it's Miller time!'  

Cheers,

Lynn

6 hrs

Getting to the bottom of it ;-)

Good evening folks,  

Just a short post for a short day, had some other obligations this afternoon and probably tomorrow and with that this will likely be the last post for the week.

Couple of things, I just have to praise Jennifer for the care she's given this car over the years, it is in so much better condition than Shawnee B. was, it's impressive what a difference caring for a car over the years makes, this car has no rust at all, it has all the original documents that came with the car. If I get a chance I'll take some photos of them so you can see. 

This morning I worked on straightening the drivers side splash panel, this piece is made out of aluminum and didn't hold up well to the force of jacking the car up.

Common bodge to get to the speedometer angle drive, look closely and you can see where the metal has been cut on either side of the round access port, why worry about it? Well fumes and heat from the engine can enter the passenger compartment, so I'll figure out a way to seal it up.

The splash pan on the drivers side, neatly folded.

Straightened and ready for primer

Primed and ready for drippy black paint as per original (no Kidding)

Was able to get the seat out, a little bit of change

Bottom of seat, the foam is decaying....new foam is on order as are the covers and diaphragms

Seat rails, different from mine with the lock mechanism on both sides, barely move so will have to try to disassemble  them and make them work.

Well, that's it for this week, stay tuned for next weeks installment. 
Cheers,
Lynn

3 hrs

Bam-Bam....

Hi Ya'll,

Todays first picture demonstrates how these cars can be damaged by careless attempts to raise the car, Often we'll see damage to the radiator support bar, damage to the 'picture frame' and the floors.  These floors were damaged by careless placement of the supports of a two post lift likely by a tire technician trying to lift the car for service.   

Picture doesn't do this justice, couldn't get the floor mats to lay flat with this caved in area, took a considerable amount of time and the assistance of my lovely wife (holding the steel rebound block).

Came out quite nice, not perfect but darn good, if I do say so myself.

Drooping 'hardura' that I glued back in place.

New floor mats that Jennifer bought, note the 'pins' holding them in place.  Will have to be careful not to vacuum them up.

Cutting felt for floor insulation 

Insulation in place

New floor mat that fits flush now :-)

Crud under the battery tray, note the damage to the splash panel again from jacking it up with 'pads' in the wrong location.  

White sox fan obviously, battery tray 

Crappy paint job but protected from rust.

Tomorrow I may be able to put in a couple of hours in the morning but will likely help Rod get his car back together tomorrow afternoon-he expects to get it home tomorrow morning.  Will work on straightening the splash panel and prepare it for drippy black paint.

Cheers,
Lynn

5.5 hours

Shocking....

Good afternoon, 

Only able to put in half a day because of other obligations.  Was able to do a little shopping for a few items and made a visit to my favorite Auto Upholstery Shop and visited with Chip Knight about 'JJ's upholstery.  Chip feels that it would be cost prohibitive to repair the seats and recommended replacement.  Sure wish we could save the seats but given the leather is actually worn through at the seam...

Today I took on the Windscreen washer again, got to thinking about the old brittle hoses and decided to venture into the snake pit again.  This job is really a PITA and one sure doesn't want to have to go in there again, to get to them I had to remove the center console because it blocked the fuse panel, then the dash top could be removed but only after the under dash pieces were removed to pull the vent hoses loose, then the glove box had to be taken out then the wiper mech. had to be removed on the passenger side- get the picture?  I really think I should have won that bottle of beer Rod ;-)

This is the upper right fuse panel that has had a fuse melt down and a work around with an aftermarket fuse holder, well luck was with us as I had a fuse holder left over from Shawnee B. that just needed a little bit of cleaning. It was a fairly simple task to pull the old one out and replace it with the donor piece.  While I was at it I looked at the other fuses and holders, since they were corroded I cleaned them all up and applied dielectric grease to the connections, that should protect them for a long time.

Trying to get a feel for what Jennifer wants done, if this were mine I would pull it out, sand it down and repaint it-what say you Jennifer?  Same with the battery tray-survivor is one thing but....

Sample of beading that Chip Knight could make for us, the color looks pretty good and the beading is small enough that we could fit it under the chrome trim on the hood (top) and hide the raw edge of the vinyl top.  Let me know if you want to do this, always the possibility of opening the proverbial "Kettle of fish". The lower item is the donor fuse holder.

The melted fuse holder

 The other thing I did was to replace the battery cables and cleaned the ground connection.

Well that's it for today, not sure if I'll be able to put any time in on JJ tomorrow, I'm sure Rod is chomping at the bit to get started on his car so as soon as he gets it back....
Cheers,
Lynn

3.5 Hours

It's a start.

Didn't think I would be able to start on JJ today but Rod's car isn't back from the painters yet.  Started the day fixing the bonnet safety latch that had gotten bent at some point in it's life, removed it and straightened it.

 Looked at the boot to see why it sagged, probably half the springs are broken and will need to be replaced.

Removed the steering wheel cover to see what lies underneath, actually not to bad, could use a bit of sanding and a couple of coats of spar polyurethane.

Typical issue with a lot of E Types, the center console is sitting so high that the fuse panel will not drop down providing access to the fuses.  Will need to be adjusted.

Preparing to slide the console forwards and protecting the lower console with slick cardboard.

To get to the WS squirter nozzle had to remove the lower console to get the fuse panel down then removed the dash top, still couldn't get to it so had to remove the glove box liner and drop the WS wiper  out of the way-tedious and needed Jan to hold the nozzle while I threaded the wing nut on the squirter.

New seal on the boot!  I am pleased I had the presence of mind to remove the license  plate before hand (it was held in place with nut/bolts-the nuts would have spun) as the latch wouldn't release with the added pressure from the new seal so was able to trip the mechanism with a screw driver through the port that would have been blocked by the plate had I not taken it off.  Lubricated and fixed the boot latch mechanism, it will now lock and unlock as well as release the boot lid ;-)

Old seal, new one fit well but will be stiff for awhile.

So todays observations, don't think the seat bottoms are repairable and will need new foams and diaphragms, the car has been repainted at some point in it's original color.  The door seals, and boot seal have paint on them and some overspray is apparent on some of the door chrome. On the plus side, the steering wheel looks pretty good.  

We'll need to order some parts in the next few days so will keep you posted.

7.5 hours

Jennifer's Jaguar, 68 E Type

Hello,  I'm starting this blog so that Jennifer can follow the progress of her 68 E Types 'refurbishment', Jennifer has owned this car since 1972 and it is a very original running E Type that just needs a little bit of cosmetic TLC.  Since Jennifer has never named her car, at least for the time being it will be known as JJ- Jennifer's Jag, at least till she comes up with a better name.

I am looking forward to working on JJ and while she (it's) has been well maintained there are some things that we can do to improve her appearance yet maintain the originality of the car.  The seats are going to be top on the list of chores and an attempt will be made to salvage the covers by removing them and hand stitching the seams, but more on that later, for now I'll just up load some pictures of this Series 1.5 1968 Jaguar E Type OTS (Open Two Seater).

 A battery disconnect is in JJ's near future-it's just safer to disconnect the battery when the car is inactive and it prevents battery drain.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for future developments.
Cheers,
Lynn