Grace, Pace and Space ..even more so than the Jaguar.

[Bfg]

Thanks for your support guys.

After two nights of barely any sleep, I'm off workshop tasks with a head cold / cough today.  Previously I've been stripping the paint off. . .

   

I've been using Nitromor and either the can which I have is old and lost its virility, or manufacturers have been forced into making it safer to handle, &/or else the paint on this panel was resistant to attack (possibly 2k ?)  Probably all of the above.  In any case its taken flipping ages to get it back down to bare metal so that I can see to weld and panel beat a smooth shape. 

 

I'm presently working to clean out the inside of the panels now, which include underseal. The Nitromors doesn't do much with that so it's down to scraping and the power wire brush.  I'm winning but don't like wasting so much time doing so little.

Pete

 

[2flags]

For removing underseal, use heat, hot air gun works best, after that thinners can sometimes help. Make sure you have a well-ventilated area to work in. The fumes can be something else. Don't ask me how I know. 

[Bfg]

Back onto the job albeit somewhat a bit slower because laying on my back breaths flem into my lungs and starts me off deep-chest coughing ..same issue as preventing my getting a decent night's sleep.  Nevertheless I can't sit around waiting to feel better when a job, or a whole lot of jobs need to be done in pretty quick time.. in this case before she goes into paint. So back to it..

  

After a bit more work to remove the last remnants of paint and primers, I was back down bare metal with surface rust pitting on the inside but clean enough on the outside to see and feel what I was doing in terms of starting to remove dents and creases from where I'd roughly rebent this panel to approximately fit under the Daimler.   This time I repositioned the panel half-an-inch further back, which after some rework ought to improve the line down from the wheelarch, and also (from side profile) lessen the jutting out chin.  With it so positioned I cut out the overlaps (..of the darts) so as to mate the butt jointed edges.  You can see by the air-holes in a few of the spots of weld, that I was having a problem with the mig weld's supply of argon-shield.  Bottom line is that regulator isn't worth the value of the plastic bag it was packaged in . .

^ Total waste of space ..in any language.!   This one, a regulator for a disposable gas cartridge, was a new-old-stock still packaged item from a friend, who let me have it after the one I'd bought from Machine Mart was similarly crying useless.  I took it back for a replacement, and before walking out checked it.  The four or five the store had in stock were likewise useless.  I hoped they had just a bad batch , so when Mathew had one going free I said I'd give it a try.  Not just a batch then ..just a worthless piece of junk. None of those tried (six or seven in total) simply didn't let the gas through from Clark's own disposable gas bottle, likewise supplied by Machine Mart. 

Last night, on the way back from the barn, I stopped in to Tool-Station to buy another type. This one, sold under the SIP brand-name, it is in cast brass. . .

       https://www.toolstation.com/sip-mig-gas-regulator/p41163

At £21.62 it isn't cheap ..for a gas regulator with no gauge and poor calibration, but it works.  I needed to turn the knob open 3+1/4 full turns to get the gas flow required. On depressing the mig welder's trigger the gas comes as spurt before settling at a lower steady but reliable pressure. My old gas regulator (for full size bottles and with a volume & a flow-pressure gauge) didn't do that initial spurt. 

Anyway it works and now i can get on and splatter my pigeon-mess more purposefully. !

oh, I also treated myself to a 4-ft long LED strip lamp (formally known as 'fluorescent') < here > with a water resistant rating of IP65.  It cost me £35 ..but I needed better lighting without the deep shadows thrown by single bulbs. This 5400k lumen lamp needed a power lead with plug, so that I might use it portably ..low down and around the car, and that came from an old electric sander which had given up its ghost.  

Lighting and a welder which works.. will wonders never cease. ?  Nope.., because next door to Toolstation is a charity shop, where I bought a kitchen toaster and a small electric kettle.. Now I can have light, be able to weld ..AND have HOT Cornish-pasty and HOT coffee for lunch.  Whatever next .. a chair to sit on ! ?

Back on with the job . .

The LHS older repairs are somewhat different to the RHS.  Just under my finger you can see a step in the panel line. This is where the replace corner reinforcement (the Jaguar Mk2's infamous 'crows feet', which rusts away because it's 18g ferrous steel placed in such a vulnerable position, just forward of the wheel-arch) was welded in 1/4" too far forward.  Normally it wouldn't matter but this and other differences were noted when trying to match one side of the new valance panel to the other.  

^ previously the corners were just snipped and overlapped to approximate the required tuck under. Today I checked what I wanted, took a breath and cut the dart. This side being about twice the amount I needed on the RHS corner.  I could have tried to make the two corners dimensionally symmetrical, but instead I've chosen to just try and make it look right, from one side to the other. . .

  

^ taking shape ..literally spot by spot.

I'm happy with the tucking under outside shape following down from the wing either side.  The overall height presently looks a little less deep on the LHS but it's still work-in-progress. I'll look again tomorrow.

In the meantime I bid you a warm n' dry and comfortable evening,

Pete

[Bfg]

A little more done this afternoon,  in part you cannot see anything of it but I had the LHS corner off to panel beat it to a smoother rounder shape.  And then i made a centre bridge piece for the two. . .

^ formerly a panel off an appliance, sort of shallow lid shaped which was again salvaged from the scrap bin for the sake of a decent piece of steel. For scale, the width of the piece being cut out is 15" wide. 

After a bit of reshaping it goes here . . .

^ the top curve is rolled forward for stiffness and the bottom has a reverse flange to likewise stiffen its bottom edge.  The two (formerly MGB ) corners and the new infill piece overlap, so I removed the enamel paint in the joint and carefully clamped them together to get a pretty flat face-to-face which again I systematically tacked up.  Of course a spot welder would have been neater, but hey ho., when those welds are linished flat, and a skim of filler over it before paint .. I think it'll look okay behind the number plate 😊 

In any case the whole idea is to discretely finish the front of the Daimler ..by tucking her chassis underlumps neatly away,  rather than it being a carbuncle, as incongruous as that on Ian Callum's Mk2 'facelift'. 

  

'Facelift' is more than just a little ironic ..as it looks more like the double chin       ".... bubba my pussy cat, come home to Jabba"

 

discretion  being the better part of valour

You see it and yet you don't.  As for myself - I notice it more when it's not there.!

Contrary ol' guffer !

 

 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

i have to disagree about the use of the peasant grille- the fleted one looks betterer

maybe with a change to a lighter colour the fluted grille won't stand our so much?

[Bfg]

Quite possibly you're right. The fluted Daimler grille might be better suited to the beige colour i plan to refinish this car in.  As it is .. against black paint, I tend to feel that amount of chrome fluting is top-heavy relative to the slim-line bumper.  With the doubly broad bumper of the earlier model, I wouldn't have looked to the Jaguar grille.  

As the two panels are directly interchangeable, save for the wearing through of paint under the taller Daimler grille, I can always swap back, &/or otherwise keep the original for the next owner or for show originality.  

Yours .. proud to be a peasant

[Bfg]

The details can sometimes take longer than one would like but they have to be done. . .

^ in behind the rectangular vent you'll see a hole through the chassis's front cross member where the bumper iron fits. That iron, as it comes forward, curves upwards & outwards, and then is bent for its bolting face (for the bumper) to sit immediately under the body's horizontal / knife edge flange. 

Getting that exact position of where that bumper iron should pass through the valance panel took a bit of care and attention, with my first marking its position on the underside of that flange (with the valance panel removed) and then transferring those marks, together with a projection of its height down onto the valance panel.  The green felt pen marks are where I've determined the bumper iron would pass through the valance. 

Now how do I cut that slot. ?? 

This is how I did it . . .

 

^ Firstly I marked a line around the slot, where I determined the bumper iron would pass through, and then cut just the slot. The outer line is where I want the folded corner of a return-flange to be. . .

 

^ And then I applied the ball end of a very old hammer, inherited from my father, to fold the required return flange into the gapped size of the workmate's jaws.  The return flange so made restores the stiffness of the panel, which otherwise (if just a cut) would have wavered and probably split after a time.  This photo shows work in progress but with a little more snipping and 'application' the edges were trued up a little neater. . .

 

^ I think the slot (with 1/4" clearance around the iron) ended up looking pretty reasonable ..not least considering I'm not exactly well practised in the art of panel-bashing. 

Of course the same was repeated on the other side of the car, and then the bumper refitted to ensure they work when all was bolted up tight.

Thankfully the irons and bumper bolted up just fine, and those grooves ..for all the effort to make them neat, will hardly be seen when the car is down off the ramps ..just the way I like them to be.  I may be putting a lamp or else a grille behind those rectangular air intake holes, but I do like their giving relief to the otherwise featureless valance.

 

Unfortunately.. I then noticed a drip or three..   

Although I've not touched the radiator, I might only guess that my fighting with stubborn bumper iron bolts and hammering of the valance panel's flanges had shaken it. . .

 

Not much to see on either side of the core, but overnight it dripped about a litre.  

Odd though it may seem, I'm really very pleased ..because I much prefer to find and rectify this now, rather than when I'm a hundred miles away from home and heading out to a summer show. 

Pete

 

[Bfg]

Yesterday, I stopped all else I was hoping to do and removed the radiator. . .

  

^ not being a modern I didn't have to dismantle the front of the car to get the radiator out. After the top and bottom hoses were freed, four nuts released the fan cowling ..which just pushes back to wait until the radiator is repaired). Then two bolts held the radiator itself in place to the body's grille surround. The bottom of the radiator simply has two pegs to locate it.

With the system drained down I took the opportunity to remove the heater. . .

My Triumph TR has its heater box tucked-in under the dashboard, and I'm sure that would be a sod to get out. In comparison, aside from the awkward reach to control linkages and bulkhead fastenings, this heater was very easy to remove.    

After releasing it's fastenings, the water pipes and linkages.. the heater box only needed one air filter to be removed before it lifted out.

As we all know.. not everything goes to plan.  Some fastenings have turned to ferrous fossil

I took this and the radiator down into town (Ipswich) to Sheldrake & Wells, for them to assess and possibly repair.  The car's heater was not very very impressive, so I suspect that is just furred up and after 55 years would benefit from a new core.  We'll see what they advise. 

That's all for today, save to add that I've ordered one of these . . .

   

It's a metal shrinker / stretcher to curve the flanges of panels.  With promotional discount it cost £153 inc P&P, off Amazon, which is better value than I could find on ebay, or through places like Machine Mart or Tool Station..  I think it'll be useful for tidying up the curved flanges of the valance panel and other bits I tend to make. in effect saving its' cost in less darts and snips needed to form flanges around their curve.  

I've never used one before, so it'll be interesting to see if such a relatively cheap tool lives up to expectations.

Watch this space.. 

Pete

 

 

[Bfg]

ps.. it's just been pointed out to me that my car's radiator may be the same as a Jaguar 2.4 rather than a typical Daimler V8 one.  This is because all but 750 of these Daimlers were built as automatics, and so had cooling pipes from the radiator to the gearbox heat exchanger.  My car was one of those built with a manual gearbox and so its radiator doesn't have the extra plumbing.   

" automatics...., had cooling pipes from the radiator to the gearbox heat exchanger "  is not quite correct ... Referring to the workshop manual and again looking at photos of the radiator for the automatic Daimler versus manual cars it seems that the automatic's radiator simply had a loop of pipe in the bottom of the radiator.  With gearbox oil pumped through that, via pipe connectors in the bottom of that tank (see above) the coolant radiator is the gearbox's 'heat exchanger'.  

Bottom line being that I can use either radiator (intended for the automatic or for the manual gearbox). I'll simply not have a use for the oil-way loop in the bottom tank. 

Pete

[silvercar]

Blimey, your threads are pretty epic. I’ve only skimmed this one and the TR4 one but I will be having a good read when I roster off next.

 

Thank you
 

 

[Bfg]

Yesterday I drove down to north London to buy the new-old-stock Daimler radiator grille. I'm very pleased to have found that ..just when I needed one,  and then upon my return to Ipswich dropped it off at the radiator repair place for it to be pressure tested (£25+vat).  I could have done it myself but I don't have the bungs and making them up would have taken more time than £25 worth.   

Yesterday I also received the metal shrinker-stretcher I'd ordered off Amazon.   Today I opened this pressie to myself. . .

    

In part, I chose this particular tool because it appeared to have a sensible and easy to clamp-down base. That decision turned out to be a good one as it's a pretty heavy cast iron lump and just with two clamps to the edge of my workmate it was solid enough to use straight out of the packaging. It is also light enough to move around when dancing with the full car width of under bumper valance panel.  I took it outside to benefit from better light and more space.   

I started with just trying a test piece out . . .

   

Using the shrinking jaws first, simply because that's the way the tool was set up.  And then I had a go with the stretcher jaws.  I'm impressed..  

   

Although just a test piece I'm very pleased how neat the flange face remains.  It's true there are fine grip marks ..but not nearly so ugly as I might get with clamping tight with a pair of mole grips, and perhaps even more consistent than my hammer & dolly. Those marks would easily be primed and painted smoothly over.  Most certainly it's both quicker and far neater than snipping darts to take the flange around a curve, or the subsequent welding of those V's to restore the panel's stiffness. 

First lesson to be learn was to take things steadily, working along the panel's flange systematically to create a smooth curve, both to the full depth of the flange and then again at just the half-depth of the flange.  A second lesson was to clean the paint and crud of the metal to be stretched or shrunk first. The tools jaws are cut with very finely slotted teeth ..quite similar to the face of a fine file ..and these clamp to grip the surface of the metal. If the panel's surface is painted, then that paint comes off and clogs the jaws. a power wire brush soon cleans the paint out, but I can imagine it would quickly become laborious ..removing the jaws frequently to clean them.  Much easier to just remove the paint first so that the jaws grip directly onto the bare metal.  

The valance panel I'm re-making was cut down the centreline and widened by 13".  I used a scrap panel off an electrical appliance salvaged from the skip whose edge already had a 90-deg fold. I simply eased that angle a bit before tack welding it in place. The fold was of course dead straight (as seen above) and although it would be completely hidden behind the car's front number plate - so it being flat / straight wouldn't matter a jot.. one of the reasons I bought this shrinker-stretcher tool was to improve the quality of the things I'm making.  Other things I make may well be far more visible. 

So, to practice further today, I stripped the paint off the centre infill section and used the shrinker tool to add a little curvature. . .

^ that to me is mega cool.  In fact I got carried away and over-cooked-it ..to be too curvy, but I'm confident that I can stretch it back to where I'd like it to be.

At £153 off Amazon ..delivered within 2 days... my major annoyance is that I didn't buy one 20 years ago.  Not least before I started cutting & shoving this front valance panel for the Daimler.  And not least before I made the metal gearbox cover for my Triumph.  Embarrassingly, even as a engineering professional - I didn't even know these tools existed for the home / garage market. But with a sheet metal folder and good quality metal-cutting shears and snips it opens up a whole new dimension to my panel making.. 

And as the repair rear-valance (under bumper) panel for this car cost £285.31 + delivery + VAT ..I can now make it myself.  Likewise the roof bows I need to support around the sunroof.   Tbh I don't really like handling cold-steel panels.. I'm very much more comfortable with wood ...but the opportunities this opens up in car repair / restoration is rather liberating. 

Bidding you a pleasant weekend

Pete

 

[Bfg]

Not much to report today.

I did correct the curved shape of the infill piece and then got on with making the first of the handed pair of front bumper side irons.

I'm not using the original side-irons, which would have poked through the side of the new valance, but instead have fabricated a new one which also clamps / secures in place that panel at the sides. The slotted hole in the bumper's own bracket gives the necessary vertical adjustment. All too often you see the rear blade of these slim-line bumpers hanging too low ..as if presenting a sad face (similarly slim bumpers used on the Jaguar 240/340 and Daimler 250, as well as the Jaguar S-type, Mk10 & 420 and Daimler Sovereign).  The inside curved flange of the bracket is cut to follow the outside curve of the valance panel, and two bolts clamp it up to the underside of the 'crows feet'.  I've yet to trim the bottom corner of the (recycled metal) bracket off to be horizontal.

From the underside it looks as if the valance panel is positioned a long way under / inward but even there it's almost too far out relative to the wing panel above.. The chassis structure prevents it going inwards any further.

Pete.

  I've also reshaped the back corner of the valance panel to bring it in better line with the shape of the wheel-arch. 

 

[stuboy]

bloody good work and eye for making stuff work where it wasnt designed for.

[Bfg]

Thanks Stu' ..I'm hopeful that with a skim of filler and a coat of paint, it'll look as if it had always been there.

Today I loaded up the car of pre-purchased supplies, for my friend who'll be doing the paint for me ..as I'll be seeing him tomorrow morning.  The chap I'm sub-letting the barn from has another car coming in on Saturday so I'll need to move my car out of the way, and in the meantime to clear the floor all around of tools. I mostly did that today and it's nice to have a tidy barn / work place again. 

I then got on with trimming the bottom off of that side-bumper-bracket. Now it'll not be seen, save from laying under the car. 

Next, and quite a challenge for me to know how to tackle the task, but I've now started extending the valance panel's bolt-through flange. No pictures of any of this yet I'm afraid, but I will post one or two ..possibly on Thursday evening.  In fact, the only photo I took today was when taking advantage of the exceptional sunlight coming in from the barn's back wall window ..then I got straight on with doing my jobs, only stopping now and then to thaw my fingers out. 

^ The car in good light ..as she presently is, still work in progress, and with the valance panel in bare metal it's hardly noticeable. 

That's all for tonight. I bid you a warm and cosy evening.

Pete

 

p.s. Forecast for here tomorrow is -2 degrees ..so take care on the icy roads in the morning

 

[Dobloseven]

Good to see you've got your Mojo back!Just hope Katie isn't getting jealous!

[Bfg]

Not at all a very productive week in terms of my own metal bashing ..which, as I'm a big softie and don't fair well crawling around under cars at very low temperatures, I have little excuse for.  Below five or six degrees I work so slow and every tool I pick up is seemingly freezing to the touch, that a job that may take me an afternoon during warm, bright and sunny weather literally takes me three or four times as long ..when I'm struggling under inadequate artificial lighting to see what I'm doing and then every so often putting my hands in my pockets to recover circulation in my finger tips.   Hey ho ..can't sit around and await for warmer weather when jobs need to be got on with.

Last Tuesday I drove up to Norfolk, near Downham Market to my friends Mathew and Justine's home, where another body shell was to be delivered. I posted about this some time ago, back in November. . .

I didn't actually take any photos on Tuesday, but here's one from November as a refresher.  It's a rbs (rolling body shell) I'd bought because NFW 842F (..bought cheaply and knowing older repairs were not done to a very high standard) needed some serious amount of work to make even half right.  I could have left NFW alone and just driven the car, but I know from experience that for any 50+year old car which is to be used frequently.. mechanical maintenance needs be brought right up to date, all the cooling & fuel systems and wiring needs to be thoroughly gone through, and all perishables (particularly rubber components) need to to be checked and most likely replaced.  The window rubbers and doors seals certainly needed replacing. All the carpets need replacing, the headlining needs to be dry cleaned, and the wooden dash needs to come out to be refurbished.  Much of this is preventative action .. to both prevent the likelihood of breakdown and to prevent further deterioration.

There are also structural steel parts that need to be in very good order. And although the car I bought had these mostly dealt with there were still a few places which needed attention, such as the rear spring hangers and the inner rear wing panels.  My car's jacking points, front wings and one of the sills had been replaced at some time, but the latter wasn't done so very well - so the door gaps are not so good.  As I've openly expressed, the paint job on this black over the original silver grey had crazed and was otherwise quite thick.  My friend Mathew, who offered to repaint the car for me, said that it would all need to come off, most likely taken back to bare metal so as to restore the underlying metal, to avoid paint reaction, and if I wanted the car to be 'rust-proofed' (as near as one can practically achieve without encountering humongous costs) then the thing to do was to strip the car back to bare metal and primer coat it with epoxy.   

From my own perspective, I have an lifelong loathing of underseal (which all too often hides all sorts of horrid pigeon-welded repair patches). And I relish a nice clean and tidy engine bay. 

Bottom line.,  if I want this car to be nice and tidy, and to be in good condition in out-of-sight places - then it would need to be totally stripped out (engine & drive train, suspension & steering, wiring and all ancillary components, interior, glass, every item of chrome trim, etc). Then all the underseal and most all paint needs to be removed.  And poor quality repairs would have to be redone, before repainting and reassembly could happen.  Logistically it is a huge undertaking, not least because that degree of dismantling requires detailed records (aide mémoires for later reassembly) and a mass of storage space. 

I said to Mathew that if he wanted to do the job that's fine, I'd pay friend's rates. But as he lives 2 hours away, he'd be doing the job on his own.  Then this rolling body shell cropped up on Facebook.  All the doors, bonnet, boot-lid, scuttle vent and fuel filler cover are there.  It had already been stripped and blasted back to bare metal, topside and underneath ..and so any repair that yet needed to be done can be seen. Mathew and I drove down to Brighton to see it.  My idea was to do much the same as I did with my Triumph, when its chassis was changed,  ie. repair and make very good a replacement chassis, and then transfer one car part at a time from the old to the new.  Once done I sold the old chassis to another Triumph owner to do the very same.  Doing this with the Daimler would be the same.

Mathew and I discussed the economics. The cost of a rolling body shell for a Jaguar MkII / Daimler V8 is not to be taken lightly, but may be balanced against there being no surprises as to what we might find under the black paint and underseal of my car.  Mathew would save many hours and chemical or blasting cost, in only having the bare minimum of cleaning, scraping, and degreasing to do.  He would not need all the storage space for every part of a dismantled car.  And an already empty body shell would be (relatively) easy to roll over, to paint underneath, inside, and in all cavities. With nothing in the engine bay, making all the insides of that space bright and beautiful in body colour would likewise be very much easier.   

This body shell footwell's / floors are original, as are the sills, and every panel.  Still it does need a good amount of work, not least because each side has been scraped along. The RHS is worse with the rear edge of the front wing and the B-post having been knocked back.  I think they can be pulled back into its correct shape and not need replacing. There are also two significant model changes. The first being the rear bumper recess is for the earlier car's broad bumper, and then the body shell was for an automatic gearbox, whereas NFW has the manual gearbox with overdrive.  What's most important is that the work to be done is quantifiable.  Still, I asked again "Mathew, are you happy to do the job ?  Remember that it'll all be on your own".    The decision was made and in accordance with our conversation as to its value - I made an offer to the seller.  That price was accepted and so then all that remained was for me to pay the bill and arrange transport.  Part of the deal, made at the beginning of November, was that the car should remain in Brighton until Mathew could fit it in.  He had a TR6 in his garage for paint, and so mid January would be likely.  

  Watch this space for further updates, as and when it's warm enough for Mathew to start into the task.  So much to do ! 

Pete

 

[Dobloseven]

Bloody hell! There's no stopping you,is there?

[Bfg]

On Monday I had collected all the paint provisions Mathew had asked me to buy, and on Tuesday I delivered those. 

Thursday ;  The chap who I sub-let space in the barn from had advised that another car was coming in (for storage) on Saturday.  Unbeknown to him, the Daimler was still up on the ramps and in the middle of the floor so that I could lay about underneath it.  So despite freezing cold weather I needed to move the Daimler to one side..  That sounds easy, but when it's that cold, and every tool saps heat from finger tips, even these little tasks take a disproportionate amount of time. . .

^ The Daimler had to be shuffled back and forth to be pushed to one side because at the moment the radiator is out.  I'm sure the engine will run for a few moments without any cooling fluid but I wasn't wanting to push my luck.  I could have just rolled the car into the back of the barn, but then the car coming in for storage would then have been where the Daimler now is ..which would be in my way for continuing work (and welding), so shuffling back n' forth was good exercise.  I'd never realised how so very rounded cars are awkward to push on your own !

Next up was to try and make a repair piece for the bottom of the spare wheel well.  This is for the replacement body shell. . .

      

^ Just the dimpled recess in the middle is the bit which rots out (as is apparent on the rolling body shell in red-oxide), but only the complete spare-wheel-well pressing is available ..at £449.38 ex. VAT !  so I decided to try and make my own.

^ such a romantic working environment   .. candles would perhaps have made it a little warmer ?

^ measuring the centre dimple of NFW's spare wheel well as a guide, and using a roll of tape in place of a pair of compasses, I marked out the basic shape upon a reclaimed a piece of metal from the side panel of a scrapped appliance, cut in half and stripped off the paint.  I figured.. my trying to shape that dimple in one piece was too much to ask of my skills &/or the tools I have.

I started off with trying to shrink (with my new stretcher-shrinker tool) the inside of the semi-circle ..which worked to an extent in creating the dish, but not nearly enough. The Shr-Str tool's spec says its good for anything more than 3" ..which I guess is radius, whereas I'm trying to achieve a deep dimple of just 3" diameter.  Time then for more serious reworking . . .

   

^ Cutting darts from around the inside eased more dishing..  I reckon those drilled holes will be good to plug weld onto the underside of the boss and then I'll finish the bottom with a flat plate washer to tidy things up. 

The stretcher around the top rim worked well to flare out the dimple's brim. It's interesting to see how the semi-circle has shaped to more than half the dimple.   Certainly a couple of hours learning how to make this, and a scrap piece of metal is to me a useful savings over Martin Robey's repair panel.

Icy cold weather and a nasty cough, as well as diversionary roadworks (on power cables) near the barn, dissuaded me from going back out there to finish the other half of this on Friday, but hopefully I'll feel better next week. The forecast is for mild weather tomorrow so hopefully I'll see this little task done.  

Bidding you a warm and draught free evening,

Pete

 

[Matty]

42 minutes ago, Bfg said:

On Monday I had collected all the paint provisions Mathew had asked me to buy, and on Tuesday I delivered those. 

Thursday ;  The chap who I sub-let space in the barn from had advised that another car was coming in (for storage) on Saturday.  Unbeknown to him, the Daimler was still up on the ramps and in the middle of the floor so that I could lay about underneath it.  So despite freezing cold weather I needed to move the Daimler to one side..  That sounds easy, but when it's that cold, and every tool saps heat from finger tips, even these little tasks take a disproportionate amount of time. . .

^ The Daimler had to be shuffled back and forth to be pushed to one side because at the moment the radiator is out.  I'm sure the engine will run for a few moments without any cooling fluid but I wasn't wanting to push my luck.  I could have just rolled the car into the back of the barn, but then the car coming in for storage would then have been where the Daimler now is ..which would be in my way for continuing work (and welding), so shuffling back n' forth was good exercise.  I'd never realised how so very rounded cars are awkward to push on your own !

Next up was to try and make a repair piece for the bottom of the spare wheel well.  This is for the replacement body shell. . .

      

^ Just the dimpled recess in the middle is the bit which rots out (as is apparent on the rolling body shell in red-oxide), but only the complete spare-wheel-well pressing is available ..at £449.38 ex. VAT !  so I decided to try and make my own.

^ such a romantic working environment   .. candles would perhaps have made it a little warmer ?

^ measuring the centre dimple of NFW's spare wheel well as a guide, and using a roll of tape in place of a pair of compasses, I marked out the basic shape upon a reclaimed a piece of metal from the side panel of a scrapped appliance, cut in half and stripped off the paint.  I figured.. my trying to shape that dimple in one piece was too much to ask of my skills &/or the tools I have.

I started off with trying to shrink (with my new stretcher-shrinker tool) the inside of the semi-circle ..which worked to an extent in creating the dish, but not nearly enough. The Shr-Str tool's spec says its good for anything more than 3" ..which I guess is radius, whereas I'm trying to achieve a deep dimple of just 3" diameter.  Time then for more serious reworking . . .

   

^ Cutting darts from around the inside eased more dishing..  I reckon those drilled holes will be good to plug weld onto the underside of the boss and then I'll finish the bottom with a flat plate washer to tidy things up. 

The stretcher around the top rim worked well to flare out the dimple's brim. It's interesting to see how the semi-circle has shaped to more than half the dimple.   Certainly a couple of hours learning how to make this, and a scrap piece of metal is to me a useful savings over Martin Robey's repair panel.

Icy cold weather and a nasty cough, as well as diversionary roadworks (on power cables) near the barn, dissuaded me from going back out there to finish the other half of this on Friday, but hopefully I'll feel better next week. The forecast is for mild weather tomorrow so hopefully I'll see this little task done.  

Bidding you a warm and draught free evening,

Pete

 

I'm sure that just being able to drive the thing wouldn't be enough for you Pete! Be as impressive as the TR when it's done

[Bfg]

With the more mild weather, and with the barn door shut to keep the 'breeze' out.. today I made the other half of the repair patch for the bottom dimple of the spare-wheel well. 

   

 

The corroded through dimple in the centre of the spare-wheel well, in the rolling body shell, is not at all unusual. But that small piece, just 6" across, is not available to buy separately. So, using the spare-wheel well of  my Daimler, which happens to be in exceptionally good condition, as a pattern - I've made that repair piece myself.  I made it in two halves and then joined them. . .

   

    

^ The screw boss, which in my Daimler is some 3/8" off centre, is used to clamp the wheel down.  The one from the rolling body shell needs to be reclaimed, so it might be welded inside the new repair patch.  If welded from the under side - all will look tidy from inside the wheel well, as the drilled holes and cut darts in the repair panel will be hidden. This patch's outside oval shape is not important, as on the job it'll be cut down to the size required. 

 

^ I've also cut a flat plate, to be tack-welded underneath it ..so the underside of the car will be tidy too.

 

 - - -

 

Aside from the front under bumper valance panel, another little mod I'm considering is to reshape the rear wheel arch spats. . .

 

 

^ I don't mind wheel arch spats, they're actually very practical ..it's just that those on the Daimler are a carry over from the earlier (broad bumper) model and I feel look somehow a little awkward on this car.  Some may recall that I changed those on the Slovenian Ami-Super I once owned, and was much happier with the new style I opted for.  Well now I'm looking to see if, and perhaps how, I might revise these. . .

 

    

^ Genuine Coombes racing &/or road modified cars did away with the spats, and just added a rolled flange to cover where the body recess for the spat had been. In my opinion, that may have been great for cooling the brakes, but visually the under-arch gap is bigger than I'd like.  As a rule-of-thumb that gap shouldn't appear to be bigger than the front wheel-arch.      ^^ Sold as Coombe's style spats (silver-grey car) have (for my tastes) too hard a rolled flange, but otherwise have a nicer size cutout than the half spats of the original Mk2 Jaguar.  But again there's something a little awkward insomuch as the bottom corners tuck closer together ..more a horseshoe than a semi-circle.

 

    

^ The Mk2 Jaguar's update model - the S-type, with larger boot, more accommodation space in the back seats, and noticeably better ride with the IRS ..not to mention numerous other little improvements, did away with the wheel-arch spats altogether.  Likewise, its siblings, including the Mk10 and 420 / Daimler Sovereign, and even the E-types and the Xj6 models ..each likewise with slim bumpers - had no rear wheel arch spat. Their wheel-arch shapes were similarly oval.  In my opinion, the S-type's slab of unbroken rear-side-panel makes the car look dumpy in her hind quarters. Don't get me wrong, it's a particularly excellent car (almost a compact limousine) and is very nice to drive and own, but something is lost of the Mk2's styling balance.  It was also a pain to change a rear wheel, especially if the ground were unsteady or soft  ..because the car had to be jacked up so very high to get the wheel out from under the arch.   ^^  The XJ6 was very much better, both in terms of changing a rear wheel and in balancing its hind quarter style with the rest of the car. 

 

Today I was playing around to see how the XJ6's rear wheel-arch shape may look (as a modified spat) on the Mk2 / Daimler. . .

   

^  With and without original rear wheel arch spat.

 

   

^ XJ6 wheel arch repair panel, positioned level to the top of the tyre = 1~1/4" above the original wheelarch flare.  I was hoping that the oval shape (more hooked at the front) would be a compliment to the shape of the chrome trim along the car's side and the general roof / side window line.  It does to a large extent, but it's odd that the XJ6 panel looks so very long, when each model's wheels are the same size.?   In the second photo - I've cut the repair panel in half and overlapped the two / shortened its length by 7" !  And still it looks too long ..only now too high as well ..despite each mock-up being similarly aligned to the cream coloured masking tape on the top of the original spat's flare.

   

^ seen from two angles (photography being limited by the interior width of the barn) the XJ6 repair panel was cut again and is now 10" shorter in its length.  I've also lowered it ..so, like on the XJ6, the tread (down the sidewall of the tyre) would be hidden. That's 1-1/2" lower than the original Mk2 spat's flare. 

 

I'm not sure this is working, so I packed up for today, in view of looking again when I have better light.

 

Bidding you a good evening,

Pete

 

[Dobloseven]

That green S Type looks beautiful.To me at least.

[lesapandre]

Most excellent writing. Keep warm in the workshop Pete @Bfg. I have a couple of these ceramic heaters - got them cheaply 2nd hand ex-hire but in perfect nick. 

They belt out heat - so much that I bought two but only ever use one. Light and portable - quite a 'nice' heat too. Better than a standard electric heater.

[Bfg]

Following my post on 10th january, I've bought a new old stock radiator and taken it with the car's heater into Sheldrake & Well radiator repair in Ipswich.   They were wanting to charge £350+ plus VAT to recore the radiator, the new-old-stock one cost £150.  Still I took the new one into Sheldrake & Wells to have it pressure tested. Cost £25 + VAT but it offers me peace of mind.   The heater box is another sorry .. seems like they home-in on me.    In essence it comes down to my being a T-Fg-twat ..again, making an assumption and giving people the benefit of the doubt. Short version is that I took my old radiator in to get a quote for a recore. They gave me a price and also showed me a dozen or so radiators all ready for other customers to collect.  Each one of those had been recored and having been stripped and repainted looked not far off new.  That would be nice I thought, not least considering my car's radiator is 55 years old.  So while there I asked if they could do the same on the car's heater.  No problem the man replied ..£285 + Vat..  Again I just wanted the thing to be ready to refit, and thereafter be trouble free for the foreseeable life of me &/or the car.  

   

^ first pic shows what it was like when I took it in.  ^^ second photo shows what it looked like when I collected it, after the core was replaced, and my having paid £285 plus VAT plus another £6 plus VAT for an o-ring.   Aside from the second photo being out of focus (my apologies for that) and two shiny screws it looks exactly the same.     As I said I'm a T.Fg.twat insomuch as, having seen those chemically cleaned and freshly repainted radiators, I assumed for that sort of money I might get more than a core which cost £90 inc VAT ..from a well know jaguar specialist (almost never the cheapest source for parts).     Sheldrake and Wells, Ipswich is that company's name should you also wish to give them £200 + VAT for doing almost nothing. 

Just to make my day, they forgot to give me back ..and I forgot to ask for, the control valve.  So I've got to go back.  I phoned on Friday and asked but the chap I spoke to couldn't see it there. Mark, who I had dealt with doesn't work on Fridays, so I suggested he might be called, just to ask where it might be, so I might come back and collect it.  No that was not an option. "His time off is his time off"..  "please call again on Monday."

Happy customer ?  What do you think.. ??

- - -

Guess what .. I needed to take the core out to repaint the heater box  ..inside as well as outside. . .

   

^ possibly a dozen screws hold the lid on and the core just lifts out.  Only one was missing and another fell on the floor before I even reached for my screwdriver. 

...moving on

^ Hardura faced felt (noise insulation to prevent engine bay noise from going through the heater box and into the car) on the back face was still in good nick. Using a scraper I removed all of these carefully, if only to be used as patterns.

^ As it turns out, removing the fan was a pain-in-the-asp .. at Sheldrake & Wells charge rate it might have cost me a couple of grand extra.!  As you can see the squirrel-cage type fan rotor is not straight to the hole so when the nut was released the darn thing wouldn't lift out. Behind that is the fastenings for the motor, so it does need to come off.

    

^ The motor wasn't sitting square to the case and the base of the squirrel cage fan was bent.  The only way I could release it was to hammer a drift to partly straighten the bent cage and then to wedge and otherwise prise the motor straighter.   ..just another two minute job..   

^ with the cage out I could see what had happened.  Some primate changed the type of fan motor. To do so they had drilled a ring of holes and then crudely ripped out the centre so as to create a larger hole ..for the motor's slightly raised boss. However they hadn't flatten the edges of the ring of twisted and ripped out holes, and so even then - the motor didn't sit flat. They'd then buggered the squirrel cage by bending its bottom to hammer it in.  This was clearly parts of a scientific study to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution which effectively claims ; the smarter and stronger of a species will better survive than the lesser creature.  Alas, if only the parents of such primate mechanics had been rendered infertile.. the cause of classic car restoration would be so much easier.   

Three neat holes around the outside scratch mark are most likely from the original fan's mountings.  The three, somewhat skewed, brazed on bolts on the back face (see below) had tubes of rubber over them. I might only guess they were added because the replacement motor only has two mounting screws, and so rocked ..because it wasn't sitting flat (on the butchered hole edges).  To stop the motor from rocking ..and the squirrel cage squeaking as it turned, those bolts must have been added to steady the motor.  Ingenious !   ..or something like that.  

 

I'll deal with that later.  Moving on. . .

^ Today I cleaned off the residue of glue, the remaining old paint (clearly originally applied without keying or primer), and the surface rust.  And repainted it (inside and out) . . .

 

      

^  This box has lasted with just a very thin coat of original paint, despite a slight leak so I'm told, for some 55 years. And so the epoxy primer with top coat should help towards it providing another 255 years of service.

Now, left to dry overnight, I'll redress the fan's mountings tomorrow or Monday.

I bid you a good evening.   I could do with a beer !

Pete

 

[Matty]

Shame that. Don't mind paying top money to a specialist if they do a good job. Which they don't appear to have done.

[lesapandre]

The heater box assembly would have been sub-contracted out by Jaguar - I think it was made complete by 'Smiths Industries'.

William Lyons was famous for his tight control of costs and overheads at Jaguar - particularly where it was not seen, and there was ferocious negotiation to keep component costs down. So no undercoat would have saved a few pence on each car.

And when these cars were not expected to last more than a decade - it was not seen to matter.

[Bfg]

Agreed, Smiths industries like Lucas and many other suppliers made fine products that lasted well beyond reasonable expectation. As this heater box is from 1968 and there's nothing more than surface rust inside or out - I am in awe of vintage companies and the men who helped produce great cars for a competitive price.  

[Dobloseven]

Yet again Bfg proves the old saying"If you want a job doing right.........."

[Bfg]

Pretty uninteresting work-in-progress, but I'll drop it in here for continuity . . .

    

^ The Smiths heater's blower motor and squirrel-cage impeller which, with a few hundred variations, is much same as used on most British cars of the period.  You can see how the base of the impeller was bug'd by a prior owner or 'mechanic', whereby it didn't quite sit straight to the motor's spindle axis.    Credit must again go to British engineers ..that their products can be so mutilated and yet still work.   

I straightened it best I could but the throw out to one side is still +/- a millimetre.  That doesn't sound a lot but it looks and feels every micron of it as the motor's revs pick up. I tried to counter balance it with a weight but it didn't work. I need to get a replacement (just the impeller) but I'm reluctant to pay £35 for a second hand one.  My good friend Mathew has a pile of Triumph parts and reckons he'll have dozen (from Herald, Spitfire, Vitesse) to try..  For the time being I'll take dimensions and otherwise put the heater box back together, and then swap it out whenever I have the part.  

       

^  Yeah right . . .

Where the box had been ring drilled, to modify the case for the different model of fan motor, it needed flattening.  My hammer and dolly is in the storage barn 10 miles away, so I used a sledge hammer as a dolly with a claw hammer to re-straighten the edges.

   

^ .. placing masking tape across the ripped-out hole, I then marked the spindle hole of the impeller, centralised to the air-in hole on the other side.  With pencil & compass the critical dimensions could then be drawn out and two new mounting stud holes drilled.  Next up was to retrim the butchered ring-drillings so their barbs cleared the motor's body in this new position.  As you can see above I've removed one of the brazed on studs. The other two subsequently followed its flight path to the bin. 

So now to stop the motor rocking on its two studs and to add a little rubber insulation. . .

   

^ I cut a gasket from 5mm rubber sheet. The motor will simply clamp against that.  I tried it and it works well ..although with the bent and out of balance impeller it's not nearly as quiet as it should be. That'll remind me to change it !

 

^ First coat of semi-gloss black. Sprayed and then left to dry overnight so as to save hanging it and getting overspray everywhere.  ^^ I'd forgotten the box's front face - where the matrix goes in, so a bit of catching up was needed today ...to clean its old paint and surface-rust off and to primer it.  

  

^ the new old stock Daimler radiator has been pressure tested and found to be good to go, but 55 years of sitting in a shed left it looking a little shabby and with surface rust on the steel side plates.  Being very careful with the power wire brush near the core I cleaned it all up and have epoxy primed the first side plate.  Later this evening I'll turn it over to paint the other side. I think this epoxy primer is good stuff but it takes a good amount of time to dry in the cool temperatures. I prefer to leave it over-night before handling it.  Of course the core itself and the top and bottom tanks are non-ferrous and so they'll just be sprayed over a light coating of black  I've lightly rubbed down each tank for the fresh paint to key to the original.  

I also spent a considerable amount of time looking for a replacement impeller and comparing it with others.  New ones for the Mk2 Jaguar / Daimler are 'Out of Stock' from all usual internet sources, and the one for the E-type is a little bigger diameter but shorter.  No good to me then. 

So, that's all for today.  Not much.. but that's the reality of restoration ..mostly it is a slow grind with not a lot to show at the end of a day.

Right !  it's time for a cuppa.

Pete   

 

[Bfg]

some weeks later.. it's time for an update...

Daimler / Jaguar heat box ...

Carrying on from having cleaned off the surface rust, epoxy priming it and painting the outsides semi-gloss black, my next task was to replace the foam seals around the opening vent, on the box's underside.  This is the one that opens up the air flow into the footwells.  Then having refitted the non-standard fan motor (as previously described, with it sitting on a thick rubber washer) I proceeded to refit the heater matrix. 

   

The inside of the heater box had no padding for the matrix to sit upon, so I added sticky back neoprene strips. ..which I thought would be a good idea as there are no fastening to actually hold it in place, save the rubber water pipe connection and the heater valve connection.  The heater matrix is now a snug fit inside its box with just the two pipe connections poking through the lid of this box. 

  

Next up was to refit (glue in place) the sound insulation pad which goes behind the heater box. This was in good condition and so reusable, as was the thick foam-rubber doughnut, which seals between the box and the bulkhead. I also re-cut the edge-frayed insulation pad off the front of the box to go on the end.  Originally it was only half covered, but now as you can see I've extended it to also be under the vent-flap springs.   Neoprene foam strip was again used around the footwell vent flap and around the tow round holes which feed air to the face vents. 

   

Because the car is going in for a full respray I didn't bother too much cleaning up the bulkhead.  Only really wanting to get rid of the old and perished foam seals.  They probably had a design lifespan of 10 years, so they had done well ..not least considering the heat and dirt of an engine bay.   I also pulled out two of the heater exchange pipes. The one shown runs across the back of the engine. It's clipped to the bulkhead, and made of steel. There's some deep pitting from corrosion on the outside, and possibly as bad on the inside.  I need to find someone who is handy with a pipe bender and have these remade in copper ... before they start to leak.   For the time being however I just power wire brushed them, epoxy primed and sprayed them silver (rather than the original black.  As my car will change colour from black to beige, I thought to see how it looked.     

      

Heater box back in place, although there's a bottom rubber mount missing.  Getting a hand in this back corner to get those control cables under the clamp was a pain ..literally.  And then getting the control bowden cable wires to work was hampered by the new pivot-clamps being faulty. As you can see the lathe machinist didn't get right into the corner, and so the cable's hole didn't clear the lever arm..  I've reused the old ones, which work fine.  

^ The heater pipers and box is now back in place.  The old heater valve I lost when I took it to the radiator repair shop,  I thought they'd lost it but in fact I was at fault with this one.  I had loaded the radiator and heater box into the Chrysler by its side door.  When I turned up at the barn I'd opened the side door to lift things out and hadn't noticed the heater valve drop out.  It landed on grass, which overgrows the edge of the concrete, so there was no sound.  I searched the car four times looking for the darn thing, but found it pressed into that grass at the barn ..after I'd driven over it.!  Hey-up my fault, and nothing to be done but to buy a new one.  That's what you see fitted here ..which is why I happened to have new cable pivot-clamps - which didn't work. 

With the control cables in place - they don't work.  The friction between it, the old cables and the levers inside the car is too much.. I've left for now, and will attend to them when I pull the dashboard out.  Wiring yet to be done.   All in all another five minute job which took well over an hour.  

The radiator and its cowl went back in okay, but the bolts which held the thermostat 's radiator pipe connection on were each too long. Although cleaned up, these are the same as were on there before. the gasket had disintegrated when I took it off ..looking as if it had been reused half a dozen times before.  I made a new cardboard gasket and painted it with primer (the gasket that is, as well as the where the rubber pipe sits over the cast aluminium) and then of course cut the bolts 1/8" shorter. Beforehand I think the amount of goo on the original gasket must have doubled it's thickness.

Job done.  Engine bay looks a little tidier, but there's still a long way to go.  The new-old-stock radiator being freshly repainted looks like new.  That being new original, rather than new after-market tat..  And the heater box, all cleaned up and repainted, with new seals, but still with its wiring to be tidied up and new insulation to be bought and fitted.  Btw Mk.II Jagwaars didn't have this insulation as standard.   I'll also need to buy a new squirrel cage fan as my friend Mathew didn't have one of the size I need.     

I started the car and tested it, statically, and then in turning the car around (outside) and while washing the car. The fan is so efficient that I placed a thick T-shirt over the radiator grille and could see how it was being sucked in. Still in time it did get to the 50-degrees necessary for the thermostat to fully open.  The water / antifreeze mix expanded and overflowed into a tray placed under the car. There's no expansion tank on these old cars and so the following morning, when it had all cooled down, the water level was down to the bottom of its filler tube.  I don't like that. I want the water to be where i can see it.  so time for a quick n' dirty mod . . .

The only thing I could find to make-do was a plastic milk bottle, which I squeezed into a wedge shape besides the cowl, and sat on a block of foam on the chassis. A piece of string and a dog collar, and the weight of water keep it in place.  I've now even drilled a hole in its lid for the overflow pipe to go through.  I cut the palm of an old rubber glove as a seal around the cap.  Such sophistication is surely befitting a Daimler   ..  It works ..exactly as it should.  I can refine it later.

Getting the car ready for road trials, included removed the defunct dangling horn and replaced the bumper.

That's all for this post .. just a little more to come.

Pete

 

[loserone]

My Ginetta G26 had an expansion tank made from a lucozade bottle.  It worked until the coolant was hot enough to melt the bottle.  Hopefully this will work better!