MadaboutKitcars

This week

I have realised that if I do not do some serious work on the build, it will drag on for longer than need be, and I really wanted to be driving it in this weather.

So, here we are at Monday lunchtime. What have I done?

Cut the wiper pipe to the correct length, flared the end and got both wheel boxes in the right position at last.

Fitted a two position Jaguar switch (from the 60's) which will work the wipers on position one and the wipers and washers on position two.
This should (will) pass an Mot. I can always play with it at a later date.

When we say "play with it at a later date" what we really mean is bollox, I can't be arsed to mess about any more, that's it, and providing it passes the Mot,
I will live with its faults, and never ever touch it again!

I decide ages ago that in order to save time and money, providing the original heater worked, (which it does) I would just leave it in situ, adjust the old control thingy to "Hot" and just one swicth, on or off.

Well I just did that, and when I do the dash layout finally, the heater control thing will be hidden out of sight, but with switch will be in a readily available position when it gets cold.

Sir William Lyons must be turning in his grave bless him!

That would never have done for his Jaguars!


Here are some picatures:-)

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Scottie - Looking at those first two photos it is had to imagine just how much grief the windscreen gave you.

It really does look like a factory part now.

Keep chipping away, Paul.

Even if it's not on the road yet, it's great to see pics of it outside in the sunshine! Getting ever closer.....

Afternnoon

Well I went back out side and put a full afternoon on stopping at about 6pm.

There were so many small, but niggly time consuming things which I knew were a pain, so put them off, with a "oh, I'll do that closer to the end"

They mounted up, and closer to the end is here and bloody now, so I did several of them.

Wiring in the fan, fixing the horn in position, fixing the fan control unit on the bulkhead, drilling holes in the tail light plinth for the screws to fit, sorting out the
heater duct pipes, and that sort of stuff.

The car does not look much different apart from the wipers, but a whole days work has gone into getting where I am now.
This has had the effect of boosting my morale, and I want to keep the momentum going if I can.

Here are the pics so far

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Paul and timtim, thanks for the encouragement, always most welcome!

Your car is coming together just perferct Scottie! This is very great work you are doing! Really like you helmet exhaust +the red seats! Why not make a clip of it running?

Best regards from Andreas!

Tuesday

As ever, I did not get as much done as I had planned today, but I have moved on a bit.

I finally bit the bullet and drilled out the holes in the screen frame, after
LOTS and LOTS of measuring!!

Sods law of course came into play, and the drilling process stripped the filler out of the drivers side hole.

I repaired it immediately, but with fibre-paste, for the extra strength.

None of the chrome rings or rubber spacers fitted correctly, due to the change of angle, so they all had to be modified, hacked about, re-polished etc. but they fit and look the part now.[IMG][/IMG]

So I did not finish the job, as I will wait until tomorrow when the fibre is rock hard. I did however, drill it out gently while it was still softish.

The sanding will be tomorrow, and hopefully I will have both wipers in place
at last.

Sods law had one last go at me, when I drove the car back in its tent, the throttle cable snapped for the second time.

Its obviously knackered, so the next job will be to fit a new one.


Pics:

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Screen

Back out on the car nice and early, rub down yesterdays work and prime it all up yet again.


I ordered the two- jet screen wash head two days ago, so when it arrives, I have one final hole to drill in the screen frame, before final prep for my paint job.

I've totally abandoned the idea of having it chromed / wrapped.

That exercise took up so much time and effort fruitlessly.

I will paint it silver, I can try all different shades, and the more coats the merrier!

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spray on chrome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TDtUHo5cSE

My grandma always says, "If something looks too good to be true.........."

I agree but it could be worth getting hold of them and seeing if they have someone local who could give a quote.

Thanks Jag, I don't mean to be negative, but I've been down that road too. It always looks good on the vids, I've seen a lot, but never quite hits the right note in real life.

I tend to agree with Ox on that one I'm afraid.

That's why I will just do the best I can with silver and clear coat.

Scottie - what about using self-adhesive silver/chrome foil? The thick stuff should be relatively hard-wearing, but you could protect it with a laquer coat.

See, for example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPECIALIST-FOIL-CHROME-610mm-X-1m-SELF-ADHESIVE-STICKY-BACK-PLASTIC-SIGN-VINYL-/190587887190?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item2c5fec5e56

It may be available in a size that you could use as one-piece, to avoid joins.

I appreciate your input Retro, but have you seen the lifespan the company gives it?

"Up to three years", externally, that really means two years at best, and on a windscreen with all the hammer that gets, maybe one year?

With the hassle of trying to fit the rubber and glass in the frame without splitting the foil?

It not really worth going there when you weigh it all up mate.

When I did my MGB wheels I used halfords 'mini silver' then lots of clear coat

seemed to me that it was about as silver as silver gets.

I'll get some and try it out Timtim, seems like a good enough reccomendation!
I have to start with some sort of silver anyway.

Scottie try the plastikote chrome paint its jolly silver and shiny when fresh,needs a good UV lacquer though as it fades fast otherwise, I think wilko's stock it. I used the gold on some plaster moulding corners on a english heritage building I restored a few years ago and they still look good now. From ten feet it looks as good as the proper gold leaf that's low down. If it fades or you cant get your desired shine I'd play with giving it a brushed nickel effect with a gentle scratch with emery cloth. In my opinion the some of the detail of all the parts and all your hours of brain work into your creation it will look superb whatever the screen finish. The brushed alloy vinyl wrap will be stouter than you think, a friend had his Jeep done in it and it had some punishment offroading and faired well. Ed.

I will try that one too ABSM, what UV lacquer do you recommend?

The reason I ask, is when I renovated the wheels on my van, I used some sort of clear varnish / lacquer, and when I got a scuff, I tried to over-spray with the original silver, and it reacted with the lacquer, and all bubbled up like foam!

I was gutted. I had to wash it off with thinners, and you can imagine the mess that made of my handiwork!

I really do not want to make that mistake on the screen.

Extra work is the one thing I dread being closer to completion.

This st5uff shows shiney chrome on the paint can lid but flat silver when sprayed on BMW plastic

Scottie - What ever silver you end up with, the screen will still be a great contrast with the dark green paint work.

Good luck, Paul.

That's exactly what I was thinking Paul and infact if it where real chrome all shiny and new it may look too good and a bit replica ish. Mr T wrote he had people talking about his paint and you can't fake patina like that when his car was very recently finished. In my opinion the sum of the parts is what makes a great car. An off silver titanium colour may look the part. Halfords sell a lacquer with UV protection but I have never used it it just stuck in my mind as I sometimes use UV protect polyurethane on restored or repaired wood work if it needs to match old existing,and I thought I should of used that on my jeep to stop the chrome paint greying. On another note I was out in my fathers 2005 s type jaguar and the rear door sill protector plate jumped out at me and said that would look excellent somewhere on Scotties car.I can email you a pic if you like? Ed

I have some plastikote chrome left why not choose an item we all will have and ask anyone with any chrome paint product to do a 2 coat sample and post pics ? May save you £30 in paint. I did see the spray on real chrome used on west coast customs on a whole car.

Today

WCA, I agree with you on the "chrome paint" bit, which is why I won't use it.

Paul, I'm certain you are right! I just don't want extra work choosing the wrong stuff!

Big Scary Monster, I will look into the silver paint you mentioned.

Today The washer jet arrived and it looks quite nice, I drilled the 8mm hole for it in the screen and mindful of the filler flaking off the wiper holes, went very slow and careful. All to no avail! the filler flaked off!! Damnation and bollo.

I trial fitted the jet, only to find the threads were too short due to the double skinned panel I had welded on the frame for extra strength.

Damnation and buggeration again! I ground away a lot of metal on the inside panel which allowed me to get the nut on (without the anti-slip washer). Anyhow I was able to spanner the nut on tight enough to bend the inner panel so the gap between the two panels was less. Now the anti slip washer will go on and it all fits as per.

So I re-filled the hole edge, sanded primed and left to harden.

I fitted a new plastic pipe from the pump up to the dash top ready for the washer jet.

I did not fit a new throttle cable, as on closer inspection just the tempory clamp I put on last time had come off, so I re-fitted it, and will renew the inner cable tomorrow.

The "re-fitting" process actually took around two hours.

The reason is that when I did the repair on the cable end last time, the seat backs were not in place and I could lie in the car and get to the accelerator easily.

With the seat- backs in situ, in order to get to the accelerator cable with both hands, involves getting into the fetal position upside down, avoiding the gear lever and handbrake which are both trying to gain access to the anal passage.

It is incredibly uncomfortable and painful lying on all that metal, so I got back out after around half an hour of serious effort, and stuffed lots of the leather cushions I had left over from when I made the seats into the cabin.

This made it even smaller but more bearable to work (in the fetal position)

Whilst performing this painful physical manoeuvre, ( I am 6 feet tall, and no teenager) it occurred to me that if the throttle cable ever snapped away from home, with the seats in place, the central transmission tunnel in place and the dashboard in place, repair would be basically f***ing impossible!

So I shall fit the new cable in the morning..

Pics:

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Today

Well today I fitted the new throttle cable, made some more connections to the horn and fan, broke my horn button, and ordered another one, and tidied up the loom under the bonnet.

Bonnet: I thought I would take the bonnet off and flat it down for painting, as I did, I noticed an enormous stress crack in the place where I had sorted it out two or tree times already.

You can really imagine the surge of total f***ing joy I experienced, when I saw THAT!l

Journalistically speaking, this was a kick in the bollo.

After all the trouble I had getting it right.

Still, looking on the positive side, (and we must) its better to happen now, rather than after the paint job right?

Back to the drawing board, ( I know how Towed felt now!) Well, I knew anyway.......

Obviously, if it has cracked without being banged or dropped, that area must be stressed, so the repair must be more substantial than last time.
I will reinforce it with alloy, and perhaps layer glass over the top to finish it off. Does not look like the paste did much of a job last time.

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