MadaboutKitcars

Nice, silver suits just about any car.

Monday

Well I started today with a visit to the dentist, as, over the weekend, I broke a tooth chewing on some stoneless dates, one of which I discovered wasn't.

That sorted, I set about the car.

Way back in December when I fitted my electric fan, having stripped out the crappy little mechanical fan that Triumph put there, (Although it was effective), I received some flak from Landmannn and Oxford, about the crappy little cheap thing I was fitting.

At the time also, I knew they were both right! However, my shitty little fan did work, (but for how long? Who knows!) BUT, I did vow one day to change it for a more robust jobbie that shifted a lot more luft.

Today was that day, I swapped some big leather cushions I had left over from the three piece suite, for a really nice powerful fan from a modern car.

The fan was made in 2011, and looks almost new, and compared to the cheapo fan in the car, this thing really moves air.

I connected it to a battery and switched it on and almost did a Mary-Poppins, over the rooftops.

Once I have it installed I KNOW when it kicks ,it will cool the living daylights out of the system.

I needed to make a cowl as it came without one, so I used some aluminium,
and fixed the fan to it with three stainless arms.

Being an incurable hoarder, I still had all the old rubber strips that came off the Spitfire donar, so used some of that to go around the cowl where it will touch the radiator.

I will finally fit it to the car tomorrow, but all the graft is done.

Landmannn and Oxford, thank you for your input!!

Does this one have your blessing?

No. it won't fit on the other side! Bollox to Canleys!

This thing'll really cool it believe me!

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That looks cool - literally and metaphorically. Nice one.

Bang tidy...

Tuesday morning

I took the small fan out of the car, and fitted the beefy one on steroids.

I was lucky to be able to use the brackets that were in place already, with a bit of twisting, re-drilling and so on, the cowling is in a good solid position, and the fan works well without fouling the sides etc.

I do admit, I feel much happier with such a robust unit in place.

As I said before, there never was an overheating problem anyway, but it is always nice to know that if you are stuck in heavy traffic during a heatwave,

The fan is going to whack the temperature down in a hurry when it kicks in.

My thanks to Landmannn, and Oxford for their constructive criticism, which is always welcome.

I also fitted both doors back on the car, and will now start the long tedious
and difficult task of shimming them up to fit as best I can.

I know how hard its going to be, because I spent an hour doing it first thing this morning and got so peed of with it, I left it, and did the fan fitting as that was easier!!

Oh well, its gotta be done...........

P.S. The bigger fan and cowling somehow makes the car look as though its got a giant turbine engine fitted!


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Fan looks almost as powerful as the engine. Just fit a prop blade to that!

When that cuts in it will add 10mph! Make sure that you have the handbrake on at the lights!

Nice work Scottie, its look like your car may hover when she kicks in.

I like the look of the interior ally work, are you coating in a lacquer or leaving as is.

Oxford
WCA
Garyh
Swifty

Thanks for your support fellahs!

Swifty, the alluminium that I have in the car so far, will mostly be covered up by the seats and stuff, the top 2 inches or so above the seat tops will be connaught green, same as the rest of the body.

The inside side panels and central transmission tunnel, (yet to be fitted) will be left bare ally. I have no plans to coat it in anything as I just see future trouble when the lacquer starts peeling off etc. It would look awful, and the lacquer would prove hard to remove to re-do.
Providing I wipe it off now and then, it should not corrode at all.
Perhaps I'll wipe it with WD 40 or some other stuff.

I want it to have its natural sheen.

Ermm, Scottie, is there enough room in front of the radiator and fan for the bonnet to open?

Not as much as there was, but JUST enough!

Later

Hi Alpha, I reckon there were more than you that wondered about the bonnet!

I did check before I fitted, I would have preferred the original gap, but the cooling must come first. It is fairly tight, here are the pics for the disbelievers!

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Scottie, I think you should be well proud of that job. Slightly over-engineered (in true jaguar style), how are you controlling it?

I have a brilliant piece of kit I found on the net.
I can dial any temperature from zero to 120 centigrade for the fan to kick in. The beauty of this is the fan can be checked at any time by dialling the temp down to the ambient temp, and it just kicks in.
I have it all on a 25amp fuse as well. ( And a relay)

Scottie - Another great job with the fan.

That 3 piece suite you bought has definitely turned into a serious bargain.

Plus your engine bay really looks like it was developed in the pit lane.

Good luck, Paul.

Scottie, I can't help but be staggered at the quality of your build and engineering expertise but those screwdriver hinges just look a bit dodgy ;-)

Nah fatbloke, they're okay!

Thanx Paul!

Landmannnnnnnnnnnn, I just found a pic of the controller:

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Seriously Fatbloke, its so bloody fiddly trying to put the bolts in for the bonnet, and that comes on and off more times than a successful whores knickers, so I ruined two good screwdrivers (modified) so they would be a good push fit for the holes!

By the way, it was good to see you at Stoneleigh.

Wow, what a fan, it now looks like you've got 911 power under the bonnet.

Best you fit a pretty strong mesh grille out front or you'll be hoovering up small children when it kicks in at school crossings.

Keep up the good work!

Terrific humour Towed!

Keep that up too, you rarely disappoint me in that area!

THursday

I ordered some polycarbonate (perspex type) sheeting for my side windows, well it arrived yesterday, so today I had planed to get the doors adjusted to the absolute correct position, build a cardboard pattern and cut out the curvy windows.

Out I went bright and early, stripped off the outer packaging, and found I had ordered 4mm twin-wall polycarbonate.

That will teach me to read the description properly next time.......

I immediately imagined myself cruising the Champs-Elysees on a wonderful spring morning in the sunshine, hair blowing in the wind, trying to look cool with poly-fu**ing-carbonate side windows glinting in the sun, and all the French pointing at me..

I don't think so, twin-wall polycarbonate is about as much use for side windows, as a soggy piece of string would be for lock-picking.

Back to the drawing board....................

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That must be as irritating as trying to order 2m of black car carpet and realising when it arrives (non-returnable) that you ordered light grey.

At least my garage floor won't be as cold to kneel on this winter

Well, they'd be thermally efficient........

Later today

I went out to the car and re-fiited the windscreen, and also, for the first time the wiper spindles.

I did this so I would have a better idea of what size the side windows would need to be, as I need to re-order the material for them.

Total disaster!!!!

My original idea was to have the side windows bridge the gap from the front door edge to the windscreen.

The reason for this was that the Morris screen did not wrap around the sides as much as the Jaguar one.

I clamped a lump of ally in place of the front edge of where the window would sit, and tried to open the door, in order to see what clearance I would have.

Absolutely none! It just mover forward and jammed solid, The door cannot open configured that way.

So, what I had planned for and built the screen for is not do-able!

What a time to find that out. I had not checked in-depth enough, and, as we all know, assumption is the mother of all f**k-ups.

Having given this a bit of thought, and given that I want to use the windscreen, which took me so long to make, the answer is some sort of quarter-light, fixed to the screen, un-openerble, which will bridge the gap.

I did not really want to go this route, but right now, I cannot see any alternative.

I will make it in stainless steel.

Once again, a huge amount of work I had not planned on!

But, it has to be done. I surely will have a one-off unique car. as it will be the only XKSS on the planet with quarter-lights.

On the positive side, (and there always is one) I will need less polycarbonate
for the windows, so it should be cheaper!

That is if I forget about the twin-wall I have already wasted cash on!

Two kicks in the goolies in one day, ouch!

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Is it worth revisiting the door hinges?

Can they be made to push the door further out before it swings round?

I will try to dig out the pictures of my Scimitar door hinges.

Not sure if it will work for you but just a thought