MadaboutKitcars

garrett, thanks for the complement, reading all that must have taken you a awful long time?

Just don't tell him you spotted the issue with the doors/windows on page 9 of the build thread

;-)

Ouch!

Thursday

A couple of weeks ago when I had the car outside. Just after I had fitted the larger fan, I ran the engine up to full temperature and left it running for a while.

I wanted to see how hot the passenger’s floor got, as the exhaust is just a centimetre or so away from it.

Also the big silencer inside the heat shield is very clode, (Well, its touching) the fibre glass body at that point along its length.

I had planned, and bought, miles of exhaust wrap for the whole of the exhaust under the car, as I could foresee problems in this area.

When the engine had been up to full temp for a while, I put my hand inside and touched the passenger’s floor, just above the point the exhaust goes under it, expecting to be burned!

Surprisingly the steel floor was barely warm!

I then did the same on the inside of the fibre body where the silencer “touches” it only to find the same, Barely warm!

I had also been worried that any wrap I put on under the car would degrade rapidly due to water dirt etc, But I don’t really need to put anything there at all. What a pleasant surprise

As it happens (Jimmy Saville expression!!) where the silencer touches the fibre body, I lined that part with plumbers mats, then clamped the exhaust tight against it to hold them in place. When the exhaust comes off for the car to be painted, I will glue the mats in place, which was the plan at the time.

Those mats certainly do a good job in heat insulation
Department!

And so does air by all accounts! That one centimetre air gap is all that is needed when stationary,

At speed, the airflow should keep everything really cool.

Halleluiah!

Friday

Ordinary life really does get in the way of the build at times, and this week has been bad in that area!

Today I cut out the four trim panels that will go either side of the side windows, to add a bit of dash to the car.

I did not manage to do this without injury of course, and ended up with a cut on my right hand which bled a lot. At times stainless can be sharp at the corners, and dick-head was not wearing the gloves he should have been.

I can't blame anyone else!

I did them in stainless steel as usual, and, as usual, they do not look impressive.......... yet.

But when cut to shape and polished up a bit, they will.

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Scottie - It is all these little touches that make the difference.

Not sure if your have Freeview TV, but saw an advert for a programme that might interest you...

9pm Friday 29th August
Quest Channel
I am Steve McQueen

It is a documentary about his life, so not sure, but it might feature his XKSS.

Cheers, Paul.

didnt know he had one

some inspiration for Scottie

.............................................................................................Steve McQueen showing director John Sturges his Jaguar XKSS on the MGM studio lot.

Well redratbike, if an XKSS is good enough for the coolest guy on earth, its gotta be good enough for me!!!

Perhaps he wouldn't have been so cool if it wasn't for the Jag ;-)

Very boy racer with only one wiper. You do get a better sweep though.

Steve McQueen's 1956 Jaguar XKSS - Jay Leno's Garage

Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ai0uSj_OVE

All XKSS's have two wipers, including Steve McQueens as far as I'm aware.

Saturday later

Paul, thanks for the input, I'll look out for that program.

Redratbike, thanks for the pics, it does help to inspire me.

IanA, go to specsavers!

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!!! check out the top two pics-

wiper spindles = 2
wiper blades = 1

I rest my case M'lud and ask for the severest custard-ial sentence.

Ha Ha!

Yes you are right, he's got one wiper missing in those two pics.

BUT, if I was M'Lud, I'd send you down for trying it on!

There is no way you can get a better sweep with half the intended wiper system not functioning.

Guilty as charged, take him down cuntstable! :-)

The site I got the pics from had him in his cobra and lotus 11 as well lucky good looking cool git he was.

Strange but true and I know whereof I speak.

Better sweep per wiper; if you only have one, it will clear more of the screen on its own than if operating as one of a pair.

This assumes that the spindles are interlinked of course.

Tuesday morning

I have only ever had the opportunity to actually examine one XKSS closely.
I did this last year, as I had ordered my body shell, and was looking for hints and tips for my build.

I noticed that the car I was looking at did not have any rain channels on the door openings. I asked the owner if it leaked, and he said it did.
He had stuck some rubber strips in the gap, but told me they did not work.
He even said that in heavy rain, the foot-wells filled up with water!

I just did not have the heart to tell him why it leaked. His car was absolutely
mint in every other way.

However, I was determined that my car would not leak, and I would have rain channels around the doors to stop the water ingress.

I have only 6 pictures of XKSS's with the doors open, and unbelievablely,
none of them have rain channels around the doors!

So, its fairly safe to assume that they ALL leak. How strange!

looking at the hinge positions on some of the cars, there would not be enough room between the hinge and the body in the open position, to allow a rain channel to be present.

So I checked my car. as I have come to the point where its time to fit the
rain channels.

There also is not enough room! Damn!!

But there will be room, I will see to that.

My car will be unique in more ways than one, as I most likely will have the only XKSS in the world that does not leak!

Well I measured the drivers hinge, took it off and hacked it about a bit, put it back on, and I now have a space for my rain channels.

Just got to do the passengers one now..........

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Later Tuesday

Well, I went back to work and did the passengers side, and its back on the car all done. This has cleared the decks for some sort of rain channel.

I will most likely do them in alloy, but plastic or rubber piping may be an option yet, they would be easier to make given a flexible medium to work with.

I still find it really strange that as far as I can tell, no XKSS has any door rain channels. If any one out there has pictures or any knowledge to the contrary,
I would be very interested to hear/see it.

What's so unique about your car Scottie?

Well its waterproof!

Perhaps it won't be, but I will have less water in mine than the others for sure.

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Scottie - Great work.

Although I bet you are getting fed up of modifying those door hinges by now.

Good luck, Paul.

Hey, Scottie, why go to all the bother when you can get an XKSS replica here -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/one-off-classic-sports-car-kitcar-mx5-rebody-jaguar-inspired-/311056600705?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item486c6b0e81

I can hardly tell the difference between it and the real thing, especially from the back............

I am pretty sure that this was his build thread - http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3008 - he doesn't mention that it started as a Sammio body. It was a G46 bonnet mated to a modified 550 rear end..............

Thursday

I still could not believe that all XKSS's had no rain channels on the doors and leaked, so after a lot of searching, I finally found a picture which, when blown up, shows quite clearly what the originals must have had.
The picture quality has suffered in the enlarging process, but its all there.

It is basically what I had in mind for my car.

In my search, I also came across the other picture, which shows what happens when you build a beautiful replica at great expense, but choose the wrong windscreen!

Which is why I spent so long engineering mine to look as good as I could get it.

But looking at the second picture is like a nightmare, as it just looks so terribly fugly! Especially compared with a "real" screen.


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Hi Ox, yes I did see that car for sale, and thought exactly as you had!

Shame that most or the pics of the build are missing, it would have been interesting to have seen.

King of Cool

2100 today on Quest (channel 37 & +1 38) is a programme all about Steve McQueen. Just possible there'll be shots of his XKSS. Enjoy

Thanks Mick, I will take a look at it!