MadaboutKitcars

No Gary!

I'm just not much good at photos!

Thanks Paul, that choke button is now with the engraver to put
"PUSH" on it, although in reality, I will be pulling it!

What a crazy world we make for our selves!

I wonder if the insurance company will swallow that one..........

And then again, how would the twoccer know that was the choke...

:-)

Thursday

Well I have finally got the heater plumbed in to the dash by reworked pipes.
Do not have any pics yet but I do have a pic of the two ducts I made at great effort, but could not use.

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Friday

Well, I am reading all this stuff over on Paul's thread and Viatron's, about moving the steering column, which fills me with dismay!

I did not even realise there was a problem 'til I read this stuff!

Moving the column is obviously something that is done in the early stages of the build, and looking at Mac's thread, it looks as though it was relatively straightforward working on an open chassis.

At the stage of build I am at now, it is virtually impossible for me to do this mod.

It would have been awkward enough doing it at the "moon buggy" stage trying to work under the dash in the the confines of the open Spitfire footwell, but now I have the body on, and all the rear seat panels etc in place, I cannot physically fit into the tight confines left to actually do the work.

Even if I could, I would be welding upside down, with the weld inches from my face, which is not the best situation to be in.

So, for you Herr Scott, za vor is ovair!

I will just have to live with it, being consoled by the thought that in the past,
350,000 Spitfire owners lived with it too.

Of course earlier, I was outside and studied the situation (in my dressing gown) and thought "bloody hell! it is offset!"

Wished I'd have found out about it sooner...........

Well Paul, if I had not noticed until it was bought to my attention,
most other people won't either!

I have owned lots of Spitfires and GT6's over the years, and never ever given it a thought.

As you say, if you are building a chassis from scratch, it may as well be done at the same time, but also as you say, if you aren't, then its not such a big deal.

I have to say that really, 'cos I'm NOT going to do mine!

Now that you mention it Mr T, I might have an easier time if I sit in the right seat too! It certainly does not look too bad sat in such a fashion.

Cannot imagine why I didn't try that before.

This forum is so useful at times!

Saturday

I am getting close to being able to fabricate my dash front, so I have been trying to get all the little bit and bobs that will give it the authenticity it has to have.

I think the last thing as far as control knobs go was the choke, which is still with the engraver.

The last things I need are some dome headed rivets, which go on the dash front to hold certain thing on.

They will have to be Imperial rivets, as metric rivets are not "domed" enough, being more shallow headed.

Also in 1955, they most certainly would have been Imperial rivets on a Jaguar.

Metric things were only to be found in Europe in those days, where rich people went on holiday and came back with the shits.

After much trolling of the net, to my joy, I finally found what I was looking
for.

Quaint Imperial rivets with a measurement of 3/16 of an inch by 1 and 11/16 of an inch.

They came in packs of 10 so I ordered two packs, and they arrived today.

Of course I have no intention of riveting anything to my dash, that would have been far to crude for the Jaguar craftsman to even contemplate.

But I had a cunning plan, I would cut threads on the rivets then I could put nuts on, and attach my bits and pieces to the dash in a civilised fashion.

I found that I could cut a 5mm x 0.8 pitch thread and the 5mm nuts I had would be a good fit. So that's what I did.

Just another small step, but, in the right direction and of course, time consuming as ever.

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Sunday

I think Peepsy said recently "We go to bed thinking about our cars, and we wake up thinking about them too"

Well I can go one better than that now, early this morning, I actually woke up in the middle of a dream about XKSS dash boards!

This was probably due to me studying the dash layout on photo's on the pc for about two hours or so last night.

After so much study, (I was looking at the rivet layout on different cars)

I came to the horrifying conclusion that four of the rivets at the top and left on the dash panel, ARE SMALLER THAN THE OTHER eight!

Of course all my rivets are the same bloody size. If I had not noticed this it would not have mattered, but now that I knew, it did matter.

So I had to make the top four smaller. I did this by putting the rivets in a drill, and spinning it on to a revolving sanding disc.

It did not take long, and I got the correct results.

I tell you, be warned, once you have climbed aboard the attention to detail train, there's no f*****g getting off until it arrives at its destination!

Still I have the things right now.

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Wednesday

Because I had so much trouble with the doors opening correctly and the lexan side windows, I kind of stuck my head in the sand, and thought I would drive it like McQueen did, without the side windows, and I'd put them on later.

Recently it occurred to me that if I followed that route, I would at some stage be trying to fit windows on a finished painted car, which is not ideal, so I spent today fitting the windows.

I was over the moon with the drivers one, as it opened well, with no clearance problems at all. As usual, my euphoria was short lived as the the passengers one did foul the quarter light a bit at the top. I will sort this out somehow, but not today.

The fan kicked in while I had the engine running, and when I checked it
although it was working well and cooling as it should, it was blowing forward not backward, so I reversed the polarity. I had not noticed it before as it cooled well, but would have been in a serious fight with the slipstream once mobile if not sorted!

I also took off the two nesting hood frames, anti-rusted and painted them, a job I had been meaning to do for ages.


Here are the pics of the windows fitted:

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Yes it is Scimjim, I thought any less would be too floppy, and any thicker would have looked elephantine, it seems about right.

Another side effect, is it appears to make the cockpit EVEN SMALLER!

Very cosy though!

My dash will be 2 inches closer than the one in it now, and with the seats back in. I'll be two inches closer to the dash

If I put any weight on, I'll not fit in it, and have to flog the car to an anorexic dwarf

No offence meant to any anorexic dwarves that may read my thread,
in fact, stay tuned, and you may end up with a real bargain car!

Thursday

I have just come back from the engraver that I use with my choke button.
I immediately painted it "russet brown" then high lighted the writing and lines with white.

It looks a bit newish, but it will be okay. I think the original knobs were brown in colour because they were made of "bakerlite". which to anyone that's never heard of it, was the early form of plastic.

It only came in brown and was very brittle and broke/shattered fairly easily if hit hard.

I won't have that problem with mine as it is a very durable modern plastic/rubber, most likely made in China.

Just got to make the dash board now..................

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Very impressive stuff Mr T!

We eagerly await the second chemistry lesson...........??

You mean, there's MORE?

Friday

I started to cut out the dash today, and spent most of the day making patterns, measuring, looking at photos, taking my windows off the car so I can get better access. I'll have to take the doors off too, as I do not have the access I really need.

Having got as far as I have, which is not that much to show really, I then
realised that this is only the drivers side, and I will have to do the other side later.

I thought I would do the dash in a day, but it is so complicated to get right,
I doubt I'll get it done in week.

the meagre pics:

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What can I say? I'm still giggling.

Today

I have joined the two bits of the drivers dash together with epoxy glue, filled and sanded it all to a good finish and test painted it in black to see if it looks right.

And it does. the next job will be to start cutting holes in it and fitting all the
dials, switches and stuff that have taken me so long to modify to look right.

This is the time when the dash will really start to look the part, and turn the car into an XKSS visually.


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Mmmmmmm, You are very observant Jonesy!

It is indeed a gun and scope, I bought it for annoying neighbours.

If they complain about the noise I make late into the night doing my car build, I shoot them, it has a good knock-on effect as most of the houses round me are empty now, so I can make as much noise as I want and no-one complains any more!

You get 9 out of ten for observation, but dropped a point as you did not correctly identify the calibre, make, type of scope, and whether it had been fired recently. Promise me you will buck-up.

Worse still, that is not my garage, but my conservatory, and under those towels and all those tools and stuff, is a pristine solid oak table. (The towels protect it well)

When one lives in a man cave, one can do whatever one likes,

so there we have it!

Monday

I was snowed under with admin and "normal life" in the morning, but pulled my finger out after lunch and got stuck in.

I drilled out all the holes for the major switches and rivets.

I had to seriously modify the ignition switch in order for it not to look as though it had been fitted by a half-blind hamster, whist being attacked by a fox.

This took an enormous amount of time, but it works well and looks the part,
which after all is what we are all about.

As I said before, I have fitted my start button in the place that Jaguar had fitted the wiper switch originally. (Even Jaguar made mistakes)

Seems more logical to have it all in one place.

I finally finished the task I set myself at 11pm.

As usual, it does not look like a lot a lot has been done but it took a whole days labour to get where I am now.

BUT, it does look right, and I am happy with it.

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Tuesday

The work I am doing now on the dash is incredibly satisfying stuff, and the reason is, that when I first started this build a year ago, (before the body shell arrived) It was all planning and preparation.

I did a lot of photo-study to try to work out what the XKSS dash switches were, and what their function was.
More importantly, how I could source them and get my hands on 50 year old switches most of which are unavailable now.

(oddly enough, Lucas still make the dip switch and the horn button, 50 years on, which surely has to be a testimony to good design)

Luckily, being an incurable hoarder, and having owned several Jaguars over the years, (mainly old battered ones I had to renovate) I had some of the stuff I needed already.

The things I could not get hold of, I had to make, so I did all that, and now I am at the assembly stage, which is so rewarding, as slowly, slowly, in front of my eyes, an XKSS dash is miraculously appearing, exactly as it is in all the pictures I have on file.

I will try to get the dials in today, but I have to go so slowly so as not to ruin what I have done so far. One wrong cut, or hole too large, and its back to the drawing board! And hours and hours wasted

watch this space...........