MadaboutKitcars

I will have a go at that later Danny, I have spent all day getting the drivers door back on, and same as before, it does not fit, nor does the lock work, and in the process I have chipped the paint!

Its a bloody nightmare, I have had to shim the hinges so much, I needed to go out and buy longer bolts.

I've just about had a gutful today, doing soul-destroying jobs for hours and hours is so depressing.

It really will take me several days to get the doors sorted out in some order.

On a lighter note, I will get it done in the end!

Yes you are right Danny, I just find it stressful, so near, yet so far, and the car is fighting me all the way!
I will win though!
Tomorrow is another day.

Wow! What an awesome machine Mick!

Sunday

I have spent most of today fitting the doors, side screens and mirrors, with limited success.

The drivers door is on with its side screen and it opens and closes reasonably well, it'll do for now.

The passengers one, I am afraid, at the days end, I have failed to get right,
and it will need a lot of time spent shimming and messing about.

The long awaited head light covers arrived on Friday, and although I was very careful drilling the fixing holes, the drivers one cracked down the middle, so it went in the bin. I lost heart and did not do the nearside one!

The worst setback of the day was when I opened the bonnet, and noticed it had cracked in half near the louvre on one side.
Eventually the bonnet will have to come off and have serious repair work done and get re-sprayed yet again.

I had this happen once before, and thought I had given it my best shot when I repaired it, but its back to the drawing board on that one.

First off all I was gutted, then re-appraising the situation, I realised I have done 99% of all the hard work and this setback whilst extremely irritating, will get sorted out too.

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Thanks Danny and Mick!

I just took Ed's advice and had a practice drilling of holes on the cover I threw away, and without too much care, drilled 5 or 6 holes in it no problem, and this was done in just a few seconds, as I wanted to see what could be done!

So I'm not sure what caused the cover to split in the first place?
I will have to go cap in hand to Chris yet again!

It seemed to me like the cover was under "tension" and the hole was a good excuse to let rip!


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Thanks for the help fellahs, I particularly liked the "pilot hole" idea, which I normally use, but did not on this occasion!

Also the shallow-angle cut bit, which ought to help.

I will be taking your advice, as at forty quid per side, its an expensive F.U.to make!

I still have not got the passengers door right yet, and have done a "tempory fix" on the bonnet split, as it cannot really be seen with the bonnet closed, and the headlight cover I need has not arrived yet.
I have the car booked in for an Mot, but with rain forecast, that may not happen either!

I had a quote for having all four wheels tracked, which was £55, which I thought was expensive, is that normal, or what is the general cost that you guys have come across?


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If it passes the Mot Gary, I surely will drive it, and the passengers
door is likely to NEVER ever get done!!

Gary, its just struck me what you meant, when you said "get it done"

Its not the cost so much as the principle, this bloke charged £60 to do all the caster, camber and tracking, which is fair enough, as that is a lot of fiddly work, but I told him I have set the camber at what I want, and the caster in not adjustable on this car, so all he has to do is one job, the tracking.
So he chews his lip and knocks a fiver off!

I would rather drive round scrubbing out the tyres and re-newing them when they wear out, rather than give that bloke one 'kin
penny of my money!

As soon as you mention "Jaguar" you are in financial trouble jonsey! I've had enough of them to have leaned the hard way.

Yes Gary, I spoke to a chap yesterday, who I used to buy tyres from about 35 years ago, he has retired now, but his son now runs a place, and will do the tracking after I get an Mot, so that should sort that one out.

Isn't it odd how things like that just "happen"?


P.S. Thanks for the info Ed, as ever!

I have spent the morning on the car again, and still cannot face having to do the nearside door again, so I have just left it for now, it won't fall off at least!

I have finished the mopping, and got busy with the Mer, the shine has improved and I suffered with "snow-blindness" and had to go and get some sun-glasses!

The temp repair to stop further crack-damage on the bonnet has worked and I have touched it up with paint.

After almost two years of hard work, I decided I would NOT re-spray the car, and would learn to live with the tiny imperfections in the paint-work, so that is why I went ahead with the polish.

Ed, you are most likely right about the castor adjustment, you seem to be right about everything else, and I would not argue with you!

All these companies that build "new" XKSS's, slavishly follow the tradition of the short-nose D Type route, possibly quite rightly, and it just occurred to me that I probably have the only long-nose version of an XKSS in the world!

(Which of course is what I wanted)

And after such a long hard slog have earned the right to a smug smile about that!

Thanks for that Ed, I had a quick look and it looks to be all very good stuff. Some of the diagrams I have never seen before!

Very useful as you say.

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Hey deggsy, what are the down-sides of having the castor angle too far out?
This area is something I'm not too familiar with.

Where are you based?

I may have got away with it then Ed, as I have lowered the front and rear about the same, so I should not have affected the castor too much?

Rene, the side windows are bolted to the door with six bolts.

Although it only takes a few minutes to take the window off, as Steve McQueen did, because he lived in California where it never rained much.

In England we usually put both hands on the steering wheel when we drive, but it sounds like in Holland you hang one arm out of the window? :-)

Looking cool is what its all about Rene, which is why McQueen had one of these cars!

Take a look at this pic, there is a really cool place to put that arm..........

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What screen are you going to use then?
All of the ones I thought of, or other people thought of, were about 5 or 6 inches too wide, which is why I had to make my own!

Friday

Well, I took Mr Towed's advice, and braved the impending dense thunderstorms, to drive out to myMot station.

The Mot tester took one look at the stance of the car and reached for the Taplow meter, mumbling about " never fit on the rollers...."

I was even complemented about the engineering on the car and it passed the Mot!!!

I really was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire on the way home!

I then took my V5c, (which I had been hanging on to like grim death) to the
post office and "taxed" the car, which cost nothing as its classed as an historic vehicle, so now I am legal to be on the road.

I fitted my newly arrived "tax disc" in the window.

I will now post off my form V627/1, and re-register the car with its new body and colour.

To be honest, I hope they will rename it A "Triumph XKSS" but don't really give a toss what they call it, because just driving it is sheer bliss.

The car drives very nicely, the steering is tight and precise, the ride is firm, and it handles well.

And the exhaust note!

I could, and will, listen to that all day!
It burbles away normally, and howls when the right foot goes a bit heavy!

It is a bit loud, but hey come on, its supposed to be a road-going bloody racing car! It has to be loud.

When I get round to it, I will try to get some sort of video and/or soundtrack made so I can post it.

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Thanks Derek, ref the screen you intend to use, I am assuming your body-shell is wider than mine?

Reason I think that is because I went the same route as you, and was going to use the Minx rear screen but as far as I remember, it was too wide by far, so I opted for the Morris Minor one I have now.