leonk

For what it's worth, I'm with Dave for once. It's about sympathetic restoration and upgrade without detracting from the original character of the car. At the other extreme Dave, you want to see it on the E type forum, they argue about what type of hose clamp you use!

Great write up. Keep up the excellent work!! As regards the SU carb I too didn't realise you could mod them, thought it was more a job of setting them up a balancing them properly.Having said that I know you can change the needles and jets to allow more fuel in. All seems a bit of an old school dark art.

Wow , love it Chris!!

Wheels sound like a bargain Chris. You just need a compressor and a spray gun. As it happens we do very favourable rates on plant hire with training thrown in!

That's brilliant, have you got a link. My car was born a couple of years earlier than you and while a long way off, this would be a nice touch.

Mine's the 2.8 (although i know i said 2.4 on my first post, my mistake!). It is a lot slower than i was expecting, but i think its part of the experience! On the motorway it was fine at 70mph. I would have though an engine swap would be really easy, but from the reading i've done there have been very few. People are saying that because it's such an old car with no electronics etc, fitting any kind of modern engine in it is very difficult. I find this hard to believe though as surely you would just rip everything out and replace with modern kit? Anyway, we'll see. Lovely sunny day in Macclesfield, I'll be round checking up on you! If people are fitting small block Chevy engines to 350zs then anything is possible. I would have thought the main problem is finding an adaptor plate to mate it to the gearbox.

Not so much an update as a Thank You to my wife who after any years of marriage has come to accept if not appreciate the sadder ocd related aspects of my character. Having won a bargain toolbox on e Bay that I kept promising myself and moaning I couldn't use it until I had a cover, I arrived home to find she had made one, and my son had found a logo for it! Back on the JAAAAAG front, I've taken the LSD rear diff down to a guy in Colchester to have the crown wheel and pinion changed to a 3.07 from a 3.54 and have it all fully overhauled. He is going to do the rear hub bearings as well having read the service manual and realising that without special presses and tools, not to mention an understanding of pre loads and other stuff would be beyond me. More expense but at least I will know it's right and it progresses the build a little. For the electric power steering upgrade, a company in Norwich have made and developed a brand new programable ecu for me so we will be able to have it speed sensitive and torque sensitive all fully adjustable. This has been very interesting and it was great to meet Phil who worked on this. They also do loads of stuff on fuel injection etc that might be of use to you guys on here. http://www.extraefi.co.uk/ I've also ordered a complete new loom with another loom adapter that will allow me to fit a modern alternator. I'm going to try to get a few more parts blasted and primed this weekend so that's all for now folks.

Just come out of the garage after finishing the seam sealing of the underside and tidying any little imperfections and then a coat of epoxy primer. I wanted to get it primed as it would probably be next weekend before I got chance to do any more, 3 am, I must be mad! I've also made a start on the bulkhead. It seems to be taking forever the bodywork preparation, and I'm now beginning to understand why these bodyshops charge what they do. I'm hopefully booked onto a Jaguar engine seminar at the end of November, through the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club where you go for the day and they show you how to strip down the Jag straight six engine and do maintenance jobs on it , so looking forward to that. Anyway a couple of pics for the die hard enthusiast followers.

Darren said.. " and then she was naked!!!" You're a bit premature, that's not naked mate! Naked is when she's back to BARE metal. That's not even foreplay, it's a quick snog at the end of a second date! You know I'm only kidding, great work, watching with interest

Fixed

Scans MUCH better with..... " A gloved hand on her knee "

No worries, was on my way home and thought I'd call in. Glad you got back ok, I'll call after work tomorrow about 1ish.

Epic mate!!! Give me a ring when you get it home I'd love to see it. Fantastic project that I'm sure will keep you busy.

Don't do that to me!!!

I have to say Darren, in comparison to mine your components seem in remarkably good condition, can't wait for the tear down and back to shell pics.

Googled bondage, dating and SMD, and ended up on here!

First one! The guy at Hutsons was brilliant and really patient with my daft questions and actually taking time to show me one. Even though that was my first, still not sure about doing another. It took me three weekends and a few nights including making a wooden carpet lined jig for the door frame, but mainly drinking coffee and scratching my head.

Looking good Chris and looks like you are getting on top of it now.

Another late night in the garage. I tried to take some pictures to show the previous damage to the drivers door skin but they didn't turn out too well. Having fitted and painted the new sill and finished the A and B posts, the drivers door kept annoying me every time I fitted it. I could have re filled it but knowing how I am it would always be playing on my mind that it was full of filler and I should have replaced it when I had the chance. I have never fitted a door skin before and quite frankly kept putting it off. Fortunately You tube along with tutorials on open heart surgery have lots of stuff on door skins. The guys at Hutsons Jaguar who I have bought a lot of parts from have been great too and very kindly showed me one being done in their workshop. Unfortunately as I was concentrating so hard on not messing it up I have no pics of the process just the end result. So a few pics of the door skin on, getting all the gaps right YET AGAIN!!! , primed and re fitted. A bit of weld added to the B post to get the gap right and re primed.... And finally refitted and gapped up. Glad I did it now. Slow progress but progress never the less.

Are you going to have a go at sandblasting the suspension parts or the whole car? I've finally got the cabinet blasting and extracting properly and it's brilliant. I find it quite therapeutic. The main problem was that I had so much extraction it was causing negative pressure in the cabinet inflating the rubber gloves making it impossible to move my arms! Keep up the good work. I try plan welding so that I'm in the garage for at least half an hour after just in case something is smouldering. Keep up the great work!

Having seen it Chris, I knew you'd have no problem selling. At least you've had one but full understand that listening for every little noise and constantly looking at all the guages thinking that could be expensive. As I said when you called round, that's something that never even entered my head with the zed. Look forward to seeing the track toy. I now have a garage full of tools, compressors, welders, spray guns, shot blasting equipment that you are welcome to use!

Post some up Will.

Half twelve at night, semi naked in the garage, just need SMD.

Thanks for the comments. Got home from work to find my engine stand had arrived. This should be a big help for stripping and cleaning the engine and diff unit. The diff is now separated from he rest of the rear suspension but this throws up another dilema. The American cars were fitted with a 3.54 LSD diff which gave great acceleration at the cost of reving high at higher speeds. The UK cars were fitted with a 3.07 diff to compensate for this and more importantly achieving the magic 150mph in fourth. Still impressive enough today, but that was back in 1961. Unfortunately these 3.07 diffs are like rocking horse do do. Plan B is to fit a purpose made 5 speed gearbox as fitted to Eagle E types but that would mean another big expense. Anyway that's a decision for another day. In the meantime I've finished the end of the sill from the previous pics, and done another section of seam sealing. Engine stand, Priming and seam sealing, Finally, every JAAAAAAG owner's enemy. Recently I have become paranoid about the moisture content in the air and its potential for causing rust. As well as the heating and dehumidifier in the garage, I have humidity meters in the car port, and garage. Fortunately, I'm managing to keep the garage at a maximum of 50% but the other night in the car port I got 92%. A big thanks to all those who advised when I posted about dehumidifiers. I have actually noticed a big difference working in there now. The second pic is I managed to get it to for spraying so really pleased. A professional spray booth would be nice but that might, no, would end in divorce Car port Garage Thanks for watching.