The next major target date is early April when I get the chassis back from Alex and should by then have the axle and all suspension parts fully refurbished and ready to fit. With any luck, I might also have the engine built and ready to install.
Right now its all a bit messy, lots of activity, but with quite a few sub assemblies being worked on simultaneously, while I wait for parts and outside contractors to complete various specialist bits.
Its probably most appropriate (if a little boring) at this point to simply include a selection of un-themed pictures to give a flavour of the different jobs in hand.
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| Off Side Front Suspension ready for re-assembly with all new Poly Bushes and Ball joints. All metalwork powder coated and all fasteners zinc plated. Note new shock absorber bottom mounting pin (RH side of pic), now with thread, instead of that really naff washer and split pin arrangement. |
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| Bonnet back from Leaping Cats with 48 perfect louvres pressed in. Problem with this is that the vee between the cam covers can fill with water in heavy rain if parked pointing down hill. Ali plate bonded to underside will allow fixing of a thin aluminium sheet to hopefully drain water down the sides of the engine. |
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| Simple fabricated ali sheets will resolve rusty spark plug problem caused by water "ponding" in centre of engine Vee. |
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| Rear brake parts for one side, ready for assembly. Shoes supplied turned out to be for a later version 120 (post Feb 52) so I had the originals re-shod with bonded linings at half the cost. Unfortunately two had the linings bonded in the wrong place so I am still waiting for them to come back. All too typical a parts supply saga. |
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| ENV Diff dismantled and looking good with all bearings replaced as a matter of course. This was done by Gearbox and Axle specialist and generally good bloke, Paul at Lagonda Garage, Billingham. |
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| Another conundrum. On re-assembling the rear axle, the clearance for the tapered wheel bearings had increased from the specified 5 to 8 thou to around 20 thou. Checked all the obvious causes and was contemplating having the 62 thou shims ground down to correct the problem when it suddenly dawned on me - around 12 thou of powder coating had been added, instead of the usual vestige (2 thou) of Jaguar factory paint. It took the best part of an hour to sand back. |
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| All is well again. 0.13mm - just over 5 thou will do nicely. Just enough to give a barely perceptible feeling / indication of end float. |
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| Another "fill in" job is to sort all the bits for re-chroming. Extreme care was needed to remove windscreen frames from the glass,but they are in pretty good shape and should re-chrome to perfection. |
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| Quite difficult to see but if you look closely (enlarge the picture) you can just make out the date code of the triplex toughened windscreen glass, with a dot against "D" - the ninth letter of "TOUGHENED" and one against "I" - the third letter of TRIPLEX so most likely made in the third quarter of 1949 or just possibly replacement glass made in 59. As both pieces are identical my guess would be the former. Unfortunately the glass is quite badly scratched but may respond to the services of a professional glass polishing operation, or may even have ago myself. |
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| Parts ready to go to S&T Electroplating in Bristol. http://www.chromebysandt.com/ S&T did the chrome on my Healey 3000 and XK140, both to a superb standard. Windscreen surround eventually removed from glass with great difficulty and the help of a heat gun to soften /melt the rubber U shaped channel to glass seals. |
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| So - this is the view of the workshop at the beginning of February 2012. Can't wait to get the engine parts and chassis back and start putting things back together. With most of the really dirty work completed, I've even taken my "stand up by itself" boiler suit home for a wash. |
I was given fair warning that engine machining specialists, AMAC whilst having an excellent reputation for high quality work would take a little "chasing" to have my engine parts back for the end of January as agreed, and this is now the case. Its just a matter of them prioritising my job over somebody else. With so many other diverse jobs to do, it isn't an issue right now, but I know from experience that it will need some pressure, which if not applied now will be all the harder to apply, say 3 months from now when the season is in full swing. It's always the case that the very best people are always too busy.
