Jaguar project paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday visit to the paint shop.
Look at all that boot (trunk) space :-)

Still in the paint shop.


Waiting for the primer and guide coat to dry.


This is where the headlights, grill and bumpers will go.


No, this is not the final colour. This is the grey and blue camouflage that goes under the sealer, paint and clearcoat.

Jaguar project paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday visit to the paint shop. Should be ready for primer by Friday, then the undercoat, more primer, sanding, the paint.


Meanwhile, back at home I pre-assembled the tail/brake lights and test.
Made up my own colour code for the pigtail wires. Brown - Brake, Yellow - Tail, and Green - Ground.

Looking forward to next year and getting all the feathers and bones installed and on the road.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Driver side door being worked on last week.


This week left door finished, now working on passenger side door.


Right rear junk yard roll around tire leaking really bad, so I brought over one of the new wheels and tire to check to see if it still fits. Also brought over one of the Dayton wire wheels and found that they will not fit. Hole spacing is too small.


Put on the original 600x16 spare wheel and tire for rolling around.


Getting very close to getting some paint on it. Finish up the passenger door, another coat of primer, more sanding, then it should be ready to put on the first coats of real paint.

Jaguar - Paint shop

No progress for the past couple of weeks. Almost ready to paint and most of the rush jobs are out of the paint shop. Mustang in the queue of project cars ahead of me getting painted today.



I did not bring my checkbook along, so will have to go again tomorrow to put up some money for the interior fabric purchase.

Jaguar - Dashboard

No progress this week at the paint shop.
So I decided to calibrate and test the fuel gauge. I used the old fuel level sensor. Still working but the float leaks. I think I need to put the dash lights on a potentiometer to lessen the brightness a bit.

In other news, the roll around junk yard wheels prize is still available to the winner of naming the car.

• Name Sex Meaning Origin
• Arcene F Silvery. French
• Argenta F The silvery one. Latin
• Argentia F Silver. Latin
• Argentina F Silver. Latin
• Argento M Silver. Latin
• Argyros M Silver. Greek
• Arian F Silver. Welsh
• Arian M Silver. Derived from Greek Arion, mythological magic horse. Welsh
• Ariana F Silver. Welsh
• Arianell F Silver. (An early saint) Welsh
• Arianrod F Silver wheel. Anglo-Saxon
• Arjean F Silvery. French
• Antenor M South American silver magnate Antenor Patino. Spanish/Greek
• Eirian F Silver. Welsh
• Fidda F Silver Arabic
• Gina F Silvery Japanese
• Gweir M Legendary son of Cadellin Silver. Welsh
• Jumanah F Silver pearl. Arabic
• Kailasa F Silver mountain. Indian
• Lujayn F Silver. Arabic
• Silverman M Silver; Silver worker Old English
• Silverton M Silver; Silver town Old English
• Silvio M Silver. Italian
• Sippai M Threshold, silver cup. Biblical
• Sooleawa F Silver (Algonquin). Native American
• Sterlyn M Of high quality; pure. Pre-medieval refiners of silver. English
• Stirling M Of high quality, pure. Pre-medieval refiners of silver. English
• Tatyana F Silver-haired. A popular Russian name. Latin

Jaguar - Paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday visit...

Rear fenders and boot all primed and curing in the sun.


Rest of the car in the paint booth.


Most of the primer guide coat (blue) sanded off and waiting for final primer coat.

The junk yard roll around tires are not standing up too well. The left rear completely flat and they have to pump it up before moving around.

Still looking for a name for "her". Maybe I should start a contest and have people vote for a name. The winner gets a complete set of 4 junk yard tires!

This weeks entry: Gina ... short and easy to remember, but "Viva Gina" may have certain other connotations. ;-)

Jaguar - Paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday visit.

Back outside from inside the paint booth.


Junkyard wheels and tires are holding up quite well considering all the rolling around.


A slightly different view from the top.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday visit to the paint shop.

Guide coat of primer to highlight areas to work on.


A semi-shiny coat of primer helps to show any little defect.


I love the flowing lines. Can't wait to install the eyes, mouth and bumpers.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Jaguar Wednesday progress report...


Front end got a coat of primer.


Starting to look good.


Now on to the doors. The rear end is primed, the front end is primed with a first coat.

Reminds me of Seseme Street poor Solomon Grundy.

Gizmo Gun Lesson

Gizmo gets his first lesson on guns and shooting.
Have to add "don't eat the target" to the list of gun safety rules.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Moved from the sunshine to the paint booth.


Bare metal, filler and primer camouflage.

Jaguar - Dashboard

I have been looking at the dashboard on top of my bookcase for months now, and it just did not look right some how.

This is before the change I made today.


and this is after.

I case you did not detect it, I changed the original fuel gauge for a Autometer Cobalt gauge that matches the rest of the gauges.

The dashboard is now totally modernized.

Electric tachometer, the mechanical one had no place to connect.
Electric water temperature replacing the unreliable bourdon tube Smiths original.
Electric fuel level that can be calibrated with an empty/full tank procedure.
Mechanical oil pressure same as the original.
Electronic speedometer with hall effect sensor. Procedure to calibrate by holding the dual trip odometer reset button while turning on the ignition, driving a measured two miles, stopping and pressing the button again. This solves the problem of different tire diameters.

I attended the Jaguar Club of Florida meeting last night. I got to Cricketer's Arms restaurant about an hour early so I walked the Festival Bay mall and found a little shop where I scored the Jaguar key fob.

Jaguar - Paint shop

More progress this week. Working on front end.

Out in the heat and sunshine.


Filler where the hood meets the body. The hood is popped to the safety latch. When closed, it is a tight fit.

Jaguar - Paint shop

More progress. The rear end is primed and basically done with the body work.

Working on the front end.


Can you see the low spot on the bonnet that was filled?

Jaguar - Paint shop

Visit to the paint shop today. More progress and I caught them working on it again. A lot of sanding dust all around.
Now we are at the start of the hurricane season and hopefully this will not slow down the progress.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Visit to the paint shop today. The rear end is primed.

I dropped off a data sheet to remind them of the make and year of the Jaguar for their inquisitive customers.

Some Jaguar trinkets.

Made a mounting bracket for the right front bumper for the JCOF badge.
Purchased this card holder at the JCOF Concours d'elegance show in Lakeland May 15th. Holds my JCNA membership card and JCOF name tag.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Coming along. Maybe some primer next week.


Rear fenders out enjoying the Florida sun and good weather.


Rear fenders almost there as far as preparation goes.

All the customers that come by the paint shop ask about it. I'll have to make up a fact sheet for them.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Visit to the paint shop. Still working on sanding, filling, preparing for primer.
I have been going over the parts catalog and trying to identify other additional parts I need to order.
No firm date on when the paint will actually go on.
It is going to end up better than when it left the factory (birth?) June 28, 1952. Build (conception?) date was May 22, 1952.

Jaguar - Windshield and Grill

Windshield frame, glass, parts and materials.

The black ever-seal goes around the glass, and the glass goes into the 3 piece frame. I did the bottom first, then the top and las the center piece. The trick is to use some liquid dish soap to be able to slide the glass into the frame. I used the ratchet strap to carefully compress the parts together.


Finished product.

XK120 grill.

Cleaned up nicely with chrome cleaner and polish. I had lost the far left vertical slat, so I removed the far right one. More air for cooling, but more bugs in the radiator. I also scraped, primed and painted the slats rather than spending megabucks on getting the whole thing re-chromed.

I visited the Jaguar in the paint shop today. More progress. The rear end, boot (trunk) lid and rear fenders have a coat of a special fiberglass, filler, primer mixture and are being sanded and smoothed getting ready for primer.
.

Wheels and tires

I seem to be accumulating wheels and tires before even getting on the road. Currently have some 15" disk wheels with junk yard tires for rolling around the various paint and restoration shops.

Yesterday acquired a set of 4 Dayton 15" wire wheels with Dunlop SP40 a/s P215/70R15 tires for show to supplement the 17" wheels for go that have not been on the ground yet (previous post).



Of course, being the geek that I am had to plot the differences in performance:

For show:
Tyre:- Dunlop 215/70R15
Top Gear gives 27.738 MPH/1000 RPM and a top speed of 171.975 MPH at 6200 RPM

Engine speeds in top gear:-
30 MPH = 1082 RPM 40 MPH = 1442 RPM 50 MPH = 1803 RPM 60 MPH = 2163 RPM
70 MPH = 2524 RPM 80 MPH = 2884 RPM 90 MPH = 3245 RPM 100 MPH = 3605 RPM

Top Speed in 1 gear = 62.082 MPH
And changes into 2 gear at 3962 RPM dropping 2238 RPM
Top Speed in 2 gear = 97.155 MPH
And changes into 3 gear at 4871 RPM dropping 1329 RPM
Top Speed in 3 gear = 123.652 MPH
And changes into 4 gear at 5124 RPM dropping 1076 RPM
Top Speed in 4 gear = 149.618 MPH
And changes into 5 gear at 5394 RPM dropping 806 RPM
Top Speed in 5 gear = 171.975 MPH

For go:
Tyre:- BFGoodrich 205/40ZR17

Top Gear gives 24.170 MPH/1000 RPM and a top speed of 149.854 MPH at 6200 RPM

Engine speeds in top gear:-
30 MPH = 1241 RPM 40 MPH = 1655 RPM 50 MPH = 2069 RPM 60 MPH = 2482 RPM
70 MPH = 2896 RPM 80 MPH = 3310 RPM 90 MPH = 3724 RPM 100 MPH = 4137 RPM

Top Speed in 1 gear = 54.097 MPH
And changes into 2 gear at 3962 RPM dropping 2238 RPM
Top Speed in 2 gear = 84.658 MPH
And changes into 3 gear at 4871 RPM dropping 1329 RPM
Top Speed in 3 gear = 107.746 MPH
And changes into 4 gear at 5124 RPM dropping 1076 RPM
Top Speed in 4 gear = 130.373 MPH
And changes into 5 gear at 5394 RPM dropping 806 RPM
Top Speed in 5 gear = 149.854 MPH

Four sets of rims. These two plus the 15" roll arounds and the 16" original disk wheels.

No problems with the speedometer. Autometer Cobalt electronically calibrated hall effect pickup. Just reset and drive 2 miles to calibrate and set to go.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Todays visit to the paint shop. Rear fenders done now working on the front fenders and doors.


Fresh coat of filler ready for more sanding.


Meanwhile back at the ranch... I have been scraping, priming and painting the bumper brackets. It was more work than I would like to admit. Looking for the nuts, and only found one. They are NOT SAE standard. May be metric or English thread. I may just have to break down and order some new ones.
Also scraped and painted the boot (trunk) lid mechanism.

Jaguar - Night eyes

This is the upgrade to the Jags night eyes. Xenon bulbs in conversion lenses. Also has built in parking lamps. Ready to be installed when the paint drys.
Still in the paint shop being filled and sanded.

Jaguar - Paint shop

Todays visit to the paint shop.

Working on the front part. Can not believe how many curves are involved. Jaguars are truly a sculpted work of art.


Rear fenders done and taken off for edge work.


Dropped off the welting that goes between the fenders and body.


Boot lid was a major job. The dark spots low areas that need another layer of filler and more sanding.

Next week it may have a base coat of primer. They are taking away all the character from the initial minor defects as it was finished on May 22, 1952. Was not 'dispatched' until June 28, 1952 and first owner took possession on August 13, 1952.

On the same schedule, except 58 years later.