'CJ' Chuck's Jaguar

Evening folks, Just tackled a few little things today.  I took the heater bonnet duct off to paint it the correct color, a wrinkle black.  Then I re-did the data plate and got it correct this time around, then on to trying to fix the seats.  The seat were FROZEN in place and it took a long lever and my lovely wife to get them to move far enough that I could get to the fasteners.  I had tried penetrating oil to no avail! The heater duct in it's gaudy red. Changed to wrinkle black The new Data plate properly riveted in place. This doesn't look like much but I was ready to give up on getting these seats to move forward enough that I could remove them.  The previous installer reversed the seat back hinges so that the lever for tilting them was on the inside where they bind on the cubby /center console. The other thing that should be addressed is the cubby lid, I suspect that they used incorrect fasteners and it's loose.  We'll see.

First I'll start off with Drew's comment from yesterdays post, for some reason my replies disappear into the 'ether'.  Drew wrote " David sure knows his E-Types and you do as well. I aspire to both your levels, but have a long way to go. Plus both you and David have documented your work extensively and I use your sites fairly often when undertaking a difficult task on my car. Maybe Erica and I can document her engine removal that is coming up just to get the work process down with photos. David has done this with his car, but took out the picture frame. We plan to leave it in place and lift the front of Erica's car so the engine can be rolled away on a dolly.   Nice work, Lynn. CJ is getting better every day." Thanks Drew, I have found your thoughtful input to be extremely helpful as well-Thanks and keep them coming. Today I was planning on winding up with CJ so that Chuck can get his car prepared for the car show he's going to enter this weeke

I'll start off with an excellent bit of information about the late series 2 cars courtesy of my good friend David Langley.  If you peruse lag Lovers or Bring a Trailer you'll recognize his name and erudite prose.  I met David on the very first Oil leak (tour) back in 2011 when we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the E Type with a group of like minded friends from Jag Lovers.  Over the years I have learned to trust his counsel on anything E Type, I have several other friends with who I correspond with on Jaguar matters and it's like the old E F Hutton ads, when they speak I listen! (for bonus points who knows what E F Hutton was?)* Copy of CJ's Heritage Certificate At any rate heres what David had to say: "I'm really confused about this 1R vs 2R designation in the last Series 2 cars. If you look at xkedata, most (but not all) of the cars after nR28000 are 2Rs. However, there are occasional 1R cars (like Chuck's), and some of them clearly sh

Hope you all had a good Memorial Day!  I always wonder about the correct adjective for this holiday, somehow 'Happy' just doesn't seem to fit. Today I decide that I would be happy if I could get a couple of tasks completed so I decided to tackle the water temperature gauge and the brake heat shield replaced. So Dear reader continue on: One of the challenges I face is the inability to ignore bodges that I encounter, here's one that I fixed, obviously the installer didn't realize that this edge tucks in under the glove box and is held by the lip. This is the air flow vent, two of the vanes were broken and I was able to get one of them realigned, the far right one needs TLC The center console was not fastened in, perhaps because the dash center can't be lowered, probably because the gear shift cover and lower console is too high-should be removed at some future point and adjusted so that the radio console can be lowered. New Water Temperatu

Afternoon folks,  got  few little chores taken care of but it's always amazing how much time it takes on even what appears to be the simplest project.  I took a detour to install the safety latch on the bonnet only to find out that the backing plate was missing so I had to make one. After removing the grill I found that the backing plate was missing Making a new plate Drilling the plate New backing plate to mount the safety latch to New safety latch mounted Back to the door strap, I installed the door strap yesterday but it became apparent that there were a few other issues to take care of, one of the door mounting bolts had not been installed and it was obvious that incorrect bolts were used to attach the door.  These are a special bolt with a tapered head that fits into a tapered recess in the door.  I would replace the bolts if I had replacements but at least I can install the missing bolt. The door card didn't fit right and the upholste

Chuck B. has asked me to do a few chores on his very nice 1970 FHC (Fixed Head Coupe) that he has bought.  The car is one of the late Series 2 cars that was manufactured in August 1970,  an interesting characteristic of these later cars was the placement of a 'Leaping Cat' on the lower edge of the bonnet in a location that is reminiscent of the placement of the outside bonnet latches of the earliest E Types.  Chuck's car has been restored and has had Weber carburetors installed in place of the somewhat 'anemic' dual Zenith Strombergs.  Like many cars of this vintage it has gone through many hand both owners and mechanics so it will be interesting to see what kind of little things we'll find. I will chronicle the things I find and any repairs that I perform over the next week or two.  Today it was fun to look the car over and one of the first tasks that I under took was to check the door strap on the drivers sid