Miss Kitty - 1965 Jaguar S-Type 3.8 RHD

[Glyn Ruck]

Joe, not to alarm you, but just to give some throw away advice if not relevant to your particular car. Examine the state of your wiring harness very carefully as now is the time to rectify things if necessary while everything is open & accessible. My car had been exposed to SA's hot, dry highveld climate all it's life which gave me a totally rustfree body right down to the rear door skins that frequently perforate where Jaguar attach that felt pad to the bottom of the window channel to stop it rattling against the outer skin. Of course it stays wet & corrodes through the door skin. Needs to be soaked in Tectyl.

I ended up replacing the entire wiring harness down to the last wire due to insulation deterioration. Your car has lived in cooler climes & might well be absolutely fine. All harness pieces are available with correct black fabric cover with blue fleck. (where applicable)

An acquaintance of mine lost a restored Mk2 to fire thanks to a crumbling wiring harness & a good battery.

Forewarned is forearmed. Good luck with the progress.

[DevilDog]

Glyn,
Thanks for the heads up. Yes, mine is in good shape. She sat in a summer time climate controlled garage in SC. I appreciate the advice.

[Glyn Ruck]

That is indeed good news! As you know these harnesses are made up of wiring that has both braided insulation & PVC insulation in a braided shroud mainly. It was the PVC insulation that was on it's way out on my harnesses. If you twisted some of it the PVC cracked & fell off.

[cass3958]

I was looking at a "restored" E Type the other day. Somebody commented "why does the bonnet not fit properly". Well there was nothing wrong with the bonnet. The new sills had been welded in incorrectly.

I have a similar problem with my S Type. The rebuild was started by the previous owner in Bedford. He had handed the car over to a company called "Flying Cat Engineering" in Royston. Supposedly Jaguar restoration specialists. They welded two new front wings on to the car but failed to fit the bonnet prior to the welding starting to check the gapping. There are small gaps on one side at the back and big gaps at the front then vise versa on the other side so it's not even a question of adjusting the hinge. Admittedly it's only me and some other Nerd who would notice it but annoying all the same.

[Glyn Ruck]

I'm one of those anal nerds.

I don't want to spoil Joe's thread but S type door fit has never been great & back doors have always tended to look as though they don't fit even aside from the suspect arch profile that dark colours hide somewhat. As the dies wore at Pressed Steel so this got worse. We tried our best to fit the standard doors properly on my car, even up the gaps & ensure they don't stand proud. I did not want to do a total rework on the doors. They are reasonable & at least don't stand proud at the rear like so many. Many cars also have lower B Pillars that stand proud from the waistline down. Came from Browns Lane like that.

This is the best job I've seen. Beautiful full rework of the doors. Man they must have worked hard on these doors & B pillar. Excellent gaps & fit for a Jag. Proper set back of the window frames etc. (I believe this car is now in Japan)

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This multiple JCNA winner is more typical of poor rear door fit. (I've seen this car in the flesh)

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[cass3958]

I know what you mean about those rear doors. First mine had the rusty holes coming through from the inside which I repaired by tack welding from the inside to build up the thickness of the metal and then grinding it flat on the outside. I know what you mean about the the rear doors. I spent hours dressing the edges to get them to sit flat with the wings but my rear doors were really tight as if the doors were slightly to large for the aperture. When you compare the panel gaps between the rear doors and the front doors there is quite a difference but without grinding the edge of the door off I could do no more than I did. End result was good but not perfect.

[Glyn Ruck]

Now your car has another problem that was less common but I've seen on a few. The B Pillar is welded in too far back. Usually the reverse. I selected the best set of window frames from 3 sets I had to send for rechroming. Not so easy. I had to grind them inside the door to even up front & rear door gaps to the B pillar. The frames are not all identical.

Interestingly the CKD cars built in South Africa at CDA, East London & later Blackheath, Cape Town, of which mine is one (No 3 or 4 ever assembled at CDA), generally had better body fit. Browns Lane made up jigs for us to assemble the bodies accurately & Lyons himself came out to sign off on production.

Browns Lane got the bodies fully assembled from Pressed Steel including doors, trunk/boot lid & hood/bonnet. They then ended up having to do inspection & hand fettling to ready them for dipping & paint. You should talk to Volvo about Pressed Steel. After about 80 TSB's on body fit they took production from UK back to Sweden.

[cass3958]

I was told that all the doors were chosen specifically for each car as the doors were all different sizes as were the door apertures. No computerised cutting and welding in the 60s all done by a bloke in a pair of overalls and a flat hat worn the correct way round. Buying a set of second hand doors and trying to get them to fit your car I have been told is a bit of an ordeal. The same as buying a set of door skins. Lots of fettling required so it's easier to repair your original doors.

As for the doors fitting the holes you have to remember that in 1966 Jaguar merged with BMC and in 1968 merged further with British Leyland and my S Type was built in September 1967. Oh dear!!!!!

I once saw a documentary on the production line of British Leyland when they were making things like the Morris Ital in the 80s. There was a guy on the production line with a length of 4x2 wooden plank and his job was to straighten up the doors with this bit of wood being used as a lever between the roof, B pillar and the door. The doors and the body were all painted at this point of the production line. No wonder they went bust!

First time I have heard of the "B" pillar being welded in too far towards the rear of the car but again with no computerised robot it was possibly done by a guy holding it in place with one hand, welding it with the other and all by sight.

[Glyn Ruck]

Anything is/was possible at Pressed Steel. Those were dark days. At CDA they used to first pop rivet many of the outer panels together on the Browns Lane supplied jigs/bucks. They would then weld or braze the seams depending on location. They then removed all the pop rivets & brazed up the holes & lead wiped the joints & hand fettled. Of course on occasions some artisan would forget to remove the odd pop rivet before lead wiping. Then the pop rivet would corrode under the lead & a bump would form. I found a few at 2 locations. The C pillar brazed & leaded joint & the sills where they attach to the front fenders. Drilled them out, brazed & filled. The window frames were certainly selected for fit.

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[DevilDog]

Next in line for this month....down under stuff:

Check down under and add another coat of undercoating to cover any paint over spray.
Repair damaged engine mount brackets in engine bay.
Attach parking brake assembly to rear and mount rear end, lower, and tighten down radius arms.
Put engine/transmission in.
Mount front end and tighten wishbones.
Install drive shaft.
Attach brake and fuel lines underneath.
Reattach manifold.
Install new exhaust system.