There were a couple of other items I had to remove off the fenders in order to get to all the corners. The radiator overflow tank and the front brake lines which ran along the bottom of the fenders. The overflow tank was interesting because I could not figure out how to get it off the fender. The nut on the back side of the fender well was welded onto the fender well as a blind nut. I tried everything I could think of the get the nut loose, but it was sold. So I ended up hammering and prying the tank out. It didn't hurt the tank and all I have to do is re-cut the treads on the tank bolt, drill out the nut on the fender and use a regular nut to secure it. I still have no idea how that tank is installed! Magic I guess.
The brakes lines were much more simple. It's really funny though how the bake lines work. It's very obvious this car was engineered to be a right hand drive. The main pipe that leads to the back brakes and the tee the splits the front brakes are on the right hand side. To convert the car, they ran two pipes from the master cylinder (front and back brake mains) to the rear brake tube and front brake tee the right hand side. From the front brake tee, two hoses run, one to the right break, and one that runs to the front of the car, under the radiator and to the left hand brake. Jaguar must have been getting a kickback from a steel tubing and pressure fitting company to use so much pressure tubing and fittings!
I also needed to degrease under the hood, and realized there was no way I could do that with the hood on the car, so even though I wasn't going to, I pulled the hood off. It was surprisingly light! Lighter then my Spitfire hood. Easy to handle by myself, although I don't know if I want to reinstall it by myself once the paint is done. Too big and bulky. Once the hood was off, it was a simple matter of laying it upside down in the driveway and scurbbing it down. I need to do a little welding on the hood latches. Both had been welded before and one had come loose, causing the hood to pop open when driving. I plan to weld them back and clean up the bad weld job done before. Probably done with the hood on the car, which would be pretty hard to do well.
Of course, once I had the hood off, I realize that it really makes sense to take the radiator out. It will make it infidelity easier to paint, and I can clean up the radiator supporting bracket that runs across the top to the radiator.
Once I finished up the degreese, I pushed the car back into the garage (again, easier then I expected), and went inside.
In the evening, I focused again on the windows. I took the rear quarter lights out of their frames so that they can be painted and I can replace the rubber gaskets. Again, rust was an issue and I did quite a bit of sanding to get ride of it. I also pulled the front quarter lights of their frames, and pulled the gaskets, which appear to be in pretty good shape. Rust again rich required yet more cleanup. Finally, I all parts with rust inhibitor. The good thing is that all of these parts or hidden behind chrome, so you really don't see them. But I will not that everything is clean and in good working order.
So, next on the agenda is to weld the hood latches, fill in some gaps in the firewall with body sealer, rough up fender wells, hood and firewall to take paint, and put some rust inhibitor on some rusty areas under the hood. Then, off to paint!
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
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| OMG! Empty Garage! |
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| Cat outside enjoying the sun! |
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| Hood off, radiator out, fenders clean. |
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| Hood off, radiator out, fenders clean, other side. |
