Wood Work

Dateline – 11/09/2013 – This weekend I focused on the dash.  My buddy Matt, who I bought the car from and who has helped me with all the woodwork on the project (see post http://www.leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2011/12/recaping-summer-and-new-work.html) invited me over on Saturday and so we got a chance to do more work on the dash.  It’s been almost a year since I’ve worked on the wood and it is getting time to start finishing things up.  I had a bit of a shock a couple of months ago when I pulled the pieces out and found that a rag covered in silicone tire dressing had been sitting on the unfinished center wood piece!  I thought the piece was ruined.  But fortunately, we were able to run it through the sander and remove all the silicone except for a spot about the size of a pencil eraser in the upper left corner.   I’m very pleased about that!

Another thing we worked on was adding more wood to that center piece so that the wood wraps around the center console.  At the time we did the initial woodwork, I wasn’t sure how all the pieces would fit together.  Now that I have everything fitted, I found that I needed more wood added to the center piece so that it wraps down the sides of the console.  Matt came up with the idea of shaping a piece of plywood to fit and then gluing that to the center piece.  Once dry, a piece of veneer would be glued to that.  After sanding, filling and finishing, there may be a small seam, but it will still look good.  We got as far as gluing the plywood to the center piece but ran out of time to glue the veneer.  I’ll do that later.

Both Tanks In

Dateline – 11/02/2013 – Saturday was devoted to getting the left side gas tank in.  But first, I realized I had to pull the right side tank out because yours truly forgot to install the drain hose that drains the filler cap depression on the top of the fender!  Can you say, “D’OH!”  Fortunately, the tank came out pretty quickly, and now that I know how to install it, went back in quickly.

The left side tank couldn’t go in until I put the soundproofing panel into the fender.  I think I explained in a prior post that this panel is held in using strip caulk.  It’s a pain to do this work because you have to reach way up into the fender.  But I got the panel in.  Then it was just a matter of putting the tank in screwing it down and putting in the fittings.  Pretty easy actually!

The latter half of the day I spent doing a final fitting of the center console fascia.  I needed to make sure that the shift lever and hand brake lever all fit correctly before I did the final work on the fascia.  It’s pretty close, but I still have a few minor adjustments to make. 

I also took the time to determine how the new hand brake cable is going to run through the original air box that is located in the console.  A pretty advanced feature for this year of car, the Jaguar had airflow to the back seat area.  It has a vent in the center of back of the console, plus airflow vents going down to the passenger’s feet that have separate controls.  All of this is controlled by an air box that sits under the center console armrest pocket.  Two hoses running from the main air control in the dash feed the air box.  Pretty neat and easy system.

Because I now have a handbrake cable running through were the air box sits, I had to make some modifications.  The good news was that I just need to drill some holes through the air box to allow the cable to go through.  I’m not worried about air leakage, since the box isn’t designed to be airtight.

So, next week looks like a good time to put down the sound proofing!  All I can say is that it is really coming along!

Welcome to the 2013/2014 Project Car Season!

Dateline - 10/26/2013 - I’m officially kicking off the 2013/2014 Project Car Season.  Last weekend I cleaned up the garage and workbench and changed the status of the Jag from SUV (Storage Utility Vehicle) back to working project, which set me up for this weekend of work.

To catch you up, last year left off with a few things that needed to be completed before the car could be painted.  They included:

• Gas Tank installation
• Final fitment of the center console
• Fitment of new mirrors and hood latches
• Interior sound proofing
• Undercoating of insides of fenders
• Final mounting of fenders, doors, boot and hood
• Degrease the engine bay
• Final sanding of the exterior

So, not a lot to do to finish up.

You may remember that last year I ordered two new gas tanks.  The tanks I ordered were supposed to be straight replacements, but when they came in, I found that they physically fit in the car, but the tanks have different fittings for the gas line, and have an added return port that my car did not use.  You would think that these fittings would not be hard to find, but you would be wrong!  Apparently, the fittings are an English standard and are just about “unobtanium”.    I was able to get a plug for the return from Barret Motors, but the fuel line that I got from then did not fit.  So after looking at everything I could, I finally contact the tank maker to see if they sold the fittings.  They did not, but they did give me the specs for it. It’s a 9/16 x 24 UNEF fitting.  Now, to say these are hard to find is an understatement.  Hours and hours on the internet turned up only a few sources.  So finally I was about to get the fittings, from of all places, a marine hydraulic steering system.  So $50 later I have the fittings in hand!  The moral of the story is that if I count up the time and money spend to find these fittings, I could have bought the correct tanks from a Jaguar supplier!  To be fair to myself though, everything I could find said that these tanks fit my car.  I just didn’t realize that “fit” means that it physically fit the car.  The fittings don’t count!

So, Saturday was spent putting the right side tank in.  First I putting the fitting in the tank, sealing them with Rectoseal 5 just to make sure there are no leaks.   The tank fit easy in the space, all the mounts lined up and screws worked fine.  It was a bit fiddly because I also have to line up the filler neck, which screws into the body and drops directly into the tank.  So getting that right took a few adjustments, but easy enough to do.

Once the tank was installed, I ran a copper 3/8 pipe from the tank into the trunk.  This is where I spent the rest of the day because I now had to build the “fuel management system.”  The car has two tanks, but only one fuel gauge.  The original car had two fuel pumps, one for each tank, that fed into a single Tee fitting that then went to a fuel filter then to the engine.  When the driver selected a tank using fuel selection switch, the appropriate pump would be activated and the sender unit for that tank would be routed to the gauge. 

   

With the engine conversion, the engine mounted fuel pump was used and the old fuel pumps were taken out of the car. When I got the car only one tank was being used because the other leaked, so there was not need to worry about the tanks.  Now that I have two tanks and I needed to be able to control the fuel flow.  I could just connect the tanks together via the tee, but I worried about possible fuel starvation and problems when filling the tanks.  So I decided to buy two fuel cut-off valves that would be activated by the fuel tank selection switch in the car.  The wiring already existed for this.  It was just a matter of installing the valves and plumbing everything appropriately.  Of course, this took much more time than I thought it would, but as you can see from the pictures, the results look nice and professional!

Tank with Fittings.

Right hand tank in car

Tank and fitting.  Looking toward front

Fuel Management System.  Looking toward rear

Fuel Management System.  Looking left to right.

So, you may be asking, why didn’t I install the left hand tank?  That’s because I still have a lot of work to do on that side.  As I talked about in this post (http://www.leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2013/07/emergency-brake-done.html) there is a panel that needs to be installed in the fender and sealed in so that sound and water don’t make it to the rocker panel in the back.  I completed it on the right side of the car, but ran out of sealing material for the left side.  I got the material in over the summer but I have done no more work.  So this weekend I painted the inside of the fender in prep for putting the panel in and sealing it.  I’m thinking I can get all that done next weekend, plus get the tank installed!

So, starting the new Project car season off with a lot of success!

Really Nice Summer Day!

Dateline - 07/13/2013 - It was a wonderful summer day on Saturday which caused me to not spend a lot of time on the car!  Instead, went for a 40 mile bike ride.  But I did do a little work on the center console fascia.  I realized that I needed to built out the lip of the fascia so that it does not dig into the vinyl that covers the console.  So I masked all the vinyl off, wrapped it in saran wrap, taped the fascia in place and then fiber glassed a new, form fitting lip to the inside of the fascia.  This should give it a lot more support and make it easier to mount.

This morning I walked into my office to find the glove box door that had been at my friend Matt's house from when we worked on the maple dash.  What a beautiful piece of maple!  Now that the weather is getting into the 80's, its a good time to start working on the dash.  So I think this weekend I'm going to pull out the pieces and start the finishing process.  This should be really fun!  It really makes me feel like I'm getting this thing done!

Center Console Fascia Work

Dateline - 07/06/2013 - Beautiful weather this weekend so I spent some time working on the car on Saturday.  My focus was to work on the center console fascia.  The fascia needed to be built out to hold the radio, cup holder and climate controls.  All of these required brackets to be built and fiberglassed onto the back of the console.  Again, because I'm making parts fit that are not supposed to, some modifications and creative sheet metal work was necessary.  Yet, once again, I was able to find a good solution and I'm very happy with the results.  I even put everything in the car to see how it would work ergonomically.  Really nice.  All controls fall "right to hand" and will work very well together.

What's left?  Well, I need to add some more fiberglass around the edge of the fascia to strengthen it and make it less likely to cut into the vinyl of the center console.  I also have to add mounting hardware for the console.  I think I have a pretty good idea how that is going to work, but I need to execute it to see for sure.  Then a final fitting with the gear selector and parking brake handle.  If everything looks good I will do the final carbon fiber layup and finish it off with many coats of lacquer finish.

As a side note.  While waiting for the epoxy to dry, I put the sender unit in the driver side gas tank.  Still looking for the correct fittings for the tanks, but that is one more thing done!

Here are pictures of the center console:

Back of fascia with Radio (top) and climate control (bottom) brackets epoxied in.

Back of fascia with radio and heater controls installed

Fascia from Driver's seat, cup holder closed

Fascia from Driver's seat, cup holder open

Fascia from Passenger seat, cup holder closed

Fascia from Passenger seat, cup holder open

Emergency Brake Done!

Dateline 06/29/2013 - It's been a while since I posted last since I've not been working on the car much.  Summer is always a hard time for me to get car work done.  I want to do so many other things!  But, I put in a good effort on Saturday and got the Emergency Brake done.

Like everything on this car thus far, this was not an easy conversion to make.  The Emergency Brake (EB) on the Jag is not renown for being the best.  Like most cars from the 60's (remember, this car first came out in 1968) the EB was really more of a parking brake, something the keep the car from rolling down hill if the transmission let go! They often got out of adjustment, particularly after he brake pads wore down and became next to useless after awhile.

The original EB cable runs through a lever/pulley/handle under the dash, under the driver's side of the car,  into a 3' cable housing mounted at the back of the car then to the two brake activation levers, on on each of the disk brakes.  The idea is that you pull the handle under the dash, which pulls the cable which then squeezes the two levers together, pushing one brake pad in each caliber against the brake rotor.  Quite complicated and really didn't work well.

My challenge was that I want to remove the lever under the dash and use an aftermarket Lokar brake lever mounted in the center console.  I bought the Lokar handle (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lok-ehb-7000f/overview/) and brake mounting kit (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lok-ec-80fu/overview/) some time ago, but didn't really think out how I was going to make the conversion.  After crawling around under the car, and seeing how I'd have to mount the cables, I realized that my best bet was to bring the cable into the car underneath the back seat and along the top of the drive shaft housing.  The real problem was that the original cable housing was about 20" too short.  fortunately the kit I bought had plenty of cable housing.  I ended up not using any of the cables and most of the housing that came with the kit, although I did use all the hardware. 

My next problem was how to keep the cable from kinking where the different housings meet.  That was a really easy fix! A run to McLendon's (local hardware store) for a 1/4" x 2" brass nipple and I was in business.  The nipple fits over the original cable housing end (with a little help of a file) and the new cable housing goes right in, nice and smooth!

My final bit of work was an enhancement to the brake handle mount.  When I created the mount a couple of years ago, I didn't know how the cables would mount.  I was more concerned with mounting the handle so I could get the console done. Now that I got the cables mounted, I realized that I needed one more brace on my mount so that that handle will not slide back.  So, I cut and drilled some steel that I had from another project and voila!

Here are pictures of the work:

Original cable routed through back of seat (right) under back seat and though body to brake lever (left)

1/4 x 2" brass nipple used to splice cable housings together

What cable housings look like spliced together.  Splice ends up inside the body.

View of cable looking from handle to back of car.  You can see the Lokar mounting hardware in the foreground.

The Lokar mounting hardware looking forward

Brake lever mounting.  New brace was added running from front of trans tunnel to the brake lever.  You can also see the Lokar cable mounting on the hand brake (far left)

So, the EB is done!  One more thing off the list!

I also spent some time on the gas tanks.  Since I last posted, I did some work on the gas tanks.  I now have two new tanks (yes!), both of which are painted and the passenger side has the sender unit mounted.  But when I looked at mounting them, I realized that the fittings for the fuel pickup is different then what I have on the car!  Not only that, but there are two fittings (one for the fuel pickup and one for a fuel return/surge line.  This was something that was put on the Series II cars that the Series I didn't have.  The tanks are a correct fit so I figured I could plug the fuel return line.  But I can not find the right adapters!  Standard brass pressure fittings have the wrong thread count!  So I have to find these adapters before I can put the tanks in!

I had one thing left to do on the body before I could put the tanks in.  There is a plate that fits into the cavity between the wheel well and the rear finder.  The plate is used as sound proofing and to keep water from running into the area around where the rocker panel meets the rear fender.  This panel was originally held in with a plumbers putty the was never supposed to harden.  Well, after 40 years, it did and the plates didn't do much to keep water out.  So, I purchased some 3M Strip Caulk (http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/3m-strip-calk-black-08578-p-10395.aspx?gclid=CIvCloXMjrgCFWKCQgodIWkA1g) which I think is the exact same stuff they used originally.  One box did one fender, so I now have the passenger side ready to go.  I need to get one more box to do the driver side.  Then, once I can find the adapters for the tanks, I can put the tanks in and button up the rear end!

I just keep telling myself, one more thing done means one less thing to do!

Gas Tanks!

Dateline - 06/01/2013 - decided to start working on the gas tanks as well as more center console work.  Here is a reminder of the "Saga of the Tanks."  The XJ6 has two 12 gallon tanks, one in each rear fender.  The filler caps are on the top of the fender and recessed into a small cup.  The cup has a drain to let the water that collects there drain out.  But what ends up happening is the drain gets clogged with leaves, dirt, etc. and soon the cup turned into...well...a cup that holds water.  Once the water level gets high enough, it will drain past some vent holes in the gas cap and soon you have a significant amount of water in the tanks.  The specific gravity of water is heaver then gasoline, so the water will settle to the bottom of the tank and eventually rust it away.

Now, in a car that is being used all the time, there is enough jostling to keep the water from settling in one place, and in general, you use both tanks, so you are continually putting new gas in.  However, my car sat for several years outside and that did the tanks no good.

A couple of years ago, I took the tanks to a radiator shop to see what condition they were in.  The driver's side tank was in okay shape (it was still able to hold gas when I drove the car).  The passenger side tank, however, was Swiss cheese!  So I went on ebay and bought a passenger side tank.  I also bought a tank sealer kit from Eastwood that I planned to use on the driver's side tank.

Fast forward to this weekend.  I pull the tanks out from under the car (where they were being stored) and the new tank is in great shape.  So I masked off important areas and painted the tank.  The drivers side tank though had continued to rust, even in the dry garage environment.  I tipped the tank over and bunches of rust came out!  So, girding my loins, I pulled out the Eastwood tank sealing kit and started to read the instructions.  OMG.  I needed to buy muriatic acid, acetone and then follow a 12 step process to seal the tank.  I just wasn't up for that!  So, I went on ebay and bought a drivers side tank too!  So, at least I will have two brand new tanks, brand new sending units and fresh fuel hoses.  What price serenity!

I also spend some more time with the body filler this weekend.  I've just about got the center console done.  I have a little more sanding and fitting to get the radio to work correctly, but I should be able to finish that soon.

Finally, I did some filler on the chin piece of the car.  This is the last piece of bodywork that requires bondo work, so, I'm pretty pleased.