Hi all, I have recently bought a 1966 S type that has sat for 33 years. It was a local car to me when new so has moved about 25 miles in its 51 years. It came with no V5 or keys but the log book turned up yesterday and I have got some keys already sourced for it. There is a fair bit of rot in the car as both chassis legs will need changed, the offisde front one is mostly not there. I will also have to remake all the returns where it joins on from the front. The person i bought it from had kkacked the car up on the front nearside and has shifted the floor up about 2 inches. It is solid though apart from the front 8 to 12 inches which are a bit holey. The nearside is much better for some reason but all the jacking points are scrap. I am wondering where is best to brace it as i need to drill out the chassis fixing on the floor first on the offside. The engine, gearbox, front and rear suspension are off already to lighten it a bit. I don't wan't to place the shell under any more duress until it is braced? Seats are coming out saturday with more of the interior. Has anyone got a scrap shell that I could get a couple of repair panels off? S or Mk2 as they are both the same. I need the closing panel that joins the bulkead to the chassis leg that sits agaiinst the bulkhead?

 

Some pictures of the rot. Not very pretty.

 

Pictures of the car from when I bought it.

 

Welcome to the forum and a Happy New Year !

Hope you didn't pay too much for it.
It's pretty badly rusted.
Looks like the engine mounts have been compromised and the rad is missing because the front of the car is gone ???

This is the right place to come though, lots of help here.

EDIT:
In all honesty, it's so bad, I would use this as a parts car and find a better example to restore.
I guess it depends on how skilled you are at fabrication _ time is a nother factor too...

 

The radiator is there, it is in excellent condition fro some reason apart from the 2 bottom supports have rotted away. The car seems to have had a small engine bay fire on the right hand side which is why the rot is so bad from what I can see. I paid just over a grand for it so not expensive. The tool kit is half there as well which is nice but the jack is missing so onl the lookout for an original jack too. It is a 3.4 Auto so don't know whether to keep it that or convert it to a manual.

 

Hi,

Thats pretty crusty but anything can be repaired given enough time, patience and money!

I would suggest that you need to strip all the weight out of the car to start with (engine, box, axles, seats , glass etc etc but leave the doors in place including the chrome window frames so that you get an idea if anything has moved and the car needs to be put back into line.

Next I would brace up all the door apertures including diagonal bracing between the pillars for extra strength and across the car as well (i.e. pillar to pillar).

You will also need to assess what is required for the front end based on how much is missing, if the chassis legs have gone as badly as they seem to have the entire front end might have moved.

There was a good article in the practical classics MK2 special which covered repairs to a distorted shell. https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/pra...espc/pc-jagmk2

You can then assess where the good metal is and start cutting, personally I would start with the chassis legs doing the worst one first and using the other one as a datum as once these are good the car will be much more solid, the outer sills don't add much strength when the car is a bare shall, the strength (IMHO) is the large chassis like box section that runs from the front under the radiator to the back of the car.

It might be worth having a look on ebay to see if anyone is breaking one of these that you could salvage any panels from as floors aren't available (except for the small bit above the front jacking point).

The biggest challenge will be making it straight and getting the front suspension geometry right. I did something similar to this on a MK2 AH Sprite about 15 years ago and I used a board on the floor, plumb weight, pins and string.

What I did was drop a plum line from each of the four corner suspension points (in this case more than that as there are four mounts front and four mounts rear.

I then ran strings diagonally from each one to the opposite at the other end of the car. I finally ran one down the centre of the car and the strings should cross the line in a mirror image i.e the one from N/S rear to O/S front crosses at the same point as the one from O/S rear to N/S front.

It was a long process and no where near as accurate as a modern jig but it worked. You may even be able to get the original Jaguar figures as they were sometimes in the workshop manuals.

Best of luck!

 

Hi sulzeruk, welcome to the forum.

I had similar issues with the front end of mine, and also oddly the offside was much worse than the nearside. If you check out my thread you will see a similar story, and there are loads of pictures on bdclassics.co.uk. In 2 years time you will look back and smile.

Homersimpson is correct to say the you need to strip the car down , but don't take the axles off just yet. Firstly you need to hold it up to remove the axles and start to facilitate the repairs, and you cannot get it on a rotisserie until you have repaired the chassis rails and front cross member. Take the bonnet off and remove the engine and gearbox out the top, it's easier out the bottom, but not when there is that much missing.

I can't quite see in the photos how far back the chassis rail need replacing on the offside, the nearside is fairly straightforward ! Can you post some more pics of the nearside chassis rail to show how far back the rot is.

I have a drawing with all the chassis dimensions you will need, if you PM me your email I will send them to you, it gives all the jig points and datums which you will definitely need to set this up. Do not cut away too much at a time, as Homer said you will need as many reference points as possible.

 

Hi Jon, I have removed the engine, gearbox, front and rear suspension already to get the weight out. The floor is fin both sides apart from the front 6 inches or so where it meets the inner wing. The offside chassis rail has had the bottom rotout most of the way along the car. The guy has then jacked it up which has pulled the front left corner of the offside floor pan up about 2 inches thus bending up the remaing chassis rail parts for about 2 feet. I intended to remove what was left oof the chassis rail, offer the new one up and secure front and rear to the floor pan and then pull the floor down on to it carefully and secure. Your link to the gallery for the chassis rails on your website is not working all the others seem to work. The left hand chassis rail is tired at the front but fine for the rest of the length but i willl change the whole rail anyway as it would be stupid not to. Will pm you my email address just now..
Many thanks, Alasdair

 

The engine, gearbox, front and rear suspension is all off the car Jon already to get the weeight down. I have it carefully on a 2 post ramp at the moment but want to get it onto some body stands so i can use my ram again for other stuff. The floor has been pushed up about an inch or so in the front left corner of the offside floor pan as the previous owner jacked it up to take the front offisde road wheel off. The bottom has rotted out the chassis section most of the way back and it is now banana'd where the floor has been bent. up. I was going to remove the remaining channel and then weeld in the replacement and tie it into the front and rear and pull the floor straight and then fix to the chassis leg. I will make a small frame up to brace it underneath just now on whats left so i can get it on the stands and clear the rest of the interior out just now. My welder is waiting on a part whiich should be here the end of the week hopefully. i have a load of inch square tube i can use to brace it.

 

You can see the length of wood i inserted into the old chassis ril to support the body on the ramp in the picture. This is the corner that was jacked poorly so the rail is sitting an inch higher at the front which all needs pulled out.

 

Your link to the chassis leg repair on your website is not working Jon, all the rest is though.

 

Ok thanks I will sort tomorrow.

 

My next step would be engine out, and post some pics inside the engine bay and the off side of the engine bay, may need to put some supports in there to hold the car up to repair that chassis leg.

 

Some pictures of the damage to the floor, it's all not very pretty.

 

Well the upside is you can see what you (haven’t) go to work with. Best of luck going forward.

 

Looks like the fun is starting ! If you need any dimensions, templates cut (cardboard ones that is !) let me know, I can post any templates no problem.

Any info just ask there is plenty of experience on this forum, and everyone is happy to help.

 

wow, the hassles you guys go through. My S is intact, a 1965 California car that lived a very priviledged life in Pebble Beach, where the owner resided. I'm a lucky boy.

And the owner was a famous artist, mural painter from California. Eugenia (Gene) Baker McComas. Her murals are in the San Francisco and Monterey museums of art.

ok, so I had to get a second mortgage on my house to buy it, but you guys will spend about the same anyway remanufacturing yours, so....

 

I spent this morning building a front and rear frame to strengthen the car. All turned out well so decided to strip the seats and carpets out. Stripped the passenger carpet out and the bulkead and side of the tunnel is rotten. The undefelt has been like a sponge. It is funny as the outside looks excellent but it hads scabbed badly inside. Car is now too far gone to repair that with everything else so I am just going to break it for parts and look for a better one. Let me know anyone if you need anything as I will break the shell as well as the back end is good on it.

 

Personally I think you're making the right decision.
I've never seen one so rotted out !

Makes me wonder where it was driven all its life and if Jaguar had a bad run of steel.
I see this kind of rot in Japanese vehicles that used reclaimed steel with lots of impurities.

And yes, just checked your location, Bonnybridge Scotland, sort of near the ocean...
That would explain why it is so bad, maybe the original owner used to go to work, so a daily driver maybe; so exposing it to really harsh conditions ?

 

The last picture you posted doesn't look too bad to me, to be honest I was concerned when you posted the first pictures showing the missing chassis leg I thought the car looked to far gone to be sensibly repaired but didn't want to be negative with my response.

Anything can be repaired but this does seem to be a car that unless it had some special history of sentimental value is probably best reshelled or broken for bits.

I would suggest that if you are still keen on doing one of these wait for a better shell to come up for sale, they do occasionally come up on eBay. You can then restore that shell and move all the bits from this one over.

If you do decide to break it however, I would expect you to easily get your money back, its worth checking which bits are the same as the MK2 as they will command higher prices and be more popular.

Having restored both an S-Type and a MK2 I thing the following are the same or can be used on a mk2:

Engine
Inlet manifold and carbs
Exhaust manifolds
Gearbox
Front crossmember, hub and steering (if its power steering the box, pipes and pump would be reasonably valuable.
Wiper motor
Servo
Radiator
Front bumper (same as 240 and 340 but not MK2)
Some if not all of the instruments, gauges and switches.
Bonnet and hinges
Door hinges
Outside door handles
Front scuttle outer panel.
Steering wheel
Indicator arm
Door check straps (I paid £23 for one of these for my car as no one had one).
There are probably loads of other things and little brackets etc.

The differential is the same as an e-type or MK10 and if its a power lock one then it could be worth quite a bit, I sold a non power lock one from a 420 a few years back for £200 to a guy who wanted to refurbish it and he bit my hand off for it.

Best of luck with whatever you finally decide, the S-Type is a fantastic car and much underrated.