There was a touch of irony. Those are photos of my car and pieces cut off it so decades ago. As Jeff wrote, they show the sort of thing that you may find. My car was certainly a 'driver' before I started. In fact, it had made several trans-European trips not long before. These cars are immensely over engineered; the underbody structure may be 50% rust and all you might notice is the door gaps are a bit off and a few creaks on a rough road.

Apart from the extent of the corrosion, another point to note is the previous restoration work (by the body shop of someone who described himself as a 'leading agent): a real plaster it with bondo and sand it job. See the white on the rear seat pan. It might not be obvious in the photo, but sill I removed was cut to fit around the B-post and attached with blobs of braze at the top and hardly attached at all on the underside.

Finding and cutting out rust may all be a bit disheartening, but there's a thrill to see good steel nicely welded in place and the car getting on the way to recovery!
​
​​​​​​Fortunately, no one as yet tried to change the colour of my car. I suspect the restoration was shop would have wanted to do a 'get away car' job, not paint anything that required opening a door, bonnet, or boot lid.

 

Other than the fact that my man can paint. BRG shows every defect.

 

BRG requires a very light coat of black over the white filler coat to get the colour correct. A PIA. I'm talking modern paints ~ this car was done with Spies Hecker base coat, clear coat (not water based, base coat Low VOC nano ceramic clear coat which would be my preference today) ~ This might have been different in the 300 Line DUCO days when the cars were built.

 

Hello all,
I have question related to the car key. There are no keys to the car since this was a left behind in an underground parking lot.
Any ideas how you can make a set of keys? Or would you have to replace all the lock cylinders somehow?

Jimmy

 

The code for a locksmith is stamped on the ignition key cylinder. You can find the "right" locksmith and get that key. Mine is "fs887", I believe the doors boot and glove box are different. Not sure on those.

 

Whats your address? Lol

 

Very good to know....Thanks

 

It's not worth it. But on any case there weren't many different codes for these cylinders. I found a correct key for my 64 on eBay by searching the code. Maybe try the same?

 

Any Key can be changed to fit any lock of the same profile on a Jaguar by shuffling the tumblers around but some of the methods employed are crude to say the least. Most 1960's Jaguar keys are FS profile.





Profiles:

 

i know nothing of locks...so just a random thought.

remove the springs in the barrel, if possible, or replace with pins/springs of uniform length and use an uncut key?

if so, is thinking glovebox, doorlocks and trunk barrels work on the same principle asking too much? ha

 

You are likely to run into trouble doing it that way. No such thing as uniform length without just throwing all the tumblers away. Then the ignition key would keep falling out.

 

Refresh page for edit.

 

Here's a video on the pin type lock; and you can change the pins to match an uncut key _ the pins will be all the same length, that's all.

I had to make a key for the Yale locks in my Bentley, but didn't have the handy tools in the video, it took a steady hand and a jewelers file to cut the new key by hand.
On the Bentley all I had to do was make a key that fit the glove box lock, as only one key is needed fit the whole car.

Take note in the video where he used this blue plastic insert to hold the internal pins and springs in place while working on the barrel.
The body that contains the springs are all the same, as are the pins.

Filling the key by hand to fit the pins in the barrel was very time consuming, and after that, I had to file the ramps in and polish the whole thing.

I had a lock smith do the boot lock, but he buggered it up and would not redo it, the springs were popping out internally as he forced it together, and he ended up bending the springs where they were wedged between the barrel and the body.
WHAT A HELL OF A MESS !
I had to make a special tool to hold the body's springs and pins in place while I slid the barrel in.
It was a double pined body, with springs and pins on the top and bottom of the body, not just a single row.


EDIT:
Glyn:
You can take out all the pins and springs in the barrel and the body, and just use a blank key, but you have no security at all, a small screw driver will turn the barrel, or even a strong finger nail.
Of course the tiny springs will fly all over, so I would recommend doing it inside a large baggy.

 

it was assumed that security would rely on human nature. the thinking being that any thief would assume an ignition key, cut for the lock, was necessary to start the car. i think it's a valid assumption. read on...

years ago, because i found the starting key location on my 2004 yamaha 1100 motorcycle to be practically inaccessible from its seat (what were they thinking?) and consequently a nuisance to start, i rewired it such that all i had to do was flip on the red 'KILL' switch on the handlebars (who needs a kill switch anyway?) and press the starter button to start it, making it essentially "keyless" and without any theft protection at all. i had it for over a decade and it sat outside every night in an apartment complex without any kind of protection whatsoever. ... it was never molested AFAIK. why? because everyone assumed it needed a key.

 

Absolutely agree Jeff.

 

I took a door lock on my Alfa apart as the pins were seized due to corrosion. As Jeff said, it's not the easiest thing in the world getting all the small springs and pins in place, but it's possible. For replacement keys, there are several sources (in different parts of the world) on the internet for old British keys so that shouldn't be difficult once you find the number. If the car is locked, usually it's not difficult to push the driver's door window down to break in without damaging anything. In standard form, our cars are incredibly easy to steal.

 

I'm hoping Cass will pop up. He has some interesting stories about this that are on the Register somewhere. The things some locksmiths do. Awful!

Ultra short tumblers are a no-no in Jaguar locks that are sloppy at best. Zero precision.

 

Refresh page for edit.

 

Our MG shop in Johannesburg keeps the full range of genuine Union Wilmot Breeden Key blanks. (They might well be made by someone else but are made to look genuine ~ right shape & markings).

 

Jaguar's key barrels & tumblers are nowhere near the precision of those shown in Jeff's video. They are loose sloppy junk. I had all of mine rebuilt & cleaned & lubed so that they were all fine with the original keys. I watched the entire process.