Dangerous thought experiment
#1
Dangerous thought experiment
I have long been a fan of elegant wood shooting brakes. As I was tearing apart my series 3 to salvage bits to use on my series 1. My brain started visualizing the elegant wood forming the lines of a Jaguar XJ12 shooting brake.
Then I looked over at the stacks of wood left over from the construction of my house. And all the wood working equipment I have in my shop.
That darn devil on my shoulder had me grinning.
More than plenty of really nice 10+ foot long Flawless rock maple. Wood I need to dispose of anyway. My minds eye saw the ease of using existing pieces to make doors and a roof with just enough taper to be elegant yet not disturb Sir Williams classic design.
Would such a creation offend every XJ owner? Would I be tarred and feathered and banned from polite civilization for even thinking of such thoughts?
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LnrB (08-26-2024)
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Greg in France (08-26-2024)
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Well, from someone is also more of a purist than not, I don't happen to find the idea per se particularly wrong.
When Jaguar has done shooting brakes "in-house", I think they have been quite successful from a styling perspective, in no small part because they went to the expense of not using the sedan's rear doors but re-engineered them so that the glass lines were proper and not simply carried over to save a few bucks (one of the reasons the Ford Taurus wagon etc. don't "work"). If you're going to do this, I don't see any reason you couldn't stylistically come up with something quite lovely.
I would suggest you might even look at incorporating the rear side glass and back glass from an S-type shooting brake (my guess is that an XF's glass would be too tall and too wide but that's just a guess). That would also give you some patterns to work from... I also wonder if you might want to look at incorporating an F-Type rear window/lift gate, a piece of engineering/design I find quite evocative of an E-type coupe (also an option???). Approaching the glass like this would also give you access to frames and trim pieces and hardware that you might otherwise have to fabricate.
I don't know why you would feel terribly different about modifying body panels than you are about a motor.
As for using maple, Morgan was quite successful doing that with the chassis, I see no reason you couldn't do so with superstructure.
When Jaguar has done shooting brakes "in-house", I think they have been quite successful from a styling perspective, in no small part because they went to the expense of not using the sedan's rear doors but re-engineered them so that the glass lines were proper and not simply carried over to save a few bucks (one of the reasons the Ford Taurus wagon etc. don't "work"). If you're going to do this, I don't see any reason you couldn't stylistically come up with something quite lovely.
I would suggest you might even look at incorporating the rear side glass and back glass from an S-type shooting brake (my guess is that an XF's glass would be too tall and too wide but that's just a guess). That would also give you some patterns to work from... I also wonder if you might want to look at incorporating an F-Type rear window/lift gate, a piece of engineering/design I find quite evocative of an E-type coupe (also an option???). Approaching the glass like this would also give you access to frames and trim pieces and hardware that you might otherwise have to fabricate.
I don't know why you would feel terribly different about modifying body panels than you are about a motor.
As for using maple, Morgan was quite successful doing that with the chassis, I see no reason you couldn't do so with superstructure.
Last edited by Ken Cantor; 08-26-2024 at 01:23 PM.
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Last edited by Ken Cantor; 08-26-2024 at 05:55 PM.
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#12
I've driven wagons (estates) as my daily driver for 20 years and this one looks pretty nice, I think the more squared off design lends itself more to a wagon than a Series III which is what I thought was the original intent of the thread.
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jbellK75 (08-27-2024)
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Here is a Series III conversion:
I would have sloped the roof extension at the same angle as the back seat window glass, used a flatter slope on the back glass to match the back of the C pillar and kept a bit more of the trunk/boot edges and plinth. This would make the extension less tall/hearse-like and more elegant. It would have a cost in interior storage but this isn’t being done for maximum utility…
I would have sloped the roof extension at the same angle as the back seat window glass, used a flatter slope on the back glass to match the back of the C pillar and kept a bit more of the trunk/boot edges and plinth. This would make the extension less tall/hearse-like and more elegant. It would have a cost in interior storage but this isn’t being done for maximum utility…
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You're right about the Morgan. True Craftsmen are deeply appreciated at CasaB, no matter the media.
(';')
Last edited by LnrB; 08-27-2024 at 01:07 PM.
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Ken Cantor (08-27-2024)
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