The 'E' Type Forum

Hello! I am in the process of renovating my 1969 FHC. It will not be a traditional by-the-book renovation, even though I will keep it in the original white. Working my way around the IRS, I have started to think about the colour - does it have to be black? The hubs are aluminium, the brake callipers will be silver, the shocks will be aluminium... So, has anyone chosen anything else than the traditional black and have some pictures? Or links to pictures where this looks terrible? I am thinking silver to get closer to the hubs etc. Prop shaft will be in aluminium.

BR,

//Fredrik

Ok, in an E-type pls! BR, //F

Weren’t the early diffs red?

You can't see much of it once installed, and it gets fairly dirty if you use the car at all, so black seems like a most excellent choice to me. Bright colored undercarriage parts, unless scrupulously clean, look cartoonish IMHO.

A bit off topic, but exactly 40 years ago in December 1982 this was a feature in “Street Machine” magazine.
When we were all a bit younger this was the trend of modifying cars by fitting Jaguar “rear ends” and fitting large V8 engines - and how I started building Jaguar back axles. Note the same number plate which has been on many of my cars and now has been the plate on my E type for over 20 years.
One of reasons Hot Rodders use Jaguar back axles is that when the drive shafts and the u/j knuckles are chromed, they become almost hypnotic to watch as they rotate around. Another trend in the day was to have a red light shining on the back axle which highlighted the shafts as they rotated and flashed the light off the shaft knuckles. I once was followed by a person for several miles who only stopped when arrived home. He apologised as he said it was quite a sight to see.
Happy Days !
Cheers and Happy Christmas too,
Dave

mtnjag wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 21, 2022 1:22 am

Weren’t the early diffs red?

Yes, the diff and its housing were painted with an orangey substance called Glyptol. It is still available , made, I think by Bombardier in Canada

mtnjag wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 21, 2022 1:22 am

Weren’t the early diffs red?

Yes..... Photo below of our 3.8 Diff when it came out of the car for its IRS rebuild:

Full details if diff colour here......Steve viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10422&p=110792&hili ... ur#p110792

bitsobrits wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 21, 2022 2:33 am

You can't see much of it once installed, and it gets fairly dirty if you use the car at all, so black seems like a most excellent choice to me. Bright colored undercarriage parts, unless scrupulously clean, look cartoonish IMHO.

That is one reason for not going black - it is easier to keep clean. My thinking at least. Since the hub carriers, shocks, callipers and prop shaft will be silver, I was thinking about keeping it uniform. No chrome, red, yellow, green or under carriage lights.

Fredrik, it sounds like you’ve already decided on your preferred colour and with all things on an E Type it is the owners decision that is important. Though how do you hope to keep it clean? Do you expect to raise the car on ramps frequently to clean off the dirt and oil?

Geoff

Gfhug wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 22, 2022 4:37 pm

Fredrik, it sounds like you’ve already decided on your preferred colour and with all things on an E Type it is the owners decision that is important. Though how do you hope to keep it clean? Do you expect to raise the car on ramps frequently to clean off the dirt and oil?

Well, I like the car and it is very small w less hidden spaces underneath vs other cars = keeping it reasonably clean underneath will be as important to me as keeping the frames/engines clean on my motorcycles. Compared to other cars, it is also not that low... Thanks for your view!

Hi when I built my car I did two things to the irs cage , 1 cleaned up the very old dodgy original welds and made the seam welds better and longer , especially as I knew I would be giving the car some stick , and 2 I had it cadmium coated in the yellow gold colour, i never paint stressed / structural items black , you can't see cracks in black