The 'E' Type Forum

Hello gents,
With my engine out and front suspension soon to be dismantled for refurbishment, I’m wondering whether it’s wise/possible to unbolt and remove the bonnet support frame to repaint it as it’s a bit scruffy.

Cheers,
Pete

Hi Pete...yes quite easy to remove as well as the picture frame if you have engine/suspension out you might as well spruce it up...Steve

Bite the bullet and remove the engine frames, bag the wiring loom and now you can repaint the whole engine bay, frames and everything.

You can spray the frames in situ and I have did this on my first car but you have to paint the frame bolts and nuts which doesn't look 100%.

Thanks fellas, I’m not too keen to remove anything else so a complete frame repaint is out. It’s actually in quite good nick anyway, just the bonnet support is tatty from exposure to road debris.

Cheers,
Pete

If everything else looks good then yes take the bonnet support off and paint it.

The more I pull off the more I worry about putting back on Sure the frame would look better painted but where do you stop really. The few marks on it are obscured when the engine is in. This all started with a rattly timing chain!

Cheers,
Pete

Welcome to Shipwright's disease.

One thing to have a look at is if there are any cracks in the flat mild steel plate sections that the engine mounts go on. These do occur, and now is an easy time to get them welded.

Thanks mate, I’ll have a look.

Bonnet frame & picture frame off for paint. A good opportunity to replace my hacked off cooling fan bracket too. Not sure if all my bolts are original but if they’re not I may as well replace them all with new ones.

BTW Andrew, engine mount area looks solid.

I’ve been advised by a specialist bolt supplier that the bolts for my picture frame/bonnet support frame and wishbone attachment should be black anodised. Correct?

The JCNA Series one Concours Guide says:

"SUBFRAME BOLTS Bees, GKN, RO, Cranes, Richards, or Ruby Owen - black oxide or cadmium on late 4.2. Cadmium (see footnote A) plated nylock nuts"

I have stripped a number of 3.8 and 4.2 cars (>10) and have not personally ever seen black oxide bolts; they have always been cad plated. So we always go with zinc plated original bolts.

JCNA judging guide footnote A reads:

Although the original Jaguar production line photos such as Porter pages 163, 167, 249, 379 all show unpainted subframe bolts, from surviving original cars we know that some were painted.

Presumably this would refer to the picture frame bolts too not just those attaching the frame to the monocoque?

I seem to have a mixture of bolts of course. Some the brands mentioned above and some ring-ins.
Interestingly some are in fact black (CAD I think).

Well, mine '63 were black oxide. The black ones are present on all the factory shots, too.. Same on the original cars in the factory fit section.