The 'E' Type Forum

Hi everybody. I have an Aussie spec. 1967 s1.25 FHC (open headlights but toggle switches) and it has somewhat baffling footwell ventilation, or a lack of it. Upon taking the hardura and aluminium panels out of the footwells I find that on one side I'm looking through a square hole at the end of the heater ducting leading to the dashboard vents, there are screw holes so something is obviously missing. On the other side there's a clearly PO fabricated blanking plate covering the equivalent hole.

My initial thought was that I'm just missing the vent flaps, probably not obtainable in Australia at the time. However, the hardura looks original and would completely cover any vent/flap.

So, my questions are:
Was footwell ventillation an optional extra, or deleted on cars for some markets?
If it was suppposed to be on the car should I assume that it is just the simple flaps that I'm missing?
That still leaves me rather mystified by the lack of cut out in the hardura.

Thanks in advance

Paul

*CORRECTION* Sorry, a slight error on my part... it isn't the hardura that lacks cut outs for the ventilation. Rather it is the vinyl covered aluminium under-dash panels. I'm really unsure whether they are original or not.

P.

If I understand your question correctly, it sounds like you have the ducting for the footwell vents but the spring mounted doors are missing. Those doors along with the dash mounted sliding air valve allow you to control the ventilation (such as it is) to the footwells. BTW, my car is also a so called Series 1.25 from March '67 so yours should be identical to mine other than right vs. left hand drive.

Paul,
I also have a very late Series 1 Fixed Head Coupe which is a UK RHD. It was manufactured on 3rd May 1967.
In order to assist you, I have unscrewed the screw holding my Hardura and have taken a photo of the Heater Door Assembly and it’s 4 mounting Set Screws. The mounting screw holds the Hardura to the bracket in the photo below. Presumably, you have these 4 tapped holes ?



From the Spare Parts Catalogue, the complete “Door Assembly, Undersides of Dash, for air from Heater” is Jaguar part number BD.19853 which includes all the parts, spring, door knob, screw, washer and Polyurethane seal. The assembly is held in by 4 Set Screws and shakeproof washers.

I go to the US regularly and brought back some new door knobs from XKs Unlimited in San Luis Obispo in California some years back. I was in San Luis Obispo last month and now they are owned by the US company of Moss Motors Ltd in Goleta, California. This was the heater knob BD 10807 that they supplied back then. It has a brass internal thread to bolt into the heater door. Looking at my other heater door which appears to have an original knob, that knob is slightly bigger and instead of curving down to the mounting face, it is more of a straight taper. Perhaps Moss Motors Ltd may be able to help you ? (P.S. Please see Edit at the bottom of this post).



This was the listing for the complete assembly from one of the old 2009-2017 XKs Unlimited catalogues.



Hopefully some of these details may help you.
Cheers,
Dave

P.S. Additional Edit. Having now searched on the web this morning, I can now see these door assemblies are available on various UK suppliers and internet seller sites. Still, hopefully the photos were of interest !

Thanks for the help everybody... I can see original vent flaps available here on e-bay so I may just go ahead and get those. I'm still a bit baffled by the underdash panels which cover where those flaps should be. All that I can think is that the PO had removed the flaps, blanked the holes and then had under dash aluminium panels made up that covered the blanked holes.

As seems to be a recurring activity: it is time to undo the PO's activities! I've only just tidied up a lot of needless extra wiring that he's put in!

Thanks again for the help,

Paul

Dave

I think you may have solved one of my E-Types mysteries. The under dash hardura panel has always sagged down around the heater flap. I've tried everything to stop this happening-self adhesive velcro, upholstery glue even sticky gel patches! Each time this has worked for a time and then it sags again
Is the screw you removed the original way of preventing this?
For some unknown reason I've never considered this fixing as the solution to the problem.

Hi Alan, I think your PO has made the aliminium/millboard panel too large, it stops just at the edge of the vent flap, the cutout is in the hardura just forward of that line.

Alan,
I can confirm that those mounting brackets to hold the Hardura are 100% original as they are painted in the original colour of my car as shown on the Heritage Certificate in a fetching Beige.
I just went out the the garage again for you and dropped the Hardura to show the brackets - there are two - one by the heater duct as confirmed by Randall Botha’s photo at Post #7 and one toward the door post.
My original photo at Post #4 is confusing in showing the bracket as the black object is my Electronic Radio Antenna resting on the bracket.
Some more photos to show the original brackets spot welded to the bulkhead.







Cheers,
Dave

Thanks for the replies.
Randal it's my hardura panel which sometimes fouls the flap not the aluminium under dash panel. However after looking at your photo I need to check where the under dash panel ends on my car. From memory it doesn't come down as far as the flap. Unfortunately I can't check it until next week.

Thanks