The 'E' Type Forum

Dear Forum,

When I bought this project a somewhat Complete interior follow. We have started to put it in now. It follows vinyl sections for the front of the door but I am unsure if it for my car?



Or is it without like this?


I have difficulty finding Pictures but one we talked to said it should be a chrome pice there?

Also this drane water into the door. It looks like it should be a dranage in the back of the door but it is locked. Should it be holes there to get the water out?

Yes, there should be angled chrome trims along the top of the lower section of the door cards. And yes, the hole at the front of the collector tray on top of the door should have a tube attached to its underside travelling down to a rectangular vent positioned near the outer front part of the door skin, to vent water onto the outer part of the sill top , so that the water can run away through the indentations in the rubber seals on the outer edge of the sill. There is a similar arrangement at the rear outer end of the door as well

Ahhh....my car is missing the chrome strips along the door card lowers then! Another bit for the missing list. Thanks for the info.

As said, the trays have a small hole and there should be pipework in the door connecting the tray to the outlets so water flows outside the door rubbers and away.....that is the theory.

The hole in the tray is small and blocks easily!

On mine somehow water manages to evade the tray and run down the inside of the door, onto the sill and then into the footwells!

I carry a towel in the car. I have seen many a car at shows with a strategic towel to hand.

I suspect that, while it is probably possible to get a water tight door....just...at best it will work when everything is perfect. A bit of dirt in a pipe or a poorly fitting rubber and a tell tail pool of water will appear on your sill. Hope you get it water tight...but carry a towel....just in case!

This is what it should look like.

The trim on the door top is aluminium covered in vinyl, it has a chrome plate where the courtesy light switch hits it.

Ian, do you have the aluminium thingies pop riveted to the underside of the door to create room between the door and the rubber, so that the watet can get out?

viewtopic.php?p=30319&sid=1fa2c15c153bd ... 23afa94f65

Thanks ian. Were s1 door cards the same? J

Don't think my lower drain channels are pop riveted in but I will have a look. J

Yes, there is an aluminium drain channel cover that is pop rivetted to the door bottom which allows the water to escape past the sill seal, the sill seals have a cut out in them for this purpose.

Well, that is not it then ...

I have looked at Anders Clausagers Factory original E type book. P48 shows an excellent view inside a series 1 door. There is no chrome strip diagonally along the angled front edge of the lower door card? Looks just like my door and the pictures of springers doors. Page 117 shows the inside of a series 2 2+2 and that does have the diagonal strip. Pics of the series 3 door on pages 144 and 145 don't seem to have the diagonal strips?

My view would be that series 1 cars should not have the strip. The green doors on springers car are as they should be..at least as far as the door cards go....over to the concourse experts out there....

Hope this helps....of course the book could be wrong....

cactusman wrote:I have looked at Anders Clausagers Factory original E type book. P48 shows an excellent view inside a series 1 door. There is no chrome strip diagonally along the angled front edge of the lower door card? Looks just like my door and the pictures of springers doors. Page 117 shows the inside of a series 2 2+2 and that does have the diagonal strip. Pics of the series 3 door on pages 144 and 145 don't seem to have the diagonal strips?

My view would be that series 1 cars should not have the strip. The green doors on springers car are as they should be..at least as far as the door cards go....over to the concourse experts out there....

Hope this helps....of course the book could be wrong....

No angled chrome on the white '63 or the blue '63 shown in the "factory fit" section for the S1. Can't tell for sure on the others. The factory original interior on my '64 did not have it.

I have just looked at the Road test of the original 3.8 FHC 9600HP ( now Philip Porter's car) in the Autocar 24.3.1961 . The angled chrome strips are clearly visible, so they were clearly fitted from the very beginning. Unfortunately, most of the cars photographed for Clausager's book have lost them ( as had my FHC when I bought it in 1993 ) . Note that the original cars did not have the lower horizontal chrome shown in Alty Ian's pics

It can be misleading to look at pre-launch photos of an experimental dept. pre-production prototype as representative of how later cars were built. 9600HP had square speaker grilles in the radio console at first, but by the time it appeared at Geneva they were replaced by the standard round ones. Should anyone here be looking for those elusive square speakers for that perfect early-car restoration?

All early E-types including the first show cars had the lower horizontal chrome strip on the door panels.

As for Springer's original question, the angled chrome strip on the upper front edge of the panel was NOT present, nor was the upholstered piece just behind it, for the first part of 3.8 production. There was also a change in the design of the main upper chrome strip. These changed around the time that the armrests were added to the doors, mid to late 63 production I think, though maybe not all at exactly the same time.

I believe you can find chassis numbers recorded for at least some of these changes using the usual published sources, and the parts books.

Thanks fixed head. I am no trim expert. Mine has no chrome angle bits....but then mine is also missing the boot floor runners. You don't happen to know if boot runners were fitted from the beginning or not? I rekon mine are missing. Fingers crossed a forum member has a set of them.for me....to say they are elusive is putting it mildly....anyway thanks for the info...

Fixed Head wrote:
As for Springer's original question, the angled chrome strip on the upper front edge of the panel was NOT present, nor was the upholstered piece just behind it, for the first part of 3.8 production. There was also a change in the design of the main upper chrome strip. These changed around the time that the armrests were added to the doors, mid to late 63 production I think, though maybe not all at exactly the same time.

I believe you can find chassis numbers recorded for at least some of these changes using the usual published sources, and the parts books.

Right. The upper forward/angled chrome first shows up in the parts manual for the 4.2 S1. The part number for the upper/rear chrome also changes for the S1 4.2. The suppliers lists are the same. As I mentioned previously, the 3.8 cars depicted in the "Factory Fit" section of this forum, do not depict the angled chrome.

Haddock states that armrests were added in about June 1963, and door trim was changed in about August 1964. I noted that blue FHC in the "Factory Fit" section, an 887XXX s/n, does not have either the chrome or the upholstered wedge at the forward/top of the door. My 889XXX car has the upholstered piece, but not the angled chrome. So changes were occurring right in that time frame.

Cactusman, yes, the metal/rubber runners on the rear luggage area floor were present on all FHCs from the start.

64etype, the red OTS at the beginning of the factory fit thread, 881640, as a later 3.8 with armrests, does indeed have the angled chrome piece and the small upholstered finish panel at the front upper part of the door, though I do not believe these are visible in the photos posted on this site.

Fixed Head wrote:There was also a change in the design of the main upper chrome strip. These changed around the time that the armrests were added to the doors, mid to late 63 production I think, though maybe not all at exactly the same time.

Yes, the early cars used a similar upper strip to the lower one, held on (but barely) by a few clips and self tappers, same as the lower.

The improved upper chrome strip changed to a 'J' channel section and was securely screwed to the door whilst at the same time, holding the top of the door card firmly in place. It is a much better arrangement and the difference is hardly noticeable. The diagonal chrome strip is a separate part and not used on the early cars. They had a vinyl beading trim instead, as shown in the photo below of my own car.

Fixed Head wrote:Cactusman, yes, the metal/rubber runners on the rear luggage area floor were present on all FHCs from the start.

64etype, the red OTS at the beginning of the factory fit thread, 881640, as a later 3.8 with armrests, does indeed have the angled chrome piece and the small upholstered finish panel at the front upper part of the door, though I do not believe these are visible in the photos posted on this site.

I just went back and looked at Haddock's book as I was curious why the blue FHC coupe in the Factory Fit section does not have the chrome and finisher, as it's serial number is higher than the red OTS. I had forgotten that the starting serial number for coupes and OTS cars are different with the LHD OTS cars beginning at 875001 and the FHC 885001. So the blue FHC car is very likely an earlier build than the red OTS in spite of having a higher s/n.

Thanks Clive and Eric and Fixed head and Springer and all the other contributors. My doors look like the maroon ones although not so pristine!!!!!

Hopefully runners on the way......now what else am I missing?

Not much but I will be about with my camera on the 24th April at Bicester....hope to see you there? Julian

Thanks to you all for, as always, great help.
So I will make sure the drainage holes in the back of the doors are open and that I get the chrome pieces on the door to go against the light connectors.