The 'E' Type Forum

Morning,

Has anyone any experience or views on strengthening the sills of an OTS using the strengthening bars sold by Monocoque Metal or something similar? They also add a bar across the back of the floor pan. My car rattles a lot when on poor surfaces and would like to improve this is possible.


Thanks

John, several owners on here have used strengthening in the sills when they have restored their own cars. I think you don’t have to go to Chuck for these parts. Does Hutson’s make them? Perhaps chat to Andy Rayner there https://www.hutsonmoco.co.uk/jaguar. There are other panel suppliers in the UK, too.

If you’re planning to do work then are you prepared either yourself to pull the car apart or pay a n other to do it?

Geoff

If your car is "rattling over poor surfaces" I think the stiffness of the body tub would be among the last culprits. Much more likely to be worn suspension bushings, steering rack in need of rebuild, failed/loose exhaust hangers, misadjusted bonnet catches, or any number of other mechanical bits which are attached to the tub.

Unless of course your rockers are so internally corroded the whole tub is twisting/bending, in which case it needs more than a few reinforcements. The E type tub is plenty strong enough for normal driving ex factory if it's in good condition.

Never having driven one, is scuttle shake a thing on E Type roadsters?

I don't remember ever hearing or reading about it in connection with E Types. I think that is probably because the tub is so well designed from that point of view.

As Steve has already said, it's more likely to be wear in suspension and/or steering.

Regards

bitsobrits wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 19, 2026 2:51 pm

If your car is "rattling over poor surfaces" I think the stiffness of the body tub would be among the last culprits.

I agree. Fix all the other things first.

bitsobrits wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 19, 2026 2:51 pm

If your car is "rattling over poor surfaces" I think the stiffness of the body tub would be among the last culprits.

I'd have thought the prime culprit would be old torsion bars which long since weakened so have now been wound up tighter to maintain ride height. That's like having strong springs with only small movement in them, i.e. so called "upgraded torsion bars" people think are an upgrade. The dampers ought to also then slow down the rate of change of vertical movement of the car versus the road. If those are old and lose their fluids due to old seals starting to fail, then they will be far too easy to compress and they will not dampen movement.

kind regards
Marek

Comments please, on these as indicators of anything ...
When OTS doors are shut, they are supposed (?) to hold and stiffen the tub. If when closed, you can press a door inwards a bit, even against the rubber seal; means you are getting no help from the doors, the door hinges need to be adjusted.

Looking at the tub; from the lower rear corner of a door horizontally back to the rear wheel well, is there signs of overstressed paint, further indicating that the doors are not tight enough?

I would disagree with your statement that the doors stiffen the tub when closed. The design of the latch mechanism precludes it.

If there are signs of "overstressed" paint along the door sill line going back towards the wheel well, that, to me, would indicate serious rot or bodged repairs in the sill panels.

The standard roadster tub is very stiff and strong indeed when new. It may well flex a lot more than is should when it is old though!

It is pretty common to add these additional panels in when building a tub.

https://www.martinrobey.com/jaguar/e-ty ... frame/8572

They effectively join the pillar stiffeners together within the sill, stiffening it even more.

Of course you cannot just add them to a road-worthy car. Well I suppose you could if you had a 4 post ramp, did one side at the time, removed the interior, cut off the old outer sill the put it all back together again after it was lead loaded and painted. Its a fairly big job unless you do this sort of stuff day in and day out.

This assumes you dont discover a horror story once you get inside the sill.

As others have said, any rattling noise is far more likely to be a worn bush/joint or something else rattling around.

I agree. The last roadster I rebuilt, I added the Martin Robey full length stiffeners as it is an easy job during a full rebuild. I would certainly not ever add them to a roadworthy car.

If the car really is flexing, you have some serious rot.

The original complaint is rattling, not flexing. Wanting a car to be more rigid is just going to magnify the rattling. Vibration should be taken out by all of the rubber parts plus front and rear suspension and dampers.

Do the doors add any stiffness to the tub? No. Only cars driven by the Dukes of Hazard had doors like that.

kind regards
Marek

I used to have a car like that Marek, here it is.

Welding the doors up was a cheap way of making a convertible for an 18 year old!
Having sills that were 3 feet thick meant it didn't flex much, that's for sure.

Getting ladies in and out was interesting.

I insured it as a car with a large sunroof I remember.
The roof was home made. The car lived with me in London for 3 years!
Total budget for the conversion was about £50 in 1987.

I once had an Alfa Spider, it had "door location pins" tapered pins that bolted to the body that engaged with tapered holes attached to the doors. When you locked the door they were pulled up tight.



I guess functionally similar to the e-type striker plate/peg; except the tapered pin restrains in all directions, not just up/down.
Didn't eliminate scuttle-shake however, hate to think what it would have been like without them. I note later models did it differently.

Driving my S3 OTS, I have never noticed any scuttle-shake.

Regarding the various sill stiffeners available. I'd love to see a proper engineering evaluation (FEA) of these designs. Impo the only purpose is a reason to charge money.

Thanks for all of the help. I managed to drive a properly restored car and there was no real scuttle shake. As a result of this, I took the car to a specialist and the advice is the rattles are coming from the drivers door, hood frame and also the bonnet. Apparently, when the cars were made, part of the inner bonnet structure was bonded to the wings and on my car the bonding has broken down.

Re the strengthening panels sold by Martin Robey (thanks for flagging polite person), the sills of my car have been replaced and the one on the driver’s side is not properly aligned so when this is rectified I can take a better look at the inner sill. Not sure it makes very much sense to fit the to one side only.

So the task for now is getting my hood frame refurbished. Any thoughts welcomed.