Door card recess

[Tom W]

Thanks to lockdown, I’ve finally got round to replacing the passenger door card with the replacement panel came with the car.

The original plastic recess that the door handle sits in was very cracked, so I bought replacements. Unfortunately, the replacement is quite different to the original. The recess is about half an inch shorter then the original, so its too short for the cutout in the door card. The cutout in the door card must be right, as the original chrome fits.

What’s most unusual is the the new parts are moulded, and the original is vacuum formed. Someone’s spent some serious money developing this. I would have expected retooling a vacuum forming would be much cheaper.

Has anyone else come across this? Have I got 2+2 parts, or series 3 parts by mistake? Very disappointing, especially since the recesses aren’t cheap.

[mgcjag]

Hi Tom.....I have used one of the usuals trims on my retrim a few years ago with no problems.....I could be wrong but looking at your photos the actual cutout shape in the door card dosnt look right...the cutout looks too rounded on the bottom of each photo so the the part to the rear of each card.....Steve

[Bob.]

Hi Tom
They haven't sent you Series 3 parts. They look like this (repro item).



Perhaps this 1968 FHC S2 shows what Steve means although I don't know if it is original

[mgcjag]

From my 69 2+2 useing replacement recess from SNG

[Tom W]

The door card is another disappointment, though I can’t really complain about that as I didn’t buy those, they came with the car.

In the area of the recess, the length of the cutout on both the old and new door cards is the same, 11 inches. The rear edge of the new one is more curved than the original though. I’ve managed to glue the original plastic recess, so think I’ll just fit that for now as it fits better and will match the driver’s side.

The door card itself isn’t great in a few areas. Firstly, it’s made from a series 1 door card, with the extra cutout added to make it a series 2. This doesn’t go as far as including the extra holes for the rivets that hold the chrome strips on. The chrome strips on the S2 are a different height to the S1, so the holes don’t line up. It’s also a fair bit taller than the original too. It must be possible to make it fit as the driver’s side was fitted by the previous owner.

[Tom W]

I decided to repair and reuse the original recess for now, as it matched the new door card better. It will all have to come apart at some point again in the future when I eventually paint the car. Superglue, and some sewing tape glued to the back has successfully repaired it.

I’m not entirely sure what came off was factory original anyway. There were 2 small self tappers under the chrome strips to hold the door card on. These aren’t mentioned in any manual, and would have meant fitting the chrome strips with the door card fitted to the door. It was tricky enough to fit on the bench, let alone on the car. The leading edge of the front chrome was bent over where it had been tapped along to pick up the rivets. I doubt the factory would have delivered the car like this. Finally, there were 2 styles of clips used to secure the door card to the door. Again, not what I’d expect from the factory.

[Heronscourt]

Not sure if you solved this but I had the same problem with my series 1.5 door cards. I couldn’t get the correct recess which is completely different to series 2 or 3. I used the existing recess and some casting resin to make a mould and the made a vacuum box with MDF, used the vacuum cleaner to produce the vacuum and bought sheets of abs plastic. Warmed it in the oven in a clamp I made and formed my own. There are plenty of YouTube instruction videos on how to do it. Hardest job is making the vacuum box.

[Heronscourt]

I’m picking up on this old post again because I’ve just realised that Bob’s picture of the black door card shows the two part LH recess trim which I’m looking for to match my RH trim. If you compare the length of the u shape alongside the door catch lever with the photos of the series 2 door recess trims and lever you’ll notice that the black card u shaped trim is much shorter, 22mm to be precise ( I’ve measured the two trims )

You’ll also notice that the series 2 trim has the attached channel which fits over the edge of the panel whereas on the black door card the u shaped trim and channel are separate items. When I visited Barratts to look for the shorter u trim they hadn’t seen one and doubted that it was off an etype.

The only other identical trim I’ve seen until a saw Bob’s photo was on a yellow series 1.5 which apparently spent its entire life as an exhibit on the QE2.

It appears that the short u shaped trim with separate channel was an interim development which was not very strong and resulted in development of the one piece series 2 trim.

If a one has the short LH u shaped trim for sale please PM me. Even a RH trim would help as the door card could be altered to accommodate the slight different end shapes.

Finally the long chrome trim strip running from the recess is different from series 2 trim because the recess is shorter and it is also unavailable. The short trim is identical.

[mgcjag]

Hi Alan...are they the same as the S3 parts https://www.martinrobey.com/jaguar/e-ty ... ings/19803 if your after parts then best to post in tne wanted section..ideally with a photo of what your after....Steve....edit....this photo i think shows the trim but not a neat fit

[Heronscourt]

Thanks for posting tip. The trim looks like series 3 but is 22mm shorter.