late 3.8 Door panel chrome trim BD26544/5

[ysmalkie]

I am looking for info how the late 3.8 chrome finisher look like.

The chrome I have in mind is this one, on the front the door, to hold the door casing to the shell:



The photo above is from a 65 4.2, where the chrome is the same or similar.
You can notice that the chrome extending towards the back is the same style of chrome piece BD26542/3

The question is: is this short front chrome same for the 3.8??

The reason I have doubts, is that I have a sample of another similar chrome piece, but that is not screwed to the door shell. Its the bottom one on the photo:



Can anyone confirm which one is correct for a 3.8 late '63 car??


Tadek

[dxke38]

Hi Tadec, my 64 3.8 has the lower one in the photo. It is just a trim for the door panel and doesn't hold the panel to the door shell.

[rswaffie]

Hi Tadek,

These were my door cards and trim from a Nov 63 fhc. They look similar to the two in your picture. The horizontal trim was screwed in place and the door card top edge slid into it, and the forward trim that sloped down towards the hinge, was ‘interference fit’ to the forward top edge.

[ysmalkie]

We have exactly the same colour combination Richard :-)

Mine is 889348 24 Oct '63.

My Door casing originally looked like this:



Looking at the clips:



it seems I have the earlier style chrome trim,

but I guess I could have also the front chrome edge piece.


I found this car: 880472 OTS built 1st Nov '63 which clearly has early style edge trim and the forward chrome edge trim as well:



So, there may have been 2 changes:

Front sloped edge of the door casing:
up to at least Dec '62 the edge was trimmed with vinyl piping
at least from March '63 the edge was trimmed in chrome piece fitted on the sloped edge.
at lease from April '64 the edge was trimmed with chrome piece fitted to the door and the casing slid under it. This finally solved the problem of upper casing curvature.

Main upper door trim:
up to Nov '63 the chrome piece was of the early type, fitted with small clips.
from Nov '63 the chrome piece was similar to the late style sloped edge trim, holding the upper edge of the casing to the door body.

Trim panel fitted on the hinge face of the door, retained by the door light switch striker:
- fitted from June '63

I checked Haddock, the only change documented is of the extra trim panel.


Tadek

[dxke38]

Tadec, my April 1964 3.8 still had the earlier top chrome trim held on by small clips.

[ysmalkie]

Ha, that's interesting - Richard's car door casings look very original and his is a late November '63 car.

I was just looking at the xkedata.com and it looked like the change of the upper door trim occurred sometime in November.
Here is 889428 FHC - Mid November, still with early chrome style.



Tadek

[Philk]

I have just checked the Spare Parts Bulletins and there is a SPB (P.109) covering changes to the door casings and trim issued in March 1964. It looks like new chrome finishers were introduced on the front upper edges of the door casings (part nos C26544 (RH) and C26545 (LH). Since the bulletins were published retrospectively, the chassis numbers quoted appear to run from January 1964 on XKEdata. However, this does confirm that changes were applied to the last several months' worth of 3.8 production.

[ysmalkie]

Thanks Phil,

This means that the 4.2 door casing/trim was introduced to the 3.8 in January '64.

Do you see anywhere the introduction of the slim chrome finisher at the front upper edge? I must have happened in 1st 3 months of '63..



Tadek

[dxke38]

Hi Tadec, I wouldn't think the change was as early as January 64. The chassis number for the change on the fhc's is after my own car which was built in March 64 and registered in April.

[Philk]

Hi Tadec, I wouldn't think the change was as early as January 64. The chassis number for the change on the fhc's is after my own car which was built in March 64 and registered in April.

The LHD roadster chassis numbers are normally a good dating point given the volume produced and cars both before and after 880840 as listed in SPB P.109 were manufactured in Jan '64. Screengrab from XKEdata below.

[dxke38]

Phil, could this mean that the change was earlier for lhd roadsters than rhd fhc's. 861446 is much later than my car 861316.

[Philk]

Not many RHD FHCs on XKEdata that were manufactured in Jan '64. However, those that were are period to 861446

[dxke38]

Thank you Phil, looks like my car registered in April 64 maybe older than I thought. I thought it was only 9 years old when I bought it.

[Philk]

Thank you Phil, looks like my car registered in April 64 maybe older than I thought. I thought it was only 9 years old when I bought it.

Both 861301 and 861322 were built in Oct' 63 according to XKEdata so only a few months older.

[dxke38]

Thanks Phil, I've owned the car for 48 years in April and always thought it was built in March 64. Don't know who told me that but perhaps I should now get a heritage cert to get my facts right. By the way, how do you get the info list up on XKEdata, I can look at my car and go along looking at individual cars but if I click on "all" it says it can't find the page. Thanks again.

[Philk]

Thanks Phil, I've owned the car for 48 years in April and always thought it was built in March 64. Don't know who told me that but perhaps I should now get a heritage cert to get my facts right. By the way, how do you get the info list up on XKEdata, I can look at my car and go along looking at individual cars but if I click on "all" it says it can't find the page. Thanks again.

You are a very lucky person to have owned the car for all that time. In addition to the Heritage Certificate you can also arrange via JDHT (at a cost) to get a photo of the build ledger entry for your car which will provide a bit more detail. You may need to verify your ownership via Key Numbers since these are listed on the build ledgers.

Re XKEdata, just above where you enter your car number there is an option called BROWSE. If you click on that, it brings up a very useful page where you can enter various search parameters. Clicking then on Search brings up a list of any cars matching those parameters.

Finally, if you want to track down more via Service and Spare Parts bulletins that are relevant to your car's year/month of production, a copy of the bulletin database I've created is available via the Knowledgebase. There is a "sticky" thread covering this at the top of the Technical Section.

[dxke38]

Thank you Phil, never too old to learn. Renewed my enthusiasm as well.