1R20498 progress

[mach2andy]

1R20498 was on the road until the mid 80's - having covered 65,000 mls - and then garaged until I bought it in June. With the exception of the IRS, it's stripped now, and the more I look at the car, the more I wonder if the vast majority of the structure is original. When I looked at the car, most of the interior was out, and the car was up in the air, so I was able to have a very good look at it, and couldn't see any reason not to buy it. But to be quite honest, I only had a rough idea of what to look for. I've attached some pictures, so perhaps those more familiar with these cars can take a look and see what you think? For instance, I think that the floor pans are perhaps original although this sounds almost unbelievable. The reason I say this is that one of the drainage?? holes still has a metal plug in it which looks like a factory fit? And looking at the sills, there looks as though there may be a patch on both of them, but the loom clips are still in situ? There may be some patches in the floors under the seats, but a lot of the original sound deadening material is still present. And one final question, there is a standard flasher unit in the engine bay attached to a bracket on the firewall below the heater. The indicator flasher is next to the passengers left knee, and the hazard flasher is a rectangular unit between the fuse boards. So what is this third one for?
Hopefully the pictures are high enough resolution for you to be able to have a good look?
ATB
Andy

[christopher storey]

It's a bit difficult to tell from photographs, but I cannot see any evidence of patching that you refer to. The sills and floors look in good order to me. However, unless the car is abandoned to the elements, the floors in particular do not tend to rot away. The acid test is in the hollow box sections i.e. the sills particularly at their lower ends where the stiffeners are welded in, and the various cavities which make up the bulkhead, particularly at the front half way up where no fewer than 3 of the diaphragms come together in a 3 layer spot welded sandwich. Also , internally where the B post meets the top of the inner sills. All of these can be inspected with a fairly cheap borescope and a laptop computer - drilling holes at the rear end of the sills is the best , and feeding the borescope in through the apertures in the footwells is the best way into the bulkhead, along with access via the hole in the drop down instrument panel which gives access to the wipers. Another area to inspect carefully on a FHC is the drain aperture area at the base of the tailgate above the numberplate. This is a complex area of construction . You may find pictures of the restoration of my car 1E20357 to be helpful. They can be seen on XKEdata

[MSM]

Hi Andy

I can only speak knowlegably about the apparent indicator relay beneath the heater box. It is in fact the 3AW ignition warning light module. You have correctly identified the other two.

[paulsco]

Hi Andy,

On the original floor panels the inner sill was part of the same pressing as the floor, so if there is no join in the corner between the sill and the floor, it is probably original.
The one thing that is confusing me is that the cut out panel above the IRS is usuallly only present in earlier cars; 3.8 and early 4.2.
After that there was no cut out. Is your cut out original or has someone cut this out themselves?

Paul

[christopher storey]

That cutout looks factory to me. There is a misconception that there was a "cut-off date" for the cutout, but both my S1 FHC and my S2 OTS have cutouts although there are certainly some later cars which do not have it

[mach2andy]

Thanks for your replies men. Looking carefully at the aperture above the IRS, I can see the original regency red colour around the edges of the cutout, so I'm fairly certain the car left the factory like this. Also, the edges of the hole are far too straight to have been cut at a later stage. Or to be more precise, I certainly couldn't have cut them that straight!! There are signs that a cover plate was fitted over this hole inside the car at some stage, but it's not present now? Perhaps someone could attach a photo of how this cover looks? Or perhaps this cover plate was added later by someone? Looking inside the 3 doors, and other parts of the structure I find evidence of a waxy substance that I'm assuming is Waxoyl. Judging from the amount of crap that's attached to this stuff, I think it's been there for some time. Was a Waxoyl treatment something that was available from the factory, or perhaps was it offered by the original supplying dealers? The car will be mounted on a rotisserie fairly soon. I'll post some pics when it's done. Finally, I've figured out that the relay [pictured] that sits on the firewall behind the tacho is for the HRW. But it has a sticker on it marked "backlight". Was this the original Jaguar nomenclature for the rear door??
ATB
Andy

[Red Kite]

This is mine in 1995 during its restoration. Its an early S2 FHC, originally dark blue, and it looks like the panel is in one piece. ( Someone has since cut access holes in it ! )

[Gfhug]

Backlight and rear window/HRW are the same thing (I believe)

Geoff

[Series1 Stu]

Yes. The Jaguar parts manual describes the rear windscreen as a backlight.

This old school terminology is great.

Regards

[Herzeg]

It lets light in the back - what's not to like about that?

[Series1 Stu]

Yes, I love it!

I quite like to confound the younger engineers with old phrases, and especially scientific units. It's payback for all this modern yoof speak!!

Old fart, me? Surely not!