The XK

[Ian Donkin]

Very nice indeed.

[jury]

Tally Bally ho Mr Parr, that looks amazing !! Black wheels are a nice touch

[964RS]

I do like black wheels on a colouful car! Very Nice

[jtparr]

Part 29

Headlining


The headlining was a task I will always own up to having postponed as long as I possibly could…..chiefly because I had never done a stretched headlining before and I really did not know what the technique was/is to do it….no amount of internet searching showed me the process….just the usual start…and the lo and behold it’s done….hymmm…not exactly helpful

I fact it’s really simple….but needs experience on how to stretch the material to avoid ripples….with impact adhesive there isn’t much on the way of a second attempt…..(not quite no possibility….but its tricky to pull apart shall we say)

This was what I uncovered when stripping the car…a lot of damaged plywood and rusty locating tabs















When it came to reinstating the hoops I obviously had the reference pictures of where the original hoops were fixed onto tabs to the body, but the roof edge around the doors was so rusty and had to be replaced in their entirety along both sides that the exact screw hole points were tricky to establish ….I would know better if I did another car, but as ever these journeys we all undertake are ones of discovery and hindsight is a dreadful phenomena

In simple terms the middle hoop is rigidly fixed and the outer pair of hoops to both front ands rear pivot on their mounting point….so as long as they are spaced reasonably accurately the smooth finish is achieved by an ability to stretch the fabric by the pivot action….but to then also pull sideways is a must as wrinkles can still occur

Continuing the rusty and worn out theme the C pillar area has a curved profile panel that contains the interior lights….this is can be seen was completely rotten, so with the aid of our favourite CAD technology a replacement was made and then transferred to sheet aluminium, primarily because I have plenty and its simple enough to bend…prior to painting and recovering with the same felt material…and ready to incorporate the lovely light assemblies which really just needed a decent clean

I also made up a new version of the Curved panel in plywood and also made new tack strips that screwed to the curved steel banana profile…







Which I also varnished to prolong their future life





















I would give myself 9.5 out of 10…there are 2 minor wrinkles that I have not managed to resolve….perhaps I could also try the old trick of a wall paper steam stripper machine which is supposed to be a trick off the trade….lets see





Thanks for reading
J

[Gary71]

Looks great JP That last photo doesn’t capture the hours of work and swearing!

[hot66]

Looking good JP

[sladey]

Nice work JP. I got Ian to do my headlining on the 911. I seem to remember 2000 bulldog clips being involved

[jtparr]

I really should have taken more photos….bulldog clips were used…but just to get the felt used to being stretched initially….then starting at the front I had to ultimately bit the bullet and undo all the clips having marked a line on the top side where the window aperture was…so i could the apply contact adhesive outboard of the line…and onto the body….then starting in the middle I began to stick in place….pretty much had to get it right first time….rinse and repeat all round…rear window next then sides last of all

In truth I did have to pull some of the felt off in places just to get the last few wrinkles out….how they did this at pace back in the day as they would have been on piece work is impressive to imagine…wish there we films to show it….

[911hillclimber]

I used to visit the Jaguar factory in Browns Lane in the mid 80 working on the new XJ40.
The way to the Engineering Office and test areas was through/past the trimming shop, a 1000 ladies and sewing machines zipping out panels of cloth and leather, quite an aroma!

Having seen the cars coming together that lot on the shop floor could do anything FAST, a trait I think of the low cost production talent in the building.

If you designed anything that was slow to assemble you were cursed.

[jtparr]

Part 30

Cant rails

Having made the decision to not use a veneered dash…there was then the question of how to finish the cant rails…on the E Type these were/are wrapped in vinyl…which with a black dash…seemed eminently possible to repeat for this car…however in the spirit of mission creep I then found myself wanting to improve upon the multi part original design

Why there are so many small sections of aluminium and veneered timber was and still is a mystery….was it simply the cost of a single large veneered section being too difficult to produce…?….however by the time I got to the end of remaking my own I had another theory…namely that the cars are hand built and the multi part approach gave jaguar an opportunity to make adjustments on the production line for variations in the build












Whether that is true or not I guess I will never know, but it could explain the fact…


First off I needed to make a template as a constant base reference form, so I didn’t need to continually compare the extrusions to the car as i shaped them…once both were made to this shape I was then able to fine tune the profile as true to form each side was slightly different …..





For me however the cant rails could not remain a multi part assembly…the original collection of folded aluminium trims were about as crude as one could imagine so I elected to buy standard 10 x 20mm aluminium extrusions and invested in a shrinker/stretcher kit….(a fun exercise…but need to be careful on the tight curves as it is not difficult to over stretch the aluminium and split it….also watch how the metals curves out of plane…do the stretching in sections and tap it back flat as you go….if it gets out of shape too much it becomes tricky to re-flatten….)











I also decided to change the finish of the aluminium trims.

If you look closely at these sketches from another XK owner the multi part assembly is self evident, but also the fact that the aluminium was originally covered in Rexine…which is NLA but is almost a very thin type of vinyl….always done in black in period so it was not body colour specific. I wasn’t too impressed with that so I etched primed and top coated in green so the whole edge assembly is a single calmer attitude towards colour…and a far superior and cleaner continuous edge









With the aluminium formed I then duplicated the inner curve onto 9mm MDF by copying the aluminium profile and then freehand I marked a 25mm offset width which I cut close to before finally shaping by eye on the belt/disc sander I also invested in





Once this profile was completed I then chamfered the outer edges with the final investment….a mini router kit









And then covered in vinyl….not an easy task to stretch around a curving form…….

The cant rails also continue down the A pillar/edge of the windscreen…the timber was in decent condition, but didn’t fit as well as I thought possible, so naturally I had to modify it…..car body filler….what a wonderful product









In this picture I am using super glue to bond these pre made timber sticks (from the cafe in my office) to alter the angle of the back face of the timber profile….this gave me the correct depth which I then infilled with body filler to suit

I also increased the curvature of the edge of the panel so it more closely followed the shape of the windscreen when viewed from outside..in this photos hopefully you can see the difference between the straight and curved edges










All of these sections are fixed with tiny screws (stainless in my case) from the outside, through a flange in the bodywork…drilling these on a painted car was not much fun as the danger of scuffing the paint with the drill was ever present

I will post more pictures of the completed works later on in the build……

[Lightweight_911]

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Very impressive work Jonathan ...


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