Helen: Resurrection

JAGUAR XJS RACING

Part X

Still working on the panels, and it’s laborious in the extreme. The doors were glossed, found to be horribly dented still, and within about two hours had the 100 grit paper reapplied. As is customary, the poor workman blamed his tools, and made much noise about a sanding board of inadequate length. Probably not the first time a man has had issues over the length of his wood. As punishment, and to ensure thorough rubbing, a pink primer/marker coat was applied this time.

Another three days added to the process. But finally, gradually, they come together, and in an acceptable and even finish. Bear helpfully tells me that the panels are a different shade to the car. They might find his body one day.

There are disappointments. The front wing, welded up and fillered in situ, now painted and shiny with about the best gun-fresh finish yet, produces three new dents the moment it is screwed to the car. Irritating doesn’t begin to cover it. I might have to concede that in fact this wing was scrap after all. At this late stage the concept of buying a wing is loathsome, but it has to be done, this one will have to be a spare, in case the CTCRC boys are rougher than their reputation. A chat with the nice chap at Grublogger has two new offside front wings with me the following day. Well, I say new, but that’s new to me, they were too poor for him to sell for a road car, but too good to throw away, and that means perfect for us.

Boot and bonnet will retain their hinges, as Group 1 regulations demand. Fair enough, it’s not a lot of weight, and the practicality of hinged panels shouldn’t be underestimated. It is worth repeating that the purpose to this rebuild changed partway through. We were making the ultimate class F car to see how fast we could get a roadgoing class machine within JEC rules. Now we've been forced into a different race series we're working to a whole new set of regs, and having really drilled down into those regs we've adjusted our target once more.

The plan is no longer the pre-93 series, but the Group 1, and that means pre-83, and a car that looks a lot less modified. All steel and glass, a bit heavier, but then try to make it go like bloody hell. And that semi-historic approach, the build a nice car and then abuse it concept, well that's right in my wheelhouse.

Fitting the panels is a big job. I struggle at the best of times to get the shutlines right, and these are not the best of times. The doors belong another car, as do the wings. The wings neither came from the same car, nor as each other. Some of them have been repaired. The doors don’t belong the same car as the wings.

You have to hang the doors first, because they have to match the shell, there is no sense fitting the wings before the doors. The doors are hugely adjustable, the hinges move up and down, front and back, and can be spacered in and out. The door can in turn be shimmed backwards evenly or otherwise on each hinge, and thus tilted, or in the other plane the door top can be tilted in or out from the car, and there is scope to move the door evenly up and down, in and out on the hinges, making for at least 7 different ways in which the door may be adjusted, which when you apply clever mathematics and factor in the range of movement, makes for at least eleventy-seven billion possibilities.

And that’s if it can be made to fit at all. Add in the multiplying factor that any change at the hinge end increases the further along the door you get, and it is enough, in the words of a lady I call Jeff, to pepper my swede. No assistance from the Bear with this, bodywork is beneath him when it’s my car, so this is a solo wrestling act. There is a great deal of swearing, and a shoulder that may never be the same again.

Eventually, and I do mean eventually in a pretty epic sense, one door is hung. The real trick is to get the shutline at the rear of the door to work, getting the bottom in far enough usually means bringing the top of the door out further, and that is not what I want at all, because it compromises the wing fitment and the quarterlight to screen fit. Yes, this door came off this car at the start of this rebuild, as did the wing, but they take a lot of time to persuade that they ever liked one another.

And I’m not so sure that the Bear was wrong about the wing being a subtlely-different shade to the rest of the car. Under fluorescent light at any rate. In daylight it’s fine. Odd.

Finally the car sits fully panelled. I have, for now, refitted the old bodykit for transportation purposes. I was half tempted to go with steel bumpers, but really I need to research the year that fibreglass bodykit was first fitted to the XJS. If it was any kind of option anywhere by anyone before 1983 then I can retain it. If not, well, some negotiation might be required. Fibreglass is now cheaper than steel, so economically speaking I want it. It might not quite fit with the pre-83 image, but the SD1s out there seem to be sporting airdams, so maybe. It is a question of building the car, and presenting it for inspection.

Without her stripes and stickers she looks very big. Very big and very blue. It would be a bit much in a road car, this colour. Maybe. It grows on you though. No time to livery the car up though, she is off to Kent for an exhaust making, a full set of bananas and enormous bore system from Zero Exhausts, source of our previous manifolds. Expensive, shiny, and totally worth it, the first one from here put the Bear into a race win within 3 races.

The car must be mechanically finished for this to be fitted though, which means finishing off a few projects first. The X-brace gearbox crossmember has to be finished. No sense having a costly exhaust made and it not fitting. The power steering has to be fitted. It doesn’t alter anything much, I don’t think, no-one is going to compromise the manifold for the sake of moving a pipe, but fit it rather than not.

The new plug leads ought to be supported. Melting them on the new bananas would be upsetting. These little changes take time. The AJ16 wasn’t designed for plug leads, the AJ6’s cam cover made provision for the plug leads, the 16 does not.

A flurry of door handles – minus the locks, of course – and missing bolts, and the car is pronounced ready for transport.

The logistics of getting an XJS to Kent for an exhaust are actually pretty simple. You just have to do it. It’s 230 miles each way, and you have to do it twice in about ten days. Throw in a detour, and there are a thousand miles to travel for this. Those 5am starts aren’t my favourite, but you don’t half get a lot done in a day.

Not sure how healthy it is to mainline caffeine in the way we do, but it works.

It's worth a trip to see Zero just to experience the premises he's at. Not for the ordinary-looking workshop, or the pretty manifolds lying about the place, but for the fact you have to check for light aircraft on approach before you tackle the driveway.

A brief discussion with Mr Z and home again. It says much about the racing obsession that this will be the longest period of time that I’ve ever been without her. I wonder if she’ll cry.

Bear didn't like my bright idea of completely enclosing the trailer in XJS bodywork.

New and more effective brake ducts. At least theoretically more airflow-efficient.

To punish myself for the error with the door, and to make sure I do it right next time, a pink marker coat....

To show just how wrong I got it!

But where have I seen this paint scheme before....?

Finally completed the new radiator stay/fan support/ cross brace/whatever the hell this is.

Sideskirts and wings, it's almost like we're getting somewhere now.

When you do all the bodywork yourself, and you are truly just an enthusiastic  amateur, achieving this is a big deal.

Same again, a decent finish on the rear bumper, but it took a week of your evenings to get here.

Painted and partially meshed. The extra chin ducts will stay. The additional lip has to go, it was a step too far.

Ha, I win at last.

In your face, door, in your face.

Victory is mine.

Wrestling match complete, one fitted door.

Only one though.

Bumper on, and that means we're nearly there.

Oil cooler actually appears to have gained mounts too. What a day!

Original bonnet and spare boot thrown on for transport - and reminded us how far the colour has changed. Ready for transport.

Sharey, Sharey baby