Hi Ed,
Unfortunately you can’t really trust anything. If you look at the horns specified for the SS100 in the post war parts list they are WT29s. What you can say is that Lucas thought there was a difference between 2½ litre and 3½ litre further adding to the evidence of the collage.
I can’t even trust you! The car you think is ECN is actually ELN789 the 3½ litre driven by J.O.H. Willing in the Monte Carlo Rally.
Peter 
I’ve not seen that type of translucent lettering before.
Peter
I fear I’ve opened up too many controversial topics in this one thread.
I have no doubt of the accuracy of what you all are saying, that the HF728 New Alto Deluxe were correct for the period.
Here is a page from a 1937 Lucas catalogue, showing the model WT11 Mellotone, which is some evidence toward the notion that the WT29 Wind Tones may not have been on the market until a year or two later.
Does anyone know, how and where are the HF728s usually attached? The photos seem to show variations.
The curious thing is that these Wind Tones on my car are very well attached. There is a round crossbar at the front of the chassis under the curl of the front wings, with two holes through it. There are holes in the front wings where pedestals pass through and attach to the crossbar with studs and nuts.
It makes me wonder who installed these like this, when they could have more easily installed them under the bonnet? Maybe they wanted the chrome to show.
Hi Rob,
Your “T” horn posts that pass through the front apron are correct for mounting the HF728s and are bolted with two bolts that pass through the top of the Ts.
Here’s a couple of WT29s.
The WT22 look very similar but the horn has a squarer exit instead of triangular.
Peter
that is one good looking Jag, really nice lines,
My ‘rent’s PIII Rolls had the Mellotones on it: till now, never knew that!
And I see it has no mascot.
The horns inthe lucas catalogue here, seem to be a’’ creative impression" rather than photos. The flat bars on the grille went out from about 1935 and they are missing any horizontal bars.
But the obvious question is, Why if SS are making 2 model saloon whose only difference really is the size of the engine capacity and diff ratio, have the cheaper ones with the more upmarket New altos? and Vice versa.?
The sale brochure for all three engine size saloons ad DHCs and both SS100s merely lists"Twin Blended note horns" for all of them.
It would seem more efficient for purchasing to use all the same
The chrome on the horns may be an owners ‘go faster’ embellishment,
I see the car has the flexible conduits , for the horns, How far do they stretch to. They were very big in flex metal conduits for the wiring , even to single wires.
Ed,
I know that today the HF728s look much more impressive than the mundane WT22s that were painted black and had to be hidden but that was probably not how William Lyons saw it.
The visible horns were probably beginning to be seen as old fashioned but the reason was probably also cost. In the 1939 Lucas cataloque the HF728 is described as “obsolete” and the replacement type for it was the WT22 that was listed for the 3½ litre. If Lucas wanted to clear obsolete stock then the HF728 was almost certainly cheaper than its replacement type.
Leaving aside the horns, the 2½ litre will have cost SS Cars Limited just as much to manufacture as the 3½ litre and in September 1937 it was priced at £395 instead of the £445 for the 3½ litre. Do these facts not convince you?
Peter
The new alto horns had yet another version after they were supposed to be obsolete
Ones with the badge at the top not in the centre and these seem’to have appeared on late SSs
So not convince entirely.
You must be from Missouri, Eddles…
That is awesome! where did you find it? I’d love to see more pictures. The pickup, is a 1950-54 Chevrolet 3100 pickup. The filler, vents, wind screen & wheel arches are a dead give away.
Thanks Peter for the clarification on the horn mounting, and all your other helpful responses. A PO made a lot of changes with SS to Jaguar badges, so he may have also changed the horns.
The mystery of the tool tray is as yet unsolved. I tried all my Tecalemit grease guns and none of them fit the slots, all too big or too long in the body.
I asked about early jacks folding up because it seemed odd to change the part number if there was nothing different except the position of the arm. I thought maybe the arm folded up on the early ones.
I have the front jacking sockets but not the rears. Someone has begun some restoration work on the rear chassis. I found a drawing in a July 8, 1938 issue of Autocar that shows the swing down rear bumper parts. Looks like the only thing I am missing is the sockets. The research continues…
I’m a long way from starting the restoration work, got to finish the Mark V first, but since its so cold here and I can’t do any Mark V painting, I’m fixing a few broken things on the SS. My Mark V starting handle doesn’t fit the SS but I turned the engine with a wrench on the crankshaft bolt, and it has clean oil so that’s encouraging.
If I can believe the hand written note in the Continuation Log Book, my car was first registered 80 years ago today. George VI was king, Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister. Happy birthday, you old octogenarian.
Hi Rob,
Please send my birthday best wishes to KMG273. 
If you do decide to change your horns I see that Gregorys stocks quite a few types including the HF728. http://www.gregorysautoparts.co.uk/catalogue.php?t=0&c=257
Ashwater do the correct interior handles and winders and also the correct T shaped boot handle although you might need to make your own boot lock bezel/keeper. They also do leapers and radiator caps. Unfortunately I don’t see the rear SS bumper badge in their catalog.
http://www.ashwater-classics.co.uk/
Originally your engine would have been fitted with dural rods. If you read my engine restoration story you’ll get the impression that steel ones are hard to find but Dave Davenport now shows new ones in his website but I don’t know what bearings they are designed for.
http://www.davenportcars.co.uk/spares.htm
Peter
I notice these vendors have an intriguing lack of prices advertised
It would be interesting to know . We made new new Alto horns and recently sold the tooling to Upper Classics in NZ.
Putting in new steel 2 1/2 rods would depend on price.
A new 3 1/2 litre crank,which will fit is about AU$ 5,500 But against this is cheaper bearings, crank ready to fit, more torque and a smoother engine and post war steel rods will go in. It’s what we have done.
Cam followers should be made in two parts [ so hollow as original] to keep reciprocating weight down
Iskendarian make new [ better] drop in valve springs
The timing chain should be converted to post war twin chain[ using post war parts]
The pre war cam has a more sporting grind than the MK V.
There are a number of improvements from later models which can be used as replacements
As to the bumper badge I we made new castings in pewter with the BSF stud cast in
I cna get Rob a casting which he can while away winter nights filing the flashing off and polishing They are more acurate than the UK ones having been moulded from an original and so have the original texture at the bottom of the recessed letters And cheap
It was at a dealer called Beverly Hills Car Club, located not in Beverly Hills but in Los Angeles. The previous owner lived in Iowa and had it 30 years. They also have a 1.5 saloon in stock listed as a '38 but I question that year as it has some later features.
The salesman Adam was a pretty decent guy, answered honestly any question I could think of, for example put the car up on a lift to look for a chassis number where I asked him to, although it turned out that was the wrong place. He took extra pictures of anything I wanted to see. They didn’t seem to mind some reasonable haggling on the price, and handled the transaction in a professional manner. The shop guys made sure the loose parts were inside, and where the LR fender and spare tire door were not all that well attached, they held them on with bungee cords for the trip to Chicago. Adam put me in touch with a shipping agent they use.
The shipping agent was Aalll States Auto Transport Service, which is a broker for independent truckers. The way this business works is the broker puts the job on an internet site and truckers can claim the load. They try to get a full load of 10 cars in one area if they can. One thing I learned after contracting with them is that only 30 percent of auto carriers have winching capability to take a non-running car. Probably if it was like that Chevy pickup and didn’t roll and steer there would be even fewer.
So it was almost 3 weeks until a carrier claimed the load and picked it up. Then it was 6 days on the trailer until he arrived at my house. The carrier was AK Carrier Corp. of Wadsworth IL which is two guys and their wives and two trucks and a phone. Cash on delivery. The unloading was pretty straightforward, once we got the bungee cord off which had wrapped itself around the LR hub during the loading, and he helped me tow it up the driveway with the S-Type.
There are more pictures on www.ssjaguardata.com click “find car #” and enter 40051. Since those pictures were taken I have repaired the fog lights and am now working on the rear bumper and spare tire door.
Yes, it’s a MkIV (and with rather non-standard interior.)
Peter
Rob
I wouldn’t put too much effort into repairing the fog lamps. The original Lucas FT 58s are available, or a reasonable compromise are FT57 which were also used as head lamps on tractors in UK and so are cheaper .From the front,they appear identical
Don’t worry, I didn’t put too much effort into them. It took nearly a minute. 
The swing down rear bumper will take more effort. I find the Autocar drawing is not exactly=exactly like the parts I have. I would be glad to see any photo anyone may have of the early '38 bumper mounts.
The history books talk about all the problems with the transition from coach built to all-steel bodies, of the initial batch of all-steel body parts not fitting together right, the first 25 having to be scrapped, and the company coming close to bankruptcy. This car is one of the second batch, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Heynes could not devote his full attention to the rear bumper until later in the year.
I msy have missed this: Does it run?
