Thanks again, Peter. I was trying to put the parts on the wrong sides and outboard of the chassis rails.
A PO has made what seem to be pretty good repairs to the rear of the rails, but did not provide jack sockets.
That means the two smaller wedge shaped parts with the slots in my picture are apparently not bumper parts and therefore unidentified.
The car came to me without a battery, and has corroded battery cable clamps, of which the negative end is a replacement but the positive seems to be original. The gas tank has been restored but the vent tube was bent and not attached. Where the vent comes out by the right tire, does it curl forward or backward? There was a Tygon hose on the discharge side of the fuel pump like somebody pumped out the fuel. The air cleaners were off. Otherwise all assembled and seemingly ready to run.
Its zero F here today. Tomorrow if it warms up I might put a battery and a squirt of gas in it and see if it pops.
The little wedge things look a bit like some of the body mountings at the rear.
I think a PO has inserted a replacement panel into the scuttle to deal with acid corrosion. At first I wondered if the extra screws etc were something to do with early bodies not fitting together but here is 40038 and it doesn’t have the insert under steering column support plate.
Peter, you are right on both counts.
My chassis repair pieces extend to the area where those wedges seem to belong, so apparently they never got put in.
That panel on the scuttle runs beyond the battery on the other side so it likely an old repair for battery corrosion.
My vent tube will probably go 6 or 8 inches beyond the hole if I can straighten it out enough to get it in. I should have guessed it is similar to Mark V.
I agree with Peter, on the horn question, i.e., the 38-39 2.5 saloons and DHCs all had external chrome horns, but on the 3.5L cars the horns were an option and most did not have them.
Tried a battery in it. Fuel pump works, side lights work, solenoid makes a click every time I touch the starter button, but the motor only made a whirring noise once and then nothing. Solenoid is on the starter, so when it warms up here I will pull them off and see what’s wrong.
I am missing the boot lid hinges. Does anyone have a picture of these?
No Horns? even the purple people eater had one big horn.
The 'wedge bits"mentioned earlier are the rear body mounts , They have a captive square nut inside which can slide up and down for adjustment,
The major cause of the rear chassis rail corroding was an access hole roughly under the centre pillar that let [ dirty] water splash up from the front wheel and travel down to inside the back of the chassis
This wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t put rubber bungs in the jacking points which stopped the water escaping. So as it worked its way seeping out through the gaps between spot elds, the sediments remained and rusted the bottom of the chassis rail and the large bolts that went through for the bumper
The other design fault is the 2 large cross members with a dip in the centre
These have large holes front and rear where te brake rods pass through, where water gets in but has no way out. The front one isn’t so bad as it collects oil from the gear box.- not so the rear. WE always drill ahole in the centre of the bottom of each dip.
You’ll see cats and rats and elephants, as sure as you’re born,
But you’re never gonna see no unicorns.
Looking through old photos in our favorite history books, it looks like many had hidden horns, and maybe exposed chrome horns became a fashion later on? I’ll try to do some research to see when each of these types of Lucas horns came on the market. Maybe that will give us a clue as to when they might have been offered by SS dealers as accessories?
My initial reaction is I don’t think I like the pedestals sticking through the wing aprons. Funny, they could have just as easily used the bumper support bar to mount them.
Thanks, Ed, for the tips on drain holes in the chassis frame rails. I will put them in when the time comes. Contrast this with my brother’s 1946 Chevy 1-ton pickup with C-channel frame rails, which collect the mud but it has a chance to dry out and fall off.
I suppose the rear jacking sockets are the same size as the fronts? I can copy those.
But as Peter says, the rear jacking sockets seem to be under rather than inside the rail boxes.
This jacking system doesn’t seem like all that great an idea anyway, what with having to let the bumper down to get at the spare tire.
There will be interference between the jack and the bumper.
And as you can see my parts are different from the parts shown in the drawing. Mine doesn’t slide out; it just drops down. There is a lot of weight being held by those two wing nuts.
I wonder how often the bumper dropped down accidentally in the old days if people didn’t get the wing nuts tight enough.
Your wing nuts should be pointing out on both sides. Not as in your photo.
The bar that the nut tightens onto is countersunk and the nut has a taper to fit it. I normally use a spanner to secure the wing nuts. If you just used your fingers then I’m sure the bumper would fall down when traveling.
You can see the square section tube for the jacking point in the photos I posted from my car.
Are you sure? I saw your photos and I tried them both ways, and they fit better with the wing nuts inboard. Easier to reach the wing nuts, too.
Here is the other way.
“The bar that the nut tightens onto is countersunk and the nut has a taper to fit it.”
I saw the countersink on the bars and taper on the nuts, and also how worn out they are. I’m a long way from roadworthy, but this is one thing I will pay special attention to when I get there.
On my '38 3.5L saloon #30438 the boot mounting bolts are only threaded close to the bolt head. From inside the boot lid, the bolts screw into a captive nut in the boot lid. And a pointed shank of a diameter less then the thread extends beyond the threaded section to poke into those holes in the bodyshell. The bolt in the photo looks about the right diameter. The hole in the bodywork looks too big. John C
Thanks again, Peter.
Funny thing is the bolt hole spacing in the bumper is 44-1/2", same as the center to center of the frame rails, and the brackets are symmetrical, so they can be put on outboard, or swapped side to side and put on inboard and fit just as well. The July 8, 1938 Autocar drawing shows them inboard, and yet four cars have them outboard. Why should I be surprised, its yet another of the many anomalies we discover when we delve into these cars.
John C, it sounds like you are describing a shoulder bolt, which makes sense. That would mean there should be a bushing fitting screwed on inside the boot lid, and a threaded fitting inside the body? Are there some spacer washers or something?
That spring loaded arrangement looks very convenient but I’ve never seen an SS Jaguar that had it. I guess it must have had an even greater probability of falling down than the thumb screw type. These SSs do have good acceleration and could easily overcome a little spring!
Its anyone’s guess where Autocar got their drawing. Maybe that slotted bumper bracket with the spring was on Lyons’ mockup prototype?
Snowbound here in Chicago with 20 inches expected today so I brought the LF door into the house to work on it.
BTW the hinge pins came out easy enough with a 3/16" punch and many taps with a light hammer from below.
I discovered the right angle gearbox for the no-draught ventilator window is missing. By any chance does someone have a photo of it? Is it the same as for Mark IV?
Also hoping to see a photo of a boot lid hinge pin and associated parts.
The gearbox , Do you want me to source one here?
. All the old [ us] geezers are realising that all those things we might need one day are going to be a PITA for our relos later, I had an offer to buy bulk parts I had As did a friend. Offers that were considered gratefully.
The trick with the little gear box is that the gear only works over a small segment and so wears in that spot. It can be miraculously rejuvenated by turning the square drive 90 or 180 deg and starting on a new set of teeth.
Yes, thanks Ed, in fact I’m putting together a list of missing parts, and was going to contact you first about it.
starting with the SS Cars data plate (Crouch pg 169 says the '38 plate was slightly different from the '37)
1728/A gearbox for NS (left) vent window
BD.6 inside door latch handle and escutcheon (1)
16017/B radiator badge SS Jaguar for 2-1/2 Litre (I believe it is cream color, Crouch pg 96)
B.1496 SS motif for rear bumper
40953 SS hub nut OS (2)
40954 SS hub nut NS (2)
43260 SS oil filler cap
1524 bonnet hinge end support on grille shell and cowl (2)
1963 budget lock OS for spare tire door
boot lid hinge parts
Here is the tool tray lid lock I found in the car.
