Thanks guys! I prefer looking at the finished photos and imagining that it took $2 and 20 days…
Took the door trim off to check the condition… SUPRISE! (not really). More former tenants.
Question: the door appears to have the mounting locations for an armrest as I’ve see in some cars but not others. Was that an “option” or a discontinued feature?
Seems like some got them and some didn’t, don’t know that it was ever an option per se.
Mine is also a 69 S2 OTS with mounting locations but no arm rest:
Far as I’m aware armrests were discontinued for the 1968 model year as part of the US Federal safety regs that removed dangerous “protrusions” from the interior - how it was that armrests were deemed dangerous I have no clue. Also afaik armrests reappeared the following model year but it is entirely possible, if not likely, that the earliest ‘69s also lacked them. My very late ‘68’s doors feature the armrest mounts but not the armrests themselves. I am unaware of any door shells that lacked the mounting holes.
In something like the words of Bob Stevenson @Robert_and_Darlene_S , “it never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t look up such questions in the JCNA Judging Guides”…
From the Series 2 Guide:
“Early cars did not have armrests…[snip]…armrests were fitted from chassis Nos. 1R.1326, 1R.10335, 1R.20391, 1R.26756, 1R.35547, and 1R.42583 except not fitted to 1R.42586”
-David
The 61s lacked mounts. For some reason my car was missing its doors and the PPO bought a set of earlier ones. I had to add mounts in order to get them on. It was annoying trying to close the doors using the latch handle.
Thanks Nick,
I suspect it may need a bit more! Oxylactelyne and a range of hammers I think.
I do have a secret weapon however!
For some reason I’m thinking “shaped charges”…
Hammers, dollies, picks and slappers are a given, then the shrinker to reduce the stretched steel.
Ok. I’ll bite. What’s your secret weapon? (I guess if you tell us it won’t be a secret anymore!)
Im amazed, too, but to chastise those who may or may not know of the vaunted JCNA sources?
It puts me right off, when it happens.
And I am not convinced it is 100% correct. Sometimes actual cars are a better source of an answer than a compendium designed for judging.
Nick,
My secret weapon is a bloke down the road!
Sorry to be so boring,
He is a body repairer who knows his stuff.
I saw him straighten the roof of a van that had been driven into a low bridge a 40 mph.
The thing was squashed. I mean mashed.
The van was only a month old and over a week he straightened it so all the new glass fitted perfectly.
So I hope this will be a walk in the park.
I will still have a look at the discs though, thanks.
Oh. Now that is a very good secret weapon indeed. I had work done a couple of years back by an old timer who’s really good shrinking with a torch. He told me he has never used a shrinking disc. I never got past half-assed with a torch but it’s likely related to better fitting and welding skills accumulated along the way. The more you minimise stretch the less you have to shrink. The shrinking disc takes some of the muscle skill out of the equation.
The problem with chasing authenticity etc using actual cars is there are very few original owner and unrestored 50+ year old cars left. Paul , saying that I’m amazed at the number of people that are not aware of the work that various JCNA members have put into trying to track authenticity is hardily an insult, at least not in my book and the remark about “vaunted JCNA sourses”, is uncalled for. Very few people on this forum realize that the US archives has always depended on a certain amount of volunteer work and without the efforts of people like George Camp, Karen Miller and a number of others the archives would not work as well as they do.
Bob
Take it any way you wish.
Vaunted is one of those words that have a different meaning when said with a different inflection. A certain George Carlin routine comes to mind. My bil, who lived and worked in Taiwan for 5 or 6 years tells me it’s worse in mandarin.
My apologies for making a comment which resulted in this exchange. It was my lame attempt at humour, and failed dismally. Personally, I view the JCNA Judging Guides as a useful “go to” source for information on originality and product change points. When my copies of Clausager and Haddock are not to hand, or I’d rather not page through them to find what I’m looking for, I pull up my copies of the guides. They are not as comprehensive as the two books I mentioned, as not all aspects of the cars are judged, but I was pretty confident (correctly as it turned out) that items like armrests would be covered…
I have found that asking this forum results in guiding me quicker in the right direction. I now possess a pdf of the “…JCNA…”
Question: the formed thin black plastic sheet under the door card (panel). I have searched 3 of the leading sources and cannot find a replacement, nor a new cardboard for the door panel itself. Does the experts on this forum generally just make their own? And if so, what material for both?
I went to an upholstery supply, and made ny own out of waterproof plastic: a heat gun, and a couple of 2x4s, and I made the bend on the door.
Sturdier, cheaper, and non-distortable!
For the liner, 6 mil poly and butyl rubber to stick it onto the door. Excellent reproduction door cards and new plastic coves can be had from OSJI in Muncie IN.
Steve,
I suspect that everyone improvises something to replace the black plastic sheet. The door panels can be had from at least some of the “usuals” (e.g. XKs lists them, though they are to special order). The best source though, is probably one of the suppliers of interiors such as OSJI.
-David
