Not only were there many great Jags there, but there were 3 1971 Series 3 cars there that were all in fantastic shape. Since I am in the middle of a restoration, it provided an excellent opportunity to get many pictures of the interiors and engine compartments for when I start reassembling my Series 3. One thing that I noticed. Below the main air intake of the bonnet, there is a rectangular air scoop. The scoop on mine is square at the corners and looks like it was original to the car as it is spot welded to the complete lower piece of the bonnet. The 3 cars that I saw this past weekend had rounded scoops with trim on them.
Hi JJ, The scoop on mine is rounded also ( 1973 SIII 2+2 ). Could a competent body man reshape the corners for you without upsetting the spot welds. The plastic on the front edge can be bought anywhere…door edge protector!
The square corners of the scoop really look out of place when compared to the rounded aspect of the entire car. I’ll put up some pictures tonight.
This lower scoop has taken some abuse through the years and is dented with rust in the front corners. It bolts on and as mentioned has some spot welds holding it in place. If it is as nondescript as I recall, I might go ahead and replace it with fresh sheet metal. Luckily my son works at a sheet metal shop back in Illinois. I’ll see if I can get him to put a hem into a 12"x30" sheet of 22 or 18 gauge for me and then form the corners for a replacement.
My son is going to put a hem on some sheet metal for me. Forming the rounded edge should be easy enough to accomplish. Removal of the oddball one is simple enough and I can us it to make some patterns.
Here is a closer picture of the scoop with the panel removed from the bonnet. It has a line formed in it about 2" back from the front. My assumption is that it is to provide some rigidity. It doesn’t look like something that some hack body shop person would have put together. But… In the top picture of my Jag without anything on it, the square corners look really out of place.
When I finally got around to having my Series Three repainted, I too found my lower scoop smashed almost flat against the surrounding sheet metal. My body man fashioned a new scoop out of fresh sheet metal, and he rolled a wire into the leading edge of the scoop before forming the rounded edges on either end. The embedded wire gives the span of the scoop some added rigidity, plus it gave the chrome “door trim” piece a nice, thick edge to grip on to.
