Top is not painted. No one will see it, so do as you please. It’s covered with a piece of foam. The case will be seen any time the car is jacked up or on a lift. Purists would go nuts. Buyers would scream not worth as much because not “original”. Doesn’t bother me at all, but just sayin’.
Were the blanking plates on the bulkhead painted the same yellow? If so, the car could have been a special order. Special ordered cars of an non standard color had the blanking plates installed before paint and were painted with the car.
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You’ve been around Jag folks, I see…
You know, I’m just shooting for a daily driver. I live 1/3 mile up a rough gravel and rocky road. A show quality, even a really nice paint job, could be a waste. I’m after water tight, mechanically sound, and pleasant to look at. The blanking plates were the same color, as were all of the fasteners, but it had been through a repaint some time in the past. The Porsche Bahama Yellow is indicated as original in export docs and by Jaguar Heritage. Also areas not touched by the repaint. So, maybe I should paint them silver to cause a stir?
The last time I painted the frames, I disassembled them so as not to paint the fasteners. I don’t know how the factory did it, but I don’t paint nuts and bolts as a rule.
Thanks for the input Jeff.
Beer 30 for me now.
Cheers
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I doubt the previous owner would have resprayed the bulkhead on just a repaint. More likely a dealer liked the color, knew he could order straight from the factory any color he wanted and ordered 11 cars that color because he thought they would sell fast being a different color than all the other E Types on the road. It therefore would be indicated on the Heritage certificate as being Bahama Yellow. I’m thinking you have a very rare Series 2, and I like it much better than Primrose. I would definitely paint the blanking plates the same color as the car. Most people do not know about the plates being painted on special order, there is your"stir".
Poring straight Scotch on one large “rock” as I type. Not easy pouring with one hand and typing with the other, but soon it will appear to be easier, if you know what I mean.
So, while cleaning up the bottom of the body I noticed it is totally red primer matching inside of the drive shaft tunnel. I removed the hardura material under the seat and the color is black. The exterior paint ends at the inside edge of the outer sill. When I watch the restorations, I see all of the panels including the under panels painted body color. Did they come from the factory with the bottom painted as the rest of the body? Perhaps the special paint was a different process or line. Per the Heritage folks, the car first went to Henley’s, London as the distributor, then on to J. R. Ridd, Houston. The export papers show original owner as MRS J. R. Ross whose name appears on all of the service and repair receipts.
And the beat goes on,
Cheers
When I restored my 69 FHC, I removed all the undercoating and found red oxide primer and a brown primer (paint?). And after removing the factory tar/insulation on the interior side, I do recall seeing a black primer/paint there (my replacement Martin Robey panels had the same finish). I left the red oxide/brown primer on the underside, cleaned it with lacquer thinner twice, and primed with a two part epoxy zinc chromate primer (Variprime). I then sprayed 3M rock guard on that and painted the bottom the color of the car. The rest of the interior and outer body were taken down to metal, sprayed with the zinc primer and then bodywork. Which means some of the zinc was sanded off to do body work, lead loading, skimcoat. etc. I left the original primer on the bottom because it had done it’s job for forty years and there was only a speck of rust on the bottom.
…and exactly how did you remove it so cleanly and leave the red primer? -Steve (at this stage on my '69)
Thanks Jeff,
That looks great and good tips.
Most of it was dry and flaky. I did the removal in cold weather with a stubby putty knife. I cut a putty knife in half and rounded the corners. The primer was very tough stuff but I did scrape some off. Some people use a heat gun and scrape it when it is soft. You can use dry ice to harden an area and it comes off fairly easy. Thinner will remove the residue.
After the epoxy primer, and before the rock guard, I seam sealed every seam with 3m seam sealer.
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Mike,
I installed the Classic(Retro) Air kit a couple years ago. Let me know if you have questions. I assure you I know more about the installation than Classic Air. By the way, I drove the car over to a British car show in Fort Worth on Saturday…97* F outside air temp and humid. Cool as a cucumber inside the car. Engine temp gets pretty toasty when at stop lights, but it has never boiled. Temp comes back down once moving. (This is for an S1).
PS: I filled the front frames with Wurth wax, flipped them around until I was sure every surface was wetted, and then drained the excess.
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I did something similar with my sub frames. I enlarged the upper bulkhead hole slightly and tapped them carefully on the floor. I got very few rust flakes so I decided to reuse them. I closed off all the end holes and sloshed them with a muratic acid solution from 3M. Can’t remember the name but was a green color and was deluted with water when used. The instructions said to flush multiple times with water after sloshing. I let them set for a day to dry and poured in the Variprime zinc chromate two part epoxy primer, moved them around to ensure good coating and drained. I went out every five minutes or so and repositioned them while drying.
I didn’t use the Wurth or other wax based coatings because they recommend you re-apply every three years or so and the heat of the engine bay may make it all run to the bottoms of the frames. I don’t know this for a fact, but it just seemed logical to me.
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Thanks for the information. When the air is switched on, the radiator cooling fan runs continuously I assume? And you’re using the stock radiator and fan?
Installing air has snowballed into a little rust mitigation. A big job for me, but not near what I see others faced with. I’m not whining about the few panels I’m replacing. None should affect the exterior paint 
.
Keep smiling 
The radiator is a four row copper unit, which was in the car when I purchased it (not stock). The stock Marston (or aftermarket fake) would not be up to the task in an S1. The fan is a Coolcat. Yes, it does run continuously when the AC is switched on, and is controlled by the Otter switch when the AC is switched off. (Wired the same as an S2 with AC).
By the way, I filled the front frames with Evaporust for days before doing the wax deal…first Boeshield T-9, and then the Wurth wax. Boeshield T-9 is a tooling protectant with excellent penetrating characteristics. The voids in the body were done the same way, but with spray wands. The photo below shows the wand for the sills pumping heated Evaporust into a sill (for days). The liquid was captured in the basin under the car and recycled via a sump pump. Thepumps sits in an oil drain pan, which in turn is sitting on a heating pad. I was not confident that any paint, encapsulator, or converter would get to all surfaces and stick. The car was rolled on the rotisserie while the Boeshield and Wurthwax were sprayed into voids. There was Boeshield and Wurthwax oozing from every seam when it was finished. Notice how the surface rust simply melts away in the stream of warm Evaporust (second photo).
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I’d say you pretty well have any rust issues under control. Very elaborate and very effective process you did. Not many have the patience to do it right. No wonder why your car is so nice.
The name of the 3M product I used was called Metal Prep.
Awesome.
Keep smiling