Mark V and late Mark IV Tool Compartment Assembly Order

[Rob_Reilly]

Recording this for those who may follow.

I believe late Mark IV after chassis 510101 and 610101 and LHD, possibly also late 1-1/2 L, have a tool compartment lid either the same as Mark V or very similar.

The factory had an assembly order so the cars could be built efficiently, and they wouldn’t have any wasted efforts on the assembly line.

This is my version of an assembly order for the tool compartment, which assumes your parts are all restored and ready to go.

1. Cut a piece of jute padding 6" x 36" and use a good adhesive to glue it inside the boot lid approximately where the starting crank handle will be located later
2. cut a piece of mutocell tar paper or equivalent soundproofing material 20" x 36" and glue it over the jute; the factory used roofing tar.
3. assemble the latches and hinges to the tool lid
4. install the aluminum trim channel around on the lid, be sure to use short screws and to put in enough carpet tacks. The channel should be opened enough to put in the padded liner easily later on, but not now.
5. install the light holder, with a red and a black wire, tape down the wires, and be sure they make good contact and are long enough. A pair of disconnect bullet ends on each where they can be easily accessed is a good idea, and they can be tucked down inside.
6. be sure all your threads in your captured nuts are clear, not full of paint
7. install the light switch in the boot lid and be sure you have it adjusted for length so the tool lid will push it.
8. install the threaded inserts for the hinge screws in the boot lid
9. install grommets to protect the wiring in the boot lid entrance and exit holes and in the main body
10. push a stiff wire through the grommets that you will use later to pull your red light power wire through.
11. paint the lid prop green; my lid prop is riveted together so it can’t be taken apart for later assembly of parts in the lid
12. attach the lid prop to the bottom of the plywood tool tray
13. install the plywood tool tray in the boot lid
14. paint the tool tray screw heads green
15. install the lid with 6 screws in the 3 hinges
16. attach the prop to the lid with 2 screws
17. connect the light wires, black to the switch, and tape the red to the stiff wire, pulling the red through with the stiff wire to the harness inside the body, where there are a pair of red/green wires and a double bullet connector
18. cut a slot in the padded liner for the prop, put the padded liner in the lid with a lot of adhesive, and push down the aluminum channel around it to clamp it tight.
19. install the light bulb, clear cover and chrome trim ring, and test the light
20. close the lid, latch it, and let the glue dry

[Peter_Lloyd]

Looks spot on Rob. Most of us start assembly then have to backtrack a step or two to correct a sequence problem.

I’m not familiar with the products mentioned in steps 1 and 2. My lids have a dense rubbery foam type product. What is the jute 6" strip for at the crank handle?

[Rob_Reilly]

Jute is carpet padding. There is a lot of it inside all around the scuttle and on the floor.
Mutocel is the waffled tar paper that the factory used for sound deadening. There is a lot of it in my Mark V in the doors and under the rear seat.
It had come unstuck inside the boot lid and was scrunched down in the lower part. I was able to save it, straightened it out and put it back in.
The jute piece is under the mutocel here where you see the bump. My guess is they thought the starting crank handle would make a loud clunk so they added the jute.

[Peter_Lloyd]

Thanks Rob that’s interesting. I’ll see what I have in mine when I get back to it.

Two things as a matter of interest:

• I was missing the BSF setscrews that stitch the tray in place. I found that slotted head c’sunk equivalents were available in 6mm metric. You can’t tell the difference. Because the tpi is almost identical, the diameter slightly smaller, and the thread engagement length short, there is no binding.
• I have two trays, one has a U-shaped cut out for the lamp wire and the other has a hole. The latter is a pain for reassembly as the wire has to be threaded through the hole before you are ready to install the tray.

[Roger_Payne]

In my Booklet on Mark V Tool Kits, I do provide some detail on the Tool Tray…
The ‘waffled tar paper’ or more a mat, need to double check the name “Mutocel”, but OK I think, was more an ‘Anti-drumming’ material for the large slightly curved boot lid panel - given I dont think ‘sound deadening’ was a factor unless you regularly carried passengers in the boot
But it was also painted GREEN - see pic of an excellent/unrestored Mat still as glued within the boot-lid panel…

This MAT was always painted GREEN, regardless of the cars exterior paint colour, being intended as a complementary GREEN backdrop to the GREEN flocked tool tray, for all the recesses that were totally open… see picture of a Tool Tray, sitting on a concrete path, that clearly shows which recesses were totally open…

Note also all tools, including the Starting Handle, are provided with sufficient green flocked supports/brackets to support the tool, so no risk, nor need for extra padding to stop any ‘clunking’

Anyway, final visual result, all tools now have a ’ totally green’ background, whether the green flocked tool tray, or the green painted Mutocel Mat…

Mark IV is/was of course exactly same - just many different tools and a different Tool Tray layout, but the all Green tool-tray and background was the same… all we need now is an accurate colour reference for the correct shade of green, noting my last photo is of a ‘restored’ tool tray, a very-good but not great match of the green flocking, albeit better than many; the first two photos are unrestored/factory original green…

[Rob_Reilly]

Always fun to compare notes on these things. Mine is definitely original and not green, just black same as all the Mutocel inside the car. There was a bit of gunmetal overspray on it, so it was in there before the body went through the paint booth at Foleshill. I suppose they did them differently at different times.
Mutocel does not come up on Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, but it is in the Mark V SPC pg 77.
Google found us.

[pre-xk] Mutocel (in general, but especially MKV)

Hi all, This came up with the floors and some other panels on my MKV. The RH door, panel behind rear seat, rear quarter panels, some parts of the scuttle have their original sound damping (although I would think they don’t dampen that much anymore, they seem quite hard) ‘‘Mutocel’’ pieces which give good reference. But the problem is this, IME the sound dampening stuff has always been fitted on the inside, that is the passenger area of the car, not on the outside. Also my E-type and S2 …

I figure anti-drumming and sound deadening are two ways of saying the same thing more or less.

The jute was certainly in there under the mutocel, but as to why I just offer a guess.
Maybe it mattered if you drove around with the lid open and a big load of luggage.
The flocking on mine was definitely not thick enough to make any difference as padding.

Similarly with the green paint on the screw heads and prop, I thought maybe it could have been done by the first dealer or a previous owner, until I found a couple of green painted screws and cup washers in a box of Mark V parts I got from a guy who parted one out in the '60s.

My lid had a channel cut in it for the lamp wires, and a piece of gray cloth tape over it.

And Peter you guessed correctly, the reason I wrote out this assembly order was because I had to back track twice.

[Peter_Lloyd]

Just a bit of an alternative for consideration. I decided to cover the sound deadening surface with a panel of matching green baize to cover all blemishes and avoid repainting. I cut the baize longer so that the bottom curled up to cover the inner and outer panel joint to make it easier to retrieve anything that fell to the bottom under the tray.

[Rob_Reilly]

Ha, ha. Yep, I found a wrench down in there back about 1970. Found another riding on top of the spare tire tray.

[Roger_Payne]

I am aware that the Mark V SPC lists a number of applications/parts for Mutocel - listing ''BD.2454 Mutocel for Front floor (2 pcs), BD.2455 Mutocel for Rear floor, BD.2456 Mutocel for Clutch Housing Cover (2 pcs) and BD.2457 Mutocel for Gearbox Cover (2 pcs). But I cannot find a listing for the mat glued to the inner boot lid. Probably Mutocel, but although I have seen many Mark IV and Mark V boot lid mats, I have never seen any of the SPC listed pieces, to confidently compare…, but lets say Mutocel in the absence of anything of substance saying otherwise. On the inside of XK140 roadster doors, there is a rectangular piece of similar material, but left in black finish - that otherwise looks very similar/same - but I cant find any listing in the SPC. Presumably Mutocel is a product name, rather than a Brand name. I cant find any specific reference to Mutocel, but note that I have a 1950 listing of five UK companies that supplied “Anti-Drumming” material - including Dunlop Special Products; not that really matters…
But so far, as before, all the ORIGINAL Mark IV and Mark V that I have seen with all or parts of this Anti-drumming mat intact, are painted GREEN. I would be most interested to hear of what other owners have originally, if their car has not been restored/repainted in this area - having said that Rob, your photo of a silver painted boot lid surround, looks suspiciously like good chance of the Mat being painted silver at the same time… But even if so, surely if your Mat was original there would be some residual sign of Green paint under the silver??? And no signs of the tool tray timber brackets/supports pressing slightly into the mats surface either???..
So do we have any other Mark IV or Mark V owners care to comment about colour of their original Mats ???

And hopefully no question about the countersunk head screws being dab painted Green - I have confirmed this endless times, and am 100% sure… see another photo from my Mark V Tool Kits booklet taken immediately after these screws/washers were removed the first time since car was built…

And as still installed, on a 1948 Mark IV that tool tray/screws remain untouched since leaving factory…

…

[Rob_Reilly]

You would think with a cutesy trade name like Mutocel that it would turn up somewhere like Grace’s Guide. I even tried other spellings like mute-o-cell, Mute O’Cell and Miut O’Sell thinking maybe it was invented by an Irishman, but no luck.

Since we are on mutocel trivia, there are two waffle densities found in Mark V. About 4 waffles per square inch and about 9 or 16 waffles per square inch.
Here is one laying on the other.

I’m sure you all will sleep better knowing that.

I also looked and did not find the boot lid piece mentioned under Carpets and Felts pgs 77 & 106, nor in Luggage lid parts pgs 71 & 112.
Also conspicuous by it’s absence is any mention of mutocel in the saloon doors, though mine certainly has it. It is listed for the DHC doors pg 106.

I did find one mention of the felt/jute/horsehair in the DHC body section pg 112, though not in the saloon section, and it is the same size I measured in mine. There seems to be a mistake here though, it is not on the tool lid, it is on the boot lid. Perhaps the SPC typist was not aware of that fact. I’ll be she just had a list of items to type, and never went down to the shop floor to see where they went.

In my boot lid there was definitely no green whatsoever on the mutocel. Like I say, there was just a little mist of Gunmetal overspray around the edge, nothing at all in the center. Gunmetal is the original color of my car.
There are no marks from the tool tray supports because there is a small amount of clearance, 1/4" to 1/2" gap, i.e. not touching. One would only get marks if the tar adhesive failed and the mutocel sagged.

I wonder if they put the felt and mutocel on the outer panel before they put the outer and inner panels together? It would have been easier and quicker that way, the kind of cost saving Lyons would think of.
That might explain why the mutocel piece is not listed in the SPC; they didn’t offer it separately as a replacement part.
That might be true of the saloon doors as well; it would be an awful job putting mutocel in there afterwards, but easy to put it on the outer skin.

I have another boot lid, pretty poor shape and not much mutocel left, but no green.
You can see where the 6"x35" piece of felt/jute/horsehair was along the bottom.

Here is another theory, and perhaps you Australians are in a better position to investigate it. As I recall most of your Mark Vs went through Brylaws in Sidney? Ours went through Hoffman in the east and Hornburg in the west.
Is it possible that Brylaws did the green paint? Maybe they thought it looked better if your customers didn’t see the black mutocel?
Maybe Hoffman and Hornburg customers never looked in the tool kit.

Thanks for the confirmation on the green painted screw heads. In your last photo it looks like flocking down below the starting handle rather than paint? Could that be?

[Roger_Payne]

@Rob_Reilly

Here is another theory, and perhaps you Australians are in a better position to investigate it. As I recall most of your Mark Vs went through Brylaws in Sidney? Ours went through Hoffman in the east and Hornburg in the west.
Is it possible that Brylaws did the green paint? Maybe they thought it looked better if your customers didn’t see the black mutocel?

Actually, the BRYLAWS Distributorship HQ was in Melbourne, which initially covered the territories of Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and the ACT, and later after being renamed BRYSONS also South Australia. There was a separate Distributor ANDERSONS AGENCIES for Queensland and Northern Territory, and another M.S.BROOKING for Western Australia and during the Mark IV/V period DOMINION MOTORS for South Australia. However BRYLAWS (Melbourne) were Distributor for some 74% of all Mark V imported new to Australia dominating the East Coast, such was the dominance of the Victorian retail market closely followed by the NSW retail market with South Australia third with 11%. But BRYLAWS, as you would expect had two retail Major Dealerships, in the State Capital cities Melbourne (Victoria), and in Sydney (NSW), and a myriad of many other Dealerships and Agencies throughout country/regional Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and the ACT. But no - zero chance that BRYLAWS Distributorship in Melbourne, nor indeed any of their Dealerships, nor indeed any of the Dominion, Andersons nor Brookings Distributorships pull out the new car Tool Tray, and take it upon themselves to repaint the boot lid MAT…
My research into Mark IV and Mark V tool kits is world wide, and as previously shown the GREEN colour of the boot-lid Mat is clearly visible underneath the tool tray recesses that go all the way through - so I have confirmed that cars all over, including USA, UK, Europe, NZ and of course Australia invariably always have a GREEN mat… Have to say, yours is the first/only one I am aware of claiming any colour other than Green ???
See attached photo of one of my best/original/unrestored Mark V Tool Kits, from a car indeed sold new in USA - so its a 1950 built LHD Saloon, but typical of other Tool Kit photos I have, regardless of where sold new… , and note the green painted screws…

As before, I would still however be interested in hearing/seeing pics of other original - unrestored/un-repainted Mark IV and Mark V in this tool tray/boot Mat area…

[Rob_Reilly]

Well that’s weird. I would get the only one in the world where they forgot it.
What is that stuff? It looks more like flocking than paint.

Edit: Hmm, maybe not.

[Peter_Lloyd]

Is it possible the non-green one is a replacement as a factory spare part?
Maybe these were completely unfinished except for a primer coat with the mat then applied over the weekend top. The mat then receiving a lick of overspray.

[Peter_Lloyd]

Damned ‘auto-correct’ aka ‘auto-error’. I don’t know where the word ‘weekend’ came from. Just ignore it.

[cconnor (Chris Connor)]

Hi Roger
For what it is worth, my unrestored 1946 3.5ltr has a green back board below the tool tray.

[Rob_Reilly]

I have no reason to doubt that mine is original and no green, just Gunmetal where they sprayed the lid and did not mask the mutocel.
BTW I looked in the '38-'48 SPCs and did not find mutocel. It would appear that the Mark V was the first to use it. Is that true?

Now this one looks to me like flocking in there, not paint.

[Roger_Payne]

@Rob_Reilly

BTW I looked in the '38-'48 SPCs and did not find mutocel. It would appear that the Mark V was the first to use it. Is that true?

Rob,

I think “Mutocel” is a maybe, for the Mark IV and Mark V boot-lid MAT, that I believe doubles as an anti-drumming mat for the large and near flat boot lid panel, but being painted/coloured GREEN is also an aesthetic back-ground for the GREEN flocked Tool Tray. William Lyons would have cared about the aesthetics as this tool tray concept was a feature/promoted by SS Cars then Jaguar, and you can see that in the evolution of the tool trays 1936MY to Mark V, original board painted black, then flocked black, then from 1939MY flocked GREEN, and still flocked GREEN postwar Mark IV and V.
But the boot lid MAT, although I have physically checked both Mark IV and Mark V and noted having identical textured surface painted the same GREEN as the tool tray, I really can’t say for sure whether just the same green paint as used on the tool tray and/or the boot-lid stay/screws without flocking or maybe partially with… But given my sole interest in this was the MATS contribution to the Tool Tray aesthetics, as a restored tool tray without an underlying green coloured mat looks BAD (in my opinion)… but otherwise, once I was happy with the green background aesthetics aspect, I really havn’t looked/investigated many more mats at all, apart from observing in my many Mark IV and Mark V Tool Kit photos that they have a green mat. So whether some added flocking, none at all, or maybe something partial/light I can’t say. Certainly now that you question it, I will recheck ‘in hand’ the local Mark IV and V that I have ready and co-operative access to…, so at least I can positively reference my photos, and indeed maybe expand a little more detail in my Mark V Tool Kits booklet where I did include/introduce a lot more detail/photos on the Tool Tray that I did in my earlier Mark IV Tool Kits booklet, but there is a demarcation limit on just where I draw the line … as above the green mat is a significant contribution to the aesthetics of the overall tool kit/tool tray, as indeed are all the perimeter Screws having green paint brush-dabbed on the head, and invariable some spill onto the flocked hole surround. I mention the tool-tray lid STAY/Bracket being painted Green, but hadn’t mentioned the tool-tray lid green FELT as I was two minds about which side of my relevance to tool kit demarcation it was, but before this thread getting into detail of the lid construction/restoration, I was already looking/considering the felt colour, as like the boot lid MAT, it is a significant contributor to the overall tool kit aesthetics. But I still need to draw a demarcation - otherwise where do I stop when detailing supposedly the Tool Kit - do I then go to the boot lid outer panel and hardware, and/or the Tool Tray Lid construction and top surface and hardware, or maybe just do the entire Luggage Compartment

But again I restate - I still don’t know what ‘Mutocel’ is, being fully aware that there is no reference anywhere as to what the Mark IV and/or Mark V MAT is. As you note Mutocel is not mentioned in the Mark IV SPCs at all, but actual cars still have this unlisted/unidentified mat. The Mark V SPC mentions Mutocel for various applications, but again offers no listing/identification of the Mat. I don’t have physical original Mutocel pieces from Mark V to compare with the material used for the boot-lid MAT. The closest material I recall seeing similar to the Boot Lid MAT, is the anti-drumming mat added to the inside of XK140 door skins, but I note that XK120 uses a totally different material judging by this extremely original 1953 XK120…

So more work needed, to positively identify exactly what the boot-lid MAT material actually is, and indeed whether simply painted green only, or whether some added flocking or not, and whether consistent or not over 1945-1951 Mark IV and Mark V period, and indeed whether there are any other confirmed/original/unrestored Mark IV or Mark V with a MAT that is ‘other than green’

Having said that in your three Tool Kit examples, the bottom photo of a black restored Mark V Tool Kit, is just that - totally restored, including the tool tray and the lid felt and indeed to under tool tray treatment - so is of no originality value at all… (that’s not a comment on how well or otherwise it has been restored).
The middle photo of the badly weathered/damaged tool tray is also of no value as in this photo, with any exposed mat being similarly weathered/damaged. May be something to see on the protected areas of the mat, albeit the extent of the tool tray delamination suggests unlikely.
The top photo, hard to say - certainly the lid felt and the flocking looks somewhat bleached, so again I would like to see the mat with the tool tray removed…
Photos are never as easy as first hand examination - especially re matters of materials and colours detail…

[Rob_Reilly]

Well, Lyons wasn’t all that swift about his tool tray appearance when he allowed them to go out with the starting handle slot about 4-1/2 inches longer than the starting handle. Makes it look like the wrong tool.

AFAIK 10,500 Mark Vs went out like that.

So we still don’t know, was this stuff green paint or green flocking in there?
Anybody else want to chip in?

The unrestored cars with no green are 625353 and 628179.
The unrestored one with what looks like green flocking is 647367.

The mutocel was all over the inside of my car, on the floor and under the rear seat and on the underside of the gearbox tunnel. There are even little oval pieces for the jack hole covers in the floor. I have a spare Mark V tunnel from a derelict which also has it on the underside.

Plus there is a lot of felt (aka jute), some is cut in the shapes of the depressions in the floor, some just lays on the floor as a second layer, some is tucked in around the scuttle and rear seat sides, and some is stuck to the roof and sunroof with tar. Hence my interest in getting this right.

Mark VII also has a lot of mutocel pieces, plus what they call “felt” in the Carpets list, and what they call “anti-drum felt” in a separate list, which I suspect is jute with a sticky backing so they could put it in the roof.

I checked the 120 SPC and only found mutocel listed on the gearbox cover. As I recall we established on the XK forum that it was on the underside.

I did not find mutocel in the 140 SPC but I found rubberized felt, flintkote felt and felt mats, so I suppose that is where you got the term mat.

The mutocel inside my doors was all falling down and interfering with the window lifts, so I had to scrape it out. So I have a whole lot of little scrap pieces.
Would you like me to send you a couple of samples?

[Roger_McWilliams]

Here is are close-ups of the tool tray surface finishing in Mark V 628166. The ruler markings shown are in hundredths of an inch. The flocking also covered the supporting structure of the top wooden tray and is on the material lining the boot lid inside, this material also having the cross grid pattern visible in Rob’s photos. I always thought one function of this material was to prevent tools from rattling against the boot lid and from preventing “star” pattern damage to the exterior paint if a tool knocked from the inside (either dropped or rattling). The other parts of my car have the material as black without the green flocking.

[Rob_Reilly]

Thanks Roger M.
You say the flocking is on the supporting structure of the top wooden tray.
Mine is mostly not flocked there.

If anything, it looks more like drip down from too much glue on the top running down the sides, and maybe a little residual because the glue was sprayed on and misted down the sides.

I envy you guys that have other Mark Vs around to look at. I don’t think I’ve seen another one in person in over 15 years.