[pre-xk] 1938 SS Jaguar 1.5L Sports Saloon

Pre-XK
1

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum and I have recentley relocated from the US
to a small town in India. I was born and raised in India and a
friend has offered to sell me his vintage Jag that he has had in
storage for the past 15 years.

I wanted to get your opinion on the feasibilty of this restoration
project if I were to buy it. I am currently restoring a classic
1963 Mercedes 190c and I will need to shelve the Jag project till
next year even if I were to buy this car now. How much time and
money do you estimate that will be spent and how much effort would
be needed since parts in India would be virtually impossible to
source. Where does one get vintage parts for a Jaguar and what is
the availibility like. What other resources are out there to get
this job done.

Here’s an initial description of the car after my first hand
observation today - First of all, both the owner and I am not sure
of the vintage and model. Only visible badging is on the hood -
Jaguar and One and Half Litre - This leads me to beleive that it is
a 1938 SS Jaguar Sports Saloon - Pictures from Google match the
same.

http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Jaguar/38-Jaguar_SS_Mdl_1-
5_Ltr_DV-07-HHC_05.jpg

Please confirm the same if you can.

Body is in decent shape with no major rusting. Headlamps avaliable
but no tail lamps. Fuel tank is dissasembled. Missing one wheel.
Engine looks like it will need to be rebuilt but will not know for
sure unless we try and crank her up. Axles look to be okay and all
4 wind shields are present. Interior is non existent - No
dashboard / seats / side trims.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Please let me know what you think as I would like to take an
educated decision before plunging into this project.

Thanks,
vcash–
vcash
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2

In reply to a message from vcash sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

vcash

I correcpod with a few people restoring SS’s and old Jaguars in
India.
Closest to the car mentioned is a 1 1/2 litre Mk IV sedan in
Chennai.

Parts are not that easy to obtain there or experience to get work
done.

If it has ‘’ jaguar’’ and ‘‘1 1/2 litre’’ on the radiator badge it is
a Jagiuar not an SS and these were only made as sedans.

Unfortunately the links to your pictures didn’t work for my
computer.

But I would say as a general rule that there are a lot of 1 1/2
litre Mk IV’s around and in the long run it would be cheaper to buy
a complate car,than search and collectr missing parts.

One could even buy a restored example cheaper than restoring one ,
but as always you are taking a gamble on the standard of the
restoration work done by someone else.–
Ed Nantes SS
Melbourne, Australia
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3

In reply to a message from vcash sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Sorry Everyone - The picture links did not come out right. Re
posting them now.

The Reference Car from google.

http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Jaguar/38-Jaguar_SS_Mdl_1-5_Ltr_DV-
07-HHC_05.jpg

The car that is available for sale.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9506/img0747sb1.jpg

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/2945/img0753gb9.jpg

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/7559/img0744lo0.jpg

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7528/img0735nl1.jpg

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/5635/img0734wf9.jpg

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7291/img0755ze7.jpg--
vcash
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4

In reply to a message from Ed Nantes sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Thank You for this information Ed.

It says Jaguar 1 1/2 Litre on the rose on top of the hood grill.
Here is a picture. Is this a SS or a Jag?

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5952/img0746ns1.jpg

Would you happen to know the production run on this model? Also,
could you send me the Chennai contact’s email so I can ask them how
they are fabricating / obtaining parts?

I have also corrected the pictures in my previous post.

Thanks,
vcash–
vcash
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5

In reply to a message from vcash sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Hello there,

Anything that says ‘‘Jaguar’’ on the radiator cowl is a
Jaguar! :slight_smile: They changed the badge and the company name after
the war. The SS Jaguar models did not say Jaguar on the
radiator badge but ‘‘SS’’. Of course it is easy to change that
badge or the radiator cover, but in this case unlikely.

They made these mostly from 1946 to 1949, the car had small
differences (smaller headlamps, shorter bonnet) in
comparison to the six cylinder models (2 1/2 and 3 1/2
litre) and was the last car Jaguar built with an engine
coming from another company (well except for today of course
with Ford and Peugeot).

See if you can get a chassis number or a body number.
Chassis would be best, all of these should be on the
commission plate on the scuttle inside the engine bay under
the bonnet. That chassis number should also be stamped on
the chassis itself but can be a bit hard to find. I am not
100% where it should be on a 1 1/2L MKIV, but on a MKV it is
on the left hand side chassis beam on top of a bracket and
can be seen from the engine bay. Sometimes you’d need to
remove some crud and paint to see it properly.

Like this: http://tinyurl.com/5vk446

Like Ed wrote the cars are not that rare but many parts are,
so a restoration candidate is not worth that much as a
restored car can usually be bought for much less than
restoration cost.

You can maybe find some useful info also here:

http://www.jag-lovers.org/saloons/prc/prewar.html

And

Make a search from MKIV’s in there and look at the pictures etc.

Cheers,
Pekka T. - 647194

PS. We tend to use real names in here, it’s much more
relaxed and personal that way, you see.–
The original message included these comments:

It says Jaguar 1 1/2 Litre on the rose on top of the hood grill.
Here is a picture. Is this a SS or a Jag?
ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs
Would you happen to know the production run on this model? Also,
could you send me the Chennai contact’s email so I can ask them how
they are fabricating / obtaining parts?
I have also corrected the pictures in my previous post.
Thanks,
vcash

–
MK 5 3.5L DHC, E-type 2+2 Ser.1, XJ6C Manual, XJ8 Executive
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6

Hi vcash,

From your picture of the badge the car is not from 1938 but is
somewhere 1945-49. The pre-war cars looked
very similar but there are a lot of little detailed differences. Of the
1� litres, 5761cars were manufactured post war
and a similar number pre-war if you discount the previous coachbuilt
cars which are completely different.

I agree with everything Ed has told you and from the photos it looks
like you would need to find a lot of interior
trim parts. The UK is probably the best source of parts for the 1� litre
but they are not common here either. Re-manufactured
parts for these cars are few and far between and are the result of
enthusiasts comminssioning small runs.
You will probably manage to track down a second hand set of seats and
door handles and winders can be found. Almost every other
item of trim can be made but you really need to find a complete second
hand dashboard for the instruments and switches.
The 1� litre cars have tended to be overshaddowed by their six cylinder
cousins but in recent years this has
changed and the 1� litres have sparked quite a lot of interest.

The situation in India is no doubt very different but in the UK there
would be little point in paying a restorer to do the
work. As Ed says you would be better to buy a car in good order. It
would cost you a lot less.

Regards

Peter Scott

7

In reply to a message from peter scott sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Thank You Pekka and Peter,
I never realized how similar the MKIV was to the SS 1.5L. This
information is really helpful. Since this is not a SS and the post
production run is quite high, I do not think that the MKIV is as
valuable as I was expecting it to be. Nevertheless, if I can get
the car for a token throw away price, I may still get her and try a
ground up restoration next year since I will not have much to loose.

I will also try and obtain the chasis number next week.

Thanks,
Vikash

P.S. Using my real name since this seems to be a close knit
community and I do not have to worry about anonymity as much.–
vcash
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8

This looks like a great car to buy for $100, and then use it as a parts car
, and then go out and buy a real Jaguar. I can’t believe anyone would ever
attempt to restore that , without planning to pay at least 5 times what an
already restored car would cost.

Gene----- Original Message -----
From: “vcash” vs1383@gmail.com
To: pre-xk@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: [pre-xk] 1938 SS Jaguar 1.5L Sports Saloon

In reply to a message from vcash sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Sorry Everyone - The picture links did not come out right. Re
posting them now.

The Reference Car from google.

http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Jaguar/38-Jaguar_SS_Mdl_1-5_Ltr_DV-
07-HHC_05.jpg

The car that is available for sale.

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs

–
vcash
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–
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5:50 AM

9

Maybe not quite as bad as you suggest. Body is not horribly rotten and
labour rates in India are much lower than in the west.

Peter

landsberg@earthlink.net wrote:> This looks like a great car to buy for $100, and then use it as a

parts car , and then go out and buy a real Jaguar. I can’t believe
anyone would ever attempt to restore that , without planning to pay at
least 5 times what an already restored car would cost.

Gene

10

In reply to a message from peter scott sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Yes, and it looks like a whole bunch of parts are simply
stored somewhere (hopefully safe) as the dash, instruments
and interior details are probably worth more than the rest
of the car.

At least the rear light/reg. plate holder seems to be there
inside the car as well as the radiator, so I presume that
most of the remaining parts are also stored somewhere?

IMO every Jaguar is worth restoring/rebuilding to some
level. This ones looks like it could also become an
interesting custom car… :slight_smile:

I wish you luck with your project!

Cheers,
Pekka T. - 647194–
The original message included these comments:

Maybe not quite as bad as you suggest. Body is not horribly rotten and
labour rates in India are much lower than in the west.
Peter

–
MKV 3.5L DHC, E-type 2+2 Ser.1 MOD, XJ6C MOD, XJ8 Executive
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11

In reply to a message from ptelivuo sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Unfortunatley all that is left is what you see in those pictures.
The only two other items that are stored after being dismantled are
the front lights and the fuel tank. My main worry would be sourcing
a dash and instruments during restoration. the more I think about
the little things, the more inclined I am to shy away from this
project.–
The original message included these comments:

In reply to a message from peter scott sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:
Yes, and it looks like a whole bunch of parts are simply
stored somewhere (hopefully safe) as the dash, instruments
and interior details are probably worth more than the rest
of the car.
At least the rear light/reg. plate holder seems to be there
inside the car as well as the radiator, so I presume that
most of the remaining parts are also stored somewhere?

–
vcash
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12

In reply to a message from vcash sent Thu 14 Aug 2008:

Vikash,

The last thing I’d be worrying about is the dash board.

They make new dashboards here,in fact all the woodwork.
Most instruments are common to other Mk4’s. I have NOS
tachos/clocks.

The only thing wrong with 1 1/2 litre Mk IVs is that there was 2
1/2 /and 3 1/2 litre cars as well.

I’ve driven some that were good to drive. The Performance isn’t
bad especially if you remember that its a 4 cylinder.
There are [plenty of worse cars people devoting time to. Prefects,
Anglia, little Morrises and even the MG Y type is not as good a car.
The reason so many were sold was that it was excellent value.

If one was to go to an all makes car show , one would realise that
there are some shockers [ and not the suspension sort] around that
aren’t half as good. I seem to remember seeing someone in the
states paying silly money for a hi lite Morris Minor at an auction
a while ago.
The big advantage of the car shown , is that it appears
structurally sound [ and , of course , the camera never lies:>]

I’ll e mail you off line with the address of another SS owner in
India , who has a friend with a restored 1 1/2 there.–
Ed Nantes SS
Melbourne, Australia
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