I was rear ended in my E OTS recently and it is going to the body shop Monday. The car isn’t too badly damaged and should be fine as long as the paint match is acceptable. As far as I can tell the body is only dented and not buckled from being deformed or pushed in.
My question is how much gap should be between the bumper and the sheet metal? Should it be uniform across the bumper? I don’t know if the bumper from the car is an original or repro, so I don’t know if the gap I have is accurate or if it is due to the body being pushed in or the bumper being made this way. The car had the wide Series 2 rubber bumper strip.
I’d like to be able to tell the body shop what they are aiming for as far as a repair.
AFAIK the gap should be uniform, and should hold the bumper strip snugly and evenly across the span. Looks as if the center section hac been caved in a bit.
What series is your car?
From what I have researched on this topic, series 1 is usually about 6mm even gap but series 2 is more likely about 10mm to 12mm gap across the Centre section of the bar. I am in the process of rebuilding my body and my Centre section is 12mm - side sections gap is about 6 to 8mm. The 12mm gap in Centre section appears to be the reason series 2 have a wide rubber strip.
Others may be able to confirm this detail.
Grahame
My car is a series 2. I was thinking it must be pushed in some amount besides being dented but I haven’t found any wrinkled metal besides the dents. I’ll have the body shop go for a uniform gap across the center section.
It took me a month to find someone who was both willing to do the job and able to do it. Anyone who is familiar with the E-type is booked solid for 6 months to years wait time.
I like to be able to drive my car but with the lack of driving skills out in the general public I’m most always afraid of getting hit by an inattentive driver. It definitely takes away from the enjoyment of ownership.
I agree with John.
The small dent that you have probably did not move the surrounding metal very much and unless the seam between the upper and lower trunk panels is deformed the top panel should be relatively in much the same position as before the accident. I would suggest you aim to keep the repair localized and not seek to get an even gap across the Centre bumper by use of Bondo.
The wide rubber sealing strip just needs to cover the gap and roll up slightly onto the body at the centre rear. From what I have seen on many other photos the rubber folds up much more on the sides and does vary a little in the fold on the centre and out to the overriders
I agree I don’t want filler in the car unless absolutely necessary. The car has no filler in it now and I wish it could stay that way. There is also a smaller dent ahead of the over rider on each side, and the bumper has been pushed up at the left over rider.
As a side question, what you yo think this does to the value of the car? It was a zero accident, no rust car and now it will have a repair with filler added to its history. It will never be the same.
This is what I’m hoping for; pulled without holes and minimal filler.
The exhaust took a direct hit and tore four of the rubber exhaust mounts. I was lucky to carefully drive it home. The tailpipe made a nice hole in her bumper.
That’s the conundrum. It’s one thing to insure your E-type adequately to cover the cost of a collision repair, quite another to arrange the repair itself. At the end of September, 2020 my E-type bonnet was damaged. Likewise, it took a few weeks to find a shop qualified to do the work without using filler - RM in this case. But 7-8 weeks later when they were supposed to take the car in they cancelled. Something to do with covid, they said, but I think because the damage was relatively minor - about US$10-11K - they decided it wasn’t worth their time. I spent the next month seeking out a shop without success then ended up doing the repair myself. It was the only way I could be sure it would be done right, E-type bonnets being what they are.
As to your repair, the dents can be pulled out using a stud welder and slide hammer but will then require some sort of filler. That would be the simplest and least expensive approach and likely what the body shop will want to do. The only way to avoid filler entirely is to get access to the inside of the panel to allow hammer/slapper/dolly work followed by shrinking. That would require removing the fuel tank and cutting out the inner stiffener panel, then welding it back in after the outer panel is straightened, then extra paintwork, then putting the fuel tank back in. A lot of work to avoid a thin skim of filler material that will be otherwise invisible.
Looking at the additional photos that may be a bit more than obvious from the top; distortion of the lower boot panel, bumper mount areas, or the bumper itself. I was trolling thru archives last night, it seems that during manufacture in some cases the bumpers were ground to the contour or the body, then plated. You will not have a standard “book hour allowed” repair.
Yes, to do it properly would require a strip and repaint of pretty much the entire. Every shop I’ve talked to and has been recommended by British and Jaguar club folks is months or years backed up with scheduled work, and at least 100 miles away. High dollar restorations take precedence over my small repair.
My car is no concourse show car, but a nice driver. In the end I’m going with a club recommended local shop who has a good metal specialist and can do it in a timely manner. I want my car back so I can drive it, and soon.
Thanks for your opinions and information. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I guess with that kind of a repair, yes, it would now have “history.” The quality of the repair will determine future value. For a successful paintless dent repair where it is impossible to find the previous damage, I’d consider that an accident free car with no “history.”
Hi Grahame,
S1 cars don’t have a rear B/Bar centre section, only S2 and S3 cars.
I’ve always been puzzled why the wider rubber was used for the rear B/Bar of the S2, when S1 cars before and S3 cars after, used the thin rubber between B/Bar and body; the actual shape across the rear of both S2 and S3 cars is the same.
When fitting the rear B/Bar during a restoration, we aim to have the shank of a 5mm twist drill just touch the raw edge of the fitted B/Bar and the body all the way round.Having a variation in this gap affects the way the rubber lays.
I don’t have a dog in this fight but If the owner collects money from the insurance co because of damage that they payed to have fixed more then likely if someone runs a carfax on the vin it will come back with history of an accident. I could be wrong but more then likely the insurance company will report the accident and the dollar amount to carfax.
That all may be true, and I reiterate the point: unless the car started out as an absolutely original, untouched car, any repaired damage to it should not affect its value in any significant way.
Based on a recent experience with a rather nasty set of dents on our Suburban in November, wife suggested I take to a paintless dent shop. In a few hours, he worked it out and I cannot tell where they were. This included two sharp sections on the car that I thought were impossible to get right without much more work. And it was $250. This guy has been doing everything from Hondas to Ferraris, Lambos, Rolls etc. traveled the world on insurance work. At least talk to the best one you can find in your area. You may be surprised
