I have just replaced the rear hatch window seal with SNG Barrett speoduct.
My question is:
How on earth do you fit the chrome trim surrounds?
I have bought new top and bottom trims and cannot fathom or find
D any way of successfully fitting them What’s the secret?
I can tell you the first step is to use painter’s tape to mask all that shiny paint. I just did the ones on my OTS hard top and there is a lot of nudging and force with plastic tools involved. One slip and you’ll be very testy.
From a distance I can say that’s not a great fit. I’ve said it many times but the suppliers could do us a great service if they’d just supply the parts in bare brass so they could be bent and shaped and then chromed once we know they’ll fit. I guess they aren’t interchangeable due to the curve in the upper one so no way they sent you two uppers? The upper actually looks like it’s closer to fitting. I’d be shocked if the lower could be made to work due to that lower left corner. I think it would need to be stripped, then bent tighter leading into the curve and straighter coming out of the curve. First I’d be sending this photo to SNG.
Are the E-type parts chromed brass? I seemed to remember them being chromed steel, but I could easily be wrong.
I agree, the shape of that lower one looks like it’s going to be problematic, but you might be surprised how much they pull in. You just have to start at one end, and work it around with a blunt screw driver, or plastic ‘spatula’ shaped tool.
I just did the ones on one of my Mk1 Cortinas, and there was that moment of “there’s no way these are going to fit!”…but, they bend more than you might expect. Now, those are stainless, so there’s no risk of cracking the chrome.
Look on the bright side…the window trim on an MGB GT is made of thin, anodized aluminum, and is only slightly more durable than wet tissue paper, so it could be worse.
Philip,
This is one of the more challenging issues to deal with on the coupes. It’s hard to impossible depending on the quality of the re-produced trim. In my case the trim needed to be bent more than I could manage, so it sits proud of the rubber at the bottom a bit, but I got the two ends into the seal and the seam covers are on. It’s one of the things I wish I had been able to do better but it isn’t obvious to anyone other than me.
All of my original ones have been brass. I’ve seen some repro headlight trim that had been stripped for reshaping and they were brass also. Mine pulled in as well as I installed them, but with this one if you pull thtyat lower left corner in, then where it joins the other part it will be too far in. If it was plain brass that whole corner could easily be reworked then plated for maybe $150. But to get it stripped would cost about 80-100.
I can imagine the upper one going on without too much difficulty though.
I like the appearance without the rear chrome. Same for the drip rails…and the bonnet seam fillers. While I have all these pieces (freshly chromed), I’m leaving them off. Might find some plastic beading/welting for the bonnet seams and paint it, but that’s it…
you could try a used original from that jaguar breaker in California, get it chromed. you may want to use some adhesive also
It looks great if you use window gasket that doesn’t have all the flaps for retaining the chrome. You can get it really cheap on Amazon. The one piece version has a built in locking strip so it looks flat and clean once you fold it over. To my eyes the factory style one looks unfinished without the trim.
As I feared, there doesn’t appear to be a magic solution. It does look much better with the chrome fitted imo, but not sure if I will be successful. Maybe it’s why they were missing in the first place.
Any recomendations for adhesive to rubber?!
Philip;
Mine were installed without too much difficulty, but they were the original chrome strips. No adhesive was needed or used.
I will add that they do not fit the new rubber seal as well as they fit the old rubber seal.
Joel.
I had trouble keeping the very ends of the various windshield pieces in position. Super glue gel did the trick. But you’d want to have everything positioned precisely before adding a small dab.
3m window weld adhesive will work, I would search for used original chrome that will fit. where is John Farrell when you need him, my favorite parts guy
Thanks for that tip. Next time I have the rear window out, I’ll use that product. In the interim, I’ll look for a flatish shaped black substitute for the chrome. I will, however use that Amazon product for my street rod pickup, which is the next project after the Jaguar.
I second Joel’ comments re old chrome and new seals.
There is also a handy tool for installing the locking strip that I bought from woolies that really helped on the installation. 
Les;
I will add removal of the chrome strips from the rubber seal may be mechanism for damaging them.
When I was starting the restoration of my MGB GT I tried to save the seal thinking I would use it again. Removing the chrome strip was a real pain and I thought distortion was likely. I then proceeded to cut the over laying rubber lip and the chrome strip was easily removed, no distortion.
I removed the chrome strip from the Jag the same way, cutting the rubber retaining lips of the seal, no distortion.
Joel.
The cheapest thing which you may already have around is the 3M Black Trim Adhesive. I think it’s a urethane, and it hold really well. The problem is holding it in place while it dries since it usually wants to pop up. Someone on the XK forum showed photos of a front windscreen installation recently where some really cool clamps were used. They stuck to the glass with suction cups and had cantilevered clamping arms sticking out sideways. You might want to see where those come from.
Have you sent the photo to SNG yet? They should take care if you on this, and hopefully send you a replacement that might fit better.
When stripped, it’s possible to work miracles with these things. I had to turn a S3 hard top front chrome into a S1 part recently because they aren’t available. Once it was chem stripped to bare brass I was able to shorten it and reshape it in just a couple hours.
Don’t know if this is the same source that says “no longer avail.”, but here’s what I found:
If link doesn’t work, it was “GT Tools”.
I saw these used on a French (?) gentleman’s site. A very good site, BTW. Don’t think he was Canadian, as the garage he redid seemed too old for the new World.
Just checked Amazon for molding holddown tool and they have them available under that heading.
