nice community here and some super projects.
After years of talking about it I finally bought a 65 mark 2
which I suspect will always need some work.
It goes well, starts easily , no smoke pulls very strongly,
firm suspension but requires cosmetic work in and out.
I am a beginner in car restoration and no experience in Jags
and have an endless list of questions.
To start with, what are the common problem areas I can check
for to get some idea what I am up for and plan when to deal
with them.
My paint work is dull, very straight with no visible rust
except some small area near the rear wheel arches.
Eventually I want it to look very nice even though not a
show quality. Its the only car my wife has encourage me to
buy and the only one she actually wants to go in ‘‘just for a
drive’’ so I anticipate I can get a fair bit of
repairs/restoration past the ‘‘accounting department’’.
As an immediate fix, I have a large amount of steering wheel
movement 30+ degrees which I like to rectify. I am happy to
attempt this if I knew where to start.
GlennLogan Im drooling over those paint pictures of your
Mark 2. Where in OZ are you?
Kind Regards–
Ljo
vic, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
[Commercial use of subscribers e-mail addresses prohibited.]
In reply to a message from Ljo sent Sat 22 May 2010:
Hello Ljo,
Welcome to the list. My advice would be to first figure out what
you have. Few of the these cars are original and many have led a
hard life and been altered over the past 50 years. There were many
production changes and the registration date usually does not tell
the whole story. Start by comparing the chassis number and the
engine, head and gearbox numbers. The steering gear is a weak
point on these cars. The boxes wear and leak and the linkages only
last about two years of normal use and most original parts are
NLA. The original, stressed rubber, pin and bush was a bad design
placed in an area bathed in oil and fluid and is the usual suspect
for a lot of steering play. My advice would be to get under the
car and inspect all the joints in the track and tie rods and check
them for play. Also check the steering column joints. If you
still have a lot of play after they have been replaced, the box can
be shimmed, but in many cases they are worn out and finding a ‘‘less
used’’ box is a better route than a rebuild, most of which do not
involve the wearing metal parts.
Paul–
The original message included these comments:
Hi all,
nice community here and some super projects.
After years of talking about it I finally bought a 65 mark 2
which I suspect will always need some work.
It goes well, starts easily , no smoke pulls very strongly,
firm suspension but requires cosmetic work in and out.
I am a beginner in car restoration and no experience in Jags
and have an endless list of questions.
In reply to a message from PS sent Sat 22 May 2010:
Hi Paul,
I’m in the outer eastern (nr. Lilydale) suburbs of Melbourne.
I bought mine mainly as a hobby and had plans similar to
yours - I went up to Sydney one Australia Day weekend and
towed mine back parked it (it wasn’t registered) and while
I started to learn. I slowly disassembled it and couldn’t
stop - I found some rust on the floor pan, doors and lower
fenders just to the rear of the front wheels. Also, it had a
pretty dodgy respray which I wanted to get rid of.
So I spent nearly 12 months reading these forums / books
/the web in general and found this forum to be my best
source of info for help and friendly help & advice.
Certainly in Melbourne there are a few Jag specialist
wreckers and several parts suppliers but with the dollar
good against the pound on almost every occasion I found mail
ordering parts from he UK a cheaper proposition. The US
companies seems to good on price charge exorbitant amounts
for shipping. Ebay is also very useful if you know what you
want.
I’d start by getting you hands on the SNG barratt catalogue
(major [UK] based supplier of Jag parts) which you can
download for free and also a CD workshop/repair manual (look
on ebay).
Around Melbourne there are number of mechanics and other
specialist companies that are very good, friendly and
willing to help out with advice or their workshops ($$$) and
it’s good to get to get to know them. The all seem to
congregate around Cheltenham and surrounding suburbs.
Other than that enjoy the driving - I haven’t even driven
mine yet!
In reply to a message from PS sent Sat 22 May 2010:
Thank You Paul,
I will check these properly when up on a hoist in the next
week or so when a new exhaust system is fitted. I went for a
stainless steel one hoping this was the right thing to do.
I uploaded a picture of my first country drive. A sense of
humor and calmness is the best approach when the kids spot
that something is at the back of the car.–
The original message included these comments:
the whole story. Start by comparing the chassis number and the
engine, head and gearbox numbers. The steering gear is a weak
point on these cars. The boxes wear and leak and the linkages only
last about two years of normal use and most original parts are
NLA. The original, stressed rubber, pin and bush was a bad design
placed in an area bathed in oil and fluid and is the usual suspect
for a lot of steering play. My advice would be to get under the
In reply to a message from GlennLogan sent Sat 22 May 2010:
Thank you Glenn,
that will certainly get me started.
I suspect I will follow right down your path as well.
Certainly thats what happened with my MGB, could not stop
and almost finished a bare metal restoration.
Did you do the respray yourself or have it done by one of
the Melbourne experts. Are you totally happy with it?
What does everyone else think about the merits or otherwise
of the different paint stripping methods-sand blasting,
chemical dips etc.
Regards–
The original message included these comments:
I bought mine mainly as a hobby and had plans similar to
yours - I went up to Sydney one Australia Day weekend and
towed mine back parked it (it wasn’t registered) and while
I started to learn. I slowly disassembled it and couldn’t
stop - I found some rust on the floor pan, doors and lower
fenders just to the rear of the front wheels. Also, it had a
pretty dodgy respray which I wanted to get rid of.
In reply to a message from Ljo sent Sat 22 May 2010:
Hi Ljo,
I liked your photo of your first drive!
At first I thought I’d do the body work myself and get someone to
spray paint but as it turned out I found a guy in Melbourne that I
liked and specialised in Classic Restorations and decided to follow
his advice and ended up getting him to do the panel work and
painting.
I ended up using paint stripper and doing that all by hand - showed
real dedication from my wife as she helped me out. All up it took
several months to do adhoc on weekends. This included laying flat
on my back cleaning and degreasing underneath with acetone etc�.
The stripping actually worked pretty well but the $$$ do add up so
I wouldn�t automatically assume this to be the cheapest � took well
over � dozen 4 litre tins of stripper at $70 a tin! Soda blasting
looks promising but no one in Melbourne was really doing yet and
not enough experience to convince me it was ok.
I was advised to be very wary of getting things blasted as warping
the large flat areas is a real risk. In particular the larger front
flat fender panels, bonnet and the roof will be susceptible to
these problems.
I think the route you choose will be governed by the money you want
to spend and keeping the appearance balanced i.e. no use spending a
$20K on the body and paintwork (which I have) and not follow
through with the chrome, leather and interior.
In reply to a message from GlennLogan sent Sat 22 May 2010:
My first drive was cut short by brake failure, relying on the handbrake to get me home. At that point I decided to pull the engine out, fix that up and repaint the engine bay while it was out.This was 5 years ago.
Next thing I know I’m doing a bare metal respray to get rid of the bad paint job. Tried the paint stripper path but considered ut too difficult after a week or so.
For not too much money I had the whole car soda blasted and am very happy with the result.(Carrum Downs)
Turned out the guy next to the soda blaster was a painter known to my mechanic, so the car was wheeled out of one shop and into the one next door.
Would you believe the trimmer I wanted to use moved and set up shop on the other side of the soda blaster ?
In reply to a message from GlennLogan sent Sat 22 May 2010:
My first drive was cut short by brake failure, relying on the handbrake to get me home. At that point I decided to pull the engine out, fix that up and repaint the engine bay while it was out.This was 5 years ago.
Next thing I know I’m doing a bare metal respray to get rid of the bad paint job. Tried the paint stripper path but considered ut too difficult after a week or so.
For not too much money I had the whole car soda blasted and am very happy with the result.(Carrum Downs)
Turned out the guy next to the soda blaster was a painter known to my mechanic, so the car was wheeled out of one shop and into the one next door.
Would you believe the trimmer I wanted to use moved and set up shop on the other side of the soda blaster ?