restoring 66 etype series 1. I see many XK cylinder heads painted gold. Mine is a numbers matching car I have owned since 1973 and not gold. Can anyone advise what is correct?
Many thanks
1966 should be gold. Maybe it was worked on before your ownership?
Not so fast there, Tim. Though I canât vouch for itâs accuracy, Iâve seen it written on more than one occasion that E-Type cylinder heads were not painted from June 1966 onwards. Restorers tend to paint them all as it looks pretty, so itâs hard to be definitive on this.
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Ok, so be it.
Is it a myth that for a time the 9:1 engines had gold heads while 8:1 engines from the same period had un-painted (silver) heads ? I cannot remember now where I heard this.
David
68 E-type FHC
David,
When the original engine and cylinder head in my 1969 E-Type FHC were rebuilt in 2021 by a well regarded and very experienced machine shop in San Diego, they surprisingly painted the head gold. When I called them about this head paint job as well as a few other issues after receiving the engine they seemed surprised that I expected the cylinder head returned in the same bare aluminum configuration that they received it in. They said something like âwe always paint the heads goldâ. Then I tried to explain about the different colors Jaguar painted their heads and then stopped sometime in the mid 1960s and the shop seemed uninterested in the details. I recently had to remove that head due to a timing gear failure of the scalloped adjusting sprockets (something that I think they should have pointed out to me) a bunch of bent valves and I removed the gold paint when I removed and replaced the bent valves. I did paint the head a high temperature aluminum enamel paint because the head had discolored with age and I wanted it to look nice (see attached picture), but not an inappropriate gold.
Paul
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Nobody knows the date and engine number when they stopped painting the heads on E Types, so judges should not be pickey on an absolute end date.
Clausager, in his book on factory original E Types, at p.58 quotes the JCNA Ser 1 Judges Guide (author Bob Stevenson) and says: âFrom late 1966, it appears that the cylinder head was no longer paintedâŚâ. Stevensonâs exact quote was (p.7) : âAt this point in time, 6-2013, we cannot state positively whether any E-Type titled as a 1967 had a gold painted head.â (italics mine).
The current JCNA rule book (at VI-23) states the last observed E-type engine head painted is 7E10192-9 which would have been manufactured in Sept 1966, (Clausagerâs notes at p.60) and would most certainly have been sold as a '67. (my FHC has engine 7E9850 and is titled as a '67. Itâs production date was Aug 22 1966.)
Production of closed headlight cars for N.A. for sure ended early Jan 1967, so I strongly suspect if your car was originally a 4.2l car with closed headlights it has a gold head even if titled as a '67. Or putting it another way, nobody could say convincingly that you were wrong if you paint it gold.
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The '66 I had was built in Nov. 1965.
Iâve heard that said too, but it seems to be another of the myths that are so difficult to stamp out once started.
As you can see from the above, there is no definitive answer to your question. Opinions vary, and some opinions carry more weight than others based on the depth of research that backs them up. If you know the build date of your car the balance of opinions may be skewed one way or the other - earlier build date makes gold more likely. Later makes unpainted more likely. Iâve also heard it said that the 2+2 heads were unpainted before the OTS and FHC heads. Or, as Terry said, no-one is likely to be able to prove you wrong, whichever you chooseâŚ
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There is no record of any Jaguar head for any car in the era being painted silver by the factory. No need for it, as the natural color of the head was aluminum.
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My 1969 XJ head was also painted silver, or at least the three bolts in the valley INCLUDING the copper washers still have some silver (aluminium) paint on it. Canât promise the aluminium itself was painted but I think so. The engine failed very early in its life. It is all original. It looks exactly like Waynesâ.
My July 1966 2+2 has no gold paint ever. Just for grins it has finned cam covers. No way of knowing the history of the 4.2 engine but it has the correct numbers stamped for the car. Most everything on the car is original judging but the dated items. I cannot think of a reason to change the cam covers so it may just be another 2+2 anomaly.
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I have no definitive answer to when Jaguar stopped painting the cylinder heads gold but the sale to BMC became firm in September 1966 and BMC took full control of Jaguar. They were all about cost cutting so my guess is among their first decisions was to get rid of this (pointless at that stage?) extra production step. Coincidence or not? Hence the later heads were left in bare aluminium and certainly not painted silver. I am sure if we look carefully there will be many other changes on the production line to reduce costs by the men with clipboards.
On the subject of gold vs âpumpkinâ I have this to offer. The original cylinder head paint was produced by Bradite and Jaguar records show it was âGoldâ although as it was to BS381c standards it was known as âGolden Yellowâ in the paint industry. Those same records do not show a different colour paint used after 1961 - it is recorded as âGoldâ throughout XK150S and 3.8 production. Confusion was caused by Bradite supplying Gold metallic (known as Bradite Old Gold) to Jaguar from mid 1961 onwards rather than the solid âGolden Yellowâ used previously. We do not know whether this was a request from Jaguar after supplies of Golden Yellow were exhausted, a clerical error in the order process or production problems at Bradite which forced the change. The early cars non metallic paint has retrospectively been called âPumpkinâ as a differentiator although Golden Yellow is more correct.
The Bradite company still exists in Wales but they no longer have any NOS samples to hand or any knowledge of the paints supplied to Jaguar back in the day.
Even today many paint manufacturers have a solid paint in their range that is called Gold (e.g. Crown has âTivoli Goldâ trade paint which is very close to the fabled Pumpkin). If we go back to basics and consult the British Standard paint charts in use during the 1950âs/1960âs we find BS381c-356 âGolden Yellowâ:
BS381-356 âGolden Yellowâ is the correct period colour for the cylinder head for the early cars. Bradite do produce a heat resistant paint called âFastrac Heat Resistâ and it appears to be available in BS381c colours.
After October 1961 the heads were painted a metallic gold however, unlike solid paint, there was no British Standard for metallic paints. Without a reference number finding an exact match is difficult.
David
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I saw s number of later cars, when they were current: none had heads done in aluminum paint
My Dadâs July 11,1966 build 2+2 has a non painted head just to add a data point. Smooth cam covers. Heâs owned the car since 1970 so pretty likely to be original.
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With all (due) respect, if they werenât painted, how did paint get there then?
Hi,
My ex, #1E76372BW with a build date of July 14th 1966, engine 7E51600-9 did not have any gold paint on the original cylinder head.
I know that cars manufactured on June 22nd 1966 still had the cylinder heads painted gold.
Cheers!
Previous owner? Service Centre?
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