Slotted screws: When is the cutoff and how many?

E-Type
1

I remember being told years ago that early jaguars have slotted screws, while later cars used Phillip’s head screws. I know this is appropriate for the covered head light lens molding, but what is the date cutoff to expect slotted generally, and does it apply to every screw on the car? My car was built in late August of 1963, but I see lot’s of Philip’s head screws on her.(not on the headlights though)

2

It would have no correlation to other screws on the car. Undoubtedly they changed because people had their slotted driver slip out and skitter across the paint. I only see one part number for lamp ring screws in the 3.8 parts catalog but I’m not sure if the two types of screw share the same part number. FWIW I used slotted on my 64. Just be careful

1 Like
3

Brian- they look like Phillips head but are in reality pozidrive screws. More secure bit fitment if you use the correct pozidrive bit/driver.

4

Thanks Doug. When was the switch over to Pozidrive screws?

5

I can’t say when or where Jaguar decided to use which screw types. I can tell you that on my August 1967 build Series 1.5 OTS that there were both pozidrive and slotted screws used. I think Erica has the right idea- pozidrive in locations where a driver could slip and damage something visible and slotted elsewhere. I know that my car had/has slotted sheetmetal screws in the doors. The narrow chrome ring around the headlights on a Series 1.5 uses a single pozidrive screw to secure it.

6

The headlight covers changed from slotted (BD.22780/4) on the 3.8s to Pozidriv (BD.26675/4) on the 4.2s. According to the Parts Lists some 3.8s (I’m assuming that this would be the earliest ones) used Self-Tapping screws (BD.19013/2) together with spire nuts (BD.8633/5). As for the general case, I suspect that Erica is correct - the factory changed over on a case-by-case basis, no doubt driven by cost…

7

Actually Jaguar Spare Parts Bulletin P.115 states that the change took place @ 881261,850843,890251 & 861557 and they refer to the newer screws as Phillips.
Bob

8

Thanks Bob for the correction. I thought I’d seen something somewhere about them changing late in the 3.8s, but couldn’t find it.

9

Cool beans, I guessed right. Mine is 880342. Occasionally I do something right

10

Erica,

It sounds like you do ‘something right’ more than occasionally.

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More than often my “something rights” are built on top of previous mistakes, like my statement about being extra careful screwing slotted screws into headlight rings. My first big screw up on my car was slipping and skittering a screwdriver across my now previous paint job.