Interior trimming – Part 2 (Felts, Hardura & Carpets)

 Interior Trim, Trim & Body Fittings  6 Responses »
May 202015
 

With the vinyl and Ambla fitted, attention turned that next phase of the trimming – the underfelts (or Dynaliner in my case), Hardura and carpets. The decision to fit Dynaliner rather than the jute underfelt was largely driven by the ability to bond the two materials to the silicone side of the insulating Koolmat.

The preferable order of fitting would normally be from the footwells backwards, to avoid needing to clamber over installed trim. At the time, the primary focus was to complete the installation of the inertia seat belts – these would have to be fitted for an MOT, the carpets wouldn’t! However the trimming is quite satisfying so I decided to press on and complete the interior.

Rear of cabin
Before the rear bulkhead Hardura could be glued, I first had to rectify the lack of jute/Dynaliner. The excess Ambla bonded to the silver Dynamat had to be lifted so a layer of 1/4” Dynaliner could be inserted. The outer edges of the Dynaliner were cut marginally shorter to provide a channel to hide the body looms.

Underlay on bulkhead was overlooked Re-bonding the Ambla to the Dynaliner Ambla with Dynaliner added to bulkhead

The fitting of the bulkhead panel was fairly uneventful. The strengthening/anti-drumming indentations in the bulkhead panels were taped over beforehand with reinforced cross weave tape. The Hardura was bonded to the Dynaliner in four stages; initially just the leading few inches to fix it in position, then back to the vertical section. This allowed a reasonably tight curve to be made when bonding the vertical section and finally the upper horizontal section, which required a little trimming to butt neatly to the body.

Indentations in body panels were taped over Hardura bonded to vertical section

The thin vertical section, from A-post to A-post above the rear bulkhead and wheel arches, is finished with two pairs of vinyl covered panels. Suffolk and Turley suggested leaving these and the door cards off as it would be better for them to fit these when they trim the soft top. The door cards need to be left off so they can make fine adjustments to the angle and maximum height of the drop glass, to ensure the glass seals against the hood’s rubber seals.

Gearbox cover
For some reason a previous owner had butchered the gearbox cover by hack sawing off a section around the gear lever. Presumably not satisfied with that, they’d then proceeded to knock seven bells out of the front apron! New metal was welded in to repair and the dents knocked out with a hammer and dolly.

Many of the cover holes were distorted The front apron was a real mess!
Otherwise it appeared to be fine! Gearbox cover back in shape

The soundproofing foam that sat between the gearbox and the cover hadn’t stood the test of time so a replacement was ordered. I was expecting to have to cut the foam down to size to fit, however I wasn’t expecting by how much! The 2″ replacement foam made it impossible to even come close in aligning the mounting holes.

The foam also tends to grip the cover rather well so some silicone lubricant was used to help push the cover into place. Even so I had to admit defeat, taking a sharp carving knife to remove foam from around the pinch points. Eventually I managed to get and hold it in position long enough to secure it with a few self tapping screws. If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t bother obtaining a repro foam from one of the usual suppliers and would just make it from a small sheet of 2″ cushion foam.

The replacement foams are ‘generous’!! Secured with self tapper & oval washers

Floor strengthener carpets
I’m not sure why but I decided to fit the carpet pieces covering the floor strengtheners next. These really should have been fitted at the end, just before the final transmission tunnel carpet is glued in place. So all the trimming of the footwells was spent clambering over them.

The pieces were marginally longer than the circumference of the strengtheners, in part due to the thickness of the additional Koolmat. So they were fitted with the small amount of excess under the seat sections, rather than cut them down to size. I might have to trim them back if it lifts the front edge of the under-seat Hardura too much.

Masking to bond the front face Clamps used to hold in place Carpet edging gives neat joint to vinyl
Clamps were used to hold the carpet in place while the contact adhesive dried.

The three sides of the floor strengtheners were tackled in turn with clamps and/or weights used to hold the carpet firmly in place. The aim was ensure each bend in the carpet was tight against the panel. Although it really wasn’t necessary in the end and it could have been tackled in one go.

Footwell trimming
The general order of fitting for both footwells was:

  1. Under-dash, toe box and transmission tunnel underlay
  2. Under-dash Hardura panel(s)
  3. A-post/Sill Hardura
  4. Floor underlay next to transmission tunnel
  5. Transmission tunnel carpets
  6. Toe box carpet
  7. Underlay for sunken floor section
  8. Removable floor carpeting

The reason the two underlay pieces for the floors (4 & 7) were not done at the same time as the other underlay was again to avoid working over them while fitting the other trim. The Dynaliner can be susceptible to tears if not protected.

However there are slight differences between the two footwells. Before any underlay is added to the left hand footwell, a vinyl covered conduit panel needs to be fixed along the upper, outer edge. This hides the LH body loom, alternator loom and main loom where the latter two enter the cabin space along the run to the bottom of the A-post.

The conduit panel wasn’t part of the trim kit, which is a bit strange since it needs to be covered in coloured vinyl. The ‘originality’ thread on the E-Type forum was, as usual, very helpful. The shape of the conduit panel changed to a shallower profile during the production run although I think the part number remained the same. The later shaped conduit is available from RM & J Smith Ltd.

Covering loom conduit Accidentally covering the screw holes The ‘tail’ will be cut back later

I made a mistake with my first attempt, making the vinyl covering to its exact shape. Again from the forum, the A-post end should have a ‘tail’ of vinyl that isn’t bonded. This covers the looms as they bend around the corner of the dash and let in through a cut-out in the under-dash card. The other mistake was to forget to mark the location of the two holes for the self-tapping screws before covering them over! Fortunately I was able to use the previous photos to help locate them with a pin.

The other differences in the footwells are i) the RH underdash trim is in two sections, sitting either side of the steering column and ii) the LH rear transmission carpet is fixed with snap clips to the floor so it can be lifted to expose the access cover for the gearbox oil filler.

1. Under-dash, toe box and transmission tunnel underlay
The photos below show the difference between the two footwells – the vinyl covered conduit is the first item of trim to be added to the LH footwell. Also the rear section of the LH transmission tunnel is not covered in underlay to provide access to the gearbox oil filler, via the large, black, circular grommet.

LH footwell RH footwell RH under-dash underlay

2. Under-dash Hardura panel(s)
It doesn’t matter which order the under-dash and A-post/sill Harduras are fitted for the LH footwell, as both butt up against the loom conduit. However, for the RH footwell, the outer under-dash Hardura needs to be fitted first so the A-post/sill Hardura butts up against it.

The outer edges of the under-dash Harduras (apart from the smaller of the RH pieces) are each secured by two 1/2″ #4 self-tapping screws & cups. The excess will be hidden beneath the cardboard dash cards.

Single Hardura for LH Two pieces of Hardura for RH

3. A-post/Sill Hardura
The surface that these Hardura pieces are glued to is not flat due to the curvature of the sill, the recess for the body loom and the ‘alcove’ in the footwell A-post. More reinforced cross-weave tape was applied to cover these voids to enable the Hardura to be kept as flat as possible. Even so, there didn’t seem to be anything that could be done at the lower toe box corner, due to a strengthening strut.

These Harduras are held in place on the face of the A-post with two #4 self tapping screws & cups (and the bonnet release handle) but bonded inside the footwell.

A-post footwell voids taped over LH Hardura – note #4 screws RH Hardura

4. Floor underlay next to transmission tunnel
Next was the floor underlay beside the transmission tunnel as the transmission tunnel carpets need to be fitted before the toe box carpets.

LH floor underlay RH floor underlay

5. Transmission tunnel carpets


Transmission tunnel carpet

The transmission tunnel carpet turned out to be the most difficult part of the Hardura and carpet trimming. The carpet bends around two 90 degree bends making it difficult to keep the top edge tight against the Hardura trim above. There’s excess carpet along the lower edge so it’s only the upper edge that needs to be focused on.

I cut out wedges to enable the carpet to be navigated around the two bends and also cut a slit where the tunnel narrows at the rear, near the gearbox cover.

A slot also needs to be cut into the carpet to let in the lower radio console mount. The top edge was simply tucked under the upper console mounting bracket.

‘Durable’ snap fastener LH transmission carpets RH transmission carpets

The rear LH transmission carpet needs to lift to gain access to the gearbox oil filler so it is only attached to the floor by two snap fasteners. The upper edge is held under the centre console so no gluing is necessary. Both RH carpets are glued.

6. Toe box carpet


Transmission tunnel carpet

The toe box carpets have finishing edging on three sides. The unfinished lower edge needed to be cut back to provide access to the holes in the floorpan for the carpet retaining studs.

Again, the lower outer corners have to cover the same strengthening strut as the A-post/sill Harduras so it was impossible to get completely flat.

I believe a foot board was also fitted to the passenger footwell to provide the occupant with a foot rest. I’ll have to do some investigation and will possibly fit one at a later stage.

7. Underlay for sunken floor section
The Dynaliner underlay pieces for the floor were bonded by first treating the silicone Koolmat with Loctite 770 (Polyolefin primer) and then using Loctite 406 to bond it.

LH lining of sunken floor RH lining of sunken floor

8. Removable floor carpeting
The final trim is the removable front carpets. These are held in place by four plastic carpet studs. Although I’ll be adding these later, during Part 3 – ‘Finishing off the interior’, which will include the installation of the consoles, under-dash cards, seats and seat belts.

Completed LH footwell Just the consoles to go! Interior finally coming together

The trimming often required the skills of a contortionist and, at times, would best be described as working in a coffin! There’s not a lot of room in the footwells which made masking and the trial fitting and fettling of the various trim quite a challenge. Often all that could be seen from the outside were two legs sticking in the air!


Burning of the trimming rags

The confined space also didn’t help with fumes from the spray-on contact adhesive. At times the nozzle became partially restricted causing unpredictable spray patterns. This required the trimmed areas to be well protected from possible overspray.

So there was great pleasure in marking the end of the trim gluing with the ceremonial burning of the sheets and rags used for masking!

More trimming distractions – the stereo

 Interior Trim, Trim & Body Fittings  2 Responses »
May 142015
 

The intention was to leave the trimming until after the MOT but this wasn’t possible due to the decision to install inertia seat belts. The next plan was to only trim the rear bulkhead and seat areas – just sufficient for the belts and therefore the MOT. However it’s quite satisfying (when it goes well!), as it’s putting the finishing touches to the car. I’m now going to finish off the trimming before it heads off to the MOT centre.

Until now I hadn’t really considered what I was going to do regarding fitting a stereo. By bringing forward the trimming, this was now more urgent as I didn’t want to have to take out the central and radio consoles once they had been fitted. The options considered were:


Kenwood W707 appears as a
blank panel when switched off
  • A modern unit which has a blank panel when switched off
  • Converting a period radio, with modern electronic innards
  • One of the ‘retro’ looking units made for the classic car market
  • Not fitting one at all and just listen to the sounds of a straight 6!

A few years ago Kenwood offered a stereo with a motorised head unit, aimed at deterring thieves. The rear of the head unit was a featureless flat surface. When it was switched off the head unit rotated to display the rear face, mimicking a blank panel. Unfortunately I found out that they had since dropped this range – presumably because the thieves now just take the whole car!

The conversion approach appealed until I saw one in operation. It certainly wasn’t intuitive. It therefore came down to a close call between the last two options. The hope is to take the car on continental trips which tipped the balance in favour of a period looking stereo.

The other problem is the lack of space within the radio console. Modern speakers have a much greater depth so fitting two speakers and a single DIN sized unit becomes very marginal, if not impossible. Others have overcome this by fitting smaller 4″ speakers in the A-post recesses.


Retrosound’s Model 2

Retrosound’s Model 2 seemed to fit the bill on the appearance front. More importantly, due to its very compact size, the two main speakers would easily fit within the radio console. I say ‘main’ as I was soon to be drawn into the scary world of car audiophilia, making the mistake of contacting a car audio centre to purchase some speakers that would ‘just fit’!

Apparently the location of the speakers isn’t ideal as most of the high end frequencies would be lost. The sound quality would be greatly improved by adding some discreet tweeters at the ends of the dash. Again it made sense to add them now rather than regret it and have to pull the dash apart later on. The same advice had been given on the E-Type forum, suggesting a pair of 1″ Boss tweeters would be ideal so I decided to fit these. Although I suspect any sound quality will be long gone at speeds over 50mph with the hood down!


Small 2″ aerial from Blaupunkt

I wanted to avoid drilling holes in the body for aerials/wing mirrors etc which does limit the options for a suitable AM/FM aerial. The feedback on screen mounted aerials isn’t that favourable as they have a tendency to only pick up the strongest stations.

Blaupunkt now make an amplified screen mounted antenna which I’m hoping can be disguised to some degree behind the period tax disc. I hardly listen to the radio anyway so it won’t be a great loss if it doesn’t pick up every station.

The final specifications were:

  • Black Retrosound Model 2 Becker pinstripe
  • Rockford Fosgate P16 full range speakers
  • Boss TW17 tweeters with built in crossovers
  • Blaupunkt AM/FM disc aerial
  • Good quality 16 swg speaker cables

The spacing of the mounting studs on the speaker grills severely restricted the choice of main speakers to just a handful of 16cm speakers, rather than the more common 16.5cm and 17cm varieties.

The Rockford Fosgate speakers were chosen simply because their mounting slots exactly matched the stud spacing. Although it was only when I tried to fit them did it became apparent that 1) the stud lengths were too short and 2) additional spacers were needed to move the central cone inward away from the mesh grille (making the stud issue worse!).

Rockford Fosgate speaker size and mounting points were spot on Apart from the centre section which protruded, hitting the grill The solution – spacers and the nut/post section of Chicago bolts

I knew I should have gone with the option of not fitting a stereo! As luck would have it the Chicago screws used in leatherwork and I believe menu bindings have the same 8-32 thread. The nut or post pieces were modified by adding a screwdriver slot in the head so they could be screwed down onto the stud ends.

The Retrosound unit has a very flexible mounting system to enable it to fit most classic cars. The blurb suggests the distance between the two knobs is ‘infinitely’ adjustable to suit any application. Although in reality the distance is limited to two distances due to the position of the holes in the final trim pieces.

The unit is mounted on the knob spindles and the desired fore and aft position is achieved by adjusting the positions of the various locking nuts. All fairly simple. The difficult part would be the plumbing in of all the various inputs and outputs.

The mounting spindles slide in slots
so width can be set to suit		 Depth of speakers accommodated by
narrow width of the radio unit

The Model 2 has numerous inputs as well as being Bluetooth enabled. So the musical input can be via two USB ports, a standard 3.5mm jack or streamed from a paired device. It also has hands-free functionality and is supplied with a small microphone.

When off – fake tuning decals are displayed When on – LEDs display music information

Initially I’ll just be using one of the USB outputs for a permanently wired iPhone lightening connector in the centre console cubby box. This will enable an iPod/iPhone to be charged at the same time, as well as being accessible while driving. The advantage of a hard wired connection, over Bluetooth, is that the display shows the music information, scrolling between artist, album and song title.

The small Boss tweeters were simply stuck to the trim at the ends of the dash with double sided adhesive pads.

iPod/iPhone connection in central console Tweeters mounted at the ends of the dash

In an attempt to hide the Blaupunkt disc aerial as much as possible, a mock-up of the original tax disc has been placed in the lower corner of the windscreen and the aerial stuck to the back of the tax disc holder.

When it was purchased, I thought the whole aerial was contained within the disc. However there are two thin clear adhesive strips which need to be stuck to the windscreen, 6cm away from the metal surround. These strips contain a small metal wire to pick up the radio waves, which are then amplified by the circuitry within the disc. Fortunately the natty blue light feature can be switched off.

Marking out two thin wires that are
stuck to the windscreen to pick up the signal
(white is just backing tape!)		 The aerial body was stuck behind a
mock-up tax disc to keep it out of sight

The microphone for hands-free mode will be fitted at a later stage when I can try to work out the best location. Although I’m not convinced it will pick up much above the wind noise!

The stereo was run through its paces off the car and initial results were positive.

Fitting inertia seat belts

 Interior Trim, Trim & Body Fittings  No Responses »
Apr 192015
 

Static safety belts had originally been fitted to my car. However I’ve never really got on with static belts the few times I’ve driven cars fitted with them. The main issue is at junctions, when it’s often helpful to be able to lean forward slightly. Something that would be even more desirable with such a long bonnet.


Inertia belts were an optional extra
(Image courtesy of E-Type forum)

I had therefore decided to ‘upgrade’ to more modern inertia belts for practicality reasons. Having made the decision, the next dilemma is how to mount them. They can be fitted to brackets mounted on the rear bulkhead (as Jaguar did as an optional extra).

The other alternative is to mount them to the rear bulkhead inside the boot space. The downside with the boot mounted belts is slots for the belts would have to be cut into the bulkhead.

I think mounting large inertia reels behind the seats spoils the look of the interior. So a boot mounted kit was ordered from Quickfit Safety Belt Services. I had toyed with either blue or red webbing. In the end, deciding to keep them inline with interior colour scheme. Although their range of reds is rather limited: a burgundy or vibrant red. The burgundy looked too dark so I opted for the red …. and sunglasses!


Quickfit’s seat belt kit

Quickfit were very helpful, guiding you through the various options. They also warned me that they make their belts for classic cars in batches, once sufficient orders have been received, so the order may take between two weeks to two months to fulfil. Supplier delays for some of chrome fittings pushed this out to three months before they finally turned up!

The inertia mechanism is designed for the belt to be pulled out from the reel at a specific angle (or range of angles). For the boot mounted installation, this is at 90 degrees to the reel’s mounting plate which must also be mounted vertically. At any other angle the locking mechanism stops the belt, so the same reel could not be used for mounting inside the cabin.

The seat was fitted in order to get the correct mounting position, with a length of webbing held horizontally against the shoulder back to the bulkhead. Ideally the belt should approach the wearer’s shoulder horizontally or slightly downwards. The problem is the rear bulkhead on the OTS E-Types isn’t particularly high, so the placement of the reels is compromised to a certain extent.

They were mounted as high as possible so, for me, the driver’s belt is horizontal in my normal driving position, with the seat back partially reclined. If the reels were fitted low down at the base of the bulkhead, the forward force due to an impact would be redirected downwards through the wearer’s shoulder. Not ideal!

Locating the best mounting position Marking out the areas to drill/cut

I’d made a card template so the mounting points and slot for the belt could be accurately marked out on the rear bulkhead. It’s something that really ought to have been provided in the kit and the instructions were rather vague at best. It didn’t even mention the measurements for the slot for the belt!

By chance, the central bolt securing the reel mechanism aligned with the deepest part of one of the bulkhead anti-drumming/strengthening indentations. This enabled the bolt head to sit completely within the indentation and would therefore not be visible once the interior bulkhead Hardura trim was fitted.

The height of the slot needed to allow the buckle and webbing to pass through was not inconsiderable. I really didn’t want to cut such a large hole in the bodywork so I investigated the end attached to the reel.

The belt is jammed after passing through reel Using the reel end would need a smaller slot

The reel end was found to be finished by folding the webbing back on itself and stitched to form an open pocket at the end. This passes through a slot in the centre of the reel and then a retaining plastic pin is inserted into the pocket, which stops it from being pulled back through the slot.

The belt can be withdrawn once
the retaining pin is removed		 The reel needs to be jammed
while the belt is removed

The retaining pin was pushed out of its pocket in the belt without any difficulty, allowing the belt to be detached from the reel. At the same time the reel mechanism was jammed to stop it from rewinding while the belt was removed. Initially a screwdriver was used but this was replaced by a short length of 3/16″ brake pipe as there’s not much room once the reel is mounted in the boot.

More importantly whatever was used to jam the reel would have to be removable downwards. Once the reel is fitted there’s minimal space above it.

The pipes were subsequently replaced with cable ties as a pipe was almost knocked out by accident while fitting a reel. Quick fit SBS recommended using the cables ties and they remained in-situ until the belts were refitted, which was only be possible once the interior trimming has caught up. The bulkhead had to be trimmed first as the belts must pass through similar slots cut into the Hardura, which in turn needs all the rear wheel arch Ambla to be in place.

I decided to mount the reels over the Hardura in the boot rather than make suitable cut-outs. What I hadn’t realised at the time was the Hardura provided in the kit is marginally narrower than the rear face of the boot. The side cardboard panels would normally cover the shortfall. However, as I’d mounted the reels as far outboard as possible, they pushed the side cardboard panels hard against the sides of the boot revealing a gap between the Hardura and side panels.

On top of that, for some reason even lost on myself, I’d cut holes in the Hardura for the wiring looms rather than hiding them underneath. It looked at real mess so I ordered some more Biscuit Hardura to have another go. The second attempt was much better.

The first attempt was a bit of a mess! Take 2 – a vast improvement

A finishing chrome escutcheon is mounted to the rear bulkhead which also acts as a guide for the belt. The slot in the bulkhead was made marginally larger than the one in the escutcheon to avoid the belt chaffing on the metal edges.

Overall I’m pleased with the modification although the belts are quite red! Burgundy webbing might have been easier on the eyes.

Interior trimming – Part 1 (Vinyl & Ambla)

 Interior Trim, Trim & Body Fittings  No Responses »
Apr 132015
 

Trimming wasn’t something I was looking forward to! My kit had been supplied by Suffolk & Turley. The only thing that appearred to be missing from the kits from all the various suppliers is any form of guidance, let alone detailed installation instructions!

It was very much a case of trial and error, never having trimmed a car before! So what follows is the approach that worked for me (and in some cases not!!).


A simple jigsaw puzzle!!

The kit consists of all the jute underlay, vinyl, Ambla, Hardura, vinyl covered panels and carpets. So one would assume it’s all fairly obvious how it should be installed. It’s the subtleties that are not explained! The trimming of the seats and central console were beyond my capability, so these had been supplied ready trimmed.

The initial focus was to get the car through an MOT and then do the interior trimming. However the decision to install boot-mounted inertia seat belts had put paid to that! They required most of the trim behind the seats to be fitted first.

The kit contained some 5mm open-cell foam underlay for the sills and rear wheel arches. The problem with this foam is that it isn’t very robust, losing its spring quite easily and disintegrating over time. I therefore decided to replace this with a denser closed-cell polyethylene foam, sold under the brand name Plastazote and available in a variety of densities and thicknesses.

As it’s denser, it won’t compress as much as the open-cell foam and so the edges would be more pronounced through the vinyl covering. I decided to purchase both 3mm and 5mm medium density sheets (Plastazote LD45) with a view to playing around chamfering the edges to get the finish I wanted. The decision was to use the thicker 5mm foam for the sills and wheel arches as it gives a softer, more luxurious feel. The lower rear bulkhead is normally just covered with Ambla (vinyl with an expandable knitted backing) but this would be covered with the 3mm foam first.

The trim covers recesses in the rear bulkhead and the wiring loom channels in the sills, which can become visible over time if the material pressed in. In an attempt to stop this, these areas were covered with reinforced cross weave tape. I also ran guide strings within the loom channel in case I need to run power to the rear of the car in future, eg for powering security/tracker devices.

Guide strings added – just in case! Then loom channels were taped over

Lower rear bulkhead
The 3mm foam was bonded to the rear bulkhead with a spray-on high temperature contact adhesive, purchased from Woolies Trim. It was more manageable to tackle it in two sections with the join above the transmission tunnel. Each section was then glued in three phases: the outer flat section, the concave area behind the seat and finally the small area around the transmission tunnel.

This approach allowed the non-glued section to be held against the bulkhead to make sure it was square across the full width before pressing the bonded area onto the bulkhead. The contact adhesive doesn’t allow a second attempt so it really does have to be right first time.

Each side was started at the sill end Next the concave section Foam in place … now the vinyl!!

I’d read other restoration websites covering the interior trimming, where they explained the vinyl should only be bonded to the perimeter of the foam underlay. So I followed this approach for gluing the Ambla to the rear bulkhead. Again I decided to tackle it in smaller manageable areas – the order as shown in the left photo below.

Areas and order of gluing the Ambla So far so good … section 1 bonded!

It was all going well up to section 3. To avoid wrinkles, the Ambla needs to be ever so slightly stretched as it is bonded to the foam. However, when the lower area (4) of the concave section was glued to the foam, the un-bonded area between (3) and (4) pulled away from the foam, as the Ambla contracted.

I tried to pull the Ambla away from the foam as soon as I realised but this just resulted in the latter being ripped apart. Aaaargh! Both the Ambla and foam were ruined. It took many messy hours to remove the remains of the foam, back to the painted bulkhead so I could start all over again.

The revised plan was to bond the whole contact area between the foam and Ambla. This time the process followed the sequence of bonding the foam, although in reverse – working from the transmission tunnel out to the sill, as the whole area needs to be covered by a single piece of material.

Revised area and order of gluing Bonding area limited by matching masking
The second attempt worked well The lower bulkhead trimming completed!

The main difficulty with the rear bulkhead Ambla is it needs to cover the body looms to the rear lights, fuel pump and tank sender. The sills have a recess to hide the looms but they stop just before the end of the sills so there is no tidy solution.

Sometime later, I was trying to find the best method of hiding the wiring looms as they travel around the lower edges of the wheel arches before entering the boot space. I couldn’t disguise the looms under the Hardura trim covering the rear bulkhead and so dug out the remains of the original trim to see if I could get any clues.

The (non-vertical) areas should first be covered by a layer of jute before the Hardura goes down and the excess bulkhead Ambla bonded over the jute. The trim kit didn’t include jute for this area, and indeed some for the rear face of the boot, so it was easily missed.

Although I had already fitted Dynamat sound insulation, it is much thinner than the original jute layer, and therefore not able to disguise the looms. The solution will be to fit some 1/4″ Dynaliner, with suitable channels left for the looms. The down side is that the excess Ambla will have to be lifted and re-bonded over the Dynaliner.

The Ambla was bonded over the looms Different bonding was needed against the Koolmat

The other issue was trying to bond the vinyl and Ambla to the silicone Koolmat, used to insulate the cabin from heat soak from the engine bay. I’d previously tested various adhesives such as contact adhesive and silicone RTV adhesive. Since then I’d found that Loctite produce a silicone surface preparation fluid (Loctite 770) which enables the ‘superglue’ Cyanoacrylate family of adhesives to bond to it. The combination of Loctite 770 & Loctite 406 superglue provided a very good bond and was used to secure the overlapping vinyl and Ambla to the grey Koolmat.

Sills
The 5mm foam and vinyl covering the sills were fitted, again in stages, working inwards from the outer edge. The foam was cut so there was a 1cm gap to where the sill meets the A & B-posts and also the floor. This was to provide a bare area of sill for the vinyl to securely bonded to.

For the gap to the sill edge, the chrome finisher was offered up. A gap of approx. 13mm would avoid foam being trapped under the chrome trim as it’s a fairly tight fit at the best of times. I didn’t want foam underneath to make things worse. The vinyl wraps around the sill lip and should be held in place by a number of metal clips.

A gap was left between the foam & sill edge First stage of bonding the foam underlay

I had a trial fitting of the clips using some scrap vinyl to see if they would stretch the vinyl as they were pressed on. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get the clips on. I mentioned this to Suffolk & Turley when I was up discussing the hood – they don’t bother with the clips! They just run a bead of silicone RTV adhesive in the chrome finisher, wedging it in place while it cures. A tip I will be using once the sill door rubber is in place.

The approach of applying adhesive to the whole foam/vinyl contact area worked well with the rear bulkhead and so would be repeated for both the sills and rear wheel arches.

The vinyl was started by just bonding the 13mm strip at the sill’s edge. The aim was to anchor the vinyl in place as it would require cutting to shape as it was applied. The spray adhesive doesn’t give any room for adjustment once the two surfaces have been pressed together. So I thought it best to use the brush on Alfabond AF178 for gluing the sill edge and then pressing on the chrome finisher to hold it all in place, while it set.

Marking out the excess vinyl Excess can cause door rubber problems Bonding underneath the sill edge

Adhesive wasn’t applied to the underside of the sill edge, which allowed the vinyl to be pulled out to cut off any excess before being bonded. Too much excess can lead to problems fitting the sill door rubbers later on.

The edge of the vinyl is visible for a few inches; forward from the door opening to the A-post; reward to the B-post and 2-3″ along the outer face of the B-post (before it is hidden by a vinyl covered panel). The vinyl was doubled over to keep these edges neat and tidy.

The visible edges were doubled over to keep them neat

As the vinyl doesn’t stretch like the Ambla, a number of cuts were needed as it turns down towards the sill. There were a number of scares along the way where I didn’t think it was as smooth as it could be. The on-the-fly remedies often made matters worse. Fortunately the foam regained its shape overnight!

Again, bonding was done in stages Trimming around floor strengthener Sill vinyl almost completed

Overall I was quite pleased with the results. If it were to repeated, I would probably only leave a 5mm gap between the foam and the A & B-posts.

Rear Wheel Arches
The trimming of the rear wheel arches appeared to be much trickier due to the double curvature …. and so it would prove to be!! The pre-cut material has a very odd shape as it covers the wheel arch and a flat section underneath the hood mounting brackets.

Area covered by the wheel arch Ambla …. hence the odd shape of the trim provided

Numerous dry runs were done before deciding on how best to tackle it. Initially I started with bonding an outer section of the wheel arch, and the working down towards the lower rear corner. It soon became apparent that this wasn’t the way to go.

It left too much foam being pressed into an ever decreasing area, causing ruffling. Fortunately it was possible to cut out a section of excess foam and make a joint that would be invisible through the Ambla. This wouldn’t be an option when the Ambla is fitted.

Initial area bonded on 1st attempt Resulting in section cut out of foam

For the Ambla, it was decided that it would be best to glue a 2” strip down the shoulder of the wheel arch but stretching it as it went down. The reasoning was it would therefore reduce the excess material in the corner of the wheel arch.

Bonding this area first caused numerous problems!

Unfortunately this didn’t prove to be too successful and it was a real fight to get the lower edge glued without it puckering up along the join between the wheel arch and the bulkhead. Occasionally some Heath Robinson techniques were needed to weigh down the Ambla until the adhesive had dried. I shouldn’t have been surprised as it was not too dissimilar to the approach for the foam. A re-think was required for the other wheel arch!

Weighing down the edges to stop it lifting Bonding the lower edge worked better

The other tricky area was where it transitions between the curved wheel arch and the flat section. The Ambla just had to be stretched in the right direction to get a smooth finish.

For the second wheel arch, a 1.5” strip was glued along the lower edge. The foam could then be stretched up to the corner where it meets the top of the rear bulkhead. This ensures the Ambla is ripple free as it is being stretched over the curvature of the wheel arch. Initially this appeared to be a much better approach although it simply transferred the problems encountered later on to another area. The conclusion is that the wheel arches are just difficult to trim.


An Ambla covered wheel arch. Phew!

The trimming of the vinyl and Ambla was quite tricky and took over two weeks to complete, mainly due to putting off tackling the difficult areas and procrastinating too much! It would have been almost impossible to complete without the assistance of my trusty helper who patiently held the material up, while it was being smoothed into place and took the brunt of frustrations when things didn’t go as planned!

In hindsight, I wish I’d have bought shares in 3M with the amount of blue masking tape I ploughed through!!

Hardura and carpet fitting will be covered in Part 2 ….

Starting the hood refurbushment

 Exterior Trim, Hood, Trim & Body Fittings  No Responses »
Mar 252015
 

New hood pivot bolts

The removal of the hood many years ago had been problematic to say the least. The threaded section of the pivot bolts is a much smaller diameter than the unthreaded section, which the hood sticks pivot around. The bolts wouldn’t come free even after applying penetrating fluid and adding an extension piece onto the ratchet handle. The force being applied was more likely to shear the threaded section, so I stopped to have a re-think.

However the problem wasn’t that the threaded sections had seized within the bracket’s captive nuts as I had thought. Small holes are provided in hood sticks for oiling the pivot joints. Unfortunately it’s doubtful they had ever been troubled during routing maintenance!

The result – the whole pivot joint had rusted, fusing the bolt to the hole in the frame. The hood no longer pivoted on the bolts. The bolts and frame just rotated in unison in the mounting brackets, as the hood was raised and lowered. The only way I could then remove the hood was complete with mounting brackets.

I couldn’t believe how solidly they had rusted in place. In a foolish fit of pique, I ground away the heads of the bolts, which were looking decidedly rounded by this time. Cutting through the threaded sections to finally free the hood from the brackets. The whole hood was left, as is, until now so I still had to overcome the issue of removing the remains of the bolts.

The remaining sections of the bolts wouldn’t budge even after soaking in Plus Gas penetrating fluid for several weeks, applying heat, attempting to press them out in a vice and, in a Cleese-esque manner, giving them a good thrashing with a club hammer!

The hood needed a full overhaul Every hood fixture was heavily rusted First, removal of the old canvas

The plan is to have the hood professionally fitted by Suffolk & Turley. Even though they will happily undertake all the work, including the renovation of the frame, I wanted to do as much as possible myself. So I set about removing the canvas and dismantling the frame into its components on order to have them powder coated.

First, the canvas was detached from the rear of the frame – by removing the side chrome trims, which clamp the canvas rearward of the drop glass and unpicking the webbing attaching it to the frame sticks. Removing the hollow, square-sectioned rubber seal, which makes the seal against the top of the windscreen, reveals the canvas and vinyl edges in the channel underneath. The canvas and vinyl could then be pealed off the canopy, while applying heat to soften the adhesive.

Main head/cantrail brackets attached to frame Bonded edge of canvas/vinyl under screen seal Vinyl removed revealing wood canopy bows

The detaching the cantrail and main head brackets also proved troublesome. The removal of the pivot bolt remains was soon joined by the need to remove half a dozen screw stubs. Some of the screws fixing the main head/cantrail brackets and hood clamps had sheared or had to be drilled out. Their slotted heads had become too damaged by attempts to unscrew them.

Latch covering trim under two canopy mounting bolts Softening old adhesive with white spirit

The pivot bolts were removed by drilling a pilot hole down the centre of the bolt. It was more important to keep the pilot hole square on to the bolt than ensure it was precisely centred on the bolt. Progressively larger drill bits were used to enlarge the hole until a line of rust could just be seen running down the length of the hole. A pointed drift was then used to collapse the perimeter of the bolt inwards allowing the bolt remains to be pushed out.

The same approach was followed for the screw remains in the hood sticks. Although this time it was essential that the drill bit was centred on the bolt so the thread wasn’t damaged. They were then re-tapped to reinstate the thread.

Initially the canopy didn’t look too bad but it had clearly been worked on before as the whole frame had been hand-painted a light blue rather than the original light grey. The forward wood bow had a small section missing and it had started to delaminate. The edge of leading edge had rusted away along the entire length of the canopy although it should just be a matter of welding in some new metal.

The leading edge has rusted away The wood bow was also delaminating Re-tapping the frame after drilling out screw stubs

A second opinion was needed so it was taken up to Suffolk & Turley in Nuneaton. Their evaluation was not good, enquiring whether I’d found in it a canal! In addition to the problems I’d spotted, they pointed out that the lip where the two outer skins meet had been cut away at one end. It should be proud of the wooden bow by approx. 2cm as it forms the upper part of the channel for the rubber seal. Also, the front 6 inches across the full width of the canopy was largely filler.

Their preference is to re-use original parts rather than replace. The replacement wood bows are available but the quality is not great and it takes some work to get them to fit. Even so, their verdict was it wouldn’t be cost effective to repair the metal canopy and the front wood bow was unlikely to survive its removal. Only the rear wood bow was worth saving, as these are no longer available.

It was a long way to travel to learn that the canopy was junk and I was now resigned to inevitable fleecing that was coming my way! Both for a new metal canopy and a wood bow, which I believe is north of £300 from SNG Barratt!

As luck would have it Martin Robey had one S2 canopy left in stock so it was secured on the spot. A week or so later it hadn’t turned up so I gave them a call. It was ‘virtually’ in stock … they just had to make it first! Two months later it finally arrived.

In the meantime I’d found a Czechoslovakian subsidiary of the German company Slavik, which made all the wooden components for earlier Jaguars, and at a very reasonable cost of £75 for the wood bow. They were making a trip to the UK a few weeks later and suggested sorting out the payment and shipping once over here. Needless to say, I didn’t hear from them so I presume they forgot to bring it and I got no response from follow up emails.

Trial fitting the rear bow to the new canopy Replacement canopy wood bow

Finally a piece of luck, a wood bow appeared on eBay. I’d lost so much time waiting for parts, I contacted the seller and agreed a private sale, rather than wait until the end of the auction. A trial fit of the bow with the new Robey canopy confirmed it will need a fair amount of fettling to get it to fit.

Now I had all the components, it was off to Nationwide Coatings”to have them powder coated in BS381C-694 ‘Dove Grey’. The advice from the E-Type forum was that this was the correct/nearest colour match. Typical …. the powder coating manufacturers no longer supply powder covering the old BS381C range!


Original paint allowed a colour match

Traditional paints do not adhere to powder coating. However new paints have been produced specifically for this purpose. So they recommended powder coating the hood components to the nearest light grey colour available and then over-coating with a colour-matched paint. A couple of parts had hidden surfaces that missed being hand painted in blue so they will be used to get an exact match to the original colour. The powder coating should provide the durability while maintaining the correct colour.

My aim had been to get the car ready for a trip to the Monaco Grand Prix at the end of May. This is now looking to be a very long shot, having lost two months waiting to just trial fit the hood. Also, in a nod to practicality, I’d decided to fit inertia seat belts rather than static seat belts. These have been on order since the New Year and there’s still no confirmed delivery date. The fitting 3-point Seat belts became mandatory from 1968, so I won’t be able to get an MOT until they do.

Bleeding the bleeding brakes!

 Brakes, Clutch & Brake Hydraulics, Fuel Line and Hydraulics, Hydraulic Systems, Rolling Chassis  3 Responses »
Feb 262015
 

The brakes have been connected and plumbed in for quite a while now. The system only had to be filled with brake fluid and bled, so I had assumed the brakes were essentially complete and wouldn’t be noteworthy. I should have known by now that was almost certainly going to be wildly optimistic …

I had dithered on the type of fluid to use, glycol base or silicone, changing my mind almost on a daily basis before finally making the decision to stick with glycol based DOT4 fluid. The ‘this is absolutely my final decision’ was subsequently reversed to silicone following an interesting article on the subject sent to me by Chris Jackson, whose restoration is being covered in the E-type Magazine.
DOT5 Silicone Brake Fluid

The debate regarding DOT4 (Glycol) verses DOT5 (Silicone) seems to be quite polar in nature. A bit like Marmite – people are either for it or hate it and never the two shall meet! At the time I’d just been working through fixing leaks in the cooling system. Reports of leaks from weeping hoses and splitting repro reservoir bottles are all too common. The thought of brake fluid leaking onto the paint work and remaining undetected paid a significant part in opting for silicone.

However some have raised concerns that silicone fluid might cause rubber seals to swell. Possibly but the composition of the rubber seals has changed over time, with natural rubber no longer used. Modern rubber should now be compatible with all types of fluid.


Automec DOT5 Silicone Fluid

The manufacturer’s blurb suggests silicone fluid is a ‘fill and forget’ solution but I think this is a little wide of the mark as water will find its way into the system. As it doesn’t mix with the brake fluid, it would then pool and cause local corrosion so I’m still planning to replace the silicone fluid periodically, although less frequently than would be the case for DOT fluids.

Apart from the additional expense, the down side of silicone is that, when it is agitated, it has a tendency to absorb tiny air bubbles that are not visible to the eye. This can cause a spongy pedal as the bubbles compress under braking. The simple solution is to leave the fluid to settle overnight before bleeding the system, although that would be more problematic if it ever had to be refilled on a trip.

All the compression joints were checked and tightened. Now the front calipers were bolted to the uprights, sufficient torque could be applied to the bolts clamping the two caliper halves together. Correct torque settings are not published but a brake refurbishing company recommended to torque the 7/16″ diameter bolts to 70 lb-ft and the 3/8″ diameter bolts to 40 lb-ft. I’ll need to keep an eye out for any initial issues.

Remote rear bleed kit


Stevson & Fosseway kits

Another of Chris’ suggestions was to fit one of Fosseway Performance’s remote bleed kits. The standard bleed valves are hard to reach at the best of times, so moving them to a more accessible position on the IRS cage is quite a popular modification. In fact I’d already fitted a similar kit sourced from Stevson Motors prior to installing the IRS unit.

My kit was definitely more agricultural than engineered so I had been a little disappointed when it arrived. The mounting brackets were just pieces of brass sheet that looked as though they had been hand drilled and then bent in a vice.

Still their function is fairly basic and the aesthetics is not a great issue, being tucked up underneath the car, so I had fitted the Stevson kit. It was only later, when I was working underneath the car to re-fit the handbrake cable, did its design start to irk me. My patience was wearing thin after catching the sharp corner of the brass bracket for the umpteenth time.

The revisiting of the handbrake was because I’d routed the cable incorrectly. It should pass through an eyelet on the inside of the transmission tunnel, with a rubber grommet protecting the cable. The cable was too stiff to re-route in situ by disconnecting the cable from the handbrake mechanism. So the entire cable had to be removed.

Re-routing couldn’t be achieved by just disconnecting at compensator linkage Correct routing of cable through grommet in transmission tunnel eyelet

The final straw came when I found that the seat for one of the bleed valves had been machined too far. So the coned face at the end of the valve could never make contact with the seat, let alone form a seal. Longer valves are available … but not in the course thread used in the kit. There was no alternative – it had to be replaced.

I’m sure Stevsons would have rectified the problem but I now had the opportunity of fitting a better quality of kit. An order was placed and the Fosseway kit arrived the next day! The main difficulty was, with the IRS now in place, access was severely limited. The front pair of springs and dampers had to be removed to access the calipers.

Forward rear springs removed for access The Fosseway kit has better banjo attachments Fosseway kit uses sprung bleed valves

The Fosseway kit uses a banjo attachment at the calpiers which is a neater solution and much easier to fit, as it doesn’t require the flexible pipe to rotate when tightening it into the caliper. The other difference is the style of bleed valve used, sprung valves rather than standard solid valves. The sprung valves help with bleeding as the spring stops air entering the system between pumps of the brake pedal. In the end, replacing the remote bleed kit was easier than I had thought and only took an hour and a half.

Brake Bleeding Woes!
This was another task that proved far more troublesome than I had expected. Most methods of bleeding require the help of an assistant. The exception to this is vacuum pumps, such as the Mityvac, which can be operated single-handed. The vacuum is applied to the bleed valve to draw the fluid through the system so both the vacuum and bleed valve can be controlled from one location.


Mityvac vacuum bleeding tool

It was for this reason I purchased a Mityvac pump to replace my old Eezibleed tool. The Eezibleed pressurises the reservoir to push fluid through the system but still requires two people to operate. So doesn’t really offer anything over the traditional method of pumping the brake pedal.

The correct bleeding sequence according to the service manual is the near-side followed by the off-side, starting with the rears and finally moving to the front brakes. The reservoir bottles were filled, the RH reservoir feeding the front brakes and the LH reservoir the rears … let the bleeding begin!

After about 1/2 hour of trying with the Mityvac, absolutely nothing had come out of either of the rear valves. Time for plan B – the Eezibleed was rigged up to the reservoir. All this achieved was pressurising the bottle to what looked like bursting point and spraying fluid everywhere from around the cap. Thank goodness I’d gone for silicone fluid! Still nothing was coming out at the rear calipers.

Plan C! The traditional approach – the good old brake pedal and a patient helper! The resistance started to build after 20-30 pumps of the brake pedal. However this would dissipate after about 30 seconds. Frustratingly there was still no fluid coming from the rears. I suspect pumping the pedal was only pushing fluid into the front circuit and the resistance felt at the pedal was due to the air in the pipe being compressed. Once the pumping stopped the air pressure would force the fluid back into the reservoir.

Stumped, I decided to search the web to find out if there was a specific technique or trick that might help. At least I found out that I certainly wasn’t alone in having trouble bleeding the rear brakes, especially filling a dry system. One tip was to try bleeding the brakes with the engine running as the servo would be boosted by the vacuum. Still no joy!

Another suggestion was to first check the operation of the valve located in the output port of the servo cylinder. Once it had been confirmed fluid was coming out of the servo cylinder, simply loosen the rear bleed valves in turn, allowing the system to bleed naturally, under gravity. Note: the sprung valves need pressure to compress the spring to allow fluid out and so had to be removed for this method

The height of the reservoir above the remainder of the system provides a sufficient head of fluid to allow gravity to do the work for you. Whether the removal and inspection of the cylinder valve had fixed the restriction I’m not sure, but fluid was now coming out of both rear bleed valves.

Success was short lived …. when the brake pedal was depressed, fluid leaked out of the three way union mounted on the IRS cage. The problem was found to be the new flexible Goodridge brake pipe. Although sold as a direct replacement for the E-Type, the rear attachment was too short. It was a similar problem to the remote bleed kit – the attachment could never make contact with the seat and therefore create a seal.

Short end of Goodridge brake hose was too short! The additional mechanical brake light switch

Several days and a new hose later, the system was finally bled. At the same time the last few braking tasks were completed: the brake pedal was much higher than the accelerator pedal and the mechanical brake light switch was fitted.

The height of the pedal is set by adjusting a ‘stop’ screw in the pedal housing, which was set to remove any free travel in the brake pedal. Unfortunately the clutch pedal is too high as well but this doesn’t have any adjustability. Other owners have had the same problem, caused by the push rod being 1/2″ too long on the replacement master cylinders. Another job to the list!

LED ‘Upgrade’

 Electrics, LED Dash Illumination  3 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

The green illumination of the dash gauges is achieved by plastic green filters within the gauges. However almost all of these filters had deteriorated due to their proximity to the incandescent bulbs. Some had actually melted due to the heat produced. I had therefore decided to ‘upgrade’ to LEDs after reading the conversion on the E-Type forum. For my conversion, I wanted to:

  • Retain having two brightness settings: Bright and Dim *
  • Switch between green and blue lighting

* – I couldn’t envisage a situation when I would want the side/head lights on but the dash not illuminated. So I have decided to drop the ability to turn off the dash illumination and have replaced the 3-way Panel switch with a 2-way switch.

Dimming the LEDs
The RGB LED strips have a common 12 volt supply and then one wire for each of the primary colours. The LEDs for a specific colour are turned on by connecting the corresponding wire to 0v, ie earth.

The amount of light produced by incandescent bulbs is linear to the current flowing through the bulb. Therefore accurate dimming of the bulbs is achieved by switching a suitably sized resistor into the circuit, in series with the bulbs.

Unfortunately this task is not as simple with LEDs. The light output for two ‘identical’ LEDs is not as predictable simply by reducing the voltage drop across them. The only reliable way to dim LEDs is rapidly switching the LED on and off. Above a certain switching frequency, the human brain cannot differentiate between when the LED is on and off. The perceived brightness is then the relative percentage of time the LED is on during one switching cycle.

Fortunately it’s possible to purchase small LED control units to perform this function. My initial trials using LEDs found that, without on/off switching, the light output was too great. Therefore two LED control units would be needed to control the brightness for both the Bright and Dim settings.

The other key difference, already mentioned, is that the 12v supply voltage is always connected. The individual LED colours are turned on by connecting their earth lead to a ‘floating earth’.

Note: this ‘earth’ is different from the car earth as when in dimming mode it will switch between 0v and 12v.

Green/Blue switching
The ability to switch between green and blue lighting would require the complete rewiring of:
i) the panel switch to select either the ‘Bright’ or ‘Dim’ earth connection from the respective LED control module (rather than provide the 12 volt supply)

ii) the spare switch to then connect the selected earth to either the green or blue lead. After a few trials, I settled on the wiring diagram shown.

Both LED control modules are connected to the loom’s Red supply wire from Fuse 5, which is disconnected from the Panel Switch, and the car’s earth. The positive LED outputs from both control modules provide the 12v supply to the RGB cable.

New wiring is then needed to between the two switches for the earth connections to either the Blue or Green LED lead. Finally the gauges and switch legend LED strip are daisy chained together with 4-core RGB cabling.

Switch Legend Strip
The switch legend is normally lit by three bulbs mounted in convex reflectors approximately 10cm in length. The green hue was achieved by a plastic green tape glued to the rear of the legend strip. However this has faded so it was now more of a mucky yellow colour. The tape was removed as the colour would now be provided by the LEDs.

Green tape provided legend colouring LED strips fitted to legend reflectors
The green colour of the backlighting was obtained by a coloured plastic strip Installation of the LEDs for the illumination of the switch legend.

{Note: the dash photo was taken midway through being cleaned/treated with Gtechniq Trim Restorer C4 – hence the half and half look!}

Dash Gauges
The seven gauges are all opened by rotating the rim until tabs on the rim align with cut-outs in the housing. This enables the rim and glass to be removed to install the LED strips.

The internals of the smaller four gauges (water temperature, oil pressure, fuel and battery) are very similar where the mechanisms are permanently secured to the housing. These mechanisms are quite delicate so the dismantling and insertion of the 10cm LED strips needed to be done with some care.

These gauges have a face plate which has to be eased away from the underlying cup, which has the gauge’s scale printed on it. A small screwdriver can then be inserted under the rim of the cup to prise it away from the housing. Once loose, it’s a matter of rotating the cup to clear the fragile needle.

Six dash gauges and clock Face plate & cup removed LED strip inserted from the rear

It’s very easy to inadvertently solder the RGB earth contacts together so it was well worth testing the operation of the LEDs before rebuilding the gauges.

The clock proved to be more difficult even though the entire clock mechanism comes out with the face. It’s slightly larger than the other gauges and so can accommodate a 15cm strip. However the clearance between the housing and the clock mechanism wasn’t sufficient due to the clear, waterproof coating. This had to be peel off to fit.

Removing the waterproofing Cabling was a tight squeeze Comparing brightness of colours

The entire mechanisms for rev counter and speedometer are also removed with the gauge face, which allows unhindered access to stick the 35cm strip to the perimeter.

Rev counter housing Cable pass through bulb opening Testing prior to rebuilding

The downside of having the ability to switch between the two colours is it requires multi-core cable and so the installation is not so discreet. Even so, it will all be hidden from view once in place.

My first attempt was to use standard RBG cables and connectors but these provide to be temperamental and unlikely to stand the test of time. I therefore changed them to larger plug and socket terminals with internal, mini spade connectors which were also held together by a clip.

RGB connectors were unreliable Blue illumination without dimming Switched to green illumination

The other LED lighting was to illuminated the boot when the bootlid was opened. Two 25cm pure white LED strips were stuck to the underside of the tonneau top panel. Power was provided by running a wire from the permanent Brown fuse terminals and switched by a micro switch attached to the boot hinge.

Would I do the same upgrade again? Definitely not! Possibly just installing a single colour LED strip but the ability to switch between green and blue lighting resulted in unnecessary complexity. Just because it can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done!

 Posted by at 8:43 am

Finishing off the fuel system

 Fuel Line, Fuel Line and Hydraulics, Fuel System, Fuel Tank  1 Response »
Feb 092015
 

Even though the engine was started last year, there were a number of outstanding issues and tasks to complete the fuel system. The most concerning was the new fuel tank didn’t fit! At the time, it was just left in situ and the fuel lines connected while the engine was fired up. Refitting had to wait.

Carburetter Overflows
First, however, was the replacement of the three carburetter overflow pipes. At some stage these had been replaced by shorter pipes. Functionally there was nothing wrong with them but they should come together near the oil filter and be held in place by small clip.

The short pipes will be replaced New pipes from Burlen Fuels
Either short overflow pipes had been fitted or the originals had been cut short New overflow pipes are available from Burlen Fuels – very expensive for what they are!

Everything is available from Burlen Fuels although they offer two lengths of overflow pipe: 19” and 25”. The length of the shorter pipe would have been marginal for the rear carburetter so I opted for 25” pipes …. just in case. With hindsight, 19” pipes should have been ordered for the front two carburetters as the distances are much shorter.

I had decided to replace these once the engine had been fitted. While it would have been much easier to shape them when the engine was sitting on its trolley, I was concerned that guesstimating suitable clearances to engine frames etc would be too easy to get wrong.

Several hours later, ready for fitting The clip securing the ends of the pipes
Several hours later, the pipes were ready for fitting

The only slight difficulty was the overflow for the rear carburetter as access was limited once it had been shaped. The jury is still out on whether it would have been better to do this job with the engine out!

New bulkhead fuel line
Another fuel problem encountered when the engine was started was the fuel line had gone into the filter housing cockeyed, causing it to cross-thread and leak. The temporary solution had been to reverse the fuel filter however the root cause was the bulkhead section of pipe, which needed to be remade.

These earlier troubles had been caused by a combination of the pipe not being square onto the filter housing and the brass fitting supplied in the fuel line kit. The fitting had an un-threaded shoulder section which then only allowed a turn or two of thread to engage before it bottomed out on the olive. A replacement was found that was threaded to the end.

The vacuum tank needed to be removed to provide sufficient access to offer up the new pipe as it was bent into shape. I wasn’t happy with the original routing of this section of the fuel pipe, as the P-clip securing it to the bulkhead, pulled the pipe hard against the paintwork where there is an ‘X’ indentation in the toe-box.

Original routing Now routed higher on toe-box Upturn no longer fouls bodywork

By inverting the P-clip, so the pipe was supported by the clip rather than being hung from it, the pipe is routed above the ‘X’. The other problem that was cured from my first pipe attempt was the length of the downward run to the union had been cut too short, causing the upturn bend to hit the bodywork.

Installing the fuel tank …. 4th time lucky!
I take my hat off to the original fuel tank fitters, who must have developed quite an efficient technique for getting the fuel tank in place on the production line. Although, with trails and tribulations I had trying to get the tank securely fastened, it was becoming a less daunting challenge with each fitting attempt. Perhaps there is some truth in the joke about E-Types being built up around the fuel tank!

First a few minor tasks were completed. The sump was checked for pinholes as it is prone to corrosion and fitting the missing metal fuel filter at the base of the pick-up pipe. The tank and surrounding bodywork was then covered with plenty of sheets and masking tape to try and minimise the damaging the paintwork.

Fortunately sump was pinhole free Pick-up pipe – now with filter

The initial problem is the aperture of the boot space is less than the width of the seam-welded lip around the circumference of the tank. Tilting the front edge of the tank downwards doesn’t enable the lip at the rear to clear the flange for the boot boards.

There’s a gap in this flange where the boot lock attaches. So the only option I could see was to remove the lock and then tilt the tank sideways, feeding the lip through the gap vacated by the boot lock.

The most obvious approach was to raise the right side of the tank and feed it down to the left since the tank occupies the left side of the boot. However this first attempt failed as the sump attachment is proud of the base of the tank and comes into contact with the floor strengthening sections, halting progress.

So the opposite was attempted, feeding down to the right. The aim was then to shuffle the tank all the way across to the left once the flange had been cleared.

Yet just as it was nearing that point, it fouled somewhere else! It wasn’t immediately obvious what was causing the problem but eventually it was traced to the clip for the boot board. Fortunately it’s only riveted in place and could be removed.

The offending boot board clip Eventually the flange was cleared

Finally the tank was below the flange and could be manoeuvred into position once the various filler and breather pipes were attached. The boot lid drainage pipe caused quite a bit of aggravation as it had a tendency to spring out of place and push the tank away from the mounting points.

Corner bracket should
have captive nut		 Breather tubes for
later S2 tanks		 So near, yet so far

However, until now, I hadn’t noticed the replacement forward mounting bracket simply had a nut welded to it, rather than a captive nut within a cage. The lack of adjustability provided by a captive nut meant it was impossible to get the distance between the two leftmost mounting points to match those on the tank.

One of the mounting hole in the tank had to be enlarged by around 3mm to get the tank to fit The tank had to come out in order to enlarge the mounting hole in the tank by a couple of millimetres. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to rig up something to measure the difference in centre distances with any degree of accuracy. The tank was re-fitted but it was still a millimetre out, so it was back out for some more fettling.

This time it fitted! Well two of the three mounts did. The third bracket is moveable as it can slide in elongated holes and so would be doddle in comparison. How wrong could I be!

The original bracket had one stud missing and two of the other studs had lost most of their thread due to corrosion. It didn’t feel it was worth trying to salvage it as new ones are inexpensive. So I made the mistake of buying a reproduction bracket – not once but twice!

Damage to original bracket Neither repro brackets were usable

The first wouldn’t fit because the studs were too far apart to mate with the holes in the bulkhead. To make matters worse, I only found this out after it was powder coated. The second was ordered from a different supplier. The studs were in the right place but much smaller diameter. However, as with the previous bracket, they both just had a nut welded in place rather than the captive nut.

This mount requires both lateral and fore/aft adjustability to have any chance of alignment with the bolt. Lateral adjustment is provided by the elongated holes for mounting the bracket. The movement of captive nut provides the fore and aft adjustment. Neither of the repro brackets were useable.

Its times like this that I do get frustrated with all the suppliers – it’s just lazy ‘that’ll do’ mentality and often it would be as hard to get wrong as it would right. Although I really should have spotted the differences when they were purchased. The original one will be repaired, which is what I ought to have done in the first place. Another lesson learnt!

Fuel Sender – stumped but fixed
For some reason the low fuel light on the dash wasn’t working, yet the fuel gauge was fine. The fault was traced back to the fuel sender unit, which has a removable cover plate. So it was easy to gain an understanding of how it worked to control both the fuel gauge and warning light.

W & T terminal mechanisms Low fuel light contact strip

As would be expected, the unit uses a rheostat to vary the voltage drop across the fuel gauge and the warning light is simply a contact switch. However I hadn’t realised they were two completely separate circuits, sharing a common earth – the sender unit housing.

As the float arm rises and falls with changes in fuel levels, its pivot rotates through approximately 80 degrees. Two slider contact arms are attached to the pivot within the unit and therefore follow the same arc. They are also in contact with the sender housing and so are the electrical contact to earth.

Fuel Gauge
One of the sliders runs along the edge of tapered coil of resistance wire which is connected to the exterior T terminal. When the tank is full and the float is raised to its maximum, the full length of resistance wire lies between the slider and the T terminal – a total resistance of 196Ω.

When the tank is nearly empty and the float is at its lowest, the slider will have moved shortening the length of resistance wire between the two. At empty, the rheostat resistance is 18Ω. The fuel gauge is calibrated to display Full and Empty for these two resistance values.

Low Fuel Light
There’s a copper contact strip on the inside of the cover plate which has a small diagonal break in the copper so the two ends are electrically isolated from each other. The W terminal, connected to the gauge, makes permanent contact with one end.

When the tank is full the second slider arm is in contact with the other end of the strip and moves towards the W terminal contact as fuel is consumed. The slider eventually moves across the gap making electrical contact with the W-terminal, completing the path to earth and switching on the warning light.

I couldn’t work out why it wasn’t working. The multi-meter confirmed the internal connections were working correctly. Yet the switching wasn’t evident at the external spade connector. It didn’t make sense as a metal rivet connects the internals with the external spade terminal.

Checking with the multimeter confirmed that somehow the rivet and the external spade terminal were electrically isolated from each other. A dab of solder solved the problem but I still can’t fathom how they could not be in contact with each other.

Once it’s up and running, I’ll fill from empty to find out how many litres of fuel are in the tank when the light comes on.

The tank has since been filled from empty and it takes exactly 12 litres (2.6 gallons) before the warning light goes out. So there should be around a 50-55 miles range once the warning light comes on.

Clutch slave cylinder revisited

 Clutch & Brake Hydraulics, Fuel Line and Hydraulics  2 Responses »
Jan 132015
 

Jaguar made several changes to the clutch slave cylinder during the production of the E-Type which appear to have caused a fair amount of confusion amongst owners, myself included.

The slave cylinder details from the Jaguar literature are:

  • S1 to engine 7E4606 – short 80mm adjustable cylinder (part C21470)
  • S1 from engine 7E4607 – 95mm hydrostatic self-adjusting cylinder (part C24145)
  • S1 from engine 7E18356 (7E55558 for 2+2) – reverted to adjustable cylinder (part C29801)

The difference being the adjustable cylinders require a return spring and bracket to pull the fork back, so the piston is at the mid-point. The hydrostatic, self-adjusting cylinders must not have the return spring fitted. Either type can be fitted to any of the range, so you just need to know which type is fitted to determine whether to fit a return spring.

As a result, the length of the slave cylinder is often used to differentiate between the two types. A 95mm unit was supplied when I ordered a replacement C29801 cylinder and the suppliers assured me it was correct.

I made the assumption, from all the forum discussions on the subject, that I must have a hydrostatic unit and therefore didn’t include the return spring when it was fitted it to the transmission, prior to installing the engine.

It wasn’t until another S2 owner who was going through the same issue was able to confirm the 2nd version of the non-hydrostatic cylinders was 95mm, not 80mm, with the original Lockheed part having markings 3232 648C. This matched the markings on my replacement cylinder and also on the one that had been removed during the dismantling, which was fitted with a spring.

My conclusion was that the return spring will need to be fitted after all. Another recommendation was to replace the mounting stud by 5/8″ UNC x 1″ socket head bolts. This will make later removal easier as access is severely restricted.

So another task to add to the ‘To Do’ list!

Ending of the hiatus – attention turns to the doors and hood

 Door Fittings & Drop Glass, Interior Trim, Trim & Body Fittings  1 Response »
Jan 092015
 

Once it became clear that the September target for obtaining an MOT would be missed (albeit with a stripped out interior), the pressure was off. With the cold, dark days of winter setting in, holidays in warmer climes became preferable to working on the car and so the momentum lost.

The new target being the spring, once the last traces of road salt have gone. Just in time to sort out any niggles and put a few miles on the clock … before a mooted caper to the Monaco Grand Prix. It would be a fitting inaugural tour! Apart from the lack of trim, the car appears to be nearing completion. However looks are deceiving and the ‘To Do’ list is still alarmingly long. So I’ve got to get cracking!

I’ve not been looking forward to installing the trim as it’s notoriously fiddly and something I’ve not tackled before. It’s the part everyone sees so it has to be done well. After all the effort so far, a poor job would not suffice! Further procrastination was required under the guise of trim planning ….

I settled on the following order of events:

  • Door A-post rubber seals
  • Fit and align the window frames and drop glass
  • Door B-post seals (the sill seals will have to wait until after the sill vinyl has been fitted
  • Trial fit hood frame to ensure the glass seals against the hood’s cantrail rubber seals
  • Vinyl trimming – sills, lower rear bulkhead and wheel arches
  • Sill seals and chrome finishers
  • Underfelts followed by hardura panels, vinyl covered finishing panels and carpets
  • Centre console and radio panel
  • Under-dash felts, hardura and cards
  • Install the seats!
  • Install inertia seat belts in the boot space

I’ve decided it was best to leave the fitting of the hood and tonneau cover to the experts, Suffolk & Turley, who supplied the trim kit. Finally, once the car is returned, I’ll fit the door cards and boot trim.

Door Seals
New door rubbers were obtained from SNG Barratt. However I wasn’t happy with the A-post and sill seals as, not only were their cross-section profiles noticeably larger than the originals, they were made of a much harder foam rubber.

Other owners have posted issues with poor quality seals leading to ill-fitting doors which need slamming just to get the door to latch. The general consensus on the E-Type forum is to source all the rubber seals from COH Baines so a new set of door seals was duly ordered. I would thoroughly recommend doing so as they are much closer to the originals and made from a softer foam. I believe SNG Barratt have subsequently started to source many of their seals from COH Baines.

Profile comparison of sill seals Darker Baines rubber is thinner & softer

Hutsons had pre-fitted the doors to the bodyshell, so the door strikers and locks were correctly set and panel gaps were all spot on. However the fitting of the A-post seal requires the door to be removed to provide sufficient access. So the outline of the door hinge was marked out with masking tape to aid re-fitting.

Position of hinge marked with masking tape Tape was also used to trial fit the seals

Before removing the door, the A-post seal was trial fitted by taping it in place. Adjustments were made until the door could be closed easily without too much resistance. Some trimming of the seal was needed where it has a protrusion at the base of the A-post.

Initially I had cut the seal exactly to length but the door felt a little hard to close. It is rather subjective at this stage, without the resistance of the other seals. I wanted to keep the additional force needed to compress the A-post rubber to a minimum.

Being nearest the hinge, it requires considerably less force to compress this seal so any noticeable increase now would be magnified once the B-post seal is fitted. Being made of a softer foam allowed it to be cut marginally shorter and then stretched to reduce its cross-section, therefore reducing the resistance.

Once I was happy with the fit, it was time to remove the door to bond the seal in place with the Alphabond AF178 high temperature contact adhesive I’d used for the Koolmat.

The advice for getting the best bond and avoid the seals pulling away is to clean them with methylated spirit to remove any traces of the mould release agents and roughen the surface to be bonded with sandpaper. The contact adhesive should then be applied in three steps:

1. Apply a layer to the rubber seal and leave until tacky
2. Apply a layer to the seal channel and again leave until tacky
3. Apply a second layer to the rubber seal, once the first layer has gone tacky, and when this second layer becomes tacky, push the seal into the channel

I found it easier to tackle the A-post seals in two stages: first from the triangular section at the base of the A-post up to the top of the A-post and then the lower section down to the sill. For the lower section, I inserted a small diameter rubber hose into the gap in the rubber seal before securing it with masking tape. This worked really well in holding the rubber against the sides of the channel until the adhesive had dried.

Top half of A-post bonded first Once dried, the lower half was tackled

Everything was held in place for 24 hours with masking tape and then any excess adhesive removed. First softened with a cloth soaked in white spirit and then carefully wiped away. There were some areas where the adhesive had lifted away from the paint work so these required some touching up and re-bonding. Another tip I was given was to use Dum-Dum style body putty to fill any small holes or gaps.

Previous hanging of doors had been a frustrating and fiddly experience so I only wanted to do it once. The weight of the various internal door mechanisms is not insignificant. So I wanted to have the doors at their full weight before setting all the panel gaps, thus avoiding the risk of them dropping by adding them later.

The doors were refitted to their marked positions and the door internals completed (see below). Only then could the fine adjustments be made to get the panel gaps right. As would be expected, the doors had dropped slightly under the additional weight of the internal mechanisms and so the hinge position within the door had to be adjusted to compensate. A trolley jack was used in place of a suitable assistant to support the door while fine tuning the panel gaps.

Solo door hanging Bonding the bonnet landing seal

I could then move on to the B-post seals, which were tackled in the same manner as the A-post seals. Although these were fitted in one go and needed the bonded edge to be sanded down in places to enable the door to close without undue force. Hopefully, once the final sill seals are added, the doors will still shut easily. If not, it might be a case of re-doing all the rubber seals and re-hanging the doors!

Finally the bonnet landing rubber was bonded in place while the adhesive was out. It was also more manageable by tackling this in two stages.

Door internals, window frames and drop glass
The next task was to complete the fitting of the door internals and drop glass. The initial fitting of the frames produced very different results. The frame on the driver’s side was fairly close and possibly needed a shim added at the rear to bring the leading edge parallel with the A-post.

The passenger side was way off! The leading edge was angling away from the A-post, by approx. 6-7mm at the top, and this was with the rear of the frame raised by two thick shims. Something was wrong!

The driver’s side frame was fairly close However it wasn’t the case for the passenger side!

Suspicion fell on the geometry of the window frame, which had been re-chromed. The re-chroming process involves polishing the underlying plating before the chrome layer is applied. This can cause distortion due a combination of the pressure applied to polish the part and the resulting heat that is generated.

Sure enough, when I tried to fit the drop glass, the regulator channel the glass sits in would not fit into the frame. It was too long, front to rear. I then used the driver side drop glass as a comparison – it’s length fitted fine! Much head scratching ensued … it must be the reproduction regulator channel.


Difference in angles of
rear regulator channels!

Overlaying the two revealed the problem. The angle of the rear of the regulator channel was way off on the passenger side. After much cursing of reproduction parts (that enable us to keep these cars on the road!), I set about removing the glass from the regulator channel. Gentle prising with a screwdriver would only end in tears as the rubber grips the glass very well.

Fortunately a small amount of penetrating oil worked wonders and the glass came out surprisingly easily. The rear edge was bent into the correct alignment and the glass and rubber re-fitted. Longitudinally it now fitted the frame.

Alas the same couldn’t be said for the width. The leading edge of the glass sits in a flock lined rubber channel. While at the rear, the short trailing edge of the regulator channel sides metal on metal in the window frame. The width of the repro ones were too wide.

Both regulator channels required a fair amount of filing to reduce their width so they slid easily within their channels. It was only once I started filing that I realised the rear section was made of brass but had then been zinc plated. When I had first fitted them I had cursed the fact that the reproduction parts hadn’t used brass, as in the originals!

Both regulator channels needed filing Regulator channel were polish to reduce friction

Once they slid easily within their channels, I decided to polish both the regulator channels and the window frames to reduce future binding problems. Some Shin-Etsu Silicone Grease will be applied to the seals and mechanisms before the door cards are fitted.

Attention returned to the passenger side window frame as the glass did not slide cleanly all the way down. The reason was found to be cause by the chromed leading edge of the window frame being bent out of alignment – both rearwards and outwards! Fortunately gentle persuasion allowed it to be re-bent close to its original shape.


The width of the channel
allows the glass to rattle

I thought this would be the end of my window woes. How wrong could I be! The flock lined front channel comes in two sizes for 4.75mm and 6mm glass. I had the latter but, with the glass being a little shy of 5mm, it allows the window to rattle within the channel. However, the smaller size would cause binding issues.

At this point I chuckled as I’d been in correspondence with the Jacksons whose E-Type refurbishment exploits have been covered in the E-type magazine. They had already experienced almost identical restoration issues, not just in the fitting the drop glass! But now I think I understood the issues they had encountered with the flock lined channel.

I also purchased some lengths of thin rubber strips to pack one side of channel in the window frame before inserting the flock lined rubber alongside. This closes the channel slightly to guide the glass without causing it to bind or allowing it to rattle.

Building up the door innards
The first task was to fit the door handles and then set the gap between the push button plunger and the lock/latch striker lever to 1/32”. This should ensure that the latch is fully released when the push button is pressed. Adjustments were made by slackening the lock nut on the plunger, adjusting the setscrew and then nipping up the lock nut.

Setting the plunger-latch gap Allen key fixing lever position Setting the handle/lock link

The fitting of the link between the door handle lever and lock requires the lever to be fixed in position. Aligning a hole in the lever with a hole in the rear casing allows a small Allen key to be inserted to lock the position. The link is then fixed to the handle lever. Its lower end has three overlapping, fittings holes and it is simply a matter of picking the best fit to the lock lever.

The regulator springs had been removed prior to the regulators being plated and were showing signs of rusting. They were shot blasted and blackened with a four stage process supplied by Caswell UK. The process only takes approximately 30 minutes but the final stage requires the component to be dipped in oil and then left to dry overnight. I’m not convinced how durable this finish will be and its ability to stop future rusting so it will be packed with grease prior to fitting the door cards.

Regulator springs prior to blackening Spring after blackening and dipping in oil Regulator wound to refit spring

With the springs fitted, the regulator could be inserted from above, followed by the two brackets to secure the bottom of the window frame to the base of the door. These brackets are moveable on their mounting stud so the lateral position of the top of the drop glass can be adjusted. These were only hand-tightened as they will need adjusting when the hood frame is trial fitted.

Regulator was fed in from above Rear window bracket Front bracket is shorter

I found it easiest to insert the window frame by first tilting it forward and inwards at the top until the front stud has cleared the door frame. It was then secured at the top in three places, where two screws pass through the window frame and door frame into a thin plate below. Shims can be added as required between the window frame and door frame to either raise the whole frame or tilt it so the frames leading edge is parallel with the A-post.

(Although when I mentioned this to E-type expert Ken Verity, he suggested the need to tilt the frame with shims would suggest the frame might not be 100% true. This may cause window binding problems so needs to be checked before continuing. Distortion is typically caused by people use the glass or frame to pull themselves from the car.)

Clearing the front stud Fixing for top of the window frame Regulator fitted and at full height

The external glass weather strip needed to be clipped onto the door skin before inserting the drop glass because there wouldn’t be sufficient access once the glass was in place. (Update – I was jumping the gun here and had to remove it! I had forgotten to fit the chrome door flash so had incorrectly assumed the weather strip was attached to the lip of the door skin. I think it needs to be clipped to the lip of the chrome flash!) The window regulator needs to be raised to its maximum height in order to engage it with the drop glass channel.

Engaging drop glass with regulator Almost there – drop glass fitted Door remote control attaches to lock

Next is the door remote control. Its link arm is attached to the door lock to enable the door to be opened by the interior lever. A wavy washer is fitted between the lock and the link arm to take up the free play. The square nuts fitted in the regulator channels set the maximum height of the windows but these will wait until the trial fitting of the hood.

The doors were also fitted with a bracket that had a semi-circular foam section bonded to it. This is to dampen vibrations in the remote control link arm. Unfortunately these were missing on my car but once again RM & J Smith came to the rescue for obscure, missing parts. They had a pair of original brackets that would need tidying up and the foam replacing.

Finding suitable replacement foam was not an easy task! Eventually I found Seals+Direct who offered a 1” diameter 1/2 round cord of expanded Neoprene (part ENHC94) which was ideal. Strips were bonded to the brackets with the Alfabond AF178 contact adhesive.

The small aluminium seal blocks need to be fitted to the trailing edge of the doors before the door rubbers are trial fitted because these compress the upper part of the B-post seal.

Bonding new rubber Damping brackets fitted Finally the sealing blocks

The last check was to ensure the height of the door frames against the A-post was even on both sides. The driver side was flush with the A-post cap while the passenger side was 1/8” lower. An equivalent depth of shims was added under the window frame edge to bring the frame up to the same level.

Driver’s frame flush with A-post Passenger side was 1/8” lower!

What should have taken a day or two ended up taking well over a week! Next will be the refurbishing of the hood frame ….

Update: a recent post in the ‘factory fit’ thread on the E-Type forum identified that the chrome bracket for mounting a hard top is secured at the top by a 12-28UNF cheese head screw. This screw passes through the channel for the B-post seal into the rear of the chrome bracket (circled in red below). Therefore the seal needs to be fitted after bracket and the bracket is fitted after the interior trim.

I will therefore have to undo my fine work and detach the top 3″ or so, by softening the contact adhesive with white spirit, and re-attach once the interior trim is completed.

Hard top securing bracket Securing screw behind B-post seal

Images courtesy of E-Type Forum

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