Resurrecting a 1948 Jaguar 1-1/2 liter Saloon

[margallar]

in that case make sure that you have the original paint properly covered up with old newspapers while the wings get painted. btw do you have any specific paint treatment in mind for the original paint?

[usmanulamin]

My God, thats Jaw Dropping ...

A suggestion, why not paint those rim spokes in silver chrome ? Would look better i guess.

[msabbasi]

My God, thats Jaw Dropping ...

A suggestion, why not paint those rim spokes in silver chrome ? Would look better i guess.

Thanks for the appreciation and suggestion. When carrying out any restoration, when it comes to the colour, the restorer is faced with a huge variety of colours. In my humble opinion, painting a car in a colour that was never offered by the factory leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth. A point in case would be to put metallic paint on this car when in 1947 metallic paint was not invented or painting a Morris Minor turquoise when the factory never offer in that colour.

I did think about silver for the wheels but have decided to stay with black. Why you may ask. Simply because this car still has the original colour on the wheels - Black. Plus this car always had its wheels in the same colour as the body. So if the car was lavender grey its wheels were also lavender grey etc.

Here is the official sales brochure (page fifteen) for this car listing the factory colours vs. the interior colours (mine is Black/Brown):

You can see that silver was never offered as an official colour.

I also have many many original pictures of this car from 1947/8, it always had wheels the same colour as the body. So that is why the wheels shall remain in there original black colour

I hope that satisfactorily answers your question:).

Cheers

[msabbasi]

in that case make sure that you have the original paint properly covered up with old newspapers while the wings get painted. btw do you have any specific paint treatment in mind for the original paint?

Thank you for the heads up. You have taken the idea right out of my mind. I will personally supervise the masking of the car in the paint booth. For now I do not have any treatment for the old factory paint beyond the usual wax polish.

[usmanulamin]

Thanks for the appreciation and suggestion. When carrying out any restoration, when it comes to the colour, the restorer is faced with a huge variety of colours. In my humble opinion, painting a car in a colour that was never offered by the factory leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth. A point in case would be to put metallic paint on this car when in 1947 metallic paint was not invented or painting a Morris Minor turquoise when the factory never offer in that colour.

I did think about silver for the wheels but have decided to stay with black. Why you may ask. Simply because this car still has the original colour on the wheels - Black. Plus this car always had its wheels in the same colour as the body. So if the car was lavender grey its wheels were also lavender grey etc.

Here is the official sales brochure (page fifteen) for this car listing the factory colours vs. the interior colours (mine is Black/Brown):

You can see that silver was never offered as an official colour.

I also have many many original pictures of this car from 1947/8, it always had wheels the same colour as the body. So that is why the wheels shall remain in there original black colour

I hope that satisfactorily answers your question:).

Cheers

Oh thanks for the explaination, Hmm Yes the original thing should be kept, thats would be best.

[margallar]

Thank you for the heads up. You have taken the idea right out of my mind. I will personally supervise the masking of the car in the paint booth. For now I do not have any treatment for the old factory paint beyond the usual wax polish.

if it looks good after a simple wax then i wouldn't suggest messing with it too much. btw is it single stage (non clear coated),if colour comes off when you use any sort of abrasive then its single stage paint

[msabbasi]

if it looks good after a simple wax then i wouldn't suggest messing with it too much. btw is it single stage (non clear coated),if colour comes off when you use any sort of abrasive then its single stage paint

The original paint finish in this car used by the factory back in 1947 was Cellulose Paint. In Pakistan that is something people have no idea about. This paint is still used overseas by shops wanting to follow the traditional look of a classic car. However, other paints 2K etc. are perhaps better.

[VEEeight]

You're definitely on the right track on the paint, particularly in keeping the wheels the same colour as the body. For a veh of this vintage in concept, essentially a carry over of a per war design, AND the history/ pedigree of THIS particular car, adhering to the original specs and features is the ONLY way to go.

I hope the paint booth will be properly filtered, humidified etc. I once had a horrible experience in a supposedly state of the art one a few years ago. The paint shop will put up with whatever you tell them considering the mileage it will get out of telling customers about painting such a jewel

[VEEeight]

Amazing transformation!!!

The curtain and its draw strings remind of scenes from the movie " the yellow Rolls Royce " Despite the work on the leather on the seats, the original patina has been retained which wouldn't have been possible if the original materials had not been used. A definite first for me

[msabbasi]

You're definitely on the right track on the paint, particularly in keeping the wheels the same colour as the body. For a veh of this vintage in concept, essentially a carry over of a per war design, AND the history/ pedigree of THIS particular car, adhering to the original specs and features is the ONLY way to go.

I hope the paint booth will be properly filtered, humidified etc. I once had a horrible experience in a supposedly state of the art one a few years ago. The paint shop will put up with whatever you tell them considering the mileage it will get out of telling customers about painting such a jewel

The curtain and its draw strings remind of scenes from the movie " the yellow Rolls Royce " Despite the work on the leather on the seats, the original patina has been retained which wouldn't have been possible if the original materials had not been used. A definite first for me

VEBRA, the place I have decided to get the job done is, IMHO, THE place to get body work done. Altough they are expensive - about 1.5 times the normal price and the other thing is that they are sensitive to the customer's needs and wishes. That suits me fine. I have had a look at the paint booth. It seems to be OK. They bake the paint at 60 deg C.

Regarding you other comment about patina, as you said, retaining patina is not necissarily a bad thing. Perhaps if I were going to enter my car in the Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, I may be worried about the cracks in the paint and leather. Here, in Pakistan, there is no such event. I know that my car is no comparison to the one I am about to talk about but I am going to try to make a point about patina. The pictures below are of a Aston Martin Zegato. A rare car. Originally bought new for GBP 5469/-, later traded for an Austin Healy plus GBP 200. Recently sold for 6 million Pound. Have a close look at the front seats in the picture below.

Note the crazed leather

Beautiful car. Please don't think I am comparing my car to this one. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. Just saying that this car with its patina still managed to demand 6 million Pounds.

[VEEeight]

VEBRA, the place I have decided to get the job done is, IMHO, THE place to get body work done. Altough they are expensive - about 1.5 times the normal price and the other thing is that they are sensitive to the customer's needs and wishes. That suits me fine. I have had a look at the paint booth. It seems to be OK. They bake the paint at 60 deg C.

Regarding you other comment about patina, as you said, retaining patina is not necissarily a bad thing. Perhaps if I were going to enter my car in the Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, I may be worried about the cracks in the paint and leather. Here, in Pakistan, there is no such event. I know that my car is no comparison to the one I am about to talk about but I am going to try to make a point about patina. The pictures below are of a Aston Martin Zegato. A rare car. Originally bought new for GBP 5469/-, later traded for an Austin Healy plus GBP 200. Recently sold for 6 million Pound. Have a close look at the front seats in the picture below.

Note the crazed leather

Beautiful car. Please don't think I am comparing my car to this one. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. Just saying that this car with its patina still managed to demand 6 million Pounds.

I think retaining patina where it is possible, is an absolute bonus and am very glad to note you have been able to do this during the refurbishment. Having undertaken well over a dozen full restorations, have never been lucky enough to be able to do that due to the sad state of the vehs. On cars that just needed a cosmetic makeovef externally I HAVE done what you have. (case in point, leather int of a'70s Cadillac ) The sad thing is that for the most part, the unknowing wont really be able to understand the sheer "goodness" of being able to retain the stampings of time

Then Zagato Aston is an acquired taste so to say and the state of the seats only strengthen my viewpoint. I once sat in a Seventies V8 ( single headlight model right after the quad light DBS V8) at an auction and couldn't get over the Jaguar switchgear and door locks in it ! So maybe the comparison isn't so out of pace after all

[msabbasi]

I have been driving this car about a bit, basically to the shops nearby (less than 2km) and found that the right front spinner becomes loose after each trip. This is very dangerous and I cretainly can't go 12km to the paint shop. That is like driving your car with the wheel nuts loose. After much investigation and experimentation I have found out that there is a problem with the front right spinner. Based on research and teaching myself a bit of engineering about wire wheels I found that the wire wheel is supported on the tapers of the hub and spinner. See figure 1 below. This is a crude sketch where the wire wheel is 1A, the hub is 1C, spinner is 1D, and the correct contact points are at 1F and 1E.

I used Prussian Blue to see the contact points in my car and found that the spinner was not contacting the wheel in the correct place. See Figure 2 below relating to my car. Note the contact point 1E. The spinner is contacting the wheel at the face rather than the taper. That is why the spinner is opening up as the wheel turns.

For those who are not familiar with such wheels, the spinners tighten in a direction opposite to wheel travel. That is the right side spinners have a left hand thread and the left side spinners have right hand threads. This is so that as the car drives the centrifugal forces on the spinners are always causing the spinners to tighten.

Back to the problem at hand. What to do? Two solutions presented themselves to me. One - To machine the spinner in a way that it would tighten to the point the spinner would grip the wheel at the taper. Two - Was to provide a taper spacer of the same degree a the spinner thick enough to take up the space between it and the wheel.

After careful calculation I found out that if I opted for "one" the spinner would become dangerously weak. So there was no option but to go for option two. I pulled out my old drafting book from university days and revisited the method on how to manufacture a truncated cone. Measurements told me that I needed a 0.75mm thick spacer with a 12 degree taper with a width of 18mm.

Fabrication was done by yours truly based on the following drawing I made for the required part out of 0.75mm thick sheet. Here are the working drawing followed by a close up of the actual spacer.

The spacer in real life

Happy to say that since fixing of the spacer the spinner is no longer coming loose and neither has the integrity of the spinner been compromised.

Now we are all set to go to the paint shop.

[msabbasi]

I think retaining patina where it is possible, is an absolute bonus and am very glad to note you have been able to do this during the refurbishment. Having undertaken well over a dozen full restorations, have never been lucky enough to be able to do that due to the sad state of the vehs. On cars that just needed a cosmetic makeovef externally I HAVE done what you have. (case in point, leather int of a'70s Cadillac ) The sad thing is that for the most part, the unknowing wont really be able to understand the sheer "goodness" of being able to retain the stampings of time

Then Zagato Aston is an acquired taste so to say and the state of the seats only strengthen my viewpoint. I once sat in a Seventies V8 ( single headlight model right after the quad light DBS V8) at an auction and couldn't get over the Jaguar switchgear and door locks in it ! So maybe the comparison isn't so out of pace after all

Of course you are right about saving patina where possible. My whole posting was to make a case to such individuals who have a car which has a possibility of retaining signs of aging as opposed to going gung ho with the restoration putting in new stuff everywhere without giving respecting the original materials. A case in point being replacing leather with Rexene! Of course if there is nothing to begin with and the restoration is a "recreation" then certainly we do the best we can.

[farazarif]

Impatiently looking forward to the car progressing into the paint stage. MashaAllah the interior looks beautiful, I have come across cars too many times in which the owners have replaced the beautiful genuine leather seats with rexine just because the original leather had become crazed with age. The car ends up loosing all its smells and that takes away a significant proportion of the experience of driving / riding in it.

[msabbasi]

Impatiently looking forward to the car progressing into the paint stage. MashaAllah the interior looks beautiful, I have come across cars too many times in which the owners have replaced the beautiful genuine leather seats with rexine just because the original leather had become crazed with age. The car ends up loosing all its smells and that takes away a significant proportion of the experience of driving / riding in it.

Thank you for your words of appreciation. Will post pictures of our adventures at the paint shop.

[msabbasi]

Since there is nothing happening with the car while I wait to go to the paint shop, I thought I may open yet another chapter on "quaintness" about the car.

We have already established the fact that the "air conditioning" does not provide cool air. The makers of the car were thoughtful enough to provide a device to shove fresh air plus flies and mosquitoes into the faces of the driver and passenger. Behold the opening front windscreen.

Jokes aside, I actually use this to great effect. It really gets the car cool.

While we are on the subject of the front screen, In the introductory passages of the thread, there is a picture of the failed screen seal. I have replaced the said seal as shown in the pictures below. Please excuse the dust on the car. It will get a lot more dusty at the paint shop.

Cheers....

[VEEeight]

Since there is nothing happening with the car while I wait to go to the paint shop, I thought I may open yet another chapter on "quaintness" about the car.

We have already established the fact that the "air conditioning" does not provide cool air. The makers of the car were thoughtful enough to provide a device to shove fresh air plus flies and mosquitoes into the faces of the driver and passenger. Behold the opening front windscreen.

Jokes aside, I actually use this to great effect. It really gets the car cool.

While we are on the subject of the front screen, In the introductory passages of the thread, there is a picture of the failed screen seal. I have replaced the said seal as shown in the pictures below. Please excuse the dust on the car. It will get a lot more dusty at the paint shop.

Cheers....

My late father's first car was a 1948 Hillman ( reg no. RI 438.....in case it survives.....!) bought in 1952 for Rs.4000 that also had an opening front windscreens and even when he got the car of his dreams in later years, he said he missed that tilting feature

[madhouse12]

for gentle and proper treatment of paint, might i recommend DC crew? they do amazing work and usman has an awesome knowledge of paints and treatment. the only issue, he is in lahore.

Detailing Crew | Car Care And Detailing Dreams - Car Wax & Polish Reviews

[msabbasi]

for gentle and proper treatment of paint, might i recommend DC crew? they do amazing work and usman has an awesome knowledge of paints and treatment. the only issue, he is in lahore.

Detailing Crew | Car Care And Detailing Dreams - Car Wax & Polish Reviews

Thanks, as you said, they are in Lahore. Any decent outfit in our area?

[margallar]

you should do it yourself, most people, even detailers don't understand that the approach for work on such old paints is not the same as that for new clearcoated ones. such old single stage paint can't be treated by conventional methods (compound). it need to first be hydrated and then you can think about giving it a cut (that too if there is enough paint). i recommend discussing your car on autogeekonline.net. and even before you think about treating all the paint, you should do a test spot and check how the paint reacts to your treatment and then keep your test spot under observation for atleast a month. such old paints can get unstable, that means that they will again oxidise in a small time even after compound. this is a very delicate process which i don't believe that anyone can do in one day.