SHOULD WE SAVE A FEW/SOME/OR ALL OF EXISTING JOWETT SPARES?

[Forumadmin]

Perhaps in the Jowetteer...

Although Chris and Jack (who attended) said that the problem had gone away and no parts have (or will be scrapped)

[p.p.]

good news

[george garside]

could it be that the strength of feelings expressed on this forum had anyting to do with it!! .Whether it did or didn't the number of posts has proved the worth of the forum in enabling 'instant' clubwide debate on matters of importance & also reinforced the desirability of some sort of link with the Jowetteer to draw attention to what is currently being discussed on towett talk.

george

[Keith Clements]

Please volunteer to provide our esteemed editor(s) of each club magazine with a precis of any topic on this forum. If the editor receives from more than one of you he will not be disappointed.

[Jack]

I expect, (not now being an executive committee member any longer) that this was an agenda item at the recent Exec. meeting. Can anyone let us know what was discussed?

Tony.

Hi Tony,

I was at the meeting, and can confirm that this was discussed in some detail and at some length, with everyone allowed input (me included!) and all opinions and avenues considered.

The general opinion was that nobody wanted to scrap any spares that did not need to be scrapped, however that depended on available space at JCS. The JCS team advised there was space available, and as such it wasn't a pressing issue right now.

It may, however, become an issue in future, but for the moment it does not seem to be as pressing as many of us had considered it to be based on information in the Jowetteer.

I agree with Paul regarding some spares that simply do not have a market or value at the moment, and are unlikely to ever have a market or value. The Exec seemed to be in agreement with Paul that there is a need to look at tooling and moulds for the future. If we can manufacture parts then we are not reliant on secondhand parts to the same extent.

I am sure there will be more info in the Jowetteer summarising the position, but I thought I would allay any possible fears that the club is about to load up a skip for the scrap man without our knowledge!

Jack.

[Tony Fearn]

Thanks for that Jack. At least we know that discussions are taking place at the highest level.

I've only been putting in an occasional post recently, just to keep the discussion at the top of the list, and there have been very many erudite posts covering the broader range of issues around the core subject.

Could it be that the strength of feeling expressed on this forum had anyting to do with it! Whether it did or it didn't, the number of posts has proved the worth of the forum in enabling 'instant' club-wide debate on matters of importance & also reinforced the desirability of some sort of link with the Jowetteer to draw attention to what is currently being discussed on JowettTalk.

George

George's quote is spot on, as is Keith's reply, so is there anyone out there that will rise to the challenge?

Perhaps we can now draw a line under this thread, unless of course someone really wishes to add their thoughts.

Tony.

[Keith Andrews]

George's quote is spot on, as is Keith's reply, so is there anyone out there that will rise to the challenge?

If u mean this Keith...sry the gas bill (milage on a 747 is a bit out of my league) to attend meeting and the length of the drive doesnt pemitt ...about 32,000 miles... one way.. lol

[p.p.]

maybe it will be a idee to organise a visit to the spare part JCS after the national rally.... special interesting for the member wo never seen the place !!!!!!!! me included
this was a very interesting TOPIC in the jowett forum
peter

[Jack]

On the subject of 'originality' I own up! Not only is my Javelin the non-standard colour of British Leyland Bronze Yellow of the 1970s Austin/Morris 1300 GT (Shame on you, Wilks!!) but it is also fitted with a fibre glass offside rear wing obtained 40 years ago from Ken Braddock of Marple- he only had one decent steel rear wing (near-side) which I also purchased. At the time he had produced fibre glass versions both n/s and o/s but I can't remember whether he produced front wings as well.

I wonder if anyone else in the club fitted Ken's fibre glass wings to their Javelin.

A thread rises like a phoenix from the flames, from an innocent search of the forum, to confirm that we have a pair of these. Great to know where they came from, we inherited them with a big pile of spares and weren't sure. Is your fibreglass wing still on the car? How has it held up over the years? Any strengthening or modification required? Any issues with fit, flex, or anything else?

We should really weigh ours and establish if there is any gain to fitting these, other than avoiding the rust fairy of course. Did anyone ever do fibreglass front wings?

Jack.

[paul wilks]

Hi Jack

Yes, the rear offside fibre glass wing is still fitted. It has been on the car since 1968ish.

Forty years after respray I noticed the paint on the wing was, I think you call it, crazing- small lines across it, whereas the rest of the car was simply showing signs of the age of the paint job- fading etc.

Other than that there has been no strengthening, no modification, no issues with fit, no flexing, or anything else. And no rust!

Paul

[Forumadmin]

What is the reason for the crazing do we think? Is it the wrong primer/paint or wrong formulation of the fibre glass resin or something else?

[Nick Webster]

Fibreglass Crazing. You could fill the forum on this subject, but basically it is the fibreglass that is at fault - particularly the back, unfinished side although even the outer skin is seldom perfect. Unless you use extremely sophisticated vacuum resin injection techniques the laying up of the fibreglass creates tiny voids. You can liken what happens next to potholes in a road. A certain amount of moisture from the air will naturally have been trapped and eventually one way ot another even more will find its way into the voids (can happen relatively quickly with a boat) and micro cracking occurs. I doesn't have to freeze - just temperature change will cause a hydraulic problem. At its extreme it is known by folks who have anything to do with fibreglass (though I think probably technically incorrectly) as osmosis. This manifests itself as bubbling on the surface and at this point the resin and laminate have started to lose bonding and local strength is compromised. I am not aware that it is a chemical breakdown in the same way as the polythene in steering wheels.

Nick

[paul wilks]

Hmm. Interesting stuff Nick but since the crazing didn't manifest itself until about 40 years after the car had been resprayed and three years ago I had the car resprayed the same colour I don't think I am going to lose any sleep over it! Another forty years would do me fine- I'll be 105 and doubtless the car will be resprayed again by the next owner!

Paul

[Nick Webster]

Paul, Yes indeed - even when I write "relatively quickly" I'm still talking perhaps 25 -30 years or so of unprotected material. I don't think anyone with a fibreglass car should loose sleep - it will be better than steel! There are of course issues where the classic market value is affected by the fitment of non standard panels but then that is a different kettle of fish. I paid £80 for a car (non Jowett) in 1978, which had fibreglass panels and now that is about the value of the horn push. You have to be philosophical.

Nick

[Tony Fearn]

so I thought we might open a wider discussion on JowettTalk about the future of all the spares that are around the UK in various lofts, sheds, garages, and club sections as well as the JCS facility.

This topic was well received by the Jowett fraternity, and many views were posted.

Today 9th April 2016, I saw on eBay a rather un-loved used Javelin engine for sale at £425:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371591580493? ... EBIDX%3AIT

So perhaps we should save everything Jowett and sell it on eBay. We might become millionaires - 'tongue in cheek of course'.

Tony.