Jupiter SA 'Bitza' Special

[Chris Spencer]

Having fancied obtaining a Jupiter for some time now I considered the options - while it's nice to have a completed road car in the garage that you just sit in and drive - would it be to my liking / colour choice and after spending £20k + would I be happy with it or would I be forever attempting to improve the car - fact is that £20k is out of my budget and even if I did have the funds I would rather put it towards our impending house relocation.

So next option and far more rewarding from my point of view is purchase a car to restore - again far easier said than done - Jupiter restoration projects rarely come to the market and with the last SA project selling for £8k and the last SC project changing hands at £12k - again I find them out of budget. It is not all about money but being a Yorkshireman common sense has to apply.

Third option realised when Drummond indicated that he had a near complete set of Jupe SA panels, ok the bulkhead is rusty lace but I have since sourced a fairly sound example - the panels all require work but that it is not really an issue. Over the last year I have aquired a chassis, rear axle and many other parts which have brought a viable project together.

Plan is to maintain much of the Jupiter body style but to modify in order to make the best of the car - so a SC boot conversion to the chassis & body is on the cards, maybe some minor styling mods to the bonnet, upgrades to lighting, seating etc. Motion through the usual power unit but with some upgrades as required, a 5 speed gearbox conversion is planned but drive to the rear wheels shall be through a standard rear axle / diff setup. Some mods to the suspension and maybe wheels. In essence the car will maintain all the style / apperance of the original Jupiter - However, with the car having been assembled from many fractions of other Jupiters I am not going to get hung up on the originality of the car - none the less it will be one more Jowett returning to the road. It's a few years away yet - house relocation is first on the cards along with a couple of other members restorations first but I will keep you all informed of the developments.

[RichardMc]

It must be the season for Jupiter rebuilds! Best of luck, I'll keep you updated on how mine goes, if I discover anything special I'll let you know. I did some measuring up on my dad's SC at the weekend. The ford gearbox might involve quite a bit of alteration to get everything to line up so I'm looking at using the Le Mans rear diff to up the gearing instead. I took his SC out for a spin while I had the keys, I'd forgotten how much fun they were!

[Chris Spencer]

Well I added another peice to the jigsaw over the last week with aquiring a bulkhead - scruffy & rusty but in fantastic condition when compared to the orginal - it will require some repair just like every other panel or part that I have for the car.

[chapman]

Hi Chris
No book says it has to be original and to call it a Jowett you only need the chassis number (and the Chassis of course,
These bitzers are the ones I alway go to look at first at shows so I am looking forward to this one
The main thing is Chris that it has to be fast and fairly reliable as your "Crowd" and they know who they are ,tend to drive their Jups really hard and over amazing distances
The other thing the crowd has is they know how to mend em and they also help others if needed

[Edmund Nankivell]

Chris
Are you aware that the SA tail panel is flatter than the SC tail panel which is more humped. So if you fitted an SC boot lid to a cutout in the SA tail panel it would be the wrong shape; better to make a new panel. Plus of course there are tubes right underneath in the SA version.
Edmund