Early Javelin Restoration

[NeilMoore]

Hi Chris, Peter Pfizer, and team, Interested to touch base regarding the origins of this car! I was involved at the tail end when Jack Quinn was trying to get the car road worthy for our NZ warrent of fitness. He had a garage next door doing some work and they were a bit lost for parts and information. I helped with both mainly some better 2HA axles which had splitpin holes still in the axle ends! And some better brake drums. They had found some later Nissan front brake cylinders and had made up new hoses to suit (non std Jowett ). I think the new cyls had 3/8unf threads compared to Jowett one 7/16 UNF . Any way they worked! We also loaned a set of tyres to assist getting the WOF and these miraculously ended up in Switzerland!!? Check them out Peter as I've been browsing Peter Wilks bit on tyres and I think you have 4 x radials of Bridgestone origin 175/16 Desert Duellers speed rated over 100mph fitted on original Jowett 3" rims. We have been doing this in NZ for a few years now with reasonable success (but not at 100mph+ of course). They possibly have tubes fitted ?
Don't know how this fits with the rules in UK or Switzerland?
Regarding the origins of the car I was interested to see it was a NZ new car as I only saw it first when with Robrt Quantrill and it was not on the road then. Was surprised to see The late Atholl Shadbolt had owned it (in his wife's name). Any minor detail changes may originate from that period but the car appears to be pretty original. There was a long gap in ownership from 1954to 1985 which I may be able to fill in partly and I suspect Atholl found it hiding somewhere. The speedo readings would be in miles not Kms. Mileages were included on NZ ownership papers from approx 1960s so from 1985 was a mistake by the bureaucrats ,and more recent owners! The number plate BH7404 originated from 1966 when all NZ cars got permanent numbers, prior to that they changed every 5 years. Hope that helps ! Neil Moore The I LUVNZ plate was Atholls personal plate which was removed before selling on !

[Forumadmin]

Thanks Neil for the info. We have come across many modifications and your info might add to that, I will need to have another another look at the items you talked about. If you have read the whole thread you will see most of the mods.

[p.p.]

Jambo Neil Moore,

thanks for the infos....
just to tell you: the nice tyres never got to switzerland - got very old one's just for the bin.... the brigedstone radials stayed in NZ....

have a nice time

peter

[Chris Spencer]

So after nearly a year in hibernation works has recommenced on the Javelin bodyshell - unfortunately I had a very major project dropped onto my desk which required my skills in the South West of the country - very long hours and working away from home = no free time for Jowetts - add to this the fact that we had just moved house (which requires work) and things came to a stop with the project. I have managed a few weekends which have moved things on slightly but not much - Peter was over in December for a few days and removed any surface rust that the bare metal shell was gaining.

The bodyshell will again feature at NEC Restoration Show at the end of March so I needed to get cracking - I had managed to squeeze some time in on the N/S/R wing repairs - mainly to the front leading edge where they all suffer from rust perforation - the entire front edge & support brackets required remaking from scratch (same has the O/S/R which had already been undertaken) - This is a very time consuming process and requires making up in approximately 8 sections due to multiple compound curvatures in the panel.

This process requires the wing to be fitted / removed several times - utilising the bodyshell has a jig to keep the wing in place and to prevent heat distortion from the welding process - the critical point is the gap between the front edge and the rear door - this alone took several hours to get to an acceptable standard - other repairs to the wing area / bodyshell were also undertaken at the same time

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This old braised repair had opened up and required sorting before the wing was refitted -

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Cut out

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New metal welded in /made good and cleaned up

[Chris Spencer]

Next was gap / panel fit - these were rubbish when the car was new - but no reason that at this point they cannot be improved upon

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It may look ok in the picture but believe me it's unacceptable if I am to put my name to it - so much fettling later - the wing was removed & refitted three times in order to get the adjustment right

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the door line deviated inward for a section and this was rectified by building the edge up with weld and then carefully cleaning back with a flap wheel on the angle grinder

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Much work later the work resulted in a decent gap / panel fit

[Chris Spencer]

Various dents were dressed on the wing along with several splits rewelded / made good

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this non original aperture for a rear light was also addressed with new metal

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[Chris Spencer]

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Wing reattached and checked for final fit

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Fastening detail where the wing bolts to the inner wing / D post on the bodyshell - because I have made all new fastening brackets I have been able to weld them exactly where they were required - but if you need to improve the fitting of the rear wings on your own Javelin you can pack off these brackets to improve the door wing alignment outwards with washers / spacers - equally you can dress the brackets inwards if you need to bring the wing in to meet the door gapping / alignment

[Chris Spencer]

So here is what I started with

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Previous repairs with brass - not visible in the images but the whole area has so many perforations in it that it could double up has a colander - The area to the left of the marked lines was cut / removed and scrapped

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New leading edge support bracket formed to match the wings profile. Next jobs are a small repair to N/S/R door check catch and a final check of the panel fit to the front wing and door on the nearside - then I move onto the offside panels fit / gapping and panel repairs to the O/S doors

[Chris Spencer]

More progress yesterday

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At some stage in the cars life the N/S/R door check strap bracket had been reattched to the B post with brass but slightly out of alignment with the aperture on the door frame - to correct this they had just hacked at the aperture with a chisel - I set about putting it right tidying up the bent over metal but it still left a small piece of the door frame missing - I cut a small section from larger piece of metal but did not cut all the way through on the aperture edge - this gave me the ability to hold / position the piece whilst it was welded in

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Then it was just a matter of folding the remaining larger piece of metal backwards and forwards a couple of times to break it free and then a tidy up with the angle grinder / die grinder

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[Chris Spencer]

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All of the N/S/R door was aligned with exception of the top frame where it was out of alignment by 10 mm with the front door

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Fix here was to build the frame up with weld

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Then clean up with the grinder and bring to final alignment with a large flat file

[Chris Spencer]

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I had previously packed the rear door off the hinge plates with washers on a temporary basis in order to achieve the correct door gapping with the rear wing - with the door removed I made up new spacer plates utilising the hinge plates for pattern

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[Chris Spencer]

However packing the hinge plates off the door brings a further problem in that the door skin hinge rebates are now too deep

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Resolved by welding in small filler plates to the door skin and making good

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So lots of small detail completed but its the small detail that matters - the nearside of of the car is now virtually complete from a panel fitting / welding prospective - it will require a final denib with the orbital sander and small areas dressing / shaping with a hammer & dolly prior to the worked / dressed areas being lead loaded. I plan to now move onto the offside panels - the front & rear wings have already been repaired so its just minor welding repairs to the front door and the rear door requires a new frame bottom - Onwards

[Chris Spencer]

Just before I moved the bodyshell across the workshop to work on the offside I tackled the bonnet edge on the nearside

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The underside edge has rebates let in to clear the fastening for the bonnet side chrome trim - but these weaken the panel and split

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What was required was some form of reinforcement - I made up some strips of angle in the folder and then formed the radius to match the bonnet with the shrinker before letting in the fastening rebates

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[Chris Spencer]

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Clamped in place - I then spot welded the reinforcing strips in place

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The splits were welded up and the holes for the chrome trim fastening redrilled before the worked areas were cleaned up

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I just have to replicate the procedure for the offside

[Chris Spencer]

So that's the welding complete on the nearside

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