Great SC rebuild.......

[Chris Spencer]

Keith - You forgot to list the kettle - 'The Grumpy Northener' has to be lubricated with tea or nothing gets done in his section.

Jack - You are jumpimg the gun with the clear out - we have yet to finish the SC yet - how we have come to win 3 awards with an unfinished car amuses me - we still have the hood frame to referb and complete which we will do this winter, that and some soundproofing to the floor and bulkhead, plus there is the odd bit of paintwork that I am still unhappy with.

[Forumadmin]

On the contrary was first on the list (aka Teasmaid) as I thought Jack might damage himself with a kettle.

[Chris Spencer]

I never thought of that and I bet a scoulded nipple is very painfull !

[Forumadmin]

The professional pictures taken of the winners and sponsors on the Friday.
TOPIC

[Forumadmin]

The February 2011 edition of Classic Cars (suprisingly on the news stands in December 2010!) contains, on page 10, a report on 'the Class of 2010' with probably the best picture ever of a Jowett. Heh, I am biased as it is of the SC....
When I showed it to the news seller he said 'how did you get it that shiny?'.

[Jack]

We're also on p.21 of February's Practical Classics.

And we got it that shiny with hours and hours and hours of elbow grease (and not letting dad wash it with a chamois... ). I think I spent the best part of 9 hours actually washing, polishing, waxing, shining and detailing the car before the show was opened.

[Forumadmin]

Is that Amy impersonating Jack? Dad also helped at the show by washing the car just as it started to rain, before letting the real work start inside the hall !!!! A chamois was used but not in circles.

[Jack]

Is that Amy impersonating Jack? Dad also helped at the show by washing the car just as it started to rain, before letting the real work start inside the hall !!!! A chamois was used but not in circles.

She was - using the laptop with me still logged in. Just think of the trouble she could have caused!

[Forumadmin]

I have spent some of the long festive break collecting my thoughts and material together on the early days of the Great SC Strip Show and Rebuild.
Jenny is recovering from her throat cancer and offered to type some of it, scribbled in the' blue book' 30 years ago. The story carries on from that earlier in this thread to cover the 30 odd sessions that went through 1981, 1982 and 1983. There are lots of 'drawings' and dimensions which I have processed through Photoshop.
Others who were involved have offered to add their views. As over 30 people assisted in some way or other, I hope it shows the friendly club effort that went on throughout the epic saga. So please email me or add your record on JowettTalk .

There are so many threads to the disjointed story that I will try to link using hyperlink technology so that people can thread their own way through the interlinked maze.
I may experiment with the JowettGallery technology so that people can comment on the various aspects. But do not worry a simple version will also be available to print!

I am actually feeling quite chuffed tonight as the central heating broke down again (having done so just before Christmas). After extensive fault finding I was teetering on whether to call for a £1500 replacement or whether to pull out all the innards as I suspected the fault was on the main circuit board. I did the latter with much difficulty and traced the fault to a dry joint. The fix took about 60 secs with my fast warm up soldering iron; but replacing the board and every wire and plug took an hour. Anyway we are now warm again. The boiler is 15 years old so no spares would be available; but like an old car you can fix it.

[Jack]

Back to the SC to add some finishing touches, the big addition this week was a new steering wheel.

We got a very old and very tired wheel from the garage, with the coating split and broken and missing paint, covered in grime, and looking distinctly ready for the scrapheap. We sent the wheel to John Morgan who had mentioned that he did wooden steering wheels at the NEC, while we discussed the difficulties of trying to buy one from the dozens of stalls at the show.

The problem was that the current wheel was too dark for the interior of the car, and it was very large. This seems to be standard on Javelins and Jupiters, however after the seat had been reupholstered it left very little room above the drivers legs, and getting in and out of the car with the hood up would be an issue for me as a larger chap. Plus it made driving a sports car feel like driving a bus. Many others seem to have had similar issues, as I've seen a lot of cars with aftermarket replacement steering wheels.

We had previously considered fitting a Moto-Lita or Mountney wheel using a boss, however they were mostly very dark wood and finding the boss required seemed to be a mystery that very few suppliers could answer. Also the costs mounted up - a standard wheel, plus the boss required, postage, and everything else, and it was well over £100 for an off the shelf product.

Following a lot of discussion, looking at the interior, and considering the history of the car, we asked John to make us a wheel from English Oak. Strong, a lighter colour, and a nice grain pattern made it the perfect choice. Plus that's what Amy said she wanted, so we all just agreed, it's easier that way.

John arranged with a local friend to reduce the diameter of the wheel, getting his friend to manufacture and weld a new rim. This had two big advantages - the look stayed fairly original, with the spokes and centre boss remaining standard, just a reduced size. He then made the wood trim for the wheel, and it looks great.

Half an hour later, and the old wheel was off the car and the new wheel fitted. Just the hood to go now, luckily the wood we have for the wooden sections is also English Oak, so will match the wheel and the colour of the interior nicely. Unfortunately it was dark by the time I finished, but will get some photos when I can. Naturally the car will be at the rally in May for anyone who wants to see John's work up close.

Thanks to John for the quality of his work, the wheel is unrecognisable from the tatty lump we sent to him, and most importantly Amy is very happy with it. The hours it must have taken to get the finish have paid off, and for a very reasonable price as well for custom made craftsmanship - similar to the price of a new wheel and boss, but we've kept some more originality and it's one more rusty old piece of car out of the garage and put to good use. If anyone is looking for something similar, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend John's work.

Jack.

[Jack]

As promised, we have taken some photos. A rather long weekend of working to clear the garage, space around the garage, and today we spent a few hours sorting out the hood frame for the car.

The existing frame had an obviously non-original hoop fitted, made of aluminium instead of the original steel, and which didn't allow the hood to fold down properly.

First job was finding a hoop to replace it - we had one which we're not sure but may have come from the SA, I suspect it may have done but it fits the SC correctly so we have used it.

A couple of rivets drilled out and the webbing was removed from the incorrect hoop, a couple of bolts later and the correct hoop was fitted to the frame.

A bit of checking on the internet and we had established how the hood should look, and hopefully ours is correct. If anyone has an SC they know to be correct, or knows enough about these things to confirm, please advise, as it now looks like this:

DSC_0309_sized.jpg

Passenger side

DSC_0307_sized.jpg

Driver side

As you may have spotted, the steering wheel made by John Morgan is in the background above, a close-up shown here, albeit a bit out of focus, it was rather dark by then, as you can see he has kept the original centre and spokes, and reduced the diameter nicely, the colour matches the seat really nicely:

DSC_0310_sized.jpg

The horn button needs to be correctly fitted to the wheel, but that shouldn't be a difficult job.

So, a busy weekend, and while we were clearing up we cleaned off the windows of the garage (no mean feat, huge amounts of algae all over them) and hopefully with some more light coming in it will help with the short winter days to get things done and see what we are doing. The difference from the outside was dramatic, hopefully from the inside the garage will be easier to work in as a result. The rusty corrugated steel was collected by the scrap man, and the rest of the corner next to the garage was cleared in anticipation of getting a digger in there and clearing space for at least another car to be parked. Probably a summer project. We also cleared off a very untidy workbench, putting all the tools we've been looking for back in their drawers - Keith has been given until Saturday and anything left loose on the bench is going in the bin!

Next weekend is due to be a big one for the entire team - work on the hood continues, more work to get the Javelin movable, clearing space in the garage and sorting, and a new team member seems keen, the youth the club has been very keen to see more of in the form of a local lad that wants to learn more about cars and mechanics. Not sure what he'll learn from us, but the extra pair of hands is very welcome.

Jack.

PS - Keith spent the afternoon at the rugby, and came home unable to say much more than "we scored 8 tries! 8 tries!" again and again. He will be back in the garage next weekend hopefully to help us to get things organised.

[Chris Spencer]

What a great tatic - send Keith to the rugby and while he is away throw the junk out of the garage - but then again we have being seeing quite a change in the man recently - I mean he has after much nagging bought a new cooker, is on the verge of buying a new car and likes the idea of having the garage cleaned out and has even drawn up plans for what's going where in the reorganised workshop - not sure what it is that you keep putting in his tea Amy - but well done.

[Jack]

I had a rather nice delivery at work today - one of the prizes from the Classic Car of the Year competition - a custom made cover from Specialist Car Covers http://www.carcoversuk.com/ for the Jupiter.

After showing Keith how to work ebay, we went down to the garage to check the fit. We have opted for a waterproof cover with soft internal lining, and it is a very good fit all round. It has clips in all the right places, comes with storage bag and straps to go under the car.

I was very impressed, we will inevitably be bringing it along to various events in the coming months, and the company has a pattern for the SC and I believe the SA as well.

I was much less impressed when I found a scratch on the rear passenger wing. It's a fairly nasty one as well - very visible, and through to the metal. It must have been when metal and other parts were coming out of the garage, unfortunately that means something else to sort in the coming weeks. It looks like a metal corner has just touched on the way past, but it is going to need fixing. Hopefully Chris can work his magic and make it disappear. The car cover is clearly required even for garage storage, hopefully it is thick and strong enough to resist any similar carelessness, but we all clearly need to be very careful around the finished cars.

Jack.

[Chris Spencer]

I moved the metal and the metal did not touch the car - I did not move the other parts - !!!!

[p.p.]

unfortunately there got no pattern for the javelin
still looking for one
peter