Great SC rebuild.......

[Jack]

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

I think it was some time over the weekend, but it could have been literally anybody moving almost anything in that area - it just highlights the need for us to get the cars moved, possibly one car into the top garage, while we are doing rough work in there.

[Jack]

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

Hi Peter,

They did seem relatively open to measuring up a car and making a cover, their website does say they will do this, so perhaps worth seeing if you can find a very local member and asking them to drop in to see them with their Javelin? If I'd known then we could have got them down to the JCC Stand at the Classic Motor Show - they were there and could have borrowed a tape measure!

Perhaps worth looking for other cars with similar dimensions and shape to a Javelin and seeing if they've got a cover that they do have a pattern for? The fit is not precise, and the straps underneath the car will pull in any excess material.

I have to say I'm pretty surprised that they've got a pattern for a Jupiter, and the SC no less, with less than 100 cars made, but they haven't got a pattern for a Javelin with thousands of the things made! Their pricing is entirely reasonable for the quality of the product, so perhaps worth persevering. I think we'd certainly consider them for our Javelins, price seems to be just over £200, and they will do for both indoor and outdoor storage, as well as protecting paintwork.

Jack.

[p.p.]

hi jack,
the idea to make a perfect pattern for me and other javelins, is just great similar car pattern is not a good idea ....and special outdoors when a wind blast hit the car... everything is "dearanced".


peter

[p.p.]

just had a good telephon call with specialised cover's (car covers uk)with "Gina", there got the patter for the javelin !!!!!!! i only have to send a photo to schow were the mirrows ar fixed.
just ordered for indoor cover with jowett emblem in the front in british racing green and the pipe seems in crem colors and a outdoor cover as well........

peter

[Jack]

just had a good telephon call with specialised cover's (car covers uk)with "Gina", there got the patter for the javelin !!!!!!! i only have to send a photo to schow were the mirrows ar fixed.
just ordered for indoor cover with jowett emblem in the front in british racing green and the pipe seems in crem colors and a outdoor cover as well........

peter

Great news Peter! We will try and post some photos of the Jupiter in its new dress, hopefully you can post a photo of the Javelin once the cover arrives.

Please make sure you tell them where you heard about them - they have sponsored the competition, so hopefully some business as a result of it will encourage them to keep supporting classic car competitions and events in future.

You may want to consider whether you need both covers - the outdoor cover is light and soft enough to use as an indoor cover as well (this is what we are doing) not sure if there is an advantage to you having an indoor as well as outdoor.

If you'd like to get them to deliver to us, we'd be happy to hang on to it until the rally in May, and we can pass them on - that said the outdoor cover is a large package and weighs around 6-7kg so if you are tight for luggage on your flight you will need to consider this. Not sure if there are shipping/customs implications getting it into Switzerland.

Jack.

[p.p.]

the outdoor cover has no jowett-emblem and no pipe seems !!!!!with it - it looks just great (the indoor cover)8) . will send it to germany to avoid customs implications ! with my women i always tight ...... and maybe there is same spare pasts on my way so i need spare weighs ......
thanks for help.

peter

[Amy]

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.

Oh well, it seems that I have been utterly useless over the past several months in my cries of "please mind the car / don't walk so close / mind it when you're carrying things" then...

Luckily I have a massive quantity of various compounds and mutton cloth. And a good teacher. Chris, fancy tutoring your apprentice on sorting out scratches?

but we all clearly need to be very careful around the finished cars.

Oh, do we? I don't think anyone in the garage has mentioned that up til now.

[Amy]

just had a good telephon call with specialised cover's (car covers uk)with "Gina", there got the patter for the javelin !!!!!!! i only have to send a photo to schow were the mirrows ar fixed.
just ordered for indoor cover with jowett emblem in the front in british racing green and the pipe seems in crem colors and a outdoor cover as well........

peter

Crikey!

Peter - if you only have the one car, I have an insider's tip - the company told me when I was debating what cover to order that the best one to get is the outdoor one (the waterproof one). This is apparently heavy duty enough to withstand all manner of wind and rain, but is still very breathable and suitable for indoor use. Therefore, if you only really need one cover, just get the waterproof one and it will suit for all circumstances.

As Jack said though, do tell them where you heard about them, I've been dealing with Gina and Jodie and they've all been really helpful - the only information they needed from me about the car was the mirrors as well - and it seems that they have lots of details about the cars. I'm looking forward to getting home (I've been away with work all week) and seeing Napoleon resplendent in his new coat.

[Amy]

If you'd like to get them to deliver to us, we'd be happy to hang on to it until the rally in May, and we can pass them on - that said the outdoor cover is a large package and weighs around 6-7kg so if you are tight for luggage on your flight you will need to consider this. Not sure if there are shipping/customs implications getting it into Switzerland.

Jack.

Where is it you're flying to in a couple of weekends' time? Can't be far from the Swiss border...

[Chris Spencer]

Sharon managed to find some time to try the draft pattern she had made for the hood over the frame - with some alterations I think it is not too far away - some changes are required to the hood frame to ensure a better fit - we have had new timber sections made up in oak and before the hood is fitted the frame will require these fitting and the metal sections repainted. Sharon also drafted a new pattern for a Jupiter car cover - hopefully this will be available in the near future through the club shop - watch out for progress - a Javelin one is also to follow !!

Hopefully next weekend Sharon can complete the hood pattern to a point that she is happy to stitch the hood cover together and get it fitted - Keith can hopefully post some images of the weekends activities when he gets time.

[Jack]

Today was a significant day for me. I managed to finally do something that I had been dreading for weeks, putting off, and generally didn't want to do.

This photo explains it better than my words probably will below, but I'll try and explain it as best I can, just in case anyone else has got to do this horrible little job.

Note the hood above is a proper SC hood as owned by John Blankley, not our hood, which looks like this:

The original hinges on the hood frame were not right, as you can see. They had been home made, and not home made very well. This meant that while we believe the metalwork that is attached to the wood to be ok, the mechanism to ensure the hood opens and closes properly as well as folding away properly when down, were not correct and turned out to be rather more complicated than we had given them credit for. The top one, as above, is an almost straight piece with a slight crank to it so that it does not obscure the window and isn't visible from the outside, the bottom one is a nasty piece of metal that needs to be far more accurate than it looks.

First job was to make up a couple of test pieces in aluminium. First attempt was woeful. Miles out. Second attempt was massively too far cranked over. Third attempt and we were getting it - luckily the aluminium was easy to work with and made testing easy, unfortunately it was a bit thin so bent a bit when I tried the action of the hood. After a bit more bodging I had put another piece of plate behind the ally, and the first piece was sorted.

This piece is S shaped, and goes from the back of the horizontal wooden baton above the window to a point on the vertical baton, then cranked round to connect to another piece which attaches onto the hinge itself at the base of the frame. This is the next piece to be manufactured - this was mocked up with a couple of pieces of steel bolted together to simulate the cranked end required.

All in all this was a pretty horrible job for the sheer amount of thinking, looking, measuring and testing, plus the number of times small parts had to be remade. I do however now have two patterns sorted for the pieces required - though these pieces need to be riveted together with a very large rivet, which could be interesting - might be a trip to the local blacksmith for that one!

So job for the week is making up another short piece, then making up the two long pieces that go from the bottom hinge to the end of the S. Hopefully now I've had a play with it we can get the job finished and get on with making up the wood sections required to replace them. Current deadline is the 3rd April, when we are due at Soft Top Sunday at Goodwood Breakfast Club. It would be nice if we could get it done by that date, but we will have to see how progress goes with it.

Jack.

[Forumadmin]

Just to prove Jack did what he said....
Oh yes and you can see the small steering wheel to allow Jack to fit under it.
We are all away this weekend so no work will be done on either car.

[Jack]

More work tonight, a fairly late start at 8:20 but plenty of progress on my hinge manufacturing.

I have now made the S shaped pieces for both sides, the bottom ones in the photos above. They needed to be made to just the right amount of bend in either end, and holes in the right place. Once fitted I then needed to bend them slightly so that they would operate properly and clear the various plates and other parts of the hinges.

Once this was done, cut from bare steel, I then needed to do some finishing on the straight pieces, the top ones in the photos above - these had been crudely made by a previous owner, but they were the right shape and worked. A little while later I had rounded the corners so they matched the S shapes pieces I had already made.

Two more pieces to make, which have been designed but now need to be cut - should be a fairly easy job as they are mostly straight with a crank at the top, and a fairly easy bend to make sure they fit properly.

Not sure if I'll get back to the garage in time to get these done tomorrow, hopefully we will get them done this week so we can focus on the wood this weekend.

Keith spent his time removing the wooden batons from the front edge of the hood - the two pieces above the windscreen. Both can be removed without affecting the fit of the hood, the metal frame underneath keeps the shape so I could continue work. A convenient oak board seems to be the right size to make these pieces, so hopefully we should at least have these sorted and refitted this weekend.

Jack.

[Jack]

Today was one of progress. First major progress was finally getting the hinge bits made. I had already got the mocked up version which was two pieces of metal bolted together, now it was time to cut and shape one piece that did the same job.

Joe was my apprentice for the day, and we started with handling metal, then drilling metal, then cutting metal, then filing metal. It was a good refresher for me, who seems to spend his entire life with cuts, splinters and grazes, we had our goggles and gloves on, and went through everything step by step.

After a bit of work we'd marked out what we were going to cut, and started work.

Not too long after we'd cut the piece, and drilled the relevant holes, then just had to work out the bends and cranks required to get it to work properly and fit.

After a bit of tweaking we had got it right, so got them fitted and checked for operation. I am not completely happy that they are strong enough in the metal used. We may need to use a slightly thicker metal and replace these, however we have a pattern that works and they should be fine if the hood is lifted back properly.

Once that was done we could move on to the hoops over the back, Amy had been cleaning up one of them, we then removed the other two which took a while, so tomorrow I can get started on the upright and horizontal wooden batons.

More updates to follow tomorrow evening, but we are getting much closer to having a working hood ready for fitting the new vinyl.

Jack.

[Jack]

A bit of a late start for us again, we spent the morning at Silverstone driving as part of a parade lap (no overtaking, max speed 40mph, no messing around) in the MX5. We did no such thing, and hit about 85mph at various points, cornering rather quickly, and generally everyone overtaking each other and having little drag races down the straights. Very good fun, and the sun was shining by the afternoon.

Back to the garage for more work on the cars though, and the main priority on the SC was to get the hood sorted. The metal hoops had been removed yesterday, so now we were able to start stripping them down ready for repainting.

After a lot of sanding and getting very dusty and messy, we had finished one hoop. This is going to be one of those jobs, clearly. Work started on the others, but they are taking a while. Hopefully ready for paint by the end of the week, and progress can get started on replacing the wooden batons.

Jack.