07/01/2009 - Jaguar 240 Restoration Part Two

JAGUAR 240 PART TWO

As I expected, having read one or two books on the marque and spoken at some length to my knowledgeable friend, motoring journalist Rod Ker, the scruffy 1969 Jaguar 240 I bought last summer proved to have a very different character to the 1964 3.4 Mk II saloon already on the Summer Wine Classics fleet.

The short stroke engine's naturally revvy nature and comparative lack of bottom end torque, combined with the model's fairly low gearing meant the engine had to be worked hard and plenty of cog swapping was necessary to make brisk progress and avoid bogging down.

But the lightened and upgraded 240 spec engine revs freely and happily and the gearbox on our new car is super sweet so I really enjoyed driving and getting to know the careworn cat for a few weeks late last summer. But all good things come to an end and, charming though it was, shabby chic does not cut it with many brides so I knew I had to stop enjoying myself and submit the car to the paintshop for extensive refurbishment.

Picking up where I left the story last month, I delivered the car into the capable hands of Mark Smith of Devil's Paint Jobs of Emley, near Huddersfield. I have known Mark for several years since he repaired and painted the tinware of a classic bike of mine. I was impressed by his attitude and the quality of his work so when I started Summer Wine Classics he was a natural choice to carry out any necessary painting and bodywork repairs on the fleet.

Mark's business is primarily concerned with high quality motorcycle paint jobs but he spent many years in the motor trade and has all the old fashioned fabrication, panel beating and lead working skills necessary for working on classic cars.

Although the 240 looked 'straight' and when squinted at from a distance, reasonably tidy, its paintwork was, in reality, very far from perfect. Apart from a couple of patches of daubed in filler on the sides of front wings which tended to catch the eye, there were signs of crude body repairs in front of the rear wheels, the rear spats didn't line up with anything and the paint on much of the car had the look of crazed pottery.

Mark's initial appraisal technique involved several minutes spent circling the car while occasionally stooping to peer, prod and pull things. Finally he dropped to the ground to get a (tin)worm's eye view of its underside. He found fault after fault but at the end of the process he cheerfully announced it wasn't a bad old motor and, considering its age and the fact it had never been restored at all, it looked like a good buy. What did I want doing to it?

As it drove so well, and in order to keep costs down where possible, it was decided to leave the engine in situ and to disturb as few mechanical parts as necessary. The car had been tarted up on a number of occasions and the wacky pattern in much of the paint had been caused by someone spraying over the top of layers that were still wet. Exploring with a sander (not for the faint hearted!), Mark found plenty of plastic filler in the doors and wings. In fact there was so much filler in the o/sf wing in front of the wheel arch the car must have been several millimetres wider than standard!

Furthermore, the door bottoms were wafer thin and the clumsy repairs behind the rear doors were like something straight out of the Flintstones. So as far as the bodywork was concerned there seemed little point in half measures - all the paint would come off so we could find out exactly what we were dealing with and take it from there.

Within a short space of time the bumpers and all the chrome trim were taken off the car, the glass was removed and the seats, carpets and all the interior trim were stripped out. Everything was then carefully wrapped in plastic bags, labelled up and placed in boxes or on the racks at the side of the workshop. Finally, after checking with me one more time, Mark used a chemical stripper to get the shell back to the metal and I was called to the shop so we could make a fresh assessment.

All in all, the new findings were positive. Apart from heavily corroded areas around the rear bumper brackets, no more significant rot was uncovered. The floorpan, inner wings and bulkhead were all remarkably solid and although the sills had been repaired in the past, all seemed sound there now and it seemed wise not to disturb things too much in that area.

It was decided replacement parts would come from one supplier if at all possible and a deal of sorts was negotiated with a well known classic Jaguar specialist. Mark was given permission to use my account details to order directly anything he needed provided he kept me informed as he went along, although in the end very few body sections were actually purchased.

Mark made repairing the doors his next job. Surprisingly, full door skins are not available so we purchased sections that ended just under the moulded area under the glass and Mark grafted them on. A great deal of adjustment was needed to get the skins to fit so the door gaps were correct and in the end Mark unpicked the door edges and re-folded them to gain the extra millimetres necessary for good gaps to be achieved.

After this experience, and because he had previously spent much time battling with a badly fitting replacement panels for other old cars, Mark adopted a policy of making repair sections whenever he could and his great skill in doing this was a revelation to me. New door bottoms were made from sheets of steel, the o/s front wing sidelight pod was refabricated from scratch and the aforementioned historical repairs were cut out and redone.

The front cross member under the grille received close attention, the areas behind the rear bumper were made good and the lip of the boot was unpicked so corrosion under it could be eradicated. Then there, as in other places around the car, lead was loaded back in to build the metal up before the seam was remade. The spats, which were battered and borderline rotten, received similar attention to save them from the scrapper. Remarkable stuff in my view.

Mark put the car in primer as quickly as possible for obvious reasons and soon it was time to consider the paint. It was always the plan to repaint the car in its original creamy white but it seemed there were still three versions to choose from and I was summoned once again to make a final decision on the just how creamy was right.

From then on the process seemed to accelerate and soon the once shabby Jaguar 240 stood in its smart new coat of two pack and it was time to start building the car back up. I ought to mention at this point that although the paint on the car is thoroughly modern, it was given an extremely subtle (almost imperceptible in fact) sixties orange peely look by a special and deliberate spraying technique.

The devil is in the detail and (whatever that means) and careful attention to detail is one of the most impressive thing about Devil's Paint Jobs. I was concerned about how the car would come back together but I need not have worried. Everything that had been taken off was laid out on huge board on a trestle table and each piece was cleaned and polished or lubricated as applicable before being carefully put back on the car, often with new fasteners. Nothing was rushed. Nothing went back on badly. Nothing went missing.

Partly as a way of keeping costs down and partly to help retain the car's character, some less than perfect parts were repaired and put back on. The cracked chrome roof rails for example, were carefully glued back together rather than replaced and the slightly bent bumpers were straightened and re-used despite the rear one having been butchered underneath to accommodate the now jettisoned home-made tow bar. The sun faded rear light lenses and chunky original number plates were among other time-worn original parts that were put back on the car.

The under bonnet area was now letting the car down a bit so Mark took off what ancillary bits and pieces he could get to and spruced up the engine bay the best he could. The air box was also repainted and the radiator top was polished. All in all a smart appearance was achieved for little cost.

The car's original wire wheels were sound but the chrome was flaking and, although silver paint had been daubed on with a brush in some areas, orange rust was still evident in many places. Rechroming was not an option without rebuilding the wheels at great cost, so a new set seemed the best option. But Mark had a better idea. He approached a firm in Barnsley he had come across and negotiated a deal whereby they would blast the remaining chrome off each wheel and stove enamel them in a tough chrome effect paint finish for just £40 each. After a test, we decided to go ahead and the results are very pleasing. Time will tell how well they will last but the early signs are extremely encouraging.

As work drew to a close a freelance windscreen fitter was lined up to replace the screens and the interior woodwork was entrusted to Holmfirth french polisher Richard Heald whose dad, also a furniture repairer, had been recommended to me by a neighbour. Father put me in touch with son and Richard did a marvellous job of stripping off the hand painted varnish on the dashtop (brushstrokes clearly evident!), repairing split and cracked sections of veneer and waxing and polishing all the wood to a factory finish (ie: not too shiny).

The next consideration was the red leather upholstery. The front seat bases were cracked open in several places, the driver's one especially so, and the top of the rear seat back was very badly bleached by the sun. I bought a cleaning and reconditioning kit from a well known specialist firm and was successful in lifting years of grime from the seats but in the end, with great reluctance and after days of soul searching, I decided to have the car re-upholstered.

Essentially I ran out of time trying to find someone who would replace the damaged sections of the front seat bases with artificially distressed leather to match the rest of the seats and to recolour the parched sections of upholstery to match the darker areas in a way that would be permanent and colourfast and wouldn't have that horrid painted look that even expensively refurbished car seats usually seem to have.

Precision Trimming in Honley, near Huddersfield is a small business run by Brett Wadsworth. After a full apprenticeship as a coach builder for a big bus company, Brett then trained as a coach trimmer and was fortunate to be taught by two former employees of Rippon Brothers, a once highly regarded Huddersfield coachbuilding firm. Brett set up on his own seven years ago and he is happy to take on work on all vehicles ancient or modern. Pimped up custom cars are Brett's bread and butter but all manner of classic, vintage and veteran vehicles have benefited from his attention. A 1906 Stanley Steamer is his next project!

The carpets were torn and fraying and they had disintegrated further as they were lifted from the car. I had hoped to repair them with sections moved from under the seats but again, I could not find anyone to share my vision of what might be achievable. So in the end I decided to let Brett replace those too along with the Furflex and to trim out the boot.

While the work was going on I felt like a criminal wanted for crimes against automotive originality and when I took delivery of the car, although Brett had done a great job, I still felt awful for a while. But as time has passed and the new interior has started to bed in I have come to terms with the decision and grown to appreciate the quality of the retrim and what it brings to the car.

While Brett was hard at work, another saga was unfolding, only this time sadly less than fully satisfactorily. The aforementioned windscreen fitter was backpedalling and I realised after a while he did not want the job but couldn't say so (what is it with some people?). Brett said he'd do it but changed his mind too once the car was in his workshop. Then a well known national firm of windscreen fitters agreed to do the work and I entrusted a third party to make delivery arrangements.

Exactly what happened next I will never know. The windscreen and back window went back in the car but I am sure neither glass is properly sealed and the chromes are certainly not fitted correctly. For some unknown reason it seems the third party took it upon himself to fit the glass himself, but got into a mess and ended up taking the 240 to the national firm's premises for their fitters to complete the work after all. One thing seems certain - whatever the chain of events, and whoever did the work (including scratching the car and trying to disguise it with what looks like Tipp-Ex) I do not feel the job has been done correctly and I suspect both the front screen and the rear glass will have to come out again soon to be professionally refitted by somebody else.

But apart from the problem with the screens the car is now finished and, following a full service, it is even more of a joy to drive than before. It has even survived some twerp putting diesel in it (Oops! That was me actually). Thankfully I realised my mistake before I restarted the car and I was able to get the tank pumped out on the forecourt. She still smoked for a couple of weeks though!

The refurbished 240 has now been used successfully for several chauffeured wedding hires (including two in torrential rain) and a few weeks ago, as a final test, we loaded it up and used it to take us a way on a family break in Norfolk. The car went there and back without missing a beat and as a result ONT 956G is now permanent part of Summer Wine Classic Car Hire's self drive fleet.

People who are still sniffy about Jaguar 240s and 340s need to wake up and smell the Classic 20/50. The Jaguar 240 is a real driver's car and as attractive to look at and special to be in as any 'pukka' Jaguar Mk II. Come and try her for yourself!