Jaguar XK Junk Heap

[roymattblack]

Would you be interested in selling the engine bits and the tyres???

PM me if so.....

Roy.

[JunkGTZ]

Well, I went to work to see if it was even possible to adapt this sorry XKE hulk to my RC chassis and ended up removing the roof and shaping it into the rear decklid/boot and taking 1/4" out of the back of the doors and about a half inch out of the rear at the peak of the rear fenders since my wheelbase is shorter and managed to keep the proportions reasonable. My two big challenges are the width of the body and loosing the strength the roof provides to the overall body stiffness. That said, the jag body is not as robust as the vette body and I can see why there are so many for sale on eBay that are broken in two. This one looked like it had been in a domestic dispute and lost big time. Every single major piece of body work was cracked in half and glued back together without filler.

Anyway, i've cut it, fit it and have been working through various options to cover my big fat tires. I have been trying to find a treatment that flows with the body ala the Porsche Panamerica concept. I am not sure I can do as it seamlessly as in this image, but it's in the direction I am looking at rather than full surround fender flares which don't fit with the flow of the jag body.



I will call it the Fat Cat XKE Speedster and intend to paint it BRG. I've included a shot of a lightweight E Type that is serving as the inspiration for this project.

Me and my frog tape!






Perspiration!



Inspiration!


And now, back to our previously started Corvette GSR project already in progress....

[Twokidsnosleep]

That is great!
Like the direction you are heading here
For more body strength, you could re-enforce from the inside
I have used acrylic resin impregnated hockey tape and made my own small scale 'fiberglass'...worked like a charm and is strong as heck
Keep posting

[JunkGTZ]

Thanks for the tip and for the encouragement. I am at sort of a standstill with my vette project and have been tinkering here and there with the jag mainly trying to mock up sone of the features. Since I am currently up in the northeast U.S. visiting family and dealing with snow this might be a good place to pick up the tape you mention as it would be impossible to find in the gulf south where I live. I'll check it out. Thanks again.

[JunkGTZ]

Having trouble finding the kind of tape you are mentioning. Can you point me to some online. All I seem to find is the standard cloth tape.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oops, sorry I confused you
You apply an epoxy resin to normal hockey tape thus making my own resin impregnated tape

I would neatly tape from the inside of the body across the crack and where you want the body re-inforced.
Mix a two part epoxy resin A and B mixture (such as T-88 Structural Epoxy Adhesive) and allow the tape to soak it up. The tape acts as a scaffold and holds the resin in place while it sets up.
If you just use the resin alone, it will be sloppy and hard to control. If you use tape alone, it is not strong enough.
That is how I came up with this idea of combining the two...tape sticks where you want, resin makes it hard and strong.
I hope that is a bit clearer

[Twokidsnosleep]

Hey, how did that turn out, like to see some pics if it work for you.....or just curse my name in private if it didn't

[JunkGTZ]

"Hey, how did that turn out, like to see some pics if it work for you.....or just curse my name in private if it didn't."

No need to curse your name....yet. Been way to busy to even deal with any of it - either the Vette project or the Jag. I teach and this is my busiest part of the semester and don't expect to have a free moment for another week and a half. Even Spring break is filling up with things to do. I'll have to purchase some hockey tape too and that will have to be ordered as there is not much in the way of ice hockey in the southern U.S., but I will give it a try.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Any fibrous/stranded tape would work...maybe a garden tape?? Duct tape won't work as not porous top surface.
It needs to be able to soak up the epoxy resin and thus act as the fibers like in the fiberglass
I have enough people cursing my name....comes with being a dentist

[JunkGTZ]

I was thinking hockey tape would have stronger fibers than some other tapes such as bandage tape. I'll look into some other options. Looking forward to experimenting with it and wish I had known about it when I chopped the vette body. It's stable enough I do not worry about it breaking apart, but not so stable that the putty I used to fill the cracks doesn't develop small cracks from a little flexing. I've got some ideas to cover them, but I do not want to undo the joints. I may have to pause that one and try this on the jag, and if it turns out well, maybe I'll redo the joints on the vette. In the meantime I have no cavities (never had one) so me and my dentist get along just fine!

[JunkGTZ]

Okay folks, here's the latest on my junk heap. I gave an idea of the direction wanted to go with it. Now my summer break from teaching has kicked in so I have a little time here and there between "Honey do" chores and decided to mock up this thing and see what would work. Here's what worked and what didn't.

Since I like to run these things around the driveway and I am not of the skill level of most of you to build the proverbial shelf queen, I try to make them stout, but as light as possible. This build presents some challenges as the jag body is not as stiff as the vette body, has many more pieces, and the plastic on some if the surfaces was degraded - especially the roof, my original plan to follow the practice of some of you jag specialists of using the roof did not prove feasible.

I tried reinforcing with a panel made of aluminum roofers flashing.







The result looked like it would work fine, but with so many pieces would have had too much flex in it and so filling the seams with putty would have been a waste of time because they would all crack. On top of that, the pieces I had occasionally cracked as this was an old body so I made a decision that seems to work better, though I am losing the more elegant lines of the rear deck from the real roadster. I have some aluminum sheeting - approximately the same alloy and thickness as used in license plates and I made a flat panel which provides the stiffness I need for a runner, and will ultimately tie all the back section pieces together better.




As you can see I also went to work on overfenders as well. I was trying to come up with ideas as to how to cover my big fat tires and wide wheelbase and tried all sorts of options. A thought came to mind about the shape of wheel fairings on fixed landing gear RC planes - lightweight to be sure, so I contacted a friend who does RC planes and he sent me some fairly long ones - about 7" which I cut down and shaped as you see here. Lots more to do, but the result is a good start for me. Now I can let it sit and go back to work on the vette project.

[JunkGTZ]

I've tidied things up a bit and removed tape from the exterior. I cut the piece for the cowl and replaced the cardboard one I had in the previous post. I also worked on what were my first iteration of the rear fender, but I was not going to use because they didn't go with another treatment I was using on the fronts. Then I got the RC plane wheel fairings and went with those pieces, but the rear is rather bulk and fitting it tightly will be a big challenge so I threw these back into the mix and the work okay with the from pieces it now has. Maybe a little small, but between putting the tape on the inside and pulling the rocker panels up to where they should sit, and then these smaller rear fender add-ons, I've gotten back some of the sleekness of the original jag body. Here's a few updated shots. I have no illusions about this project being on the level of most of what is on this site - in the words of MC Hammer - "Can't Touch That!" You brass folks are amazing! We almost have a Brass-Off! going with Roger and Markus! Wow-simply Wow!

[JunkGTZ]

If anyone stateside has some jag rear tail lights - both bezels and lenses they'd like to part with, let me know and how much via PM. The chrome need not be pristine as I might blacken the bezels. I'm hoping to not have to make them myself, but pondering the method in which I could approximate them should it become necessary. Thanks.

LP/JunkGTZ

[JunkGTZ]

I've made a little progress and fleshed out the monocoque part of this though not finalized it. I made new sills of aluminum and joined them using the original firewall and formed a rear bulkhead of aluminum that joins them just behind the driver's seat area. The challeng with this car is it is a multipiece body with no roof to add stiffness and this monocoque has no floor either. I recut the rear deck lid and the center brace and cockpit pods at the cowl as one piece so as to form a backbone. Once it is attached permanently to the firewall I should be set. I will join the cowl, doors and rear quarter panels from behind using cloth tape and epoxy to sort of fiberglass them together. I will also be doing the same with the rear deck and rear fenders to make them one piece.

I started reworking the overfenders/flares going back to using wheel plants from an RC airplane. After a couple of failed iterations of that I think I'm on the right track now having turned the rear ones around. With the rear track being so wide it was hard to meld the overfenders into the rear taper. They were not curved enough so flipping them basically avoided that challenge and looks better to my eye. I still have to figure out the underside of the fenders as well. It will eventually have side pipes too, but my mock ups were not to my liking and sorting this body out takes more time and effort than anticipated.

I have no tail lights for this jag and haven't been able to find any. They seldom come up on ebay and are often pricey so I am doing a sort of Series III E Type tail treatment with the lights below the rear bumper line which is why the tail light indentations are filled in and the bottom of the back cut out. Still lots to do on that part too. I'm not in a rush and there are some other things to handle during this part of my work season so maybe around the end of the year I'll get a bit more time to work it.