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 Post subject: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 18, 2023, 10:49 pm 
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Joined: December 29, 2007, 10:41 pm
Posts: 1004
Location: Vancouver, BC
It's been a while since posting here, so I figured it's time to start another build log.....

About a year ago, a friend of mine offered me a free Jaguar 6 cylinder motor, and about a month ago said motor was finally obtained. My 87 year old friend had earmarked it for an MG TD special that he was building, but opted for an MGB drivetrain. I phoned him on a Friday, to see if I could grab it Saturday, and he said sure. The GF and I arrived expecting to load the truck (his truck that he kindly leant us), but he had loaded all of the motor parts, plus 3 or 4 carb set ups, at least 2 gearboxes in various states of completeness, and a mess of other bits. I still can't understand how or why he did all the heavy lifting, but I hope I'm in as good of shape as he is if I ever hit 87.

Here's a pic of the "parts" haul:
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We spent about 2 hours unloading and going through everything. It looks like there's one complete motor, a spare head, and various bits to various gearboxes.

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Now to digress slightly, in August I treated the GF to a two week trip to Scotland for her birthday. Most of the itintery was based around what she wanted to do, but I did manage to persuade her to let me visit the Moray Motor Museum in Elgin. In their collection they have a Tojeiro Jaguar, which I had wanted to see in person since chatting with my friend about the motor. Tom, one of the owners of the collection, kindly took us down to the workshop to see the Toj while they were prepping it for Goodwood:

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A pic of it complete (not my pic):

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Now back to the plan/goal/story, since returning I've been playing around with a CAD model in hopes of developing it to the point where I can send the chassis info out for tube cutting. I've managed to obtain a Jag diff, MGB front uprights, wire wheel hubs and various minor pieces. A set of wire wheels was ordered recently, hopefully they'll arrive in the next few weeks. The chassis rendering looks like this at the moment:

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The reasoning for certain parts is to keep it close enough to the actual Tojeiro. The front uprights on the car appear to be Austin Cambridge, but MGB are very close:

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The diff (seen in the earlier photos), appears to be a Salisbury type diff which is very similar to the Jag IRS diff:

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Anyways, I have to get the Elan finished (the body is currently out for paint) before I can really start on fabrication, but I'll keep this thread updated as things progress.

Almost forgot, I built a finger squisher / English wheel a few years ago, so the plan at the moment is to fabricate the body from aluminum. The center section should be fairly straightforward as it's all single curvature, but the front and rear panels are going to a challenge.

And, a second polished type cam cover was sourced, so the motor now looks like this:

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I think it looks much better than the ribbed covers that came with the motor (and yes the exhaust one will require some welding to fix the gaping hole).


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 18, 2023, 11:14 pm 
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Joined: April 23, 2019, 4:30 am
Posts: 388
Location: New Zealand
What a superb vehicle, it is certainly locost if you are getting the major parts for free! Love your work so far, and looking forward to your progress updates.


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 21, 2023, 2:39 pm 
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Joined: October 23, 2010, 2:40 am
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Keep posting progress. Looks like an exciting build! And a great haul of parts. Us 80+ folks do have to clean out our garages occasionally. :lol:

I was just up in Vancouver visiting a cousin in West Van. In what part of the city are you located?

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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 22, 2023, 10:55 pm 
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Tom,
I'm in Kits, but the garage is out in Coquitlam. I wish I could afford my own place with a garage, but being in Vancouver that costs way too much.

Rod


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 23, 2023, 10:27 am 
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Joined: November 6, 2020, 6:29 pm
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Location: Spring, TX
Interesting stuff, inboard brakes on the diff? Should help with weight at the wheels, can't say I've ever seen a setup like that before.
My Midget's disc brake setup in the front was a first to me as well.

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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 24, 2023, 9:36 am 
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Joined: December 12, 2019, 7:00 pm
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JAMADOR wrote:
Interesting stuff, inboard brakes on the diff? Should help with weight at the wheels, can't say I've ever seen a setup like that before.
My Midget's disc brake setup in the front was a first to me as well.


This is a somewhat common racecar setup to keep down sprung mass on the suspension and more central weight distribution. If your ever feeling up for a long read, Palatov's dpcars build logs go pretty in depth with his inboard brake setup, but I can't remember which build specifically.


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: October 24, 2023, 10:00 am 
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Location: Spring, TX
Thanks for that, I'd read about inboard brakes, but had never seen how they were implemented.

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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: December 27, 2023, 7:21 pm 
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Time for small update, I've finalized the chassis design, sent it out for quote, and received a very reasonable reply. I'll hopefully be hitting "print" on the chassis in early January. I've also picked up a T5 transmission from an S10, and have created a CAD file for an adapter plate to bolt it up to the Jag bellhousing. I sent the CAD file to Xometry, who came back with a quote that I couldn't pass up. I'll hopefully have the adapter in my hands early next week.

I've also gone a little spend happy, I've ordered and received a set of 15" 70 spoke wire wheels from the UK, the QA inspector gave them the seal of approval:
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And I ordered all the moving bits for the De Dion rear end, the hubs are TR6 hubs from Goodparts which use a modern bearing and hub flange, the spline adapters are stock TR6, and the half shafts are a combination of Spicer bits with 1300 UJ's for the outers (to match the TR6 parts), and 1310 UJ's for the inners which required a different yoke for the Jag diff. The yokes just arrived, I'm 99% certain they're going to work. I will need to get some spacers made up to replace the missing drum that the stock TR6 set up uses, but I dont think that should be too difficult to sort.
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I'll post more updates as things actually start happening.

Rod


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 25, 2024, 1:50 pm 
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Time for another update. Back in January I hit "print" on the chassis, the files were sent off to a laser cutting company in November/December and in mid January the tubes were cut. I received them earlier this month but unfortunately the "other" project arrived back from the paint shop around the same time.

A few photo of the tubes:
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And a few of the "other" project:

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I had also sent a somewhat large order off to Send Cut Send, which arrived earlier this month as well:

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QA was doing a hardness test, though I have no idea what scale she was using, and don't worry, she didn't harm the steel.

One of the parts that I was eager to "put together" was the lower diff mount. I found a 3d model of hte Jag diff, but for some reason I didn't compare the mounting points of the model to the real thing. I was expecting it to be a bit off, but it bolted right up to the diff.

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Other than that, I had a gearbox adapter CNC cut with Xometry to adapt a Jag bellhousing to a T5:

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The CNC cost was incredibly cheap, I almost couldn't pass it up. Amazingly, everything more or less lined up, I had to some minor modifications to the input shaft housing, but other than that it bolted right up. I still need to drill and tap a few holes for some mounting studs inside the bellhousing, but that's a relatively easy task.

I've also ordered, received, and had mounted & balanced a set of tires:

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They are massive when compared to the stock Elan wheels, or even the wheels on the MGB in the photo.

And one final thing, I sent another order off to Send Cut Send for a front suspension jig. I didn't realize that they also do wood. I'm hoping to have it on hand in the next week or so.
Here's a rendering of the jig, all the pieces have tabs and slots to easily align things.

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The goal for the next few weeks is to get the Elan body populated, then back on the chassis. I've booked a week off at the end of March to start on "real" work.


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 25, 2024, 7:25 pm 
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Joined: April 23, 2019, 4:30 am
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Location: New Zealand
Very nice. For the tubing do you include a shrinkage adjustment for welding or does it match the CAD dimensions because the fitup is so tight?


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 25, 2024, 8:06 pm 
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Joined: December 29, 2007, 10:41 pm
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Kinetic Research,
The files I sent off had a 0 tolerance, but I haven't measured the tubes to see if they're exact, oversize, or undersized. I'll finally get to lay them out next month. I would think that the laser cutters set the tool path for exact length, but I'll wait to see.

Rod


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 28, 2024, 10:55 am 
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Joined: June 20, 2019, 12:34 pm
Posts: 586
Incredible project! Will enjoy following this build.

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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 28, 2024, 2:50 pm 
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Joined: January 13, 2008, 9:07 pm
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Location: Glendale AZ
How did the Lotus 11 come out ?

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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 28, 2024, 9:10 pm 
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Joined: December 29, 2007, 10:41 pm
Posts: 1004
Location: Vancouver, BC
The Eleven, it was finished 12 or 13 years ago, but it left my ownership just over 10 years ago. The Europa replaced it, then the B GT Zetec came along, and now the Jaaag project is in the works. Sometimes I miss the Eleven, but then I remember how little I drove it due to the traffic here in Vancouver. I'm sure I'll run into the same issue with the new project, but I need to keep myself busy, I hate sitting around, doing nothing.


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 Post subject: Re: Jag Special
PostPosted: February 28, 2024, 10:28 pm 
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Location: Glendale AZ
cs3tcr wrote:
The Eleven, it was finished 12 or 13 years ago, but it left my ownership just over 10 years ago. The Europa replaced it, then the B GT Zetec came along, and now the Jaaag project is in the works. Sometimes I miss the Eleven, but then I remember how little I drove it due to the traffic here in Vancouver. I'm sure I'll run into the same issue with the new project, but I need to keep myself busy, I hate sitting around, doing nothing.


I'm a little slower than you. 8)

I will keep a eye on your build because it is always so good.

I still getting their.

:cheers:

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Lotus 15 ish?
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