Jag Special

[KB58]

... 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 had the very same experience after completing Kimini and Midlana - driving a hardcore sports car in traffic completely took all the fun out of driving. They're now sold and I spend time building other things such as a CNC router, wooden gear clock, power draw bar, and so on. I'm happy

[cs3tcr]

Time for a "major" update. The fabrication stage of the project has finally started. Last Saturday, March 23 things looked like this:


And today, March 31, things looked like this:





The chassis fabrication started in earnest on Sunday (24th), I started with the cockpit sides as they were relatively easy to construct and were flat:



Then moved on to the front top section:



By Sunday evening I had the bulk of the chassis taped together to see how well things fit:



Monday was spent welding, then welding a bit more, followed by even more welding. Tuesday was spent fitting the diff into the chassis:





Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday were spent on suspension pieces, and making spacers/bushings for assembling all the various brackets.





Saturday was spent mounting the front suspension mounts/brackets/tubes. I would have like to say it was easy, but I'd be lying. It was a pain the bahookie. It took nearly all day, but I did finally get in the right spot:



Which lead to today, which was spent loosely bolting things to the chassis:





The pedal box was also tacked in, which lead to one interference in my design. The clutch pedal hits a chassis tube, the tube will get massaged slightly tomorrow:



I still have tomorrow off from work, which will hopefully see the chassis lifted off the table, followed by putting the motor and gearbox in the chassis to see if it all lines up. I'll post more photo's in the upcoming days/weeks.

Rod

[BostonWill]

Incredible progress! The frame will be like a modern piece of art when you are thru.

[cs3tcr]

Thanks Thom. I'm eager to get this one finished. In fact, 8 sheets of aluminum were ordered today, it looks like I'll be "bashing tin" for the next few months.

In other news, the chassis was lifted off the table on Monday, and the motor and gearbox were shoved in. It actually fits, though does need some slight adjustment to the mounts on the block. The motor has to come forward roughly 1/2".

Here's the chassis fresh off the table will all four wheels attached:


Next was lifting the diff back into place, this time with the engine hoist rather than me lifting it on my own:


Then the motor and gearbox were shoved into place:




And the reason the motor needs to shift about half an inch:


It turns out you need just over 3 1/2" to put two 1310 weld yokes back to back, currently I have just that with the slip yoke pushed all the way in on the gearbox. I'm hoping I wont need more than 1/2" of slip with the diff solid mounted, but the motor on rubber mounts. The other option would be doing what Bill Thomas did with the Cheetah, and just have the slip yoke and flange connected to the diff, but that means moving the motor even further back.

In any case, body shaping/fabrication should be starting in the next few weeks. Provided I can get this one a little further along:

[seattletom]

Already a roller!
Congrats

[B85]

what about a cut ?

[cs3tcr]

I think that may be the last resort. The mainshaft would need the splines extended, and I'm not to keen on gluing the tailshaft housing back together without it leaking. In saying that though, I will do some research on it, and see if it has been done before.

[BostonWill]

I think that is a T5 trans? If so, there are several different length tail shafts available. You can swap out the shaft and housing for a shorter one.

[BostonWill]

There has been a Jag XK motor locally on FB Marketplace. Your project makes me want to pick it up and build something around it! Always thought the Jad inline was one of the more interesting looking motors under a "bonnet"!

[cs3tcr]

Thom,
It is indeed a T5, sourced from an S10. I don't think there is a shorter tailshaft housing available unless I pick up a jeep 4x4 T5 and do some fabricobbling, or spend $9K for an E type T5 kit. At the moment the modified engine mount is most likely the way I'll go.

[cs3tcr]

Time for a long overdue update. Over the past few months I've started on the bodywork, albeit just the rocker panels and associated support panels:



And started to lay out the dash, though I did mess up and mark everything on the backside of the dash, meaning all the switches were backwards:



I ended up having Send Cut Send cut a new one that is nearly perfect (unfortunately no photo at this time).

I've also fabricated some steering rack mounts and column mounts:





As well as various clips to mount both brake lines and fuel pipes:




And now for some bigger updates. I booked the past week off work in hopes of fully welding the chassis, painting it, installing the floor, fabricating the gearbox tunnel, and creating the scuttle and doors (plus a whole list of other things). I managed to get the welding, painting and floor done, but the other things will have to wait until the Elan is finished. Here's more pics of progresss.

Gearbox mount (just tacked together in this shot):


Front body mount/rad mount:


Steering column brackets (just tacked on in the photos):



The column passes through the motor mount bracket, and suprisingly it doesn't rub anything:


Handbrake mount:


Rear tunnel hoop/seatbelt mounts:


Which brings things up to painting the chassis:


Painting was followed by installing the floor:





I picked up an air powered pop rivet gun, which more than paid for itself when installing the floor. It took about 20 minutes to pull all the rivets (though it take most of the day getting the holes drilled, deburred, etc).

Lastly, I managed to get the steering wheel mostly finished. I had Send Cut Send cut the aluminum and wood. I routered the wood and turned some pegs, then stained, glued, and clear coated the wheel. It still needs some light sanding and another few coats of clear, but I think it looks decent:





The plan for the next two or so weekends is to get the suspension back on it, and the motor shoved back in, mostly to free up some garage space so that the Elan can take center stage.

Rod

[Kinetic Research]

Superb results Rod, looking gorgeous. What paint have you used?



Marcus.

[cs3tcr]

Marcus,
I used Nason single stage paint. I've used it in the past for other cars, and it's stood up well enough. The only snag I ran into was the garage floor is now the same colour, spraying a spaceframe is difficult to do without getting a ton of overspray on everything.

Rod

[cs3tcr]

Now that the site is back up and running, I guess I should post some photos from the past month or so.

Once the chassis was painted and the floor installed, the GF and I spent some time putting the car back on it's wheels. The diff was painted and reinstalled:



It will need to come back out as there's slight interference with the tunnel hoop. I don't think it will require much work to rectify.

The suspension pieces were treated to a coat of etch primer and reinstalled:



And we shoved the motor back into the chassis with great difficulty. It turned out that the rad mount/body mount added enough length to render installing the motor and gearbox from the front impossible. It had to be installed from the side, which isn't ideal. I may look at opening the floor up to allow the motor to come up from under the car.



The weekend following that work were spent starting on the dash area/scuttle:













That brings the Toj project up to date, unfortunately it's going to get "parked" for a bit as I've been told the Elan needs to be put back together.

But, another distraction popped up in mid September, another Coventry Climax. What I'll use it for is anyones guess, but I couldn't pass it up as it was just too cheap.








Rod

[BostonWill]

As I expected, a real work of art! And I relate to the "the other car has to be finished 1st" comment, I am under the same directive!

Every time I look at a Jag 6cyl motor, I see an enlarged version of the MGA Twin Cam motor and think, "wonder how it would fit in an MGA?".

If you get a moment, can you let me know what the length & height od the Jag motor is? I have looked on the internet and cannot seem to find those specs.

I know on BritishV8 site, someone stuck on in a HA Sprite!

With the MGA, I would need to cut back the shelf just behind the motor, but that would not be a big deal for the structure since it is a body on frame and the structure for the firewall support is well behind the shelf. I would most likely need to modify the lower crossmember.