Author: hainkm

More interior and brakes!

(02/04/2024)

So I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve posted, but I have done work throughout January.

Two quick updates – the backseat area is finished and new LED retrofit lights made and installed!

Next item to tackle is power brakes. I’m using a Bosch iBooster 2 from a Tesla model Y – – – and it doesn’t clear the wheel well. So, I need to mount it 90 degrees and make a pivot box. Sounds simple, and it probably is, but for me it has been a head scratcher. Slowly getting it and making it out of metal, after multiple 3D printed trial. I 3D print the test parts and then once I know it’s good, I replicate it from steel/aluminum as needed.

Then after all this, I still had tolerances too close and had to make a spacer plate for the pedal box to the firewall – which is a real joy to bolt up.

Then this past weekend I machined out the extension for the booster pushrod; converting the M8-1.25 to 3/8-25 since everything else is UNC.

Hopefully I’ll make more posts throughout February, I need to get back to my every weekend habit… Until next time.

Christmas and New Years holiday

(01-01-2024)

Here we are at the start of a new year. I got a LOT done on the Jag over the holiday. Most importantly I have the entire back seat area reinstalled – everything cleaned, mold-free, replaced the velvet fabric, new speakers, etc. I’m waiting on some LEDs to arrive before I install the rear dome lights. Also in this photo dump is the beginning of the foam removal from the bottoms of the front seats. I wanted to add seat heaters – and I will on the seat part, but certainly not tacking the backs…it looks like it would be really tough to pull back the leather and install heating elements. I will have wires available in case some day I decide to do that.

Enjoy the photo dump!

Cold again…

(12/11/2023)

It’s cold in Michigan again, so that means outdoor work is done and back to the Jag I go!

My dad was doing some sandblasting this week so I brought over one of the starfish wheels. I have four clean wheels I want to repaint to match.

Back on the car I managed to get the passenger side cleaned up and a sealing coat of paint on it. Next up is adding in wire loom, figuring out as much of the “boot to bonnet” wiring runs as I can (adding a pull string for the ones I forget down the road), and then installing carpet!

Still here!

(09/10/2023)

It’s been a nice summer in Michigan and the car has taken the back seat (pun?) At any rate I do plan to resume working on this soon. I did do some cleaning of parts over the summer, removed what I think is the last of the mice nests. I hope to order carpet soon and start getting the interior back together.

More mice…

(06/11/2023)

The more I dig into this car, the more I find where the mice lived.

When we pulled the engine out I discovered there are frame-rail like boxings that go from the engine bay all the way back. Mice gross in there. I need to flush it out, but I need to expose some inspection plates to do so. In the process of figuring that out, I learned the bumper is hollow-ish and also if full of mouse gross.

So off the bumper went and I power washed it inside and out and now it’s clean.

Next up was this plastic air dam in the front. It was attached from the sides and I needed to drop that down to see how much was laying in there. To my not-surprise, I found two access panels in the wheel wells I had not taken off…and guess what? More random Jaguar bits were installed behind these. Literally every panel I remove has some sort of can or module.

After this was done I was able to pull down the air dam, which wasn’t as bad as I thought.

And with a little Chemical Guys magic, it’s clean:

Engine is out!

(Weekend of 06/03/2023)

A little late in posting this, but here we are! The V12 is out!

I’m sitting in the driver’s seat while dad is engaging the winch. My driveway is on quite an angle, so getting the car on to the trailer wasn’t all that hard as the trailer ended up being nearly flat when against the driveway angle.

Loaded, strapped and ready to roll…

First task was an initial power wash to get more mouse grossness out.

Next is to pull the Turbo 400 transmission

Engine crane is attached and ready to rip!

It’s out!

Back in my garage, we weren’t so sure getting the car off the trailer and back into the garage would be that easy – mainly because of that driveway angle was now no longer in our favor.

So, I bolted this block to the floor to loop the winch rope through and pull the car into the garage from the trailer.

And back in the garage she sits!

Back on rubber!

Quick update. The car is back on four wheels as I’m taking it to my folks’ to pull the engine and transmission out! Then a power wash and we’ll return it to begin the conversion!

So so busy…

(05/07/2023)

Hi there! I’ve been pretty busy with family and work so I haven’t had much of a chance to work on the Jag. But here’s a few updates:

  • I received the PCB for the speedometer and I made some errors I couldn’t live with, so I’m redesigning that. I’m also using larger displays for the MPH
  • The plan to pull what’s left of the engine is set – doing that early June, followed by a pressure wash and then everything that’s going to be removed is out
  • I HOPE to get the driveshaft and maybe the trans out before the engine pull as we have to trailer the car to my dad’s shop to do that part of it.

More to come!

Cardboard!

(03/20/2023)

Not a lot of time today, but I pulled the door pad off the driver door and removed the carpet. Now I start the process to repair the big hole I made 15 years ago with a piece of aluminum!