I need to nail down the wiring in the dash before I fit the seats and have no room ! Then put front and rear suspension in and fit engine and gearbox, they are all done ready to fit, just need the time to bolt it all in.

This is the guy that has 2 Mk2's in bit's, https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/william.b...72.m2749.l2654 no idea about the shells, but worth giving him a message to find out, I bought some wheels from him, I think I may have his number, if you want it I will give him a call and ask if he minds me passing it on.

Did the engine rebuild myself, not the machine work, I had a guy down the road from me that does race engines do it for me, he does race XK's for some of his clients so was happy to do it as he normally does Lotus/Ford etc race work. Frank really knows his stuff, and he won't do the work if you want a cheap half a job done ! +20 thous bore out, new pistons, crank polished, balanced, head fitted with new valve seats, valve guides, valves, flywheel lightened, all balanced including clutch, uprated crank oil seal from Rob Beere racing, all new bearings, high flow oil pump, basically a new engine ! It's not a cheap job, and although the engine is pretty straight forward you don't want to be rushed if you want to get it right.

I have another one to do which I am going to port the head, up-rate the engine, fit twin 2" SU's , ported intake tract etc. and looking to get an extra 40 - 50HP out of that one, it will just be a fast road build not full race as I want to keep the torque band down in the rev range and keep a smooth tickover, so I have to be careful not to get carried away and over port the head !!!

 

The midnight porter.

 

Grant,
Do you need the bolt in heater plenum, or the welded side for box? I have the bolt in piece here in Ohio.

 

I think Grant needs the spot welded sections on the passenger compartment side of the firewall that duct the air from left when it enters from the heater to the centre under the instrument panel looking at the pictures Clyde.

 

Ah, now I see the destruction. Wasn't clear on my phone. I just have the detachable plenum.

 

 

Keep up the good work! I'm always impressed at the efforts you folk go to, to save a car from the crushers. Well done.

I was blessed with finding a truly rust free car that had never been to coast. It was a long hard search. My donors are both rustbuckets.

 

 

Grant,
Did you find a rotisserie to your liking? Mine is a Auto Twiller - 3000# capacity.

 

Hi Guys,

Hope you are all well.

Does anybody know what size engine hoist I will need to lift the engine and gearbox (together) out of the jag?

Would a 1 tonne be okay?

Thanks

Grant

 

I would suggesst that you would need a two ton unit as you need a hoist that has a large reach and can pickup the weight of that engine at that reach (i.e. a two hoist may be two tonnes on its shortest reach and half a tone on its longest.

To be honest I have always dropped the engine out the bottom by lowering the engine and box onto a trolley (still int the car) then unbolting it and lifting the car off the engine, I always feed that the car weighs less than the engine box, especially if its been stripped down first.

 

 

Hi Grant,

I am seeing a mate this morning that makes a lot of stuff for Sealey and Snap On, I can get stuff a lot cheaper from him, I will see what he has if you like.

A 1 ton crane will lift 500Kg at full reach, the engine weighs approx 500 Kg on it's own, with the gearbox about about 600kg, you need a crane that will take 1000kg at full reach to be safe and an engine stand that will take in excess of 600 Kg otherwise it will flex a lot with a built up engine on it.

I will see what my mate has and let you know.

Jon

 

Honestly don't buy the smaller one you will regret it as it will bend, I bent one taking the engine out of a 420 once and the hoist was totally scrap afterwards. Spend a little extra and it will be fine, also I would be alittle wary of the cheap e-bay units.

Regarding engine stands, again you need something very strong, I used a cheap ebay one and a piece of wood at front that the crank nose sat on, otherwise it would bend. I would say it was marginal at best.

These are very heavy engines and you ignore that at your peril!

 

Hi Jon/Homer,

Thanks for your advice, the crane I was going to buy was a second hand Clarke one for £130 the guy has used twice and purchased from machine mart. He lives in Salisbury and was going to pick up later tonight.

Jon, it would be great if you could speak to your mate and see what he can offer please/ I'm after an engine stand to.

I was thinking of following ur advice and taking the engine out from the bottom.. Only thing is once the subframe is off and engine out, the car wont be that mobile!!. Would it be better to reconnect the subframe (once engine out) then I can move car?

Thanks for ur advice, much appreciate it.

 

 

 

The one he makes is normally £1000, he will do one for £500, but it is pretty substantial, not like the online stuff, it will lift full weight at full reach all day long, but that is probably too much money ?

You can borrow mine if you want to come and pick it up.

He doesn't do engine stands any longer, they were pretty over engineered with bearings in the head etc. so could not compete with the online stuff unfortunately.

Re making the car mobile, you can make up a dolly for the car with castors so you can move it about, once you finish the bodywork, you can use a full dolly to move the car around, see pic.

The rotisserie attaches to the same point the front bumper brackets attach, and to the rear bumper mounts for the back end.

 

 

Hi Grant,
yes I did make the dolly, it fits to the front and rear suspension mounting points on the chassis rails, I have used it to move the car on a trailer a few times too, so it does work really well, if I made one again I would probably fit slightly larger diameter castors which would allow me to move it easily on rougher ground (the area outside my workshop is not very smooth)

You could make one from wood if you didn't need to move the body far i.e. just around the workshop, it would not be robust enough for much else.

Dropping the front suspension is pretty simple but an engine crane helps as you can lift the car up and simply wheel the front suspension out, but you have to lift it high enough to clear the wheels under the bumper area, you can do it with jacks, but you need to make sure the jacks have enough lift to do it.

The colour is gun metal grey, looks really good with the chrome, but of course I would say that !