Hi Team. I saw this recently and thought.....why am I being so careful in my rebuild ? When Jaguar threw them together 😜😜😜😜
Go to uTube. Look for Jaguar factory tour -1961

 

Got to love all that hands on labour, it would cost a fortune to assemble a car like that now a days.
And all those quality control inspections along the way _ I wonder (if any) cars were rejected ?
The Friday afternoon cars before the party or the Monday morning cars after the party ?

 

Hi Jeff
It was good to see the way they worked ...gave me a bit of confidence to get on with my rebuild k

 

What a great insight!


Would be nice to pick one of them up, rather than restoring it.


Motor internals balanced to within 2grams, not bad for a mass produced 1960's car!


I wonder how much could be gained these days from just using modern machines to balance and weight match internals along with lighter materials.

 

I love that video. Watched it often. Wish we still had those times when cars were built by humans. At least there were more jobs then. I'm charmed by all those initials on interior parts indicating who made them all those years ago.

 

You will still find the initials on the wood pieces in modern Jaguars - having been to the factory to see post-2000 Jaguars being built I can tell you that there is still a very large amount of hand labour that goes into building modern Jags - and the quality is superb - leagues beyond what Jaguar produced in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

 

I still have that video in VHS, purchased it from Kelsey Publishing UK back in 1992, it is called "Building A Legend".

It also includes another half hour showing the development of the XJ-40 from the clay mockup to testing the car in the Alps.

 

I need to get me one of those jigs that holds engine, suspension etc. and you drop the chassis on top...