I've read with interest the modifications to the spats to show some more of the wheel. Can anyone please tell me how much of the spat was removed? How about the lip on the modified spat? How is this done? Thanks

 

You can buy the narrow spats direct from Martin Robey but they are not cheap. £264.55 a side plus 20% VAT.
https://www.martinrobey.com/jaguar/c...-panels-2/8914

 

Martin Robey makes and sells them in steel:

https://www.martinrobey.com/jaguar/c...-panels-2/8915

The price is 'not cheap.'

There are also GRP available on eBay, less expensive and rust free.

If the car is being rebuilt, I'd go for something closer to the original Coombs style and make the arches permanent rather than detachable. Coombs brazed copper pipe into the arch rim. A nicer solution might be to weld in front wheel arch repair sections.

 

I bought a pair of Robey steel spats and after a fair bit of work they fitted fine.
However since they are flimsier than the originals, the radius of curvature was not quite right, picture below.
After some deft panel work by the body shop they now fit precisely.
As a picture shows, we elected to add another clamp to ensure a close fit at the top.
Since these spats were never going to be taken off, I turned up some large head stainless steel screws so that they looked like the Dzus fasteners. I fitted tapped bushes in the body to receive them.


Radius of curvature needed correction

Tapped bushes fitted in place of Dzus

Extra clamp at top right

Final perfect fit well secured with screws

 

That yellow Mk2 is Prof. Gregory's car. His handle is sov211 ~ shoot him a PM.

Or do the job properly like Coombs did. I'll find you a pic. It looked so good & correct I don't know why Jaguar did not adopt it. Originally done for racing to make wheel/tyre changes easy. Coombs race cars had painted wires. But later on they would do what a customer wanted for cars that were not going to be raced.


Original Coombs car. One of the last they did.







Slightly bashed up original from racing owned by the Heritage Trust.

 

This is a photo of my car...these spats are metal, not fibreglas, and they entirely replace the original spat, using the same mounting points and the same fixing screws. If you get a set that have been properly made, there is nothing to consider but removal of the originals and replacing with these - a very quick procedure. The "Coombs-style" (misnamed) spats give the car a much more modern appearance, in my opinion. The original spates sit unused ever since these were fitted 16 years ago! For comparison, a photo of a similar car:

and again, my car:


I think the overall impression is quite different.

 

I guess each one of us has our own tastes...I just like the looks of the original spats much better

 

Me too.

 

Yugh! To each his own. I can't stand them. They make the car look antiquated.

 

Yup, exactly, I like that look.

On my Bentley they are very often missing and the mount on the body is "goobered in bondo"
The car looks like there is something missing to me, the same with the Jaguar.

 

Gregory's car is 56 years old, that qualifies as antique!

 

True JB ~ but I prefer the Coombs thanks. And you can get larger tyres onto a Coombs. Depends on the look you like. I have never liked spats. To me Coombs is the way the car should have looked in the first place. Far more elegant & modern. Lyons wanted to get rid of the Mk1 complaints & claustrophobic appearance. Look at the effort they put into the interior & elsewhere on the exterior. e.g slim posts & more glass & bright work. The windscreen alone takes a full inch out of the roof.

 

Surely, no one can argue against that photo of LJB4? It's tremendous, the absolute epitome of what a sports saloon should be.

 

Well Peter. If I ever was to do a Mk2 restoration that's exactly what I would do sans bonnet louvers. (for practical reasons ~ water on the engine & in the V of the head. They sold very few with bonnet louvers & none of their team cars had them).

 

I'm also against louvres. If I absolutely had to extract air, I'd put a small slot in the wing. And if I have to say something negative about this car, well it's a struggle, but 10mm spacers on the rear wheels to widen the track and better fill the arches and perhaps a front valence sufficiently small that it only just shows beneath the front bumper?

 

I bought a pair of the steel "Coombs" spats for my car. I like the more aggressive look. They don't fit very well. The radius on my set is a little too small so likely some sectioning and welding. We are not making any mods to the body and the body man will be painting both the original spats (that fit perfectly) and the Coombs spats so the car can be returned to stock should someone decide that is the thing to do.
I'm glad I bought them pre-pandemic. They are now hard to find (in the States) and SNG wants a kilo buck for the pair. Probably $800 from the UK with shipping.

 

The white racecar above is probably adequate for me on filling rear arches.

To me this front addition to the S Type works but I prefer the original flattened rear arch with the longer tail.

This front valance would probably do equally well on a Mk2

But LJB4 is hard to criticise.

 

Some modifications do not work. This is an S Type that had been modified around the rear wheel arches to change it from the original square topped design to a round arch to allow wider rear tyres. Not to my taste.


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OMG is that ever ugly, they're trying to make it into a modern car with those big fat ugly tires.

Those rear tires are so ridiculously big, and then they try to add to the body and cover up the mess so it belongs, BAH !

 

Cass, I've seen S Types with round rear arches that were more or less acceptable, but the whole effect in this one is (for me) fairly awful. It looks as though a lot of work went into it.