1965 Jaguar 3.8 S Type, Sync4, OD, PAS, BRG/Biscuit on chrome wires back on the road after 30 years.

[Glyn Ruck]

Thanks Rob, You are of course right with certain things & yet I was determined not to over restore or let perfection get in the way of very good. The upside I suppose is that I've had 4 spectacular offers for the car. But she is not for sale. She will be driven & enjoyed. The family can sell her when I'm long gone. I think we surprised ourselves with the wood. This is Erens first attempt at wood restoration & certainly mine.

There are, of course, members of the local Jag club that have criticised the car for not being good enough.

[Glyn Ruck]

It does look lovely, Glyn, and you and your restorer have made a great job of it. I hope it will last in that scorching South African sun. But, I am curious...

All woodwork was hand sanded back to base.

Do you mean you just removed the previous lacquer and the veneer is all original? It does look quite different in appearance to the veneer on my car, which is very obviously original! Mine has a lot more obvious burrs and very little straight grain. Was the woodwork on CKD cars made locally, maybe accounting for the difference in style?

Orlando ~ we just removed the lacquer, all the veneer is original. There were lots of S Types in the late 65, 1966 era with veneer like mine (have many pictures) ~ straight shaved walnut & not burl. It seems to have been luck of the draw. Strangely the inside of my glovebox lid is burl veneer. All the wood came from Browns Lane. I would accuse Jaguar of sending the crap to the colonies but there were Browns Lane cars like mine & SA cars like yours.

I had a set of wood for the car from a scrapped SA build that was heavy burl but it was in nowhere near as good condition as my original. Plus I wanted to restore as much as possible from the original car & not just replace everything.

SA's sun is brutal but fortunately the car is garaged. The guys that gave us advice on the lacquer stressed I should use local & not stuff from Europe as it was far more suitable for local ambient conditions. I had even considered using the low VOC nano ceramic automotive clearcoat.

We made a conscious decision not to use stripper on the wood. Business friends from BASF/Glasurit warned us that it is very difficult to fully neutralise it in this application & can cause issues down the line.


Here is a 1966 Left Hooker from Browns Lane with woodwork similar to mine.

1966Jag3.8S017b1.jpg (355.46 KiB) Viewed 2815 times

[cass3958]

There are, of course, members of the local Jag club that have criticised the car for not being good enough.

There is always at least one anally retentive twat at a Jaguar club. You can spot him because he is the one driving a Jaguar XF which is on company finance, is serviced at the Local Jaguar dealers and who thinks an adjustable spanner or wrench as the Americans call them is the only tool you need in your tool box.

[Glyn Ruck]

Having a good look through my "Interior Reference" file Jaguar's veneering was extremely variable.

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I think these pics from the brochures were heavily touched up. (Auto's with & without speed hold, pre radio chrome vent)

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I think the original Press Demonstrators were very carefully selected. (one of very few photographs I've seen of a car without a bent horn ring)

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A very good total re-veneer: Browns Lane seldom if ever achieved this.

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[Glyn Ruck]

There are, of course, members of the local Jag club that have criticised the car for not being good enough.

There is always at least one anally retentive twat at a Jaguar club. You can spot him because he is the one driving a Jaguar XF which is on company finance, is serviced at the Local Jaguar dealers and who thinks an adjustable spanner or wrench as the Americans call them is the only tool you need in your tool box.

Yep! You got it The same R soles that tell you your suspension is the wrong black!

[Orlando St.R]

Great pix of the wood, Glyn. Thanks.

I had one bloke at a JDC National Rally tell me at enormous length that he would have bought an S-type himself, only replacement wings are too expensive.

[cass3958]

I went to the house of our local JEC chairman to collect some tickets for a local classic car show so I could put my S Type on the JEC stand.

I asked him what Jaguar he had and he pointed out his new XF on the driveway.

When I asked if he had a classic Jaguar he stated that he had recently had a Jaguar XJ S V12 but it had got to the point where he was going to have to spend some money on it so sold it and bought the XF which is a lot more reliable.

Just the first years depreciation on the XF would have been enough to completely restore the XJ S V12. This is from the Chairman of the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club. Twat.

[Glyn Ruck]

Orientation of pull handles on the tray and glove box lid

As this has been queried elsewhere here I thought I should clarify on my own thread.

Glove Box lid & Tray handles are correctly fitted in opposing orientation on RHD cars & aligned orientation on LHD cars.


In RHD cars the glove box & tray handles are mounted in opposing orientation like this.

Dash Attachment.JPG (117.43 KiB) Viewed 2717 times

In LHD cars the glove box & tray handles are mounted in the same orientation.





http://www.jagstyperegister.com/forum_n ... 1439#p1439

http://www.jagstyperegister.com/forum_n ... 1633#p1633


Some early cars had a chrome finger pull on the glove box lid as shown in the brochure.

Photo courtesy of Alan Wiedie

[Glyn Ruck]

Another point of originality. Nylon Studs holding down chrome radio vent on parcel shelf. (many use self tappers which is wrong.)

In some early cars these studs were clear nylon that yellowed badly. In later cars they were black. I can find no indication of when this changed.

Picture courtesy of David Reilly

[Glyn Ruck]

Can anybody please assist me (preferably with photographic evidence) with the position of the Brake Fluid decal on RHD cars.

Here is the correct position on LHD cars on the inner LH wing.

Photo courtesy of Allan Wiedie

s type decals 003.JPG (43.61 KiB) Viewed 2689 times

To give something back ~ the correct position of the machine applied sticker/decal on the coil is 1/4" down from the top crimping & centered between the CB & SW LT lugs. I will let you decide which decal is appropriate for your MY car. My best research to date suggests it has to be one of these two for all positive earth 3.8 cars. Correct me if you know better. It's how we learn.

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Coil Decal.JPG (51.72 KiB) Viewed 2689 times