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The old side lights were quite corroded so I sourced this pair at the Stoneleigh Jaguar International Spares Day. This is before a good clean..
...and after the clean.
Again the original side lamp bezel (left) against one sourced at Stoneleigh (right).
I also sourced a much shinier rear number plate plinth (see below). Picture above shows the glass lenses....having cleaned up the one of the right.
Once the car is painted I could hardly put the top number plate plinth back on....the lower one will look great!
I've bought a sand blasting cabinet which is going to be very useful. I'm starting with the tired and slightly rusty looking headlamp bowls. A bit of a before (on the right), during (on the left) and after (below).
I have sourced some much better condition used 'Desmo' wing mirrors to replace the ones that were on the car but the teardrop shaped mounts don't come with them so I have going to have to get those rechromed separately.
The grille needs a bit of work to be ready to refit to the car. There is a lot of dirt that has accumulated all around it and there are some dents on the right front (left in the view above) from where it has been knocked at some point in the past. The grille comes in 3 parts; the oval shaped surround, the centre vane and the grille slats that are brazed together. I am planning on getting the surround and centre vane rechromed and polising up the grille slats myself.
The chrome plating company I have contacted just up the road in Coventry, Marque Restore sounded confident that it would be possible to strip the surround, knock out the dents and rechrome it. They have worked with Jaguar Land Rover classic which is encouraging.
(Left) a close view of the dents show that it isn't a simple polish or even knock them out a little.
This view of the grille slats shows that there is a lot of grime covering the shiny plated metal underneath.
The same for the bottom of the griller slats.
It took 2-3 hours to polish each of the slats and clean out the dirt where they join the frame.
Worth it though and confirms that re-chroming is not neeed.
Here are the first 20 items for the chrome platers 'Marque Restore' based in Coventry.
Front bumper
Front and rear over-riders (some damage repair needed)
Front and rear windscreen surrounds
Grille surround (damage repair needed) and centre vane
Front and rear door waist seal trims
Wing mirror teardrop mount and aerial dome
Headlight surrounds are in the pile but aren't worth rechroming
Front and rear door handles (left)
It is lovely to finally get to the stage where I can apply the chrome trims. The bonnet leaper is a bit faded but I wanted to leave the original one, but the bonnet centre chrome trims are new. I'm having the bonnet side trims re-plated.
The Jaguar on the bootlid is the one the car came with (maybe original) but the '3.4 S' had some corrosion so I have replaced it with a new one from Martin Robey.
A quick strip and re-paint of the spring band holding the badge in place...
..means I can fit the badge into the re-chromed grille centre vane.
(Left) The rechromed centre vane and repaired and rechromed grille surround are looking great. I have found the fixings that hold the grille to the body difficult to get from the specialist suppliers so I have found a really good alternative.
The rechromed aerial bezel is looking good again too.
It isn't possible to obtain new chrome trims that hold the moving side window rubbers. I have had the original trims re-chromed and the old rubbers had perished anyway so I have sourced a new rubber extrusion that matches the original which I have cut to length and stuck to the trim with Tiger seal.
With all 4 window waist seal rubbers replaced I have been able to refit the door glass and frames which really makes the car look more complete. Each door frame requires an amount of adjustment using shims to get the fit correct within the door aperture as well as ensuring the window regulator works properly. Got it wrong and the regulator can get stuck and the window frame can catch on the gutter chrome trim. I found myself thinking about each of the small adjustments that the people building the cars originally would have to make, the order in which they would do them and the speed at which they would have to do them as they were paid on piece rates at Browns Lane in those days.
I have been fitting new inner seals and outer gaskets to the front and rear indicators / lamp housings as this will protect against water ingress.
I have finally refitted the front LH indicator and spent some time getting all of them working correctly, including checking brake, reversing, side and headlamps. Getting a good ground is key and the nuts are tricky to access on the rear lamps.
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