Early Javelin Restoration

[Grumpy Northener]

This is a 1950 Jowett Javelin - Bradford, West Yorkshire built - a true mould breaker back in the 50's - water cooled boxer engine, torsion bar suspension, true six seater and the first production car to be fitted with a curved windscreen. The car was originally exported to New Zealand where it spent much of it's life until a few years ago when a fellow Jowett Car Club member purchased the car and imported it to his home country of Switzerland. Peter the cars owner drove the car over to Wales this year for the annual Jowett rally covering 996 miles and picking up the furthest distance travelled award. Peter left the car in the UK when returning home and now it is the subject of a full restoration - I know it looks a nice car in the image but it has seen some life

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so here goes - first up the interior trim is removed along with the front outer trim / chrome then the engine & gearbox

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[Grumpy Northener]

Rear chrome / trim was removed and brackets made up to mount the car to the turning jig

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The main floor section which is marine ply was removed prior to the car being mounted to the jig for turning

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and over she goes

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[Luxobarge]

My Dad had one of those - before I was born unfortunately, but to this day it's still one of his favourites.

Proper classics!

Thanks a lot for posting this up - great thread, please do keep it going, I'd love to see the whole story and I'm sure loads of other folk would too.

Cheers!

[Grumpy Northener]

Glad you like it - there is more to come, this one of three Javelins that we have on the go between us - the black Javelin to the left in some of the images is a longer term project but is a very rare factory experimental car, the third car is very much up and running which is owned by a fellow 'Jowetteer' Keith - this car has covered over 500,000 miles - I will post a couple of images up of the other Jav's when I locate them.

[Grumpy Northener]

We are not this quick at stripping the car - just catching up with the couple of weekends work that we have put in already

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Petrol tank removed - scruffy but sound

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Boot floor out which required quite a bit work - the captive nuts were all rusted so these had to be removed

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Much like the main floor of the car the boot floor is also marine ply - the round disc is sprung and prevents the underslung spare wheel jumping about in travel.

[Grumpy Northener]

Windscreen / rear window and rear quarter glass came out, The door glass & regulators had already been removed by one of us - next was the carefull removal of the headlining which was only installed a few years ago - so we would like to reuse it

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The beige strips that you see in the image is the inner door apperture beading - I just taped them together so that they were not trailing in any dust or debris until the headlining came out

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All the headlining hoops are different both in length & curviture so these were carefully numbered / oriented

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Nice to see that even 60 years years ago the quality of the car was thought about with sound deading material & anti rust treatment applied to the inner roof skin

[Grumpy Northener]

The wiring harness was threaded back through to front of the car and just requires disconnection from the dashboard

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its chewed & frayed in several places and carries several bodges so it will getting replaced

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The back axle was made ready for removal

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The axle is quite good with little wear detected so it will be getting cleaned up / painted along with new seals & bushes prior to refitting - More to follow this evening - need to go and get the day job out of the way first !

[Grumpy Northener]

Back axle removed followed by the remaining mechanical bits

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The battrey is housed under the rear seat on a open support - but someone has fabricated this metal box as a replacement - 4 self tapping screws held it in place so out it came for ease of access

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Complex master cylinder set up hydraulic over mechanical - the later models were fully hydraulic - there is a lot of wear in the control links & rods both for the brakes and the gearbox - which is coloumn change

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Handbrake cable was half severed so that will be replaced but we have a long way to go before we get to that point.

[Grumpy Northener]

Ok now before I cover the next images - take into consideration that this car passed a very tough New Zealand WOF (MOT) in 2010 prior to the cars import into Switzerland - it also passed a more strict Swiss style MOT less than 12 months ago: O/S/R upper shock absorber mounting

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N/S/R shock absorber mounting plus some pidgeon related welding

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The gearbox had just about gone through the feed pipe from the brake reservoir whilst also chewing on the wiring harness

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[Grumpy Northener]

This is a 125mm long split in the front crossmember where it joins the inner wing - the front suspension bolts through this on the outer skin

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split in the N/S/F chassis leg

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