Practically Classics Forum

Managed to locate a decent lamp housing which just required a minor repair, Peter had also located new one piece seals for the housings - so this was trial fitted It just needs shot blasting / priming - the nearside one requires a bit more work as the studs have sheared but easily sorted Peter - who owns the Javelin is over from Switzerland for the week so he has been put to task to go through all the bits and sort them into order, locate what's missing from the vast spares stock and get everything cleaned up / primed And that's only half of it !!

Meanwhile the rear wing had been off and back on a few times for final fettling so I was by now happy with the panels and the fit on the offside so that's milestone number 1 sorted today - I mounted the shell back up to the chassis tilter and inverted the car With door apertures aligned I could now complete the welding on the outrigger / jacking point which retains the B post So with the outrigger sorted milestone number 2 was achieved ' All structural welding to the bodyshell completed'

What are you teasing us with hidden under dust sheets?!?!

The bracing for the B posts could now have the welds unpicked and the frame removed Then we turned the car around ( I like to work down the wallside of the workshop - it keeps all the grinding dust / welding fumes within short reach of the industrial extractor fan and prevents the other cars being showered in grinding / welding sparks) The shell was removed from the chassis tilter (The tilter mounts to the cars bumper irons but the irons travel through apertures in the wings so to mount the wings the tilter frames need to be out of the way)

What are you teasing us with hidden under dust sheets?!?!

Terry - 2 more Jowetts I'm afraid - Jowett Javelin - 500,000 miles from new & a Jowett Jupiter - rallied in 27 countries, then up in the top garage is another Jupiter (all belong to fellow members), plus my Javelin, then spread between the workshop and the shed outside is my project Jupiter in many pieces, Ho, and on the drive is a another Javelin shell (Ex works / factory experimental car) which awaits a full restoration - I will take some pics next time I am over there

After a little persuasion I got a decent fit with the front panel and the nearside wing Not too bad a fit on the aperture either But poor inline alignment of the wing / door

So what's under the filler then ? Just more grot Repair fabricated / welded / initial clean up Wing has to now come back off so that I can dress the flange and complete the welding cleaning up from the rear - the repair can be dressed to shape and then refitted Pleased with the progress though - ideally I need to get all the panel work complete before the end of November then the shell can go for dipping.

Wing back off - fettled and bolted back on, very good fit on the front but now I had too tight a gap on the door to wing aperture - the front would be very difficult to alter so it has come off the wing edge so here is how Ground the wing edge back enough to get the gapping required and then reduced a further 2.5 mm - this splits the flange so that you will now have three unattached pieces of metal on the wing edge - these were clamped together and the edge tacked with the welder Then fully welded

welded edge ground back and checked prior to wing coming back off to tidy the inner flange edge Wing back on and gapping to match the offside I got the side alignment as close as possible - the remaining difference will be made up by lead loading the low areas

Whilst on the front of the car the original bonnet was attached But the fit is appalling On further inspection the leading edge that meets the bulkhead is distorted and the sides are a poor fit to the wings, to cap it all the front edge fouled with the wings - on checking the frame that supports the bonnet skin was all over the place having being butchered whilst under previous ownership - time to place it on the scrap pile then !!