Practically Classics Forum

More progress - nearside panel profiling now complete - just the roof edge / gutter rail to tidy up - both front and back door apertures profiled on the nearside and the bonnet reprofiling was also completed - so bonnet off and engine bay / bulkhead & inner wings cleaned up

With the rear chassis tilter removed to allow for the fitment of the boot lid - I also removed the rear bracket & bumper irons to allow access to the rear panel area which was straightened up - boot lid now well on its way still needs a little more profiling but nearly there

That really does highlight what you had to contend with there. What an odd construction too. The rear end proportions on this car are really nice, the shapes are just right.

So - rear panel & boot lid now reprofiled - there is a wing piping that goes between the rear wings / rear panel / rear shroud - problem with the boot was that the aperture was too close in the bottom corners with the back panel - although there is adjustment available on the hinges if I bring the bootlid up any further it will close the aperture in the upper corners - so time for some radical surgery - I used the flapwheel to reduce each lower corner and then rewelded the edge - cleaned it back again with the flapwheel and skimmed over the top - sorted

Quite a few odds to sort / check through - glove box frame had been hacked about so needed straightening up and some non original holes welding up, steel dash board had some holes drilled for non original warning lights so these were plated up and reprofiled

Chris, was Jowett panel fit that consistent when these were a new car? I've seen a few nicely preserved original Javelins but wasn't around in the fifties so really don't know whether they'd have matched your standards of workmanship, which would take some doing!

One of the rear lamp housings had a sheared stud so a new one was welded on and the housing checked for fit, rear wings now removed and upper radius edges can be profiled has can the rear shrouds - really pleased with how the rear panels have come on given the amount of damage that they retained before I started

Meanwhile - front panel profiled / trial fitted (after some adjustment) - there is a piping bead that fits between the wings and the front panel - All Javelin individual panels were numbered to the car - this being a early model is well down in the numbers of the 24,000 in total that were built - and this particular Javelin being quite rare in the fact that it retains all of it's original panels

Chris, was Jowett panel fit that consistent when these were a new car? I've seen a few nicely preserved original Javelins but wasn't around in the fifties so really don't know whether they'd have matched your standards of workmanship, which would take some doing!

Jowett Javelin panel fit was hideous - you can drive a bus through the top of a door aperture - yet at the bottom it's so close that it will be taking paint off the wing every time you open and close the door - Having said all that Jowett did not build the Javelin body - Briggs Motor Bodies at Doncaster did - they delivered painted & trimmed shells to Jowett at Bradford where the drive train was fitted - I don't know of another Javelin that will have a panel fit / aperture gapping has good as this one when it is finished - it won't be perfect but they never were

Top work, as always.