Boot Final & Moving On

 When I started this project about 6 months ago, getting to the end of the rust seemed like a very daunting task.  Well, I'm almost there.  All I have left is a little patch work on the rear fenders and front cowl.

I thought I had one of these contour guides but couldn't find it.  Wish I would have had one a few weeks ago, it would have saved some time.  Using the guide, I had to rework the top one a little.

And the view from the outside.  I had to do a lot of work on the bottom one and will have to do some clean up once I turn it back over.

The last piece of the puzzle for the boot was to add the closing panels.  I know these won't be exactly the same as factory but still serves the same purpose.  The point is to keep water and dirt out of the fender and boot.,  The pattern worked well for the tonneau repair a few weeks ago so I used it again.

I have some weld cleanup to do but I'm pretty pleased.  It sealed off except for the bottom edge.  I want to leave that open so if water gets in, it can drain.  Any other opening will be sealed when I do the undercoating.

With the closures done, here are a few shots of the finished boot.

FINALLY, I get to move on to something else.  When I bought this car, it came with almost 2 complete motors but I haven't even looked through the boxes yet.  Its about time to take a break from fabricating and take a look.

Mounted in the car was what I now know to be an XK150 motor with matching cylinder head (V Block).  The second engine is an XK120 engine but after some checking, the W block will need to be bored because of excessive wear.  The V block barely has a ridge at the top.  Since the head matches the block and I don't have to buy new pistons or get the engine bored.  Anyone need a W block?

That being settled, I started tearing everything down so I can see just what needs to be done.  First thing I tackled was the cylinder head.

I didn't understand why it was green until I discovered it was an XK150 head.  I don't know why Jaguar would paint the head green? 

One of the easiest things to do should be to remove the valve covers but the nuts where seized.  I was able to loosen all but one, I had to cut it off.

Once inside, over all its in pretty good shape, except for #4 exhaust tappet guide.  I'm assuming it worked its way out and hit the cam but its in place now.  I can't tell for sure but it almost looks like someone pinned it in place instead of fixing it.

The only other thing I found was #3 exhaust guide is worn.  This is the same guide I had to replace on my E-Type.  Makes me wonder if its a design issue.  

With the head torn down, I started pouring through the engine parts box.  Turns out I actually have more that 2 motors worth of parts.

Going through the two sets of pistons, I know now I have one set of pistons and a hodgepodge of six pistons.  I first weighed the connecting rods to find 6 of the same weight and then I weighed the entire assembly.  All within 3 grams.

Here is the set of keepers with a few of the others stragglers.  I kept the pins, pistons and rods together.

Here is one of the main bearing journals on the crank I'll keep.

And the one I'm not keeping.  Similar to the block, this crankshaft will have to be machined.

This isn't all of it but I gathered all the chrome together and off to a shop.  

I want to reinstall the boot but want to repair the frame rails I know are rusted.  I've been using 18 ga metal for all the body work but my measurements say the frame is 12 ga.  According to my sheet metal break,  I should be able to bend it but 'NO!!'.  This was supposed to be mild steel but it feels like tool steel.  

Top View

First step was to match the two piece design.

Side view

Top View

OK, I skipped a few steps in pictures but here is the final version.

Side View

One last thing to wrap up the weekend was to align the doors.  I know I will probably use less shims once I repair them but to weld everything together, I need the right gaps.