SS100 Body,wings and petrol tank.

[David Gardiner]

I thought I would start a new thread to show the work we did in making a new set of wings (fenders) making a new petrol tank and cladding the body of an original 1937 SS100.

The car has some race history but has not been on the road for many years. I will go into more details later but to outline the project we were given an ash frame which had been 'restored', this was mounted on the original rolling chassis. We also had a set of original wings and part of an original petrol tank to work from.

Looking around the ash frame it was soon evident that it was in need of quite a bit of work to make it usable.



Above James starts to rectify some of the problems we found.

David

[HEATNBEAT]

I'm looking forward to it!

[Frank.de.Kleuver]

Cool project. Can't wait.

Frank

[David Gardiner]

The ash frame had been given at some time, to someone who was supposed to restore it in exchange for being allowed to copy it. I guess you get what you pay for. I wish we had got it before it had been got at. One part that had been replaced was the rocker piece below the door, unfortunately the guy used a piece at ash with a great big knot in it and it was weak and would have been in danger of breaking, either when it was drilled for the wing bolts or when the ally was nailed on or at some point down the line.



Ash was used for making these frames because it is strong and light and also because it goes not have many knots!

In the photo above the old section is placed on the new piece of timber used to replace it.

David

[David Gardiner]

The new rocker piece James made and fitted...



Notice that there are no knots in it!.


There were lots of little chips taken out of the frame when the skin was removed. This is a problem because the skin is formed around the wood so any imperfections would transfer through and show in the finished job.

We put new pieces of ash into the frame to give us something solid to work on. Thanks to modern adhesives the repairs are strong.



It would have been better for the skin to have been remove with more care.


David

[David Gardiner]

There were areas like this...




where the wood should have been replaced, this is another area where the skin is wrapped over and nailed, there would give been nothing to nail to.

New wood was put in to replace the old.



David

[thingsthatfly2]

Looks like your having Fun David!

[Frank.de.Kleuver]

My dad is a carpenter and would love this stuff. I'll show him asap. He would want me to build a Morgan just for the wooden superstructure alone ;-)

Grt

Frank

[Bob]

Originally Posted by David Gardiner

We put new pieces of ash into the frame to give us something solid to work on. Thanks to modern adhesives the repairs are strong.

David

If I may ask, what modern adhesive do you use for this repair work?

[David Gardiner]

Originally Posted by thingsthatfly2

Looks like your having Fun David!

Brent, It was OK doing this part but not do good when we discovered that the rear of the frame was totally ot if square.

Originally Posted by Frank.de.Kleuver

My dad is a carpenter and would love this stuff. I'll show him asap. He would want me to build a Morgan just for the wooden superstructure alone ;-)

Grt

Frank

Hi Frank, this is an SS (the first SS that was given the Jaguar name in fact). The frames were super light compared to most, this is partly how they got the magical 100 miles per hour for a road car in 1936. The woprkmanship on the original cars was superb.

David