Random Shenanigans - The big cat's back

When i last left it the wiring was still a bit of a mess so i got all that wrapped up.


Made a quick bracket for the OBDII port.


The diagnostic port was missing but the original systems for the abs are still there so i fitted a spare i had.
Of course it also got a quick bracket.


My friend had supplied some gauges that he wanted fitting along with the required oil filter sandwich plate and sensors.
Harness made up to supply power and illumination for when the dash lights are on.


And the gauges will fit above the radio


Of course they need a mounting plate.
Card template


Followed by a steel copy


Will fit nicely there


Bit of paint and some screws to fix it in place. Yes something needs doing about that led.


Next up on the list of jobs is another bracket, im sensing a theme here.
A problem with this car is a lack of 12v outlets the only one is high up on the dash and pretty much always in the way. Even more so if your trying to run something in the passengers footwell.
So i bought a panel mount 12v outlet and it will fit under the glove box somewhere around here.


A bracket is made which will pick up on the bottom glove box fixing point and a hole in the dashboard frame which you cant see.


A bit of satin black paint blends everything in nicely, could almost have been there from the factory.


Side project alert.
Another friend wanted a set of calipers repairing and since i had a set already stripped and powdercoated it was a quick job to rebuild them with new seals.


They do look good.

Back onto the main task at hand.
While the engine sounds mean just out of the manifolds my ears are starting to complain so it needs an exhaust.
This supplied backbox will make a great start.


Quite an uncommon beast that box.


There was a supplied merge which i will use, but the section after the flexi didnt fit so that got chopped off


Now its just a case of joining the 2 together.
The exhaust has to go above the rear subframe or you will end up clouting it on every small pebble you drive over.


Need to make some flanges up. I didnt have time so send a drawing off to my local laser cutters so time to get out the angle grinder and spend a lot of time with the hole saw.


After they all had the holes cut they needed a small groove adding in so the gasket has somewhere to go, i did this on the lathe.


And trimmed to shape


That was way too much work for a couple of flanges.
Anyway one complication with this build is the age of the chassis, its on the edge of being able to qualify for a non-cat test come MOT time. With it being a swap some places will put it through as a non-cat and some will demand proof of engine age ect.
Either way the simplest solution is to make the exhaust in such a way that will allow a standard mr2 cat to be bolted in at will.
I didnt have a standard decat pipe laying around so thats why i made 3 flanges instead of 1


After a good rub down and a bit of black paint i think thats good enough to get the car on the road.


I even managed to utilise the subframe exhaust hanger


Swapped over the intake manifold for one that he had painted previously to help brighten up the engine bay.


Chopped up and extended the throttle cable bracket to accept the longer mr2 cable.


Something really needed to be done about this boomerang bracket aswell.


Im sure it fitted somewhere in the camry but it has nowhere to go in the mr2.
It holds the igniter and a noise filter so a quick bracket is called for.
I salvaged the clip that the noise filter fastened to so i dont have to drill a triangular hole.


Made up a plate for the igniter along with the requisite captive nuts, i didnt have any m5’s so had to make them.


Welded on the salvaged bit along with the captive nuts.


Simple stuff but helps keep the engine bay tidy


And a splash of black paint.



After 3 months sat in the workshop there was quite a bit of dust so i gave it an inside bath before her owner arrived.


The heater pipes i attempted to solder seem to have failed so needed replacing, my friend is bringing a new one with him when he comes to collect the car and ill fit it before he goes hence why the car had to stay on the stands and couldnt go outside for a proper wash.

My friend arrived and i got a few bits fitted which he brought up with him, the car came down off its stands without any incidents. They are possibly a bit high for getting a car on or off very often.


What was rather nice is being able to drive the car onto the trailer.


Well then now thats another one out of the way whats next.


A damn good tidy up, thats the next job

Looks like you only needed a dustpan & brush to move most of that white one! Its always a shame to scrap a car but its a good feeling to save as much as possible

Back onto the jag as things have been going on in the background of the other projects.
When i left you the chassis leg had been chopped out along with the front radiator hanger.
The new sections got welded up along with captive nuts for the cross brace and the towing eyes. Had to have the holes tapped out of some rather hefty flat stock for the towing eyes at our local machine shop as we didnt have a tap or drill of that size.



Fit into the car and they are looking good.


Moving onto the upper section of the radiator hanger there was a few bits on it that were rotten so the bad sections got replaced and the rest of the panel was just blasted and primed.




Tacked in and we can see how its all going to come together.



The lower section was all scrap so has to be remade and im still working on making a new part for that.
In the mean time the inner arch hole has all been cleaned back


And the new sections welded in place.



Plenty of seam sealer is applied to hopefully keep the water and subsequent tinworm out.


While we were doing those bits we sent off all the suspension parts to a local shot blaster. There was just too many pieces for us to get through in a reasonable time frame.


They came back with the odd spot on them which is to be somewhat expected.
My grandad wanted to help out since its his car so I set him up on the sandblaster to finish the blasting.


My dad on the masking of any parts that didnt want to be coated, and i got cracked applying and baking the powder coat.
My oven isnt huge so can only get a couple of bits in at a time and they usually have to be hung at a bit of an odd angle.
First coat is a partial cure on some zinc epoxy powder to give it a good base coat and corrosion resistance. Then hung up to cool.


Followed by a gloss black


Or red in the case of the calipers just because i couldn't bring myself to do them in black.


There was a full day to coat all of these parts but they look damn good now.


I do like the detail jaguar went to with all the parts i just wish they had put as much effort into preventing the water traps/rust areas.


Would have been alot less time if i had a bigger oven, hmmm.
I spent an hour or so one evening and put the calipers back together complete with new pistons.


With a big stack of new and refurbished parts now sat on the shelf i guess its time to start the reassembly then.

Plenty of cavity wax will help it last many more years.
The rest looks reasonable. It has the odd scab starting to show through the rear arches and a common section on the floor plans has already been plated over. It should pass an MOT and they can enjoy it for the summer, next winter we will pull the rear end apart to check it all out.

Wow....!

Indeed plenty of copper grease has been used where required. Although some of the bolts couldnt have copper grease as they had thread locker on from factory so on these we cleaned it out and applied fresh loctite, the heads and ends have been painted to seal it up after torquing them all down instead.

An update?
I think it about time i remembered how to do one of them so grab a drink and i’ll start on writing everything up.

The jag? Did it make it to the MOT?
Well the story for that starts on a warm sunday the day before the long drive to the station
The car hadnt been touched for a day or so but the british leyland history is strong and it had developed a leak from sitting and doing nothing.

Traced it down to the thermostat manifold. A part which hadnt been touched during the suspension refresh but yet had started leaking all on its own.
Taking it off revealed more.


The ally casting was looking considerably rough. So out with the stanly blade and sand paper to clean it up.


We obviously wouldnt be sourcing any new gaskets 12hrs before the mot so it went back together with the old gasket and compound for now.

I had also been my grandads birthday by this point and i decided he needed something nice for the car.
After spending a bit of time looking i found that the part i was existed but was obscenely expensive and not exactly what i was after.
A large round of aluminum was purchased and a long night spent on the lathe to produce a couple of these.



Know what it is yet?


Strut caps. The way jaguar left them open was a bit of an eyesore personally so these are perfect.
I had ordered some badges to go on them but they didnt arrive in time and while i now have them i still havent got around to fitting them.

Whats that i hear you all shouting?

How did the MOT go?
Passed with a clean sheet and some nice comments by the tester.

A project some of you might remember has come back up and been occupying nearly all of my time so more to come on that when i get another few minutes.

Well I'm on the look out for a Mesh front if you end up with that laying around !

will certainly keep you in mind for it. If you happen to come across an original front end then let me know and im sure something could be worked out.