Micah Wellman (US) reporting on 9th August 2003:
Jaguar Mk X - restoration / part 3
 

After sandblasting the damage to the vehicle became more apparent. The left side was in good condition except for some rust in the front wing. The right side was another matter. The front door must have been hyperextend into the wing. I knew this was a problem long ago and had to replace the hinges to get the door to close.

  Some ignorant body repairman had tried to repair the damage to the wing by drilling holes and attempting to pull the dents out. All this resulted in was deforming the metal. The damage was then just filled up with bondo. The rear quarter panel was also a problem.
  Someone had creased the panel from the rear door to the tail light. It would have been an easy repair to remove the gas tank and beat the panel straight.
The same repair man must have worked on this panel too. It was full of holes and had about one half inch of bondo in it. With the damage came a problem. Is it better to repair it or replace it? One must weigh the cost of man hours to the cost of new panels. So began my quest for new repair panels. I soon discovered that Mark X panels are rare and expensive. I found a wings in Norway, Germany, England and Australia. A couple of people I contacted in England and Australia had one but did not want to give them up. Another place in England wanted 1,500 pounds and Germany had one for 850 Euro. By the time I could get in an order from Germany, it had been sold. It was too costly to obtain a new front wing so I decided to repair it. I found a front nose piece for $25 which will be grafted into the old wing. I had somewhat better luck with the rear quarter panel, well sort of. I found a new panel in Australia for $150. After more than a month of calls to Australia just to find out if the shop had the panel, I tried for another month to get them to crate it up for shipping. Finally I gave up and had the old one repaired. Now the quarter panel and the damaged section of the wing are repaired. The holes were all welded up. The metal was pulled out and a small amount of body filler was used. Also the rust in both fenders were repaired.
  Now to the front end. After several calls to my supplier in Australia, I finally managed to get him to ship out the closing panel that installs between the front wheel arch and the front of the wing on the right side. In other words, the floor of the air filter compartment.
  Mine had some slight rust damage and I wanted to replace the panel but was afraid to cut it out until I had a new one in hand. After weeks of delays, I received the panel and temporarily installed all the new metal. It was like putting a large jigsaw puzzle together with a hammer and grinder.
  For the front end, I am replacing the closing panels on either side, the entire radiator support section, the front cross member, a closing panel for the cross member, the small radiator mounting bracket, two members that go from the cross member to the frame, the right nose and the air filter box.
  Surprisingly, these are all new parts that I obtained for about $500.
Now to the rust in the floor panels. There was some small rust in the front left floor from where water got in under the pedal box. It was a section about four inches tall by twenty inches.
  I was told by the shop that a new section could be made for around $150. When I picked the panel up, it was $400. I was a little shocked. To his credit, the panel maker did an incredible job. He had to machine forms out of metal in order to replicate the indentations in the panel.
  It was an exact match. I was a little in awe of his shop, inside was an original 1967 AC Ford Cobra that he was hand making new aluminum panels for at a cost of over $30,000. My panel didn't seem so expensive. The right side floor has a small amount of rust that will be easily repaired, I hope.
  Enough about the body, lets talk about the engine. My old motor was junk with only 10,000 miles on it. My belief is this was caused by oil starvation. It always had low pressure at idle and I did not know better at the time. I think it was improperly assembled.
  The block had been cracked in the outer water jacket and was welded up. I decided to scrap the block, it was not original to the car. The original one was in even worse shape. I got a used one for $250. It was re-sleeved. I had the block sandblasted on the outside.
  I then primed, painted and clear coated it. It looks nice, but how long will this last. Total cost of the machine work was $800. I do not know the rebuild coast at this time. Now with only 10,000 miles, one would assume that the cylinder head was fine. Don't assume with Jaguars.
 

My lousy engine builder did his magic here too. Simply, it wasn't done correctly. The valves could not be adjusted, the buckets were worn and the guides were junk. The cams were OK! Total cost to rebuild the cylinder head, $1,600.
Now, on to future steps. I have decided that the leaking, noisy miserable cast iron Borg Warner DG-250 must go! I initially wanted to go with a modern overdrive automatic. I do not like the kits that are sold here in the USA and turned to a well known supplier in England. After being dissatisfied with their "customer service," I decided to try and convert the Mark X to a five speed manual transmission.
Initially, I ordered a Getrag transmission from a supplier in England.
This turned into somewhat of a nightmare due to this shop's incompetence.
I had to send the transmission back to England. Another problem was the pedal box. I want this car to look like it was originally a manual car.
To do so, you have to get the original pedal box.
Not many early Mark X's were manual, especially those that came to the USA.
Also, later Mark X's and 420G's used different brake boosters and clutch pedal boxes that do not easily transfer to earlier models.
I searched all over the world for months complicated by the fact that I could only use a LHD unit. I managed to find one in Germany, in the USA and in Switzerland. The person in the USA did not want to sell it and the ones in Germany and Switzerland wanted too much for them, $500. Why do people think that because you own a Jag you are rich? Amazingly, 100 miles from my house, I found one. A gentleman had converted his '64 to the later style brakes and clutch box. I got it for $40.
The transmission I plan to install is the T-5 unit made here in the USA. It will have a .73 overdrive.

For more info: http://www.5speeds.com/jag.htm

I have not ordered this yet. Modifications to the trans tunnel cover will have to be made. Thankfully the auto transmission tunnels are bigger so that in the future the trans can be removed without taking the engine out. I hope to make this conversion as invisible as possible by using the stock mounting unit. We will see how it works out.
Thank you for reading about my little project.
Micah
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