Chassis 002
| 1963 Team
CJ Lightweight E Type (MW) Chassis 002 |
Restoration log by Dan Mooney |
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Many thanks to Jay Leno and his crew for the fantastic show they put together featuring our Team CJ Lightweight E Type. We think the car looked and sounded awesome on screen, but we'll let you be the judge!
Yesterday I spent the day as Jay Leno's guest in his incredible garage. Jay checked out the Team CJ Lightweight and also took it for a serious drive through the beautiful hills around Burbank, California. I was a little nervous about doing the show but I really needn't have worried as Jay was an incredibly kind and gracious host. I was truly honored to meet possibly the number one 'car guy' in the world - and the fact that he loved our Team CJ Lightweight made it a very special day! He said it was easily the fastest and most powerful 6 cylinder Jaguar he had ever driven.
For fans of the "Jay Leno's Garage" show, I can tell you that he really does drive (or ride) everything in his collection. I loved the fact that virtually every car was hooked up to a trickle charger and the breadth of Jay's automotive knowledge is incredible. The Team CJ Lightweight show will air in February 2019.
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| Jay and I talking about the Team CJ
Lightweight |
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| This lady had a tough job to do! |
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| The car looked stunning under the studio
lighting |
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| Let's take this thing for a drive! |
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| I couldn't count all the cameras that the crew
attached to the Lightweight! |
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| Headed for the hills! |
Not quite finished but close enough for some fantastic road testing and shakedown over the last few days! We will be displaying the car at the Hagerty's car show at COTA tomorrow. Anyone local who is planning to attend the SVR racing and/or the car show, stop by and say hello!
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Installing the seats, belts and dash top.
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| Tan hide a nice contrast with the Gunmetal
paint |
Driver's seat is anchored to the cage |
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| Dash top now installed |
Installing leather bonnet straps, decals, headlamps, etc.
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Fabricating aluminum inner door panels and machining custom center caps for the Dunlop racing wheels.
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| Jake fabricated new alloy inner door panels |
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| Corey machining center caps for the Dunlop
alloy racing wheels |
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I am delighted to report that this car will feature on an upcoming episode of Jay Leno's Garage (to be filmed in December).
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Alex has been busy installing the wiring harness and plotting out the layout of the dash.
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| Plotting out the dash format |
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| Fuel pressure regulator on firewall |
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We have now finished modifying the fuel cell and it is ready to permanently install.
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| Preparing to weld the tank back together |
Foam reinstalled |
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| End panel tack welded in place |
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| Tank now fully welded |
Ready to install |
Fuel cell modifications, continued...
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We just received the FIA approved 35 gallon fuel tank from Axminster Specialist Panels in England. This is a stunning quality item exhibiting workmanship of the highest order, although unfortunately we are going to have to modify the tank fairly extensively in order for it to fit. The biggest issues are the rear wall, where the tank does not allow enough room for the boot latch and bracket, and the filler neck does line up with the corresponding hole in the boot lid.
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| RH side panel will be carefully cut away |
Foam will be removed and replaced |
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| Unfortunately no room for the boot lid latch |
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| Cutting away the center section of the rear
wall to provide clearance for the boot lid latch |
Making a template for the boot latch recess |
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| Now room for the latch which can be
installed or removed without removing the tank |
Plotting the location of the rear mounting
bracket |
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| Tank retaining straps will bolt to the rear
mounting bracket |
Hole for filler neck will be moved inboard
almost 3 inches to work with filler neck hole in boot lid |
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| Plotting the anchor points for the forward
wall of the tank |
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| Rubber mounting strips glued to floor
support rails |
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| Making stainless fuel screens |
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| Rear mount bracket now secured, straps trial
bolted to bracket |
Fuel lines will be concealed in front of the
tank and inside right rear wing |
We chose some period Italian made DCOE9 45mm Webers for our Lightweight project. Those carbs have now been completely rebuilt and installed on the special wide angled Crosthwaite and Gardiner intake manifold, along with a custom made free flowing Stage Two exhaust system from our friends at Hayward & Scott in England.
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Installing the FIA approved roll cage in the Lightweight.
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| 3.8 pedal box has been modified for use with later master cylinder and booster |
Jake and Gerardo installing the FIA roll cage |
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Ray busy installing the custom Hayward & Scott headers and intake manifold to the wide angled head.
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Installing the engine, transmission and Dunlop racing wheels and tires.
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| Great to see the drive train installed |
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| Dunlop 6.50 L-15 Racing Tires for the rear |
Dunlop 6.00 L-15 racing tires for the front |
Time to start going together with this Team CJ Lightweight!
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| Installing the new engine frames |
Ray installing the control arms |
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| Special CJ/Wilwood vented brakes all round |
Unmasking the body to reveal the bare aluminum inner surfaces.
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We painted the bonnet, hardtop and boot lid yesterday afternoon.
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| Note underside of bonnet has been left in bare aluminum |
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| Alloy hardtop was painted at the same time as the bonnet and boot lid |
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| Time to put this car together! |
Earlier today we painted the main bodyshell Opalescent Gunmetal.
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I am pleased to report that we have now begun the process of painting the Lightweight.
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| The underside of the floors will be first to
be painted |
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| Sealed with epoxy primer |
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| Gerardo applying the first of the Opalescent Gunmetal paint |
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| Note all the rivets which are a feature of the Lightweight's construction |
With all of the body and panel work completed, the lightweight is now only a few weeks from its Opalescent Gunmetal paint.
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| Bodywork has now been completed |
Panel fit has now been finalized |
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| Interior of the car will be left bare aluminum |
Exposed rivets a feature of the quarter and rocker panels |
Trimming the driver's seat...
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| Reinforced steel frame fabricated for mounting seats to floor |
Seat back support brace for driver's seat |
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| Bracket is tied to the main cage |
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| Submarine belt installed through seat base |
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| Carlos did a beautiful job fabricating and
installing the tan hide seat covers |
Carlos busy making your hide seat covers..
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Matt has been busy putting the finishing touches to the roll cage installation.
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| Threaded steel mounting plates will be
positioned beneath the aluminum skin |
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| Welding the alloy skin back in place |
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| Repeating the process on the other side of the
car |
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| Cage is now bolted to the steel brackets |
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| Note how all the boot floor rails are secured with dozens of rivets |
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| Boot compartment and cabin will be left
unpainted bare aluminum |
The bare aluminum is first treated with a special conditioner that is specifically designed to clean, condition and fortify the alloy substrates for maximum adhesion and corrosion resistance. It is then coated with a Spies Hecker 'wash primer', before being primed in the traditional sense with a 2k sealer. We will be leaving the cabin, underside of the bonnet and boot compartment in bare aluminum, per the original Lightweights.
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| Bare aluminum is first treated with a
conditioner which fortifies alloy substrates |
Special 'wash' primer is applied |
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| Followed by our regular 2K sealer |
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| Cabin will be left in bare aluminum |
Custom forged CJ pistons designed to work with ultra large valves of the wide angled head.
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Following your visit the other day when we "trial fitted" you inside the cabin of your Lightweight, we decided to reduce the overall width of both seats by just over an inch. We have also now received the peg drive hubs and new Dunlop alloy wheels from England - and they are absolutely beautiful.
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| Marking out area to be sectioned in order to reduce seat width by approximately 1 inch |
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| Seat cut down the centerline |
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| Note difference between the two seats after
the driver's seat had been modified |
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| Finalizing position of driver's seat |
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| New Dunlop alloy replicas are superb quality |
Spinner from Steve McQueen's XKSS side by side with one of your new spinners |
Roll cage installation, continued..
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| Notching sections of the cage tubing for perfect fit |
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| TIG welding upper screen protective bar in
place |
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| Trial fitting hardtop over cage |
Trial fitting and welding the roll cage...
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| Sample 'test' weld to be submitted for FIA approval |
Trial fitting screen surround |
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| Rear section now virtually complete |
Lower/rear anchor point |
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Block machine work in progress...
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| Magnaflux checking block after de-sleeving revealed no cracks |
Machining for custom CJ top hat liners |
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| Align honing in progress |
Surfacing the deck of the cylinder block |
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| Checking for zero deck with gauge block |
Block machine work now completed |
The following sequence of photographs show Matt starting to assemble and install the roll cage, the Suffolk & Turley tan hide we chose to trim the seats, and corrective work done to the wide angled cylinder head. The last two photos show the carbon fiber driveshaft.
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| Matt has huge experience with roll cages and
is enjoying working on the lightweight cage |
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| Beautiful tan hide will be used to trim the
seats |
Valve stem to guide clearance was more than
twice what we like to see |
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| With guides removed, we ported intake and exhaust runners |
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| Special 'Trojan' CJ guides bring F1 technology to this special engine build |
New CJ guides installed |
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| Head now flows 20 cfm more on the intake side, 15 cfm on the exhaust |
Note stem to guide clearance now .001" |
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| Machining out seats |
Seat pockets sized for custom CJ valve seats |
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| New custom CJ seats installed |
Cam caps were between .003" and .006" out of round on the intake side - align hone required |
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| After align hone, cam caps now perfectly sized and aligned |
Machining multi angled valve job |
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| Team CJ Lightweights feature high tech CJ carbon fiber driveshafts |
IRS components have been media blasted and powder coated, front suspension Nickel plated...
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| Front suspension has been Nickel plated |
Note modified control arms, per original |
I am pleased to report that we now have your wide angled head in hand so we will be pushing ahead with your Stage Two rebuild over the next few weeks. We have also been busy modifying your front control arms and rear wishbones, and have continued gathering together all the various parts that will be used in the project.
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| Wide angled head and special Weber manifold |
Special Weber manifold for use with wide angled head |
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| Upper control arms modified per the original 1963 Lightweights |
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| Front suspension components going out for Nickel plating |
Uprated rear calipers and vented rotors |
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| Reinforcing the rear wishbones with 7/8" chromemoly tubing |
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| Bracing prevents flexing due to hugely
increased torque of the Stage Two engine |
Setting aside some of the components for the Stage Two engine. The build will feature a billet crankshaft (stroked to 4.2L), forged Carrillo rods, ultra-light forged pistons, a high output billet oil pump and a 12lb Team CJ billet steel flywheel.
Just how much does a fully assembled Team CJ Lightweight E Type body weigh?
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This car features a lightweight aluminum monocoque with chromium molybdenum engine subframes and steel reinforced suspension anchor points.
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Time to tear down the donor car and harvest the parts we need for this Team CJ Lightweight E Type.
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| Matching number engine block will be used with
a wide angled head |
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| Gauges are about the only things we need from
the cabin |
Not much of use left in the engine bay! |
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| Body shell cut in two during tear down |
IRS will be rebuilt and upgraded |
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| Steering and suspension components will be salvaged and upgraded |
Carte Blanche...indeed |
