1953 Jowett Jupiter - Grumpy Northeners Farewell

Proper tyre porn there, I do like a Michelin X.

did the owner take it on the chin , or was he expecting you to potentially have to go this deep?

happy days. cant argue with that.

Primary reason on the Javelin saloon which was launched 3 years before the Jupiter was the aerodynamics - to get the nose narrow at the front of the car by locating the radiator to the rear of the engine - in doing so the Javelin returned a very low aerodynamic drag coefficient - when the Jupiter was launched in 1950 the same principle was used and no further tooling was required with exception of shortening the drive shaft form the water pump to the radiator fan

Excellent as always sir.
Was musing over the varied approaches manufacturers used over the years.
I mean if you dropped a beetle body over that chassis it would be front wheel drive if you get me.(god forbid)
Very little in variety these days....
Also.
I wonder how many cars arrive at your workshop to have a little work done, purely so the owner can say to the missus, "its worse than we thought. Sort of needs a lot more work love. Sorry"

5 mins in. according to dvla ... lagonda 3litre dhc

So my last instalment of work was delivering the parts to 'Envirostrip' several months ago - unfortunately 'Envirostrip' suffered a factory fire some months ago that was caused by an incoming electrical fault - hence work was delayed whilst they got back on their feet - thankfully the fire did not damage any of the panels



So a couple of weeks ago I delivered a MGB GT shell to them and at the same time collected the Jupiter panels / parts





Unfortunately the bulkhead is in a far worse condition than anticipated



Evidence of poorly repaired impact / accident damage



But no end of perforated panels that have been poorly over plated & until stripped hidden with a combination of fibreglass / filler / sealer & underseal





Bottoms of the A posts are dead too - these are critical has the bottom door hinge mounts off the underside bottom of the A post



There are numerous 'just make do' repairs











The good news is that the more difficult and complex outer curvature panels of the upper section are all good - bad news is that lower half of the bulkhead structure is dead - back to the good news - the bottom of the A posts are available has a repair panel and I already have them in stock - the bulkhead angle & vertical panel is available via Jowett Car Spares has is the floor pan & horizontal brace - another source holds stock of the side panels and the A post return panel - they will also be a element of fabrication for some of the smaller areas that require repair - I have another 2 bulkheads to rebuild over the next few years hence I will probably build a small jig in order to assist with the fabrication process - that said the Jupiter was hand built and I have yet to come across a straight swop of what will fit one car perfectly will not necessary directly fit another car perfectly - I am currently gathering the repair panels together which will take a few weeks but once I have everything in stock it will be all systems go

I would have thought that this is second to the worse case scenario - the worst case being sat in the cockpit of the car whilst it was in the obviously structurally weak condition and it then being involved in a impact / accident has the structure would have just folded up like a clamshell on to the occupants

That really was a can of worms. With the availability of repair panels would I be right to think that the actual time / work factor to make good isn’t exponential ? A small fiddly patch taking as long as a big simple one ?
At least the value of the finished car means it’s worth doing as well.
Feeling for the owner.
James