Ed's Jaguar - Completed

[edsreef@gmail.com]

Greetings.

Well, the build is completed. Let me start with, I am happy with how the model turned out, even though I had some problems, which I will tell you about. Also, as compared to the first time I tried to build this, when i was 10-12 years old (thought I was good enough to do it). As I stated in my starting post, I could not, even with help getting me going, I was not able to even come anywhere near close. For the color of the car, originally I had thought doing in red (even though plastic was red). I had spoken with Colin about this and mentioned that I had originally hoped to do it in an actual Jaguar color - Opalescent Maroon. But in searching I could not find it anywhere to be had. Now in England and Europe you could get it easily, but it could not be shipped to USA. Colin mentioned ZERO Paints. They made it, but again, I initialy could not find in the USA, anywhere. I came across a hobby store in Canada that carried it and would ship to USA. So it is painted in the Origial Jaguar color. I really like it!

Also I must tell you, earlier on I did a post on how happy I was once I finally got the rear hatch opening all worked out. Hinged and opening and closing. I went on the finish the prep work, primered and wet sandes, painted and finally clear coated. I let it sit in my paint/drying booth to be sure cured well enough before I brought back in. My booth in in my garage, it is insulated and doors fully close. I went to bring it back in and tripped on the steps into the house, fell and landed on top of it. Ended up in several pieces. Needless to say, I did not take any pictures of that joyus moment. Yippie!! I get to start over.

Anyway, as I said I am happy with it as I did complete and added a few things that we not part of the kit. Wiring, extra hoses and hydraukic lines, real leather interior - seats, dash and headliner, carpet on flooring, as stated opened and hinged the hatch and installed minature LED'S for headlights, tail lights and installed a dome light for the hatch.

Windows open and close, wheel turn, front springs spring, hood opens and closes hatch opens and closes and the doors....... well... they open fine, but do not really close. Hitting/ hanging up on the leather I used, I thought it was thin enough - was 0.4-0.5mm thickness, but too much still. You will see these all in the pictures I am including. Also as it has been said quite a few times by various builders on this site, the kit does have it's fitment problems, MANY OF THEM. One that really seemed odd to me was the windshield/screen - barely just big enough to cover the opening. Bottom was okay but the sides and top really needed to be just a bit bigger in my opinion.

PIctures: (sorry quite a few) Oh please note, in some of the pictures, there appears to be white spots on/in the paint. It is dust. I had given the model a quick cleaning off, however, after I did that, I put up the sheet and towel I used to block out the other views of the room not thinkg about any dust/fluff that might come off. The model beccame a "dust magnet"! Not too smart of me.

[ChrisCraddock]

Glad to see you got it over the goal line Ed. Re: the trip and fall, is it repairable or are you just going to start over?

Cheers,
Chris

[edsreef@gmail.com]

Hi Chris,
The body is a total loss - it ended up in several pieces, so no reusing it. Luckily, like you, I had gotten a couple of spare parts, so as to experiment to see if I could cutout the rear hatch and hinge it so as to open and close.

Yes I am vary glad I was able to finish it this time, a bit upset some of the finishing was not perfect, but that is simply due to my skill level, which I do feel has improved with all the "fun" things I went through on this build.

I do have another complete kit, so there wil be one more Jaguar adventure, but have a couple of other bilds in between. However, I did make many notes during the build so should be a bit smoother the second time aroiund and hoiping also better on the finishing side.

Ed

[admin]

G'day Ed,

Great pics and run down of the build. It's really nice to see my parts on a completed model, and those spoked wheels are my little pride-and-joy and look like they came out very nicely (if I do way so myself!), and of course big thumbs up to the installer and painter!!

The colour really suits as well, and thinking back to the sinking issues in the rear quarters, definitely covered a lot of ground in getting to this point.

As I also mentioned in our last chat, great to see the lights / LED's are a nice old-timey yellow type and not bright white. Definitely suits the era. Can't wait to see what you do for the next one if this is your test!

Very cool!