E-Type Under Bonnet Finish

Mark, Right now the car is on the ground and we are working on the top side. When it is back up in the air I'll see if I can get the texture to show in some pics and post a link here.

I should have been more specific and said that the brush marks I remember being in the fender area, edges that would be hard to spray, ect. The flat bottom surfaces of the car had a more sprayed appearance. In any event it was nothing like "undercoat" rather a lighter coating. Additionally my car is a year newer (64) than yours and while I am a big time rookie, I am quickly learning these things were all different.

My car was an intact, unwrecked original car, including paint, although well worn, so it should be representative. We just spent hours and hours steam cleaning the bottom of the car and then painted over the original coatings. No repairs or touch up of the coating was required. This forum has been wonderful ! Had I not posted here early on and gotten better advice I would have stripped the coating instead.

Curtis Wood
thiscrazygarage.com

The radiator should be black, as this is better at heat dissipation/radiation than just native aluminum. Comments are welcome on this particular item.

If you have the silvery fiberglass fan shroud, then leave it unpainted; if you have the black fiberglass fan shroud, paint it hammertone silver.

The header tank, and the header tank mounting bracket should also be hammertone silver. Tremclad hammertone silver (not grey) is a good match. For the 3.8l E-type, the header tank should have the temperature sending unit mounted on the top surface, not the front surface as used for the 4.2l cars.....just in case.

The radiator mounting stays on the top, connecting the radiator to the header tank mounting bracket, are painted a "machine grey". I've matched it to Dupont spectral code LS134, the same for the stone guard mounting bracket; a good paint shop should be able to mix it up for you.

Everyone seems to know so much more than me so a few questions please:
On my 64 FHC what color was the radiator originally? The fan shroud and the brackets at the top?
The header tank? The car was originally black (now red). I begin to suspect that the radiator was silver (aluminum) the shroud a silvery color (not painted) the brackets seem to have been painted a silver. The header may have always been black.
Thanks for the help.
Dick Thigpen

Very interesting Curtis. In all the cases that I have seen, including my Dec. 1963 car, the undercoating/rock guard seems to have been sprayed on, no evidence of brush marks at all. Could you send pictures?

Yes, in the wheel wells, and under the car, including the the floors, heel wells, transmission and driveshaft tunnel, rear suspension tunnel, and about half ofthe boot floor. All done before the car was painted the body colour, so before any other item was attached.

Flint kote is the trade/commercial/product name of the heat formed material used for anti-drumming/sound deadening used on the INSIDE of the car, specifically the floors, heel wells, and over the top of the driveshaft tunnel. The top surface is sort of smooth and also painted body colour, but the surface in contact with the sheet metal has a sort of diamond or fish-scale pattern. The parts book is clear on this, even giving part numbers for the flint kote. This is different from the thick tar paper used for sound deadening for the door skins, and behind the seats. Again, the parts book does make the distinction.

Cheers, Mark Roberts, OJC

My 9000 mile 64 XKE is as Mark Roberts indicates above, except it really doesn't look that much like the 3M rock guard to me. Whatever the factory used it was brushed on. Thin coat of this stuff was obviously applied to my car very early in the manufacturing process as it was under most of the rear of the car including rear suspension cradle, drive shaft, and many other mounts but not on (nor oversprayed) these parts installed later. When I ask a similar question on this forum a year ago, somebody seemingly knowledgeable called it "flint coat".

curtisthiscrazygarage.com

Dick Cavicke, George Camp - Your reading on this issue please? Obviously this only applies to Champion Division as we don't inspect under the bonnet for Driven. If this is covered in any of the Judging Guides my apology in advance but I couldn't find anything.

Pat

However, you should have this undercoating under the body and in the rear suspension area. I would keep the area under the tank/boot clean; no under coating. (I think the product I used was 3M "Body Schultz" or something like that.)

P

It is my opinion that if this is primarily a driver, put the under coating in the wheel fenders only and absolutely NONE under the bonnet. If a champ car, (primarily show), keep the undercoating off altogether.

P

Pat:

Every un-restored Series 1 E-type (3.8l and 4.2l) that I have ever seen has always had an undercoating material, similar to 3M rock guard, coating the rear wheel wells, the underside of the car, and the bonnet wheel wells, and the rocker panel end piece, located just aft of the front wheels, but not the black splash panels. This undercoating was then painted over with the body colour paint. With time, most of the colour coat wears away, but in the protected places, you can still see the body colour.

There has only been one exception to this that I have seen; car 888765 does not have any of this rock guard on the bonnet in any place.

I do not know enough about the Series II, or Series III E-types to comment.

Cheers, Mark Roberts, OJC
1964 E-type FHC
1988 VDP V12
1989 XJ-S