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oldschool1977 Member
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Some pictures of the car when I became custodian last year.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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First course of business was to remove the old motor. It had been taken apart and left open to the elements for quite some time. Sanding and clean up came next.  Then a fresh coat of paint in the engine compartment.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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With the additional body work on the rear deck lid it wouldn't stay open and kept locking up on the body panel above it, luckily the parts car had a new deck lid. The next item I wanted to address, mainly cause I had a Speedway harness laying around, was the electrical. The new harness was installed in place of the old Lucas number, which took a considerable amount of thinking and tracing.   The current final look. Still some pieces to be made to finish it all off and make it look right. But we have all systems working electrically now.  Last edited on 04-08-2018 04:06 pm by oldschool1977 |
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oldschool1977 Member
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With things coming together it was time to bring it out of the field and into the shop. A new GM crate 350ci with a gear drive set up was bound for the engine bay.  Pulled a few late nights to get the motor landed in the bay.  But finally got it all hooked up. and added an MSD ignition, rather then the HEI it had to start with.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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The next issue to resolve before It could drive was the brakes. I had purchased and mounted the master cylinder replacement I heard of everyone else doing which was the TR6. And while I had yet to bleed the brakes and try it I did fire the motor which ran pretty badly due to a vacuum leak. I traced the leak back to the brake booster, and that kinda sealed the deal for me to try some new tricks for the brake system. At Hot August Nights in Reno,NV I found a dual diaphragm booster with dual master cylinder that looked like I could make it work. Since the front brakes where stock J-H and the rear was ford I figured the dual master would help me run the correct fluid for both rather than trying to run one off the wrong fluid type. Pulling the box off the firewall was a must. But everything bolted into the stock J-H locations and fit like it was made to be there. A couple brake lines was the only fabrication needed. even retained the stock proportioning valve  Edit Note: While many of the mods done on my car are due to the nature of what it is, This is one mod I think might be helpful for other J-H owners out there. The stock brakes actually really bite considerably better than with the other booster and master set up (drove a friends restoration). And with the 250hp 350ci after a pass down the drag strip at full throttle the stock brakes worked like a champ. and for in most cases a price of $350 its a great alternative as long as your ok with the loss of purity of looks. Last edited on 04-08-2018 04:50 pm by oldschool1977 |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Next on the list was the rear suspension. It had been cut and hacked for the exhaust and twisted and bent from the power of the motor. Luck for me the parts car had the trailing arms I needed. The stock arms where robbed from old part-sy then 1/4" plate added to the open design to box them in.... Stupidly new bushings where not added at this time, really a bad decision on my part.   |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Brakes, an engine, rear suspension... Yeah totally time to make a run up my driveway. Cause who needs exhaust, that's for amateurs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EX_dXfcJUE Honestly so glad I don't live in a city and can do stupid stuff like this. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Next item to address was the floors. The only real rust spot was the seat mounts. The rest was all damage from the various stages the car has gone through in its life. To include when they widened the tunnel for the TH350 transmission. Not my best welding, but it's sealed.  The way the transmission was mounted wasn't ideal.  Fixed and 1/4" plate to keep it from happening again.  The tunnel is a patchwork and still doesn't give much room or space to work on the trans.   Much better.  Passenger side was much easier to repair.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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New parts for the front suspension came in from Martin R and Summit racing. Disassembly was quite a breeze.  New ball joints, bushings, bearings, seals, and a caliper rebuild. The stock coil's and shock where replaced by QA1 3 way adjustable coil-overs. The weight of the motor had a noticeable affect on the handling and stance of the car so the stiffer springs where a must. The add required some small modifications on the lower arms but other than that a near bolt on installation. I do recommend researching and checking the individual corner weights of the car before ordering these, springs are not cheap and I have heard of people going through 3 or 4 to get the rates right.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Next it was time to address the structural issues of the car. The sub frame was pushed about 2-3" into the car. I managed to pull the floors and frame back into shape, and then added some steel tubing sub frame connectors to get the car a bit more ridged.    The seat mounts had quite a bit of rust and look to be a structural element of the car. They also set me up just a little higher then I should be with my helmet on. So they had to go and get replaced with 1/4" plate.   To really give some the body some rigid structure I welded some "L" brackets to the new sub frame connectors then bolted these through the steel plate of the new seat mounts.   The front sub frame is tied together side by side by the transmission mount. In the rear I tied the seat mounts into the drive shaft safety loop. The body should now be much more structurally stable in all 4 corners and have allot less flex under the load of the V8.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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So while I do enjoy the tone of open exhaust, the cop's tend to as well. And unfortunately that tends to mean more money out of my pocket. So time to put an exhaust on the old girl. I decided I wanted to go with an X-pipe as they have a really smooth flow and since I need to run 2-1/4" exhaust, and I tend to like to run 2-1/2" I want all the extra flow I can get.    Last edited on 04-09-2018 03:49 pm by oldschool1977 |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Now that most of the under car stuff is done, and keeping with the rigid chassis idea. It was time to focus on safety. The car had a SCCA approved roll bar in it but that just bolted to the floor pans and really didn't hit structural body points. so a custom 8 point cage was in order.       |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Overall she's stable and coming together pretty nicely at this point. Laid some POR-15 rust preventative down on the floor, I have used it previously and it works pretty well. Then some Eastwood automotive seam sealer was applied to all the stock factory seams as well as any location I made any welds.  Picked up some sound deadening material and laid that throughout the floors front and rear.  Next was time for carpet. I'm not a huge fan of black interiors, and I detest brown, so something different was in order.  Carpet finished and it was time to add the 5 point harnesses I got on sale.  I test fitted several different seats in the car but at the end of the day nothing fit as well as the original J-H seats.  The car had a cut up center console so I cleaned it up and added a couple screws and reinstalled it.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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I am lost when it comes to convertible top installation. But.... my father on the other hand happens to know allot about it. So he installed the top for the Jensen and I got a pretty solid lesson on how to install the next one... Which is sitting on my lift right now.     |
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oldschool1977 Member
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With the new top on I can now work on the interior. I went with a lighter grey but kept the stock J-H pattern, then had the stitching all done in black for a little added flair.     |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Fontana just opened for the season and is having a test and tune. This was my first trip to this particular drag strip, and the first outing for the J-H. I couldn't sleep the night before with all the anticipation on what the car would do. I had her loaded and ready and kept looking out the window day dreaming.  |
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oldschool1977 Member
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The test and tune at Fontana didn't go as I had hoped to say the least. The first run I mad the amateur mistake of not airing down my tires. so pretty much the entire track I smoked the tires. Which got me a stern talking to by track officials. The second run I thought I had aired the tires down a little to much and at 75mph I had to back out of the go peddle cause the back end was shifting on me. Third pass a little more air in the tires but at 70 it was scary shifty in the back end. Went back on the trailer headed home, the last pass had me pretty un-nerved. When I got the car home I put it right on the lift to see if I could see the problem. Now some may recall a few posts up when I had the for-site to box the rear control arms, but not replace the bushings. Well as it turns out the 40+ year old bushings didn't appreciate the heat from welding. The rear end had about 2" of side to side shift, really glad I didn't try any more passes. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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With the issues on the rear end, it's time to upgrade. Reinforce the rear suspension with a triangulated 4 link chrome molly set up with 3 way adjustable coil-overs. The rear end was narrowed specifically to fit the Jensen, Added a set of Richmond 3:55 gears, limited slip center section, and Moser custom axles.          |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Got the car done the weekend before the season opener of the ANRA (Antique National Racers Ass.) at Famoso just outside of Bakersfield,CA. My favorite track in Cali, and the series I have been racing for a few years. The announcers comment as I pulled up to the line "You never know what is gonna show up at ANRA, Does anyone know what that thing is?" The best pass was 94mph @14.78 seconds. The transmission was slipping badly, and I lost reverse by the time we got to eliminations. As I pulled up to the lights for the first round of eliminations I went to bring the engine RPM's up for the launch off the line and the brakes let go and I sailed through the lights eliminating myself right off the bat. Turns out one of the lines I made was leaking. So back on the trailer and time for more work. The brake issue was actually resolved by tightening the brake lines and bleeding the system. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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The transmission was replaced with one my father had laying around that was supposed to be a fresh rebuild. Made a couple runs up the driveway with the "rebuilt" transmission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t6MAI503z8 That was pretty much all she wrote as the transmission lost reverse and all gears turned into forward gears, even park. The noisy gear drive was also starting to get under my skin. It's time for build 2.0 and a fresh engine and transmission is in order. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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First course of action on the 2.0 build is to give her a diet, and to bring back some of that J-H styling I have been missing. over 350lbs is plate and tube steel and 1-2" thick bondo was removed. The fenders came from the donor car.     |
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oldschool1977 Member
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The crate motor coming out nice and smooth. I was never really happy with the way the motor sat in the car so after I pulled the crate motor I went ahead and reworked the Motor mounts slightly to lower the engine down some.    The new motor sits down a pretty good bit compared to the first attempt.  It looks like with some work I can get the hood patched up and back to looking normal-ish.   Last edited on 04-14-2018 05:21 pm by oldschool1977 |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Just for those that are curious. The new motor is a 406ci Small block Chevy stroker. Should push close to 400-450hp respectfully. The transmission is a TCI performance rebuild. I have taken a couple drives down the drive way with the car and the brakes are not even close to adequate to stop the car any longer. The 4 piston caliper kit is on order to replace the stock calipers now. Quick walk around with the new motor running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWHK4mZJ898 |
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oldschool1977 Member
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New Brakes are in, on, and bled. Perfect stopping power... only thing left to do is take it to the track and have some test and Tune time.     |
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Frank Schwartz Member
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Fascinating what you have done. I'm really curious about the brakes. Are they simply a "bolt on" set or did you have to modify anything...and where did you get them? Thanks Frank |
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Tom Bradley Member
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Apparently these brake calipers are available as a bolt-on. Not cheap, tho. http://3d1e61.36.ekmpowershop.net/jensen-healey-brake-caliper-kit-6578-p.asp |
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Frank Schwartz Member
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You are right...quite pricey... I bought a set for my Jensen Interceptor from another manufacturer over in the UK and they were about 800 dollars. Now, I wonder if you can tell me how much improvement those you bought have made. Thanks |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Frank Schwartz wrote: You are right...quite pricey... The link Tom provided are the ones I bought. BCC- British Classic Cars, It's a bolt on kit with minor modification to the backing plate, Had to shave 1/4" off the bottom. They are not cheap by any means, but with the stock brakes I wasn't stopping so I needed something. My entire brake system was new when I put the car together, hoses, lines, calipers rebuilt with new pistons, new master and booster ect. With the 250hp 350ci running at 98mph in the 1/4 I didn't slow down enough to exit the track till the last exit (3rd exit), nearly an 1/8 of a mile to slow safely enough to make a turn. Normal every day driving they worked great without a single issue. With the 406ci motor everyday driving the brakes would grip and would have been fairly adequate as long as I didn't find myself in a heavy braking situation. But under power the brakes would cause the car to spin (one side would heat up so bad it released). With the BCC brakes (3hr install including bleeding the brakes), at the track I can make the first exit off the strip after a 102mph 1/4 mile pass. Everyday driving is smooth as glass on the braking. I did some power and fast stop tests and my 5pt harness nearly bruised my shoulders, the braking is as near instant as anyone would want them. So long winded, but I wanted to give an honest overlook on what my findings with them are. Could a hopped up J-H with the Lotus 4 get by with the stock brakes and a Dot4 synthetic fluid, I would think comfortably so. But if your really putting major power to the pavement the BCC caliper kit is a phenomenal bang for the buck. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YtpUWEEre4 The J-H Vs some Dodge SRT... Not sure it was even a fair deal. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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Decided to throw some color on the car for the season.   Then off to the test and tune.  The test and tune went pretty well, it was around 100F outside and on the track I'm sure it was hotter than that. Perfect conditions for a test and tune to see what the car is really going to do. While it ran the speed and number I wanted it did get much hotter than I would have liked. Without the big hole in the hood the hot air is just sitting in the engine bay and the car won't start to cool until the hood is opened. Time to do some clever modifications. |
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oldschool1977 Member
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First order of business was to get some cooler air into the carb. Due to the low hood clearance I needed to make an aircleaner myself. Not pretty but it is very functional and draws air from outside the engine compartment. I'll clean it up after the races next weekend if it performs well. Next was to address the heat not flowing out of the engine compartment fast enough until the hood is opened. Fairly simple fix to this was a few 1" holes.  The holes really wont be effective enough unless I can draw more outside air into the radiator and engine compartment to keep the flow going in the first place. Unfortunately the air dam from Delta isn't currently available. So I needed to make something myself. Again not very pretty, but if it functions well I'll dress it up.  |
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