lead damping bag on Jaguar E-type hood (top)

Hello Tom, I had a friend with the same name,an ex Air Force pilot who flew for British Airways, he had an E and a MkII. I lost track of him years ago.

No William, born & raised in Ohio, Moved to Orlando Florida in 1975. The E-type is a one owner car, local here in Orlando. Original top. Has the plastic or hard foam small block in the middle with the glued on patch & elastic strap.

Tom, did you ever live in Los Angeles?

Robert, I have a 1970 one owner series two built 2/70. It is in the cars for sale site. There is a link to pictures showing the top and damper system. Also pictures of the grain, with ruler in place. I can send any pictures you need or a link to Picasa. Good luck getting your new top made.
Cheers Tom
https://picasaweb.google.com/113118476804746960725/11120121970EOTS1R1263...

I am alittle confused from these pictures on this older thread. I have a 1964 series 1 e type and would like to restore the top with the proper lead filled tube, but can not find the part number in the parts manual, and can not get a good picture of it as to what is the proper look of it for the series 1. Would someone take a picture of one or please direct me to a place that can help? Thank you, David Spellberg I

I would also recommend Steve Gordon at Vintage Auto Service in Oakland, California (vintageautoservicegmail.com).

IMHO, Steve and Dave are the two best E-Type restoration guys on the West Coast (and maybe in the US). Steve did a spectacular job on my 61 E-Type (45th LHD OTS) which was voted best in class by the owners of the other 19 E-Types in the 50th Anniversary class at the Quail event in Monterey in August. Between the two of them, I would estimate that they were responsible for at least half the cars in the class.

Ron

A great e-type resource is Dave ferguson at images auto body in Campbell, calif. He is a chief judge and has done many e-types.
He may know where to get all the materials. My hood is still attached to the frame, but I can take detailed pix if that helps.
Ed

Edward,
If you can ship your original hood to me I will attempt, with George Camp's help, to find a vendor that can duplicate it. Use my contact info (email) found in the judges gude to contact me off forum.

I have an orig top as we bought the car in 1973. Still need pix?
Ed

I took pictures of the original top on the Matthews 1970 Series 2 XKE in Portland as well, This car has known ownership and less than 12,000 miles. The "lead bag" is actually a tensioning device. I felt it and it feels as if it is nylon or plastic under the cloth patch holding it on. The patch is glued in place and there is an ink outline on the inside of the top to show where to glue it. The strap is an elastic material, similar to the strap that holds on the windshield washer bottle. I have seen a Series III with this device as well. I have no idea at what point Jaguar changed from the lead filled tube to this device, but I think it occurred early in the Series II cars.

William, I didn't post a picture as the qualityof those posted are so poor butI'll give it a try.

William,
Shoot me an email with your address and I'll send you them or any other pictures of this car.
bobanddarlcomcast.net

Where ae the pics Robert?

Thanks for the pics Bob! Interesting ....Beige material-Grey straps just like mine. Wonder why they didn't match them?

Hi Curtis,
I just came upon this thread and as you list an email address I can send you a few photos of that area on a 20,000 mile, original owner, unrestored 1964 if you like.
Bob

Edited on 2011-06-03 16:52:17

If it would help. Mine reference is my 1964 OTS

We salvaged a little bit of the kind of tweedy looking original beige cloth that covered the bottom of the header and that is so visible when the top is down. It was matched very closely with a remnant from a cloth store and installed in place of the incorrect solid tan material provided with my kit. No photos but I could get some.

Also, and recognizing that they could have been done a variety of different ways my pull straps were grey (even though the header was beige). Right now I have the black pull straps that came with my kit installed with their close but not quite right repro hardware. The original strap hardware is at the chrome shop and I will be having grey straps made when it gets back.

Bob,
My old original hood looked so much like Stew's picture on page 28 that even the corners of the "patch" holding the weight were curled similarly after several years. I attributed that to the glue failing there. I do not believe that the patch was sewn in place. (Surely, I'd remember if that were the case, right?)

I was confident enough that I specified glue on the patch when my hood was made last month.

Here is the other type, from a Series 2 sold last year on E-bay, represented as "the finest most original Series 2 in the world, etc. " . This resembles the one in Stew's book. I have seen this referred to as a "plastic tensioning device" rather than a lead bag in a different publication, which I cannot find at the moment.

Cliff,

My car, 1R9600 was manufactured on May 28, 1969. I am not certain which type of lead bag it had originally, as it had a bagless top when I purchased it. The question of sewing vs. glue is a critical one unless there is a separate piece for the headliner, as sewing through the top requires a welded seam to prevent leaks . Here are my pictures of two types of anti-drumming installations I am aware of.

Jerry,
I was there then too. The presenter was Tom Krefetz of Classic Showcase. When I heard that I figured he was referring to an alternate design as the one I had from Dec 70 to Apr 76 looked like what is found on page 28 of Stew's S2 guide. My car was built in late Nov 69.

I too am watching this space hoping that someone with an original hood(s) can help the rest of us.

Bob,
Do you know when yours was made?

Bob, At this year's AGM there was a conference given on restoring the E-type and the presenter discussed the "lead dampening bag" - and apparently it is a very narrow long cloth tube (of the same material & color as the interior of the hood / top) which contains LEAD SHOT, and is sewn to the inside of the top parallel to a middle bow, and keeps the top from flapping in the wind when the windows are down. I believe the presenter said that it was sewn in place -though apparently some people glue it in place rather than dismantle their hood. Since you have a picture of it, you should be able to estimate its size and location. It seemed to me that very few people there were aware of its existance.
Since I own an XK 140 - I was not paying that much attention to it - and unfortunately do not remember who the presenter was -but it MAY have been Dick Cavecki (???) George Camp will probably know a lot more about this -also.