41a jaguar d type first edition

[brian]

i put up a jaguar 65a a couple of days ago and was told it had 'chisel cut' rivets.i have looked through the other cars that i purchased from the auction and have found that the 41a jaguar has these as well.the other cars that have some thing different about them are the ,25b volkswagen beetle (volkswagen spelt with a E) 29b austin cambridge (4/8mm silver wheels) and 34b volkswagen camper van (this has 5 lines of text to base plate and one of the rear tyre has some of the tread missing on one side of the tyre).weather these are all genuine or not i dont no.i can put the others up if any ones interested ?.whether the last person to own these was a collector who looked for cars that were different i don't know.all the boxes and cars have that musty smell like they been in some ones loft for a long time.here are a couple of pictures of the 41a.the first pichture is one to compare to.
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[Idris]

Unfortunately I don't have a 41a to hand, but is that recess in the bodyshell on the right hand side normal? If not, could this be some kind of test shot?

[brian]

Unfortunately I don't have a 41a to hand, but is that recess in the bodyshell on the right hand side normal? If not, could this be some kind of test shot?

hi idris
i think nick said it may have been for a exhaust system that was never fitted.

[Idris]

i think nick said it may have been for a exhaust system that was never fitted.

An interesting idea, but the exhaust system on a D-type is located on the opposite side to the driver.

[mrmoko]

Could the cut out on the body have been simply for clearance. This would be to stop the driver touching the body casting when the body and base came together ? I would imagine that the driver touching the body during assembly would have resulted in some sort of paint damage either to the driver or casting and at the same time slow the assembly process down. Just that small recess would allow the driver to clear the body casting when assembled even if the base was at a slight angle to the rivets . The next larger model d/type body had more clearance so no recess was needed . The more I think about it the more this looks correct .If the driver is wider than or overhangs the side of the base like picture 2 above ,then I think we have our answer . Gaz

[Idris]

Could the cut out on the body have been simply for clearance.

That sounds plausible but, if true, then I think we're looking at a rushed modification to the tooling. First, there is no need for the recess to be so long and, second, it tapers towards the wheel arch for no particularly good reason. A properly engineered modification would have provided clearance only where it was needed, i.e. right by the driver.
If it is a tool modification, then there might, just might, be one or more unmodified body castings still out there! (Get turning, people!)

Update: Perhaps Antonin could show us what the body recess looks like with the baseplate removed?

[mrmoko]

It is that length because it would have been pointless leaving a sharp little triangle piece of body near the back wheel. And the speed these were assembled it would have been pointless to take out just what was needed just to have the same problem with the driver catching on the body . Do it once and do it properly type thing . As for the taper , well the same guy probably done the 17 a axle mounts

[Idris]

As for the taper , well the same guy probably done the 17 a axle mounts

It looks to me like a sloppy piece of work, probably indicating that it was done in great haste. That being so, it seems likely that, whatever the reason behind it (and I like the assembly idea), there was an urgency to providing a solution. (Could it be that mass production statred and they almost immediately found a problem?) To me, this increases the possibility of there being a limited number of very early castings in circulation which do not have this recess.

[Idris]

I've found an interesting photograph which shows the relative positions of the recess and the cockpit opening. This would seem to support the idea of there being a clearance issue if the recess in the body weren't there.