Just got this note from my brother....

Hi Pete, I have some questions for you to ponder.....with as expensive my Jaguar (1966 MkII) must have been, why did they use newspaper to stuff the visors?.... what is with all this Horse Hair? They used it for packing, insulation, and seat cushioning...do you have any idea what Horse Hair does with moisture?... Answer: it "wicks" it to the nearest exposed metal surface (Naturally! ) and then guess what happens?... Clue: they didn't use any kind of under-coating....No (bleepin) wonder they rusted out... I have some real bad areas to deal with and I haven't really gotten started...Sorry about that, I just needed to vent at some body... the more I get into it, the more I'm finding... the Horse Hair insulation between the head-liner and the inside of the roof is where those big rust areas started... I haven't gotten the head-liner down yet to see how bad it really is...they used about an inch of this for insulation under the mats and carpet, by the time you notice a hole its too late ( its a Major hole).. Oh well I guess I'll keep plugging away at it...one thing at a time...its time for bed, G Nite...

Anyone else been there, gone through this? I feel for him...especially since I located this car for him...it was "free"....

I've seen antebellum houses in the South insulated with horse hair.

And in true horse-hair plaster over hand-split lathe over full dimension 2 x 4 's

Wonder how many horses it took to do his Jaguar?

& who owns a horse hair farm?

Yeah, they had some "quaint" ideas about rust proofing old Jags. I have seen some Mark 2s and like like with rusted door skins due to the sound proofing.There are big pieces of it glued against all the skins to prevent "drumming". Sheesh. How about the horse hair padding in German car seats? I HATE rebuilding seats that have that.

There is a guy on several other forums that took umbrage at my comments about the water-absorbing rust pads in the doors.
He hasn't had the problem, so I guess it doesn't exist.
When I opened my doors up to get all the locks and handles working freely, I noticed the PO had those pads fully removed.

I am getting ready to replace the driver's seat back.
"new" one has horsehair glued down....and rust.

Most popular upholstery material thru the war years until somebody found a better material. The Jags were a good looking vehicle to compare higher priced cars, so you have to figure there was cost cutting somewhere you couldn't see it. I don't know if Sir Lyons expected his cars to last as long as they have.

Yeah, but ALL MK1 and ALL MK2's were post-war......

The Jaguar company philosophy was to deliver more luxury and performance for way less money than anyone else on earth. This made a lot of delightful cars available to a lot of people world wide, but it also made some "cost cutting" under the skin inevitable. You really never find much evidence, but the glue on padding surely is some. Still, they designed the cars to sell, and leave Coventry to make room for the next car to sell. I don't think anyone had any idea that they would be sought after, used and cherished 50 some years later.

tony, did ya see the young fella that bought a house and while rehabing it found the wall insulation to be classic movie house posters worth hundreds of thousands, they found out the original owner also owned/ran a movie theater for years. o.k. back to subject.. i think the old man owned a jag... ...we should be so lucky!!!!!!

I saw that....we're just not lucky enough....that's why I donh't buy lottery tickets....I suppose the powers that be think we've used our luck with our LBC's!

I figger mine to have been used up when I married Horsemits.