As we pulled into the Lowe’s Hardware parking lot, I turned to my youngest son and said, “Even if we find something, how will we bring it home in the Jag?” Our project was to insulate the windows on my oldest son’s room. My idea was to hang two sheets of foam insulation on the inside of the windows like two big curtains. We needed something big as there are two walls made entirely of windows (used to be a sun room). So, with little hope of success, we went inside to look for ideas.
After looking around a bit, I came to the conclusion that we would have to wait until my wife was done with our Honda Odyssey. We could buy two 4′ x 8′ sheets of foam insulation and have the job done quickly. There was no way we could get them in the Jag. Then it happened. Trenton decided to crawl on a stack of insulation and broke the end of one of the sheets. His face showed genuine remorse but there was nothing to do but to pay for the broken piece.
Now that we were buying one sheet of insulation, it was time to figure out how to get it home. As you may know, the trunk of an XJ40 is rather deep because the gas tank is fitted behind the back seat in an upright position. You can put some big suitcases in there but not a sheet of plywood or insulation. So, I decided to improvise. We carried two sheets of insulation to the front of the store and purchased a utility knife. After making the purchase we took the insulation outside and cut one side of each sheet into three sections. Then folding them like a paper fan, we were able to fit both folded sheets into the back seat with no problem.
And I’d like to thank the Lord for the broken insulation incident because of what happened next. When we got home, we held the sheets up to the windows and found them not long enough to cover all the windows. Plus each window is hinged with an external lock which made it impossible to lay the insulation flat against the windows. What did work, however, was to cut the insulation into ten 18.5″ x 46″ sheets to place in between the storm windows and the hinged windows. It was amazing how the ten windows were perfectly covered by those two sheets of insulation. And the broken piece? It was on the 2″ section that we didn’t need.
