E-type déjà vu. The second rebuild
Discussion
My apologies people. I was feeling really down in the dumps and sorry for myself yesterday having heard of the death of a fourth friend in four months and he was the oldest at 62. I was only at his house last week discussing his Montreal and his Alpine 310 too. Thanks for your replies, and we shall keep the photos coming.
So on we go. Here's the stripped bonnet, which looks fine. There were no evident signs of rust when I delivered her, but stripped, there were two holes in the nose:-
And another pin hole near the N/S louvre. Just goes to show what a mess she would have been in after another few years:-
Yet more corrosion was found elsewhere:-
The new door has arrived from Martin Robey:-
This will enable Lee to finish off the alignment of the shell. He has also been busy cleaning and polishing. Those of you who know their E-types will note the steering wheel is the early type, no longer available and only fitted up until December 1962:-
The next major job I guess will be the rear cage, the half shafts and the suspension. Personally I thought she was handling fine, but it seems silly not to rebuild the lot while the car is apart. Lee has convinced me anyway!
And another pin hole near the N/S louvre. Just goes to show what a mess she would have been in after another few years:-
Yet more corrosion was found elsewhere:-
The new door has arrived from Martin Robey:-
This will enable Lee to finish off the alignment of the shell. He has also been busy cleaning and polishing. Those of you who know their E-types will note the steering wheel is the early type, no longer available and only fitted up until December 1962:-
The next major job I guess will be the rear cage, the half shafts and the suspension. Personally I thought she was handling fine, but it seems silly not to rebuild the lot while the car is apart. Lee has convinced me anyway!
The outside is round with no thumb groove and you can see the alloy in the centre of the wheel, which you can't on the later wheel. Look at the photo for the differences:-
I know some people have asked for paint codes in the past and I came across this from aeons back. It might help:-
I know some people have asked for paint codes in the past and I came across this from aeons back. It might help:-
Had a chat with my man who is rebuilding it. He thinks end of April, but I told him I'll have the XKSS and I'm not pressed, but he is such a nice guy that he wants - for my sake - to have her ready for April. I really don't care, since for me the quality - and he surely provides that - is more important than a couple of weeks after a lifetime with the car. I am just content to let him get on with it, send me some photos from time to time - plus unfortunately the occasional bill! - and that way we are both easy. When one has an honest and sympathetic restorer - as well as a friend - you just let him get on with it. He'll be at the Silverstone Classic next July, and I'll probably make an appearance just to say hi. Oh - and to show off the car of course.
I think that in some ways I agree with you all, but somehow I come back to the days of my - comparative - youth when an old car was just that - an old car. It isn't a question of the actual value of a car to me but rather like a mortgage, an expression of the multiple of earnings needed to own such. If we go back but a few years, when the Northern Rock were offering 120% mortgages for example, we know that loans were in the range of a multiple of five times earnings and we know what that did for house values - until the pack of cards collapsed. I have spent today talking to a few dealers I know and they tell me that things are busier than they have ever been so far this year. Is that a sign that it is time to get out or to "invest"? I'm not a pessimist, nor a speculator, but somehow I am uncomfortable with my hobby being invaded by these Johnny-come-Latelies who are jumping on the bandwagon. They know nothing about the cars, their heritage, their performance or foibles, but perceive them to be a better alternative to money in the bank. I think it is perhaps time to invest in tulip bulb futures once again.
Yours
A. Luddite.
Yours
A. Luddite.
This is for Jukebag, so he can take solace:-
However that was December 1962, and in 1998 the owner turned down £30,000 for the wreck of the first car. It was sold at auction a few years back for nearly £70,000, still in the same state. However, I do wonder if Jukebag is a member of (if it still exists) the Anti Inflation Society whose chairman insisted in his will that his house be sold at the original purchase price of just over £1,000?
However that was December 1962, and in 1998 the owner turned down £30,000 for the wreck of the first car. It was sold at auction a few years back for nearly £70,000, still in the same state. However, I do wonder if Jukebag is a member of (if it still exists) the Anti Inflation Society whose chairman insisted in his will that his house be sold at the original purchase price of just over £1,000?
Lee is fettling the bodywork and lead loading where necessary. I was amazed that someone of his age knew how to lead load and moreover that the vertical panels are superb. Gives you a warm glow all over knowing that such skills are not lost for ever. The engine will be back from VSE at the end of February, the trim kit is on order, and there are boxes and boxes of brake and fuel lines, fuel filter, rubber seals and so on. The chrome is away for rechroming, the rear cage is in bits for new half shafts, springs and shockers (perhaps OTT but they have lived a hard life), and so on. Here are a couple of photos I took at the beginning of the month. The pedal box is a work of art. Oh, and Paracetemol, yours is just a tad behind mine which was built 13th September 1961 (850152) and your LHD should be around 875600 I guess.
Edited by lowdrag on Saturday 14th December 09:50
Something's strange there. According to my build records that chassis number is from January 1962. Certain changes took place from 876015 and gearbox EB1654, all from January 1962. It would be interesting, if you have it, to email me the copy of the heritage certificate. Previous changes are from 875859 in December so the numbers stack up - unless you can prove differently!
Carsie, my interest in the build is forensic, not an attempt to debase or decry. The history of the early cars has always interested me and over the years I have spent many fruitless hours researching and attempting to buy an early outside lock roadster, losing out in each and every case, this including three years to get a back street garage to sell me the bits of Lofty England's demonstrator #4 which eventually sold a few years back for over £60,000 still as a wreck and the car that belonged to the Mayor of Southampton he who sadly went down in the Sunderland aircraft accident. I am sure Paracetemol loves his car and it is in the same colour configuration as mine, so he is a man of indubitably impeccable taste 
Philip Porter got all his statistics from the Jaguar records and they were never known to be perfect anyway, so it will be interesting to put things right. That's all, no slight intended.
ETE: and yet Porter's statistics don't actually add up. if changes as aforesaid happened in December and that Paracetamol's car was built in January, the country by country deliveries of LHD roadsters exceeds the total built! This concludes that his car is 1961. All dry and dusty I know, but statistics have always been my thing, which is why I did actuarial studies!
Philip Porter got all his statistics from the Jaguar records and they were never known to be perfect anyway, so it will be interesting to put things right. That's all, no slight intended.ETE: and yet Porter's statistics don't actually add up. if changes as aforesaid happened in December and that Paracetamol's car was built in January, the country by country deliveries of LHD roadsters exceeds the total built! This concludes that his car is 1961. All dry and dusty I know, but statistics have always been my thing, which is why I did actuarial studies!
Here's first of all hoping you all had a great Xmas and New Year, with many miles and smiles to come in 2014. I took the time to visit the E-type while in the UK and here is the latest photo of the shell in its first coat of epoxy ready for flatting. If it needs it, a second coat will be applied at the end of this week. The programme is then that the car will go for painting and after that things will quicken pace as the fitting up commences. then the car will go for trimming and the engine will come back by the end of February for installation. I have given no deadline and think to do so to a real craftsman is pointless, and leave it to him to finish the car and tell me when, but it seems we are on course for about the beginning of May after he has done a few hundred shakedown miles. I am really looking forward to seeing this caterpillar come out of her chrysalis as a beautiful butterfly, but am, after all these years, somewhat apprehensive at the same time.
It's been a while, but there are some periods when it seems on the surface that nothing has gone on but it has, if you get my drift. We have been stuck though for the new inset louvres for the bonnet. To explain, before I bought the car it had been fitted with a new bonnet aqt some time, whether as a result of an accident or rust I know not, and of course from mid 1962 on the bonnets had pressed-in louvres and were not made plain, the holes cut, and louvres welded in. So, here are a few photos of the progress.
Rust had meant that a section of the scuttle be replaced, so here is the portion cut out:-
Here is the finished area:-
Once finished, the car now looks a lot better:-
Then it was on to cutting the holes in the bonnet and welding in the new louvres, finally arrived from Robey's:-
The car has now been prepped for painting, and shortly into the oven she will go, thence to be transported to BAS for the hood and seats to be trimmed, following which the meccano-like rebuild will commence.
In the mean time, some rather disturbing news from VSE when the engine was taken apart. I had wondered why she had been losing water, but could find no trace of "mayonnaise" in the oil, nor any other reason for it. Also, in the last two years she has started to consume oil at a rate of one litre per 1,000 whereas for the previous 23 years nary a drop. I just put it down to clogged waterways and bore or ring wear, but no, that wasn't the case. The block had cracked letting water into the cylinder, not the oilway, so that explained the root of the problem. Anyway, one can always get out by paying, as they say, so VSE are addressing the problem and putting new top hat liners in the block. Just as well we went for a full rebuild! More anon.
Rust had meant that a section of the scuttle be replaced, so here is the portion cut out:-
Here is the finished area:-
Once finished, the car now looks a lot better:-
Then it was on to cutting the holes in the bonnet and welding in the new louvres, finally arrived from Robey's:-
The car has now been prepped for painting, and shortly into the oven she will go, thence to be transported to BAS for the hood and seats to be trimmed, following which the meccano-like rebuild will commence.
In the mean time, some rather disturbing news from VSE when the engine was taken apart. I had wondered why she had been losing water, but could find no trace of "mayonnaise" in the oil, nor any other reason for it. Also, in the last two years she has started to consume oil at a rate of one litre per 1,000 whereas for the previous 23 years nary a drop. I just put it down to clogged waterways and bore or ring wear, but no, that wasn't the case. The block had cracked letting water into the cylinder, not the oilway, so that explained the root of the problem. Anyway, one can always get out by paying, as they say, so VSE are addressing the problem and putting new top hat liners in the block. Just as well we went for a full rebuild! More anon.
Well, it turns out that the engine was really on its last legs and couldn't have lasted much longer. Here is a picture of the block now sporting gleaming new liners:-
However, once their attention turned to the head it was no more than scrap alloy. Just look at the number of cracks therein:-
It is an expensive rebuild, but at least we caught it at the right moment before the whole caboodle expired in a mass of oil and steam. Hey ho.
However, once their attention turned to the head it was no more than scrap alloy. Just look at the number of cracks therein:-
It is an expensive rebuild, but at least we caught it at the right moment before the whole caboodle expired in a mass of oil and steam. Hey ho.
Covers himself in embarrassment! Slip of the keyboard I guess. Anyway, spoke to them this morning and it seems that 3.8 engines and heads are unobtanium, but Tim had had the foresight to have new heads machined up in the rough ready for finishing. Another problem solved it seems. Anyway, we are still on schedule for the beginning of May and the plan is to take the train over, take a week-long touring holiday with the car to shake it down, then catch the ferry back. I am really looking forward to putting the first 1,000 miles on her in that week.
I noticed that when I received the photos jith. She must be on a +60 rebore looking at the photos. Still, my glory days are behind me now and all she'll get is gentle or sometime not-so-gentle touring in the future, not track days and hill climbs with dumped clutches, spinning wheels and opposite lock. I've gone into this as much for the car and what I feel I owe her as much as for myself, wanting to leave a good car behind me when it's my time. On another note, I actually shed a tear yesterday when the old Mercedes diesel went to a new home. She'd served me well for 250,000 and 13 years, and I doubt the new one will be as reliable. Sic transit gloria I suppose.
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