E-type déjà vu. The second rebuild

[lowdrag]

Yes, you'll find it mentioned here on another thread:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Since a good 3.8 coupé is around £60,000 and it is already at nearly £9,000 I can't see much sense in this one. It'll need a very optimistic buyer to make sense of it I reckon.

[lowdrag]

Yes, hooli, already discussed and correct numbers will be stamped on the head. she is a matching number car so that is, in the fullness of things, important. Not to me really, but the market perceives it to be.

[lowdrag]

On another thread I started concerning a Mk 1 Hawthorn replica there has been much criticism of my double standards in having the new cylinder head stamped with the original numbers. I would go so far as to say that the comments were in some cases vitriolic.

Could I ask these people why, if they were so concerned about originality, not one of you did not venture far earlier to ask whether the new picture frame was to be stamped with the correct chassis number? This is standard practice when restoring a car. Yet, like the much-criticised cylinder head, it is an integral part of the car. These markings are the principal reason why more than one one D-type became two, the picture frame bearing one number and the car another. When ordering the new frames I was asked for the chassis number to protect the car from theft, since as such they are integral. Yet these people of such shallow knowledge deem it fit to heap vitriol on my head for not changing one head for another but actually paying to engineer a new head at far greater expense than buying a second hand one. I can point to three new E-type alloy blocks and a D-type head less than six miles from me here in France, all without numbers awaiting a purchaser.

I am shocked by the reaction and would thank, amongst others, LAX POWER, srob, Willhire, and surprisingly to me LordBrettSinclair for their comments that has prompted this reaction.

Edited by lowdrag on Tuesday 28th January 17:27

[lowdrag]

The only update is that the car is still not painted due to the painter being unwell. The underside should be done this week with stonechip I understand and the upper side later with the bonnet and doors and boot lid. The engine is now built and tested and I have the running-in (anyone old enough to remember the rear screen stickers and how we cut and shut so it read "ruining"?) instructions which are far less onerous than in days of yore. Now it is 500 miles at maximum 3000 rpm (70mph) and an oil change, then another 1000 slowly building up to maximum revs, then another oil change and we're clean and green. Having had quite a few emails from people asking me to continue (I thank you for your support people) I shall tentatively start posting again shortly starting with the engine photos.

[lowdrag]

While awaiting the last of the engine photos, I've been taking a trip down memory lane since the weather is foul. Here's a couple of them, the 1,000 E-type day at Donington in 1991; except just like Silverstone in 2011, we didn't get 1,000 but around 800, but given the number of E-types on the road back then it was a damned good effort.

[lowdrag]

So here is your proof sir. The programme of race 4 Sunday June 9th 1991. Roger Semour was pedalling, it seems:-



ETA When you look at the class of some of the drivers, he must have considered changing his underwear. Harvey-Bailey, Roger Mac, Nigel Corner to name but three.

Edited by lowdrag on Saturday 22 February 20:15

[lowdrag]

And to bore you all some more, some of the NU Rally medals (some for some unfathomable reason were stolen during a break-in) and another photo of the last rebuild 27 years ago.

[lowdrag]

Unfortunately stuck in the album and I could only scan the page and not get as good an image as I would like.. An interesting tale of a friendly bet. Roger Suffolk and I decided to race up to Briançon on the Route Napoleon and while I really went for it his V12 lost brakes so he paid the bar bill.

[lowdrag]

Filming "The Car's the Star" for the Beeb, July 1997:-





We started filming at 2pm and finished at 5.30am. The car had a distributor problem on the way home! You can see a clip of it here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfcsEbMqRMY

Even the tax disc is 1961!

7am Sunday, Coy's Festival Silverstone 1995:-



60 years of Jaguar at the NEC. Sadly, the weather was foul outside, the security guard opened the big hangar door and all the panels, all linked together, fell like dominos due to the wind onto the cars damaging, IIRC, over a dozen including mine. which had the rear stove in. Cost the insurers a pretty penny all told.



I'm packing up there. I have so many photos to scan and save for the future I guess. Literally hundreds maybe more.

Edited by lowdrag on Sunday 23 February 06:27

[lowdrag]

So, after my rose-coloured trip down memory lane over the weekend things move on. At least the photos serve to show the comparatively intense use of the car over the years and why this second rebuild was necessary. The last of the engine photos haven't arrived, but for your delectation and delight here are the first of the new paint.

Interior of the boot, with spare wheel fixing on the right.



the tub, taken from driver's side



Even though it was planned, it comes as a shock to see my car no longer blue. Too late now!

[lowdrag]

The two are often confused Omega, and the car in question had the plate 282 CYN (Henly's London September 1961) and is chassis #850129 so 23 earlier than mine. it was silver though, not blue. It also is well known for a classic & Sports Car poster.

[lowdrag]

Can you spot the little smiling robot in the next?

[lowdrag]

With no wish to demean what is superb workmanship, we are now entering what I call the "Meccano Phase" of bolting everything back on to the painted tub. Front O/S suspension bolted up. Note the robot is still watching!



Same on N/S. Note the Goodrich brake pipes.



Torsion bar, brake pipes and in-line brake light switch.

Edited by lowdrag on Friday 14th March 14:34

[lowdrag]

The engine is delivered and will be fitted next week.

Edited by lowdrag on Saturday 15th March 13:36

[lowdrag]

Candellara said:

Looking superb. Replaced the frames or were the old ones ok?

I don't think I actually put up a photo so here they are, ordered from Ulryk at E-type Fabrications and they are by a country mile the best available nowadays.



As already said, these frames rot from the inside out and it can't be seen, and nor sometimes can the cracks around the welds unless a magnifying glass is used or an X-ray taken. This car had been hammered to death, and at £2,000 one can either consider them dear or cheap, depending on your point of view. On another note, while ordering I bought this from Uryk too:-

http://www.coolcatcorp.com/product/CoolCatFan38.ht...

And the otter switch which is very inexpensive:-

http://www.coolcatcorp.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?...

I've just looked up the total cost for the subframes, the fan and the otter switch and it came to £1,980 including VAT.

Under £100 and moves 2,000 cufm which, compared to the old two-bladed windmill is in a different league. The usual suspect is the Kenlowe in the UK, but at £234 is a lot dearer, and the Cool Cat one bolts onto the picture frame as per the original and fits neatly into the cowl whereas the Kenlowe is attached by cable ties through the matrix of the radiator "No, they never cause a leak" I was told but that isn't the experience we have seen on various tours. I also hear they don't fit very well either, but can't confirm myself.

Edited by lowdrag on Saturday 15th March 14:11

[lowdrag]

It is becoming so wearisome to find some parts today. Take for example the twelve screws that fix the chrome surrounds to the headlights. Early cars had domed flat screws, not Phillips, and I have literally spent hours trying to find some, in the end with success although in stainless and not chrome. The radiator; the early cars had a rather special radiator which had the side tanks finned. They do not exist anywhere it seems. But perhaps I have found one; we'll see. It is very wearing, trying to find the various parts and of course the car will never ever be concours anyway due to the upgrades, but for me it has become a mission to find the unfindable. Just a part of the passion I suppose.

[lowdrag]

Thanks for the encouragement folks. The problem is that the very early cars had fins on the sides of the radiators to aid cooling and Marston's say they stopped making them over 20 years ago. Nil desperandum though, as they say. I am awaiting one last call. Here are a couple of update photos:-







Apart from putting the engine and gearbox back in on his own, not forgetting the new clutch, he's replaced the stub axles, brakes and the steering rack. The latter incidentally is hard mounted. I've had it like that for years since the standard mounting has too much play for my liking.

Edited by lowdrag on Tuesday 18th March 05:18

[lowdrag]

A photo of the latest modification and the dragster rear suspension and wheels.

[lowdrag]

Thanks for that, but since time is now pressing it is really too late to go into making a new radiator since all will be bolted in as soon as the new fan motor is cleared by customs. Apparently the importers have a load of stuff stuck due to the wrong or badly completed documentation. Red tape! It was a passing fancy and I did find an original for sale but the price asked was dear, but then a new one would have cost at least £1,000 I guess. From what I understand the finned alloy radiator was fitted for about the first three years of production only.

[lowdrag]

Another example of a car that was seemingly sound but had hidden problems. Many years ago one of the fan speeds ceased to work, followed last year by the second and the air control seized completely. Here's what we found inside the heater box, alongside a second hand one taken from a spare box:-





Apparently there is a modification I've learned where the innards of a Pontiac Fiero heater are used to make the fan more powerful. I am always amazed at the ingenuity of people who discover these modifications, just like someone I know who fitted Volvo 240 disc brakes to his E-type with virtually no modification necessary.