E Type 888330

[rvzz]

You'll be needing one of these then ...



A gentleman always needs an ounce of rough shag to hand whilst motoring in ones E Type .

Sorry Jonathan , couldn't resist .

[Nige]

He's more of a bent billiard kind of chap I would say.

Bring on the photos.

[sladey]

Fantastic stuff Jonathan. Incidentally I was born 5th March 1963 - the day before it was sold.

Really looking forward to this keep the story coming......

[johnM]

Put me down for a seat, I'll be watching this one.

[Darren65]

If it hadn't been for the photos I would have thought you were talking about your wife!

Quite possibly the most beautiful car of all time

Already my favourite thread of 2016.......thanks for sharing

[jtparr]

You'll be needing one of these then ...



A gentleman always needs an ounce of rough shag to hand whilst motoring in ones E Type .

Sorry Jonathan , couldn't resist .

.....was waiting for that one Russ....

I think we have all been waiting for this one, chair firmly pulled up to watch this

Part two, next year I heard

Hi Mark.....give me a couple of days...am better at drawing...this writing thing is more taxing...!

[Steve Warson]

Cool car! Spent a few years on someone else's Mk2 once, I'll enjoy seeing this one come together!

[jtparr]

So when you have finally got the car you have wanted for 30 years...what do you do next....?


When I bought the Carrera I simply wanted to build a car, for the single reason I had never done one before...period


I knew I was going to back date the Carrera as I disliked the impact bumpers and it was already the colour I had been searching for.....I made certain changes to minor items and just jumped into the process.......it connected me to the wonders of DDK...which led me to working with Barry and what that subsequently created for him....I met some wonderful people who passed on a huge amount of knowledge and I learnt an enormous amount about 911's and at the end of which and 3 years ( which if I hadn't had issues with dreadful reproduction bonnets would have been a good 6 months less), I had a car that I had developed such a bond with I couldn't imagine ever parting with.....


With the E it was a different scenario


Family had now expanded and brought all the issues about priorities and responsibilities and in all honesty I also didn't know quite what I wanted to do with it.....the only thing I did know, which was identical to the Carrera was not setting a deadline as business life already has far too many of those on a regular basis

So I had a dilemma on my hands, and it's not been an easy one to conclude...perhaps too much time is a bad thing....in fact, sitting here typing this some 5 years later it is only within the last year I have finally concluded it will indeed be maintained as standard in appearance....albeit with a few (signature) touches....and upgrades.....










The low drag, lightweight or wide bodied mod sports cars of the past are great and I love them....but they were built for a single purpose, and that wasn't road use, plus they were almost exclusively built around roadster shells not coupes. The hot rod culture of Porsche isn't the same with Jaguars, somehow personalising seems easier to do with a Porsche and still keep a drivable car....why is that I wonder, but put overly wide wheels and adopt a lower stance will utterly change the characteristics and style of the car....perhaps it's because Jaguar didn't support the racing programme of the E Type enough, which is definitely the case...but that's another story. For me at least, an E Type is either a pure racing or a standard looking road car, and although I was often drawn to a modified car, every time I mentally wandered down that road I ended up deceiding no.

I think it is also largely due to the fact that my car is so original. If it had been a bitsa then a semi lightweight body would be feasible with a stripped out interior, but it isn’t, it may be tired and in need of quite some work, but what is there has never been apart, nor welded for repairs










The coupe was William Lyons favourite shape, it was the chosen model for launch in Geneva (9600 HP) supplemented only by the second convertible car (77RW) famously driven by Norman Dewis overnight from Coventry to Geneva due to unexpected and overwhelming popularity from journalists at the show all of whom wanted a drive around the impromptu circuit set up, and if it was built and regarded as the most beautiful car in the world by Enzo Ferrari then there was always a part of me drawn to a different approach for the E and to enjoy the depth and care of a detailed restoration


After all this was the image I had seen in a book as a boy and has stayed with me ever since, sure it's a roadster......and I ended up with a coupe....but the sheer elegance and lightness, a dark body colour with perfect hints of chrome and with painted wire wheels, you appreciate the overall form.... one not broken by panel joints and can just enjoy the beauty of the curves and the silhouette






But to begin with I had to start checking to see just exactly what I had bought...which was high on my priorities as I really needed to know if I had got a matching numbers car after all....





For a modest sum Jaguar will provide you with a Heritage Certificate which confirms certain basic facts, I had already obtained this and confirmed that the engine/body/chassis and gearbox numbers matched the ones stamped on the VIN plate. So now I needed to know if that's what the car was made of...







Short answer was yes but I also managed to find a few extra details that I wasn't expecting


E types were very much hand built cars to the extent that once assembled and prior to painting the main body had a 5 digit data plate riveted to it and very early bonnets had a part stamped with the 4 digit body number. Doors and boot lids were painted in situ, then removed and marked with their 4 digit body number in wax crayon

The fifth digit on the body data plate is either a R to describe a roadster/convertible or an V to describe a fixed head/couple





Rear hatch lid and main body vin plate shown here....and then the bonnet plate.....which you will see is not the correct number...in fact for my age of car it shouldn't be there at all....only bonnets from launch up to mid 1962 had the bonnet number stamped..so what was this. I had a much earlier bonnet on my car....which didn't exactly surprise me as you can see from the initial pictures it was more shiny than the rest of the car



Answer was also found in a further bid of probing...and the inevitable discovery of filler....






Conclusion, clearly 88330 had had some kind of thump in days gone by and the easiest fix was a slide hammer and filler to door and A panel plus a replacement bonnet

Early E Type bonnets are distinguished by a sharper crease on the main power bulge, possibly as a result of the use of different presses in the day. If you care to look at later cars and the reproduction bonnets they do have a softer line, and my car had the sharper line so at least that was good news

It is a generally accepted fact that in the days before launch Jaguar were not overly convinced about the success of the forthcoming E Type, this would go partly to explaining why after launch they were is serious trouble to meet demand, and why distribution of cars to the general public took something like 6 months or so to flow properly. Certainly in the early days only well connected, existing or racing customers in the UK got a look in when it came to getting an E Type, not helped by the fact that 80% of production was being exported, largely to the US

Because of the lack of confidence and because of the (well known) attitudes to cost, Jaguar also wouldn't invest large sums of money into a car they were unsure of....so there were few large scale pressings used for the body....

There are 10 major components that make up the bonnet alone...and each one is already made of a multiple number of pieces...





So although I should have a sharper crease it shouldn’t have a number stamped .

XKEdata.com is an on-line data base of all known E- types logged by their owners, and from a search I established the bonnet would have come from one of two cars. R2671 was built 14 December 1961 as a convertible and is described as “work in progress” in the data file, whereas V2671, its coupe brother isn’t logged. It looks to have been built around a month earlier as the closest number I can find is R2361 built 13 November 13 1961, so at this time my educated guess is that V2671 is no longer with us, and only the bonnet remains, which is now on my car

By very late 1961 the E Type had a change in the footwell design from the flat floor design to the dished footwell, but not before these two cars were built, so its kind of nice knowing it came of a very early model

By the way, to clear any myths, everyone thinks the flat floors are the really rare cars, which is not actually that true, the really rare ones were the outside bonnet locks (which by default had the flat floor design. There were only around 500 of the outside bonnet lock cars made, and it is these which collectors these days are very keen to pay huge money for. There were some 1500 flat floor cars, which is close to 10% of the 3.8 litre production run

So I had a complete car which was largely original and had all the major components as built


So when you have finally established the provenance of the car, and its sitting there waiting for you…a bit like a kid looking at the presents under the christmas tree, which one do you open first…where do you start…….and how do you start…..

Answer in my case was more research which came in the form of 2 bibles of reference, the Spare Part Catalogue and Parts Manual















the SPC is like the PET for Porsche, but has far more elegant and hand crafted illustrations, and everything....absolutely everything down the individual washers, spacers, screws plus the specification for each of these carefully catalogued...


perfect bed time reading...I knew I would ask Barry to do the bodywork and have someone paint....well at least the outside of the car...perhaps I might just do the rest myself.....and I also thought this time I would re-build the engine.....but I needed a plan of where to begin......I had just submitted plans for an extension to the house so I had that to complete first........agony.....surely I could make a stealth like start.........

[jtparr]

I did fairly well and managed to get planning permission resolved and the shell of the house built before I did anything on the car, but as I did so much of the fitting out myself inevitably I got bored with plumbing, electrics and joinery that by the summer of 2011 I began to blur the boundaries and started to strip the car, as it was more fun……..and I doing so creating a series of mini projects that kept up my faith in the car as a long term restoration, but ensured I spent a minimal amount of money on it

It was also the 50th anniversary of the E Type launch so a visit to the Silverstone Classic in July and the immense parade of E Type cars and racing perked up my enthusiasm. I also located an original set (minus the radio panel) of the rare cross hatch alloy dash panels so I picked them up at Silverstone…and I bought a key fob





The dash panels were slightly scratched but a level of patina is what I am striving for and moreover though I have subsequently kept a look out for an original radio panel, in 5 years of looking I have seen none for sale….the more common polka dot style used from launch in March 1961 to November 1962 is more often spotted on certain auction sites but my style lasted only 10 months until September 1963 when it changed to vinyl, and remained so for the rest of the series 1 production





note the reason why there is an additional radio panel without the cut-out is I made myself a new one from the back part of my original console....the radio panel had been butchered in the past with a much larger and none standard opening...


The big ticket items of metalwork and paint had to be by others, an E Type is a complicated construction and very much hand built, so it was not the car to start my metalwork career on, and being black would have to be as perfect as Barry made the 911 and similarly would have to be perfect paintwork (although when the time comes and I get quotes, I will see if me prepping and painting the inside of the cabin, even the inside of the bonnet potentially, the underside of the car and the engine frames will be cost effective).

Gearbox….well….being an American model it comes with a higher ratio rear differential, and with a 4 speed box (the infamous Moss box) perhaps a 5 speed conversion is on the cards, it is a common enough upgrade, and depending on the condition of the Moss box getting replacement parts is either way too expensive and/or impossible…so I would just buy another modern substitute, and make whatever modifications are necessary (not much…usually grinding and rounding off corners from the box and easing some of the metal work in the transmission tunnel) and re-fit

At this time the jury is still out on this, no rush, will probably come to some conclusion in a year or so

Engine, well Barry popped over one Autumn morning, must have been late 2011 and we spent a whole day getting her to start….which with multiple batteries, a new high torque starter motor and plenty of perseverance (and smoke) it did…no exhaust just the manifolds on the engine was a hell of a laugh….and man what a noise…;)….I have never built an engine I my life…but I can read a book…(so long as it has pictures naturally…..) so once parts have been outsourced for machining, I will follow the manual and put it back together, which will also allow me to detail it carefully


So this was the inside of the car, I had binned the after-market air con unit, then carefully removed centre console and gearbox cover before moving on to the seats, remaining carpet, dash and fuel tank







In the process I happily discovered the original horn centre push under the driver’s seat which was a lovely find, the repro ones are too pale and with incorrect graphics on the chequered flag, and I also found these….





Clearly one passenger, or perhaps owner was a good old boy and enjoyed the social side of the car…

With these elements removed I started the first restoration …. steering wheel and column plus fuel system

The aluminium frame of the steering wheel was straight, dull and dirty, but with successive grades of wet and dry prior to machine polishing it produced a lovely finish, just showing some of the aging and patina, which is all part of the look I want. The timber surround was split and unsafe, so a new kit was purchased, bonded, sanded and then given 3 coats of clear lacquer, wet and dry sanded between each coat, finished off with a rub down with 1200 grade and finally hand buffed it has a lovely sheen, not a brash gloss









Next it was the steering column, which had the knurled rim of the adjusting/locking collar missing, so I hunted down an original example, stripped the column, replacing both upper and lower rubber sleeve bushes, cleaned and repainted then re-assembled, together with the mounting brackets and associated bolts which were all stripped, painted and re-plated















The fuel tank is one of the early style with a flatter profile, and after using the POR renovation kit which de-greases, removes corrosion and is finally sealed prior to externally painting with 2 coats of their POR-15 paint system, gloss black








Once this was done I could investigate the condition of the original submersible fuel pump, which I contemplated re-using, but have subsequently decided against, as it needs some new parts, and given its fundamental importance will be best replaced with the modern submersible type easily available

It may well be sentimental but so what, I had wanted a car made on my birthdate, and although there is one manufactured on that date (a roadster, also black, that I have located in Germany) this is pretty close, and if a fuel pump , just like a heart is central to a car functioning, then this was at the core of my car…a nice surprise, but only the first of two further items that linked me to the car







The last 2 components of the fuel system is the fuel line connector located in the rear trunk and the fuel filter in the engine bay. Media blasting the top cap, emery paper and metal polish for the brass bolts, plate the fixing bolts, new fibre washers, rubber O ring and a new brass filter, scrubbing the original glass jar and painting the fixing bracket the correct period colour and its ready to use













Whilst at it in the engine compartment, the washer bottle, being adjacent to the fuel filter seemed like another contained project so that was similarly stripped, scrubbed and re-assembled…..except the washer motor was shot and new ones not available. A common upgrade is to fit a new unit within the moulded Bakelite top housing, and amend the wiring within it so all appears standard but has new plumbing. I also had to disassemble the cage for the glass bottle as it was originally made with pre-moulded rubber integral to it, which has perished, so I had to replicate that process with a rubber sleeve profile















The Kelsey Hayes servo system for the brake on an early E Type has a varied reputation, but I wanted to make all efforts to retain it, which also means I needed to get someone to restore the 2 master cylinders. They were both early units, but one was not original, and they don’t come up for sale often
Similar to DDK there is a superb forum for the E Type at http://forum.etypeuk.com/ and through this forum I located a specialist who had the cylinders bored out and sleeved in stainless to the original diameter then re-built with new OE specification components
The master cylinders are part of a multi component assembly including the pedals and various linkages and because I was changing the car from LHD to RHD I had to heat and then bend both clutch and brake pedal arms to a new configuration






















This took me through to mid/late 2012, by which time the house was completely finished so the family could enjoy that and I could then spend all free time on the car (except I knew we would probably move within 18 months so there wasn’t much point in stripping major items like suspension and engines as the car would be a nightmare to move), so I kept to small scale projects, of which there are many









The Smiths dials on an E Type, especially the early ones are such a part of the character of the car, their classic MADE IN ENGLAND script setting them apart from the later 1960’s models and subsequent eras

The dials on my car were all original with one exception, a common upgrade in period of a later mechanical gauge for the oil pressure, but not with the same font.

Generally the dials were definitely perished with moisture having seeped behind the glass and once disassembled became clearly not something that could be just cleaned as the old paint finish was damaged and would have to be re-done, as to the white lettering which had yellowed and aged too much.

I also wanted to replace the amps gauge with a volts one for safety and relativity…. So began a full on OCD project to redraw all the fonts myself.

Original dials would have been hand drawn back in the day at multiple times bigger than full size, and then photographically reduced to make a screen or pad print, so that basically means that the font used is not exactly any of the commercially available types. With a lot of searching I established that the dials had around 3 fonts each, but that the odd letter was not exactly as it should have been…….so naturally I drew the whole lot in CAD, to create a set of graphics, 4 times real size out of lines, pure radii and compound curves or ovals. These could then be made into a set of pdf files and having found an old school printer in Mitcham he printed the images on acetate, and then using a light sensitive process creates the master plates on which the ink is placed to pad print them directly onto the faces of the freshly prepared dials (nitromors as blasting too powerful, etch prime and top coat, all with my modellers spray brush so as to get just the right amount of paint)

individual cases….




cases blast cleaned then plated and painted…








and the new set of dials






they all now say Smiths, which I realise is incorrect…but now all the fonts are matching….and importantly to me the volts graphics are all white, as opposed to the partial white and red from the donor dial…..so it looks period correct even if slightly tweaked….


just to complete this tale, images of the artwork








The main dials had fared much better and once disassembled the inner faces were just gently cleaned, the bezels stripped and painted with new O ring gaskets and the fixings stripped and re-plated. The glass on the tachometer was cracked and the fingers of the original clock damaged and rusty, plus the silver inner disc holding the needle was damaged so another period tacho was sourced which provided a good glass and disc plus new clock innards, which were transferred into the lovely early style brass case

















To improve the night time illumination, with all the dials, I chose to media blast the entire cases, painting the inside with 2 full coats of gloss white and the outsides silver



and the last shot is the dials in the dash surrounds….the old surrounds were actually in great condition, showing the pencil markings on the rear confirming interior colour and body number, these I will keep in case the car has to revert to LHD at any time. Unlike a 911 it is incredibly straightforward to hand the cars….they ran down the production line reverting from left hand to right hand so it had to be

With new metal fascia’s and correct period textured vinyl they were soon transformed and together with the original cross hatched aluminium fascia cleaned, including some markings, which maintains a certain patina completed that task










since these photographs were taken I finally restored some of the individual toggle switches, (use those fat indelible black magic markers, 2 layers of that, hand polished on a soft cloth and it has the look of old plastic and reinstated supplementary switches and controls which had to be re chromed



the last elements in this initial burst of enthusiasm were the steering rack and heater box.

Finding a genuine early RHD rack is not easy, and if available go for crazy money….certainly due to the demand for exchanging LHD to RHD I this country outstripping supply. In the end
I located a later 4.2 model probably from the last few months of production in 1971, the benefit of this being it had one less tooth on the main spindle (7 not so assuming I put slightly wider tyres on the car )205 section compared to 185) it will handle the heavier steering better as it is a slower rack so less force needed






note these lovely little details with stamped names of companies, a long lost art, which began to peter out during the early 1960's....



The heater is a straightforward process, but one which included another upgrade, primarily as the old motor was damaged and the drum bladed fan known to be poor in design. The MGB forum has been offering these upgraded motors for a few years, and luckily for us E Type owners it is built for our heater too, probably the only thing I will ever procure at a reasonable cost for this car, thank you MG !

note correct silver colour to upper intake mesh, and correct radial alignment of newly nickel plated screws....standards must be maintained....









thanks for looking…more soon….

[Lightweight_911]

Excellent work Jonathan !

These mini-projects can be very satisfying - especially as they don't involve huge inputs of money - & are an important part of maintaining enthusiasm.

[willbrown]

Nice Jonathan - very nice indeed

[silver911]

Wow... A textbook definition of OCD...
Well impressed matey

[rvzz]

Lovely stuff Jonathan .

[sladey]

Good god man, what are you playing at - look at the screw heads in this picture - you need to sort this out before you can go to sleep tonight



Great stuff Jonathan - keep the picture coming

[Steve Warson]

Awesome work!

A sidenote to your gearbox thoughts; I really don't understand the "industry standard" of dumping the Moss and dropping in a modern gearbox. Just like a 901 takes practice and skill to flog around a Moss does too, but is very enjoyable and rewarding once mastered. I realise my reference is a Mk2 which enjoys the overdrive the E-type lacks, but the Moss is an absolute joy to use. It took a while to get used to the straight cut first gear, and it takes a bootful of throttle to downshift to second silently. That's still part of the charm to me, a good Moss driven well will go days between noisy changes. And the whining first gear is part of the car's soundtrack...