DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

A nice 2.4S will buy a very nice early E type and you might have a few £'s to go on a Euro Trip in it.

I bet the shots of Barry bouncing on the tail gate could have been taken in the 1960's at Browns Lane...

This effort makes a re-panel of a 911 a breeze.

Was Barry holding a sandbag? He likes a sandbag.
More great stuff, thanks for posting.
Cheers, Richard

Zen and the art of......lead loading....


for a process which is arguable medieval it is also beautiful...a real testament to the skill of hand crafting....











i had asked for certain areas of the door gaps to be worked on to a level of perfection, for which I am unapologetic...














the pictures really need no words...







shut lines need ti on be perfectly straight, accurate and consistent...





which means the care has to extend into the body as these areas are fully visible when the bonnet is open....









and especially crucial is the upper swage line that has to be perfect both in the inner crease of the curve and the tip of the door and rear quarter/....






there will be a further light skim of filer almost translucent in depth over the entire body, but these areas were important to establish in metal beforehand....

enjoy....


next is the small matter of the 1.8m long bonnet....

Bows down in “we are not worthy” manner

Truly glorious ......hope the painter doesn't f*ck those up!

Absolutely fantastic!

i was at DC coachworks yesterday collecting some remaining 911 bits and saw the etype in all its glory looking rather splendid with the bonnet fitted.

Your bumpers hitched a ride with me back to Barry's for some final fettling......

Looking forward to the finished result!!

Looks amazing - well, will do as long as you paint it the right colour!

Nice work.

WOw... just wow.
Setting new benchmarks all the time....

How come all that bare steel does not rust over time or during the restoration process?

barry has a warm and dry shed and he works quickly..........

Dougieboy1 wrote:barry has a warm and dry shed and he works quickly..........

.....dehumidified too

the bonnet..............ah yes..........the bonnet......

9 main assemblies, each with multiple possible tolerance issues, all handmade back in the day.....and in my case a collection of original panels all needing repair work of some kind...plus a new lower chin panel....well a new skin at least....which I wanted grafting onto the original cross member pressing....which would determine the complete alignment of the entire bonnet..and it was the worst component of the lot

what could possibly go wrong....


well as they say starting at the beginning is often the best place.....so how about starting at the beginning with the worst part....

this is the original chin panel complete with twisted, rusty, pitted, bent and original beam....which is unique to the early cars because of mounting brackets....so of interest to someone like me....











first was the delicate task of separating beam from panel....which left this delightful result.....







....the rest is best said with pictures......


































as if that wasn't enough of a mini marathon....having retrieved that from the dead, it needed the new reinforcement plates and captive nut cases making.....all naturally to be re-welded with spot welds set out as per original.....

















all of which were carefully treated to weld through primer before assembly.....just to last the next 50 years without further work.....this time round....




what a thing of beauty.....and what a superb effort to achieve this.....









to then be ultimately joined to the new chin panel....


which had quietly begun rusting in the meantime...




not that this minor set back can't be resolved.....







so with that complete....only 8 more sections to go.....

next to be restored was the picture frame...aptly describing its profile, it is the rectangular piece that locates the leading edges of the main engine frames, and provides the mounting for the triangular frame that supports the bonnet



whilst the sensible route in any E Type restoration is to invest in a new set of tubular frames ( Reynolds finest bike tubing so 0.9mm thick and not rust proofed...!!...), the picture frame is made from standard sheet metal so is more durable, but importantly is that part of the car which receives the only chassis number stamp, and although replacement frames can be bought, the exact font used to then stamp them is not the same as the original Jaguar one, so not acceptable to me



It also provides the ideal point at the front of the car where a jack can be placed, so it is often badly deformed as the lower edge of the frame is 2 slim and weak steel flanges







so apart from a need to straighten the frame which was identified early on in the build .....





it was also necessary to strengthen the frame, but i wanted it to be more durable and robust to last well into the future......so a cunning plan was made to insert a steel stiffener and re-fabricate to be almost unnoticeable when complete....













that should see the next 50 years without a problem....

Jp