I have been asked by several members here to open a thread on the restoration of my E Type.
I propose doing a series of posts to make the format more readable than one long scroll and I'll start with the background in a few posts, followed by the brief for the restoration and modifications, including how my thinking evolved into resto-modding the car - hence Franken-Jag.
I'll then do a monthly summary of work done, with bonus extras where serious automotive porn is involved like wire wheels, the braking system or the new electrical loom system.
So kicking off, why an E Type?
Background
I had been day dreaming about buying a car I had lusted after since I had first seen one, aged about three or so, in 1967 or 68 - the E Type Jaguar. So a few years ago, I had started casting around for one in a rather desultory fashion.
As my son hit eighteen and left boarding school, I found myself considerably more solvent than I had been in a very long time.
I had also bought a house in Italy to which I intend to retire, and am progressively spending more time there so I had a place to store a car where it wasn't guaranteed to be nicked in five minutes - you simply don't park E Types on the street in London unless you are after an insurance payout!
The E Type
I soon discovered that good (and not so good) ones cost more than I could, or was prepared to, pay for a car, anything up to ÂŁ150,000.
There were plenty of wrecks around but mainly in the USA where they were called the XKE and sold in much bigger numbers than in the UK.
Happily, the E Type market is divided into collectors who prize originality and buy and maintain garage queens or race them seriously, which keeps prices buoyant (TBF some do drive and race their cars) and more down-to-earth enthusiasts who often do their own restorations and ongoing spannering and who tend to use their cars more often. There are various forums full of very helpful people who have been there and done it all on these cars - I'd commend joining them to anybody contemplating taking on an E Type.
There is a hierarchy of desirability, at least in the UK, with RHD favoured over LHD and manual over automatic for all variants. In all cases, as with other classics, known history and matching body and engine numbers command a premium.
There was then a pecking order with the Series 1 trumping the Series 1.5, 2 and 3, so that a Series 1 will usually cost much much more than a Series 3, for example. This is reasonable as the E Type's purest form is probably in Series 1 before US Federal road safety regulations demanded alterations to the lights, height and the car became rather bloated.
Body style matters too: OTS (Open Top Sports in Jag-speak, or convertibles to anybody else) being the most desirable, with Coupes next and the 2+2 (a full 9" longer), introduced in 1966, the least favoured. The 2+2 was designed for the American market where buyers with families wanted to drive E Types. It has a higher roof line and differently raked windscreen because Jaguar wanted standardised tailgate door and vetoed the rather more elegant original 2+2 design. The Coupe was dropped for Series 3 and only the OTS and 2+2 were made from about 1972 or 73 IIRC.
Next, within Series 1, the early cars are more favoured than the later ones and the ones with the 3.8 straight six engine are prized over the 4.2 straight six. However, generally, the straight six is preferred to the V12 of the later E Types, although the V12 engine has a strong fan base, justifiably. But they are all great engines.
Whole books are written on this car and I have jotted this down from memory, so feel free to correct anything I have mis-stated.
Next up, the car I bought.
Peter
I propose doing a series of posts to make the format more readable than one long scroll and I'll start with the background in a few posts, followed by the brief for the restoration and modifications, including how my thinking evolved into resto-modding the car - hence Franken-Jag.
I'll then do a monthly summary of work done, with bonus extras where serious automotive porn is involved like wire wheels, the braking system or the new electrical loom system.
So kicking off, why an E Type?
Background
I had been day dreaming about buying a car I had lusted after since I had first seen one, aged about three or so, in 1967 or 68 - the E Type Jaguar. So a few years ago, I had started casting around for one in a rather desultory fashion.
As my son hit eighteen and left boarding school, I found myself considerably more solvent than I had been in a very long time.
I had also bought a house in Italy to which I intend to retire, and am progressively spending more time there so I had a place to store a car where it wasn't guaranteed to be nicked in five minutes - you simply don't park E Types on the street in London unless you are after an insurance payout!
The E Type
I soon discovered that good (and not so good) ones cost more than I could, or was prepared to, pay for a car, anything up to ÂŁ150,000.
There were plenty of wrecks around but mainly in the USA where they were called the XKE and sold in much bigger numbers than in the UK.
Happily, the E Type market is divided into collectors who prize originality and buy and maintain garage queens or race them seriously, which keeps prices buoyant (TBF some do drive and race their cars) and more down-to-earth enthusiasts who often do their own restorations and ongoing spannering and who tend to use their cars more often. There are various forums full of very helpful people who have been there and done it all on these cars - I'd commend joining them to anybody contemplating taking on an E Type.
There is a hierarchy of desirability, at least in the UK, with RHD favoured over LHD and manual over automatic for all variants. In all cases, as with other classics, known history and matching body and engine numbers command a premium.
There was then a pecking order with the Series 1 trumping the Series 1.5, 2 and 3, so that a Series 1 will usually cost much much more than a Series 3, for example. This is reasonable as the E Type's purest form is probably in Series 1 before US Federal road safety regulations demanded alterations to the lights, height and the car became rather bloated.
Body style matters too: OTS (Open Top Sports in Jag-speak, or convertibles to anybody else) being the most desirable, with Coupes next and the 2+2 (a full 9" longer), introduced in 1966, the least favoured. The 2+2 was designed for the American market where buyers with families wanted to drive E Types. It has a higher roof line and differently raked windscreen because Jaguar wanted standardised tailgate door and vetoed the rather more elegant original 2+2 design. The Coupe was dropped for Series 3 and only the OTS and 2+2 were made from about 1972 or 73 IIRC.
Next, within Series 1, the early cars are more favoured than the later ones and the ones with the 3.8 straight six engine are prized over the 4.2 straight six. However, generally, the straight six is preferred to the V12 of the later E Types, although the V12 engine has a strong fan base, justifiably. But they are all great engines.
Whole books are written on this car and I have jotted this down from memory, so feel free to correct anything I have mis-stated.
Next up, the car I bought.
Peter