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E Type Series 1 2+2 Franken-Jag Resto-mod

225K views 724 replies 78 participants last post by  percymon 
#1 ·
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
 
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#3 ·
The car

In mid-December 2016, after several months of drawing blanks, I was reconciling myself to a visit to the USA or South Africa/Australia to try to find a reasonably rust-free example which I could afford and which would not entail too much restoration.

I then found within three miles of home what appeared to be a reasonably straight, reasonably affordable E Type. It was a Series 1 2+2 Automatic in "resale red". It had been imported from Dubai, but was originally sold to America.





The car

I got to see it the same day and it became immediately apparent that it was cheap-ish for a reason. It had suffered "lumping". The old 4.2 motor and Borg Warner gearbox had been removed and a Small Block Chevy 305 cu in V8 with a TH350 gearbox put in instead.



The lump

Our American friends have a habit of doing this and, I guess at some point in a Jaguar's lifecycle, it makes sense. As the car depreciates and parts still cost a lot, especially in the back of beyond in the American heartland, it must make more sense to drop a crate engine and GM gearbox in. This is stuff any backyard mechanic can work on. Unfortunately, it misses the point of the E Type with its skinny wheels and beautiful balance.

OK, so first impressions were poor. If I made an offer, I'd need to factor in the cost of a replacement straight six engine, ancillaries, gearbox and exhaust system.

I examined the interior. Again, I was not expecting much in a 50 year-old car. It had been retrimmed within the past ten years, badly. With cheap leather. But the seats and the trim were in good physical shape and everything was there. All the instruments and gauges were intact and operational, although a previous owner had buggered around with the rev counter (presumably when dropping the new engine in).

The electrics worked but the loom had been modified by Edward Scissorhands. Budget for a new loom.

But there was more bad news. It was immediately apparent that the transmission tunnel had been chopped. For readers familiar with DVLA's Eight Point Rule, any interference with the structure of a monocoque chassis would cost five points, making it impossible to get the car recognised as substantially unaltered for the purposes of registration. I did not want drive an E Type around on a dreaded Q plate.

The body, however, looked a lot straighter than most of the others I had seen and that, after all, is where the money gets spent in restoring an old English or Italian classic. All the original Triplex glass and chrome was there. I measured the dimensions against spec and was within mm on everything. I got underneath the car (helpfully covered in some kind of bitumen). The floor looked solid. The IRS looked solid. I could see evidence of new brake pipes. The dampers seemed OK. I ran a magnet across every inch of the car and it was looking and sounding really good. There was a minor crack in the paint in the bonnet but the shut lines all round were better than OK.

As a bonus, and I don't think the vendor had clocked it, the car was shod in Borrani 6" wire wheels - an expensive option when new and a very desirable feature. These were instead of the 5" or 5.5" standard Jaguar wheels. Sadly, several of the spokes were broken but I knew that I wasn't going to risk driving a car with 50 year-old wire wheels without having them reconditioned. I think a new Borrani is over ÂŁ1000 a corner and the three eared spinners come on top.

So, on the face of it, here was a car which could not get an age-related registration, which required a replacement engine and gearbox, rewiring, retrimming, a new paint job and some general restoration. On the other hand the SBC and gearbox would be worth a bit and the body itself looked and measured fine.

On the plus side, I was confident that I could knock at least 25%, and possibly 50%, off the already low asking price because of all the faults and I could always walk away at the end of the day.

I also asked an old mate, Nick (a mechanical engineer and old car nut), to give it the once over. He confirmed my analysis but warned me that I really needed to get a boroscope into the sills if I wanted to be absolutely sure. But replacing the sills was common and not that costly in the scheme of things. His conclusion was I wouldn't find better body for up to twice the price but I did have an engine and gearbox to find…

Time to retreat and do some thinking. I told the vendor that he was asking too much and it probably wasn't go to work but I'd ring if I changed my mind or he could ring if he was prepared to move on price. I could sense he wanted shot of the thing before Christmas and he knew I was about to go on holiday. As I left, I knew he'd call me shortly.

To buy or not to buy?

My thinking went along the lines of:

Baseline - neither for nor against the car

Some costs I would be bearing more or less whatever car I bought to restore - ÂŁ5k for paint (if lucky), ÂŁ3-4k for trimming (I had not seen a car which did not need a retrim), probably ÂŁ2k for a loom and rewiring - they don't call Lucas the Prince of Darkness for nothing! ÂŁ500 for refurbing the clocks. Same again for the wiper motor and mechanism. Same again for the heater (unless I could get an American friend to score an old Fiero fan and matrix). So in deciding the fixed costs, none of this affected the choice of this particular car.

Against

Costs - a new motor and gearbox. Well, there is the well-known E Type premium: an unadorned rebuilt E Type motor can cost up to ÂŁ8000. Equally, the Jaguar XJ 4.2 engine is not exactly uncommon. How much would a decent rebuilt one cost? Say ÂŁ1k?

What were the additional ancillaries? I knew that the sump was almost unique to the E Type to allow the motor to clear the engine frame and allow the pipes to reach the back boxes. I also recalled that there was an armoured car which had the same sump, so I might get lucky with Army surplus (say, ÂŁ500 - ÂŁ800 if from an E Type or remanufactured). And budget at least ÂŁ1500 on top for ancillaries (including reconditioned carbs or an EDIS lash up).

There is a healthy aftermarket in XJ gearboxes and my 2+2 could take a manual XJ gearbox with overdrive without any adjustment to the propshaft and a minor adjustment to the top plate. Let's say ÂŁ500 and if I was lucky I'd get motor and gearbox together.

There would clearly need to be some remedial work to the transmission tunnel, say ÂŁ400 of welding and making good. Allow another ÂŁ2k on top for contingency in case there were small pockets of rust lurking.

The other issue was the engine frame which had been cut into to fix the V8. I thought another ÂŁ500 might be needed to fix any issues there.

For

It looked a good, honest car.

The bodywork seemed in good order, so no major panel work required.

The brightwork was intact, the glass and lights were all there, the suspension, brakes etc were all fresh and good, and no major bits were missing.

Compared to some cars I had seen, those factors swung in favour of the car anything in a range from ÂŁ15k to 45-50k (not that I was contemplating spending ÂŁ50k on bodywork! - this was simply a rough mental P&L account.)

On top:

It was local, so no sorting out trucking etc.

It was keenly priced and negotiable.

I wanted a LHD automatic anyway (my wife has an only automatic licence and this was to be based in Italy).

Conclusion

On balance, I thought the car had more going for it than against, given the price bracket and the things I thought needed doing to it and the things that didn't. I wasn't worried about sourcing the engine and gearbox. And the rest didn't seem too daunting, although I'd need to find a decent and not too expensive body shop.

Next up, the deal

Peter
 
#5 ·
The Deal

The vendor gave me a couple of days before he rang to ask if I was still interested.

He maintained that he was still holding out for his asking price (well north of ÂŁ30k), so I told him I probably wasn't but as he had been so civil and had taken his time showing me round the car, I was happy to meet to explain why I thought he was being a touch optimistic.

So we met. All a bit of an anti-climax. I was expecting a long struggle but...

I had the Hagerty's numbers and some current examples for sale, and went methodically through the types of car and series and their relative desirability.

I explained to him that, give or take, a replacement panel would cost the same whether it was going on an early Series 1 3.8 OTS valued potentially at ÂŁ150k or a Series 3 2+2 valued at ÂŁ35k restored, and that the labour costs in fitting it would be the same. This was why less admired models traded at a significant discount to the premium market. The economics had to stack up.

I then went through the specifics of what was wrong with his car for the money he was asking and explaining how much it would cost to put right. I might have trowelled it on a bit, but that's negotiation! He knew he wasn't going to hear different from anybody else.

My opening gambit was telling him that in a competitive market he'd be waiting a long time (months, maybe years) to get two thirds to half of what he was asking and was more likely not to sell at all if he stuck where he was.

I told him I was prepared to buy the car for the right price but I had been looking for years and was happy to bide my time.

I wasn't going to insult him with a derisory offer but the price I was prepared to pay reflected what I thought the car was worth. The offer was also being made at that moment and the deal could be executed that day. His body language was shouting that he just wanted out with as much cash as he could muster.

I offered him ÂŁ15k cash (which gave me a ÂŁ7.5-ÂŁ10k buffer on Hagerty's median guide price (and no auctioneer's commission either).

After five minutes of half-hearted haggling, we settled on ÂŁ16.5k and I finally had the car I'd dreamed of for fifty-odd years.







And that's when I started ageing prematurely:lol:

Next up, thinking about engines and finding the right bodyshop. After that, I'm on the road for two days and will resume the narrative mid-week.

In the meantime, a little bit of Metallifacture porn for the older gents amongst us:



And some Borrani action, too:



Unrestored



Restored

Peter
 
#9 ·
Oh hell, this is going to knock every single other thread in this section into the weeds.

Id love to subscribe but the truth is, my phone won't get a minutes peace from the constant emails saying someone has posted on this thread.....

Damn, don't be shy with the updates fella. An E-Type Jag is a thing of beauty, and this one, for all its other faults, still looks the absolute ticket.
 
#11 ·
Truly a thing of beauty, there are many cars, classic and modern, that could be described as beautiful but the E Type is really something special. In my opinion, THE best looking car ever made. I can understand why people would restore and then just keep these garaged but they are really missing out on so much. Good to hear you will be driving and appreciating it fully, not to mention giving others (even if they are Italians!) the opportunity of seeing it in the flesh.
 
#12 ·
Engines and bodyshops

So the car was bought and I went off on holiday. I had plenty of time to noodle around on the internet. OK, even more than usual.

I contacted several Jaguar restoration specialists, about half of whom gave me the distinct impression that a 2+2, even a Series 1, was beneath their dignity.

The other half were more accommodating but quoting up to ÂŁ100 per hour and they all had long waiting lists.

Another snag was that while I had no trouble at all in finding good XJ engines and gearboxes - indeed the MOD overdrive gearbox from an S Type does not even need the top cover changed and the autoboxes are easy, too, the specialists all wanted to supply and fit their own at vastly inflated prices.

At about the same time, I was having real trouble with the 3 speed ZF autobox in my wife's Alfa Spider. I hate the bloody thing as it makes the (high revving) Alfa Nord engine sound like an incensed wasp at motorway speeds - so much so that it is uncomfortable to drive at those speeds. I had been looking into changing boxes, sadly almost impossible. But it had got me looking for engine and gearbox swaps and the people who do them.

I came across this mob:

https://retropower.net/category/projects/

and this company:

https://www.oldbonesfabrications.co.uk/projects?lightbox=dataItem-ivjiq0nq - in particular the 1958 Ponton with a 55 AMG stuffed inside.

It dawned on me that I did not have to stick with a 1940's engine and 3 speed gearbox and that Jaguar had made straight sixes right up until 1996. Even better, the AJ16 engine had a supercharged manifestation...the XJR6 puts out 322 bhp stock. Without catalytic converters, decent downpipes, a bit of porting, a modified pulley and a bored out throttle body, it should be capable of 350-375bhp, against a claimed 265 bhp from the 4.2 XJ engine of the Series 1.

So I changed my search from E Type restorers to resto-mod and hot rod shops and went on some fact-finding visits before meeting and selecting Steve Jones at Old Bones Restorations in Weyhill, near Andover - the man undertaking the AMG shoehorning into the Ponton.

There is a lot of mystique about E Types and, yes, some bits are very tricky but looking at a true metal master like Steve, I judged that it had nothing to throw at him that he could not cope with. His work is beautiful and he is a perfectionist. So I went with Old Bones and had to wait until a slot came free.

In the meantime, I found a good nick 1995 XJR in Coventry (appropriately) with only 72,000 miles on the clock which I grabbed for a tickle over ÂŁ3,000. It had its ticket and everything I needed worked well. When it has been gutted, it is in good enough nick to pass on to a parts specialist.

Steve and I had detailed discussions about the brief and agreed on a number of objectives:

The car was to be a cruiser, capable of long distances and of easily going from sea level to the Alps without throwing a hissy fit - hence no carbs!

It was going to lose the stupid +2 and extra storage would be fitted instead.

There would be no fundamental change to the way it looks or drives - so body, suspension and wheels would remain stock with no silly b's like ABS or traction control despite the XJR engine. (There are plenty of "tickled" racing E Types putting out 300+ bhp on 6 inch wheels, so it should be possible, but we may need to look at how the TCU governs the gearbox on moving from the off:)).

The car would meet the DVLA 8 Point Rule.

It would have cupholders!

That's it for now. Happy to answer questions.

Next instalment will cover the strip down.

Peter
 
#16 ·
Peter

This is one of those threads that throws itself immediately at the top of the "threads you can't not subscribe to" list. [emoji16]

I genuinely love what you're doing with this, in making a truly stunning classic that will be properly usable.

I'm genuinely looking forward to the updates, in an ever-so slightly envious manner.....

It goes without saying, if you ever end up in Ireland, id love a look in person. Now, keep her lit, as they say in Fermanagh......

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
#17 ·
Thanks Niall,

I'll keep her lit!

Mind you, I'll end up sleeping in her, the amount she's costing me.

My wife told me the other day that she's convinced she'd see more of me and it would cost less if I had a mistress than "those blasted cars":). (I paraphrase loosely, you understand.)

I told her that at least she knew where I was and what I was up to. Didn't seem at all mollified...:lol:

Peter
 
#19 · (Edited)
I've been following Gordon Murrays Mk1 Escort with Retropower and love the concept and execution - never come across Old Bones but right up my street!
One of my favourite everyday future classics is the XJR.
My "can't afford yet but want one one day" car is the F-type - an updated E-Type how novel!
All time great is the E-type and how often do you get to follow a resto+ on one!

Subscribed and looking forward to the journey!

:)
 
#24 ·
Oh my ……………………. thank you Sir! :thumb:

This has got the makings of a superb Thread. :D

Very much looking forward to the journey and here's hoping it doesn't spring you any nasty surprises along the way Peter. ;)

Alan W
Alan,

Thanks. It wouldn't be much half as much fun to read if there weren't the risk of some nasties lurking:lol:.

Rule number 1 of car restoration: there are always nasties!

Peter
 
#22 ·
My knowledge of E-Types is limited to two things: The coupe is probably the most beautiful car ever built and I want one so I look forward to being educated. Deja vu; couldn't believe my eyes when I finally caught up with this on the track at Knockhill and he wasn't hanging about. pic taken by wife so an extreme crop. :)

 
#25 ·
Strip down April/May 2017

In late April 2017, Steve took the E Type into his workshop.

The complete full nut and bolts strip down of the shell and the interior.

First, all fluids were drained off.

Then Steve's team had to tag and bag all the parts and components, and then ready the body for the shot blaster.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the parts after strip down. But if anybody has seen the parts catalogue for an E Type, they'll know how complex this job is. Here is a link to an E Type (not mine) in bits:

http://www.2040-cars.com/Jaguar/E-T...ration-project-partially-disassembled-982272/

However, this is what the shell looked like - to be fair, anybody who has seen a stripped down shell for restoration has seen much, much rougher than this:

















It took the team 62 man-hours to do this work, the equivalent of one person working full-time on nothing else but this for over a week and a half:doublesho

Steve reported back to me that, following strip down, it was apparent that the car had had some work done on it in the past and had had maybe quite a hard life, but all round it looked to be kept well in places where others usually fail.

So far so good...except for one thing...

You will recall that a SBC V8 had been shoehorned into the engine bay designed for a straight six:



Well, this is the hack job on the engine frame which is structurally integral to the car:







Rather than lengthen this post unnecessarily, I'll devote the next post to the enormity of the problem here (and why the DVLA rules on substantial modification make sense even though they are a bit of a PITA for a restorer:))

Then other snags started appearing:

I had applied to the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club (of which I am a member, despite owning neither a beard, nor a pipe, nor yet corduroys:)) for a Heritage Certificate for the car. I knew I could not provide either engine or gearbox number as they had been parted from the car, but I had the VIN.

The JEC asked me to provide the chassis number. This I could not do (a) because the original plate had been removed from the car (I believe by the authorities in Dubai and replaced by their own with only VIN number on it). "No matter," I thought, "the body number is stamped on various places around the shell. I'll get Steve to dig it up".

Blow me, it was nowhere to be found, which on the face of it was worrying. Did I have a cut and shut on my hands?

I consulted a JEC expert who immediately reassured me in two ways. Number 1 - the 2+2 simply wasn't worth faking (thanks a bundle!:p) and number 2, we'd have found another body number squirrelled away instead. He thought it much more likely that the numbers had been cut out in a rebuild following an accident or a rust removal exercise. We'd know more after the shot blasting...

It gets better.

Some time prior to the strip down, I had submitted the NOVA paperwork (and current MOT certificate) to the DVLA in the hope of getting a registration number. Rather unfortunately, DVLA replied, a day or two after strip down had started, to tell me that they wanted to inspect the entire car. After much to-ing and fro-ing, I agreed with DVLA that the inspection would happen after the rebuild. So the car would be inspected and not be put through on the nod, which meant that the monocoque absolutely had to be restored to spec. But now, of course, I'm paying money into a restoration on a car without an age related registration. OK, better dust down the regs on substantial modification and follow them to the letter. (All this before the later consultation on reforming the MOT and registration system...)

This picture doesn't really fully show the tin-opener approach to hacking the gearbox cover open but the really rough top cover which appears to have been beaten from a catering-sized baked bean can be made out. The full horror will be more apparent in the later post covering the media blasted body:



On the plus side, I had a heritage certificate against the VIN and a letter from JEC stating that this was a genuine Series 1 2+2...

Peter
 
#30 ·
Engine frame

In my last post I highlighted the problem of the hacked-about engine frames and repairing them.

The Engine Frame

This is a picture of the engine frame:



Here is a picture of an E Type with engine frame attached (pilfered from Monocoque Metalworks BTW for acknowledgement):



And with the bonnet attached:



There are several components:

(a) the Bonnet Support Frame - does what it says on the tin
(b) the Picture Frame - joins the side frames and the bonnet support frame but also provides the mount for the radiator and other bits and pieces
(c) LH Engine Side Frame
(d) RH Engine Side Frame

Problems with the current frame

There are two related issues.

The first is simply that the engine frame is a core part of the structure of the E Type, bearing both the weight of engine and ancillaries (including a radiator full of water) and the weight of that enormous bonnet. The authorities would not look kindly on any subtraction from this component. By itself, an adulterated engine frame would probably lose the 5 points which an unaltered chassis/monocoque carries in the substantial modification test.

The second is essentially a vindication of the first. Any weakening of the integrity of this component is fundamentally to compromise safety (and, of course, with an uprated engine, I'm planning to push a lot more torque through the frame). Selfishly, there would be absolutely no point in restoring this car to have it fall apart on me, especially not at speed. But, even if I were prepared to take risks for myself, I could not in all conscience risk my passenger, other drivers or pedestrians, or even cyclists:D.

Why not repair?

The repair of E Type engine sub-frames is generally frowned upon by those with far greater engineering pedigree than me. Indeed, the original Jaguar service manual warns against repair of the engine frames, and replacement is recommended instead.

The frames were fabricated from a metal made by Reynolds that was popular in the Sixties for aeroplane, performance car, and bicycle construction, known as Reynolds 531. (Apart from Jaguar, Lotus brazed all its formula car chassis for a very long time, and I understand Caterham still uses it for the Super Seven.)

Jaguar's approach was to connect the various frame members using furnace brazing. While in normal welding, the adjoining metals are melted and fused together, with additional metal being added by the welding rod, in brazing, the abutting frame members are not heated to their full melting point, instead a brazing rod is used that melts at a high temperature but one that is lower than that of the metals to be joined.

While quality brazing rods have a significant amount of silver or brass in them, in furnace brazing, which suits low volume mass production, the frame members are assembled and held together in a jig. A bit of brazing rod is pre-placed at every joint location and the frames are placed in an oven and heated up to a temperature that allows the brazing material to melt and flow into all the joints. Once done, the oven is then cooled and the frame can be removed and be put to use.

The general consensus is that Jaguar warned against repairing the frames because it was concerned that the heat from the welding process could travel along the frame and melt the existing furnace brazed joints.

Another non-trivial issue is that additional heat of welding the milder steels, such as the Reynolds, will result in a phenomenon called hydrogen-embrittlement, owing to the higher temperatures needed for welding. Brazing uses brass-alloyed (usually silicon-bronze) filler material that has a lower melting point, thus side-stepping the embrittlement problem.

Conclusion

I had a quick conference with Steve and we determined that I'd be buying a replacement, of which more later. Steve will normally want to rise to the challenge of fixing or making something rather than buying in (it is, after all, what he lives to do!), but I could tell that he was extremely hesitant about recommending anything other than full-out replacement on such a critical item. (We had found pinholes in the frames as well, but restoring them was not even considered, given the overall weakening of the structure.)

After some research, I found that the near-universal view in the E Type restoration world was that the frame produced by a firm in Darlington called E Type Fabs was the one to get.

I contacted the main man - Uryk Dmyterko - and explained what I had in mind regarding the supercharged engine. His advice was that the plain vanilla replacement would be more than adequate to the task. I, however, plumped for over-engineering and ordered the E Spec Plus upgraded frame - https://www.etypefabs.com/additional-upgrades. And a thing of beauty it is, too!

On a side note - one of the great things on this little adventure has been coming across people in small businesses dedicated to doing the best job they can with a real passion. I'll mention more as we go along, but it sure beats dealing with the parts counter at Mercedes Colindale:wall:

Next up: June and July 2017 - Blasting and Assessing

Peter
 
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