Door panels installed. Top is being fitted. Seats and center console are ready. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sweet. I saw your e-type the other day, when I was visiting Steve to discuss my BRG XK120 FHC that I have with him.
Closer, but will it ever end? Note the lack of seat belts, the radio plate, the lack of an antenna, and the lack of a left side mirror. All just like it left the factory! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
This is my original steering wheel. I honestly don't recognize it. Steve Gordon deserves to be knighted by the British Empire. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I like the fact that you reused the original horn button instead of installing a reproduction! Alan New Jersey
Well, Steve is just about done. Back to the paint shop for color sanding, and finally back to Steve to clean it up and swap the spinners on the wheels. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A few questions for you guys, Is there an online resource similar to F-chat, or the early S registry for E types? What is the reputation of classic showcase? Other shops I should know? (I know that kind of thing can be touchy. Feel free to pm me if that’s more appropriate.) I have basic questions about things like added/upgraded AC, and even things like can I fit in one! Thank you. David
Magnificent! Are you going to show your car before driving, or drive right away? I think that's my car behind yours in the first pic, getting the speedo repaired. I hope to see yours in person again when I pick mine up on Friday.
Thanks! Sadly I don't think I am going to be able to drive it, or see it for that matter. (I live in Europe.) It looks like I am going to have to part with it. I am very happy that I did get it finished the way it should be finished. When I first brought the car in a million years ago Steve told me to sell it and buy a finished one, that it wasn't worth the cost. I said no, this is my car and I need to save it. It had the typical, bad rust issues many of these cars suffer from. It had an older lacquer restoration from the early 80's that looked amazing in '82 but was nothing but chicken feet cracks when I brought it in. However, it was a very original car, in my family since 1982, and it was important for me to finish it to the highest standard and as it was born. No modern modifications to make it "better." I like to think that I succeeded, not with my own hands but with my money and decisions.
^^ Kudos to you for saving the car. Its too bad you won't be able to see it in person or drive it. Pictures don't fully convey how beautiful it is, especially since its not resale red or BRG. Steve's mechanical abilities transformed the performance of my car, so yours probably also drives much better now than when you brought it in. Perhaps you can have Steve or someone show your car before selling it - having some high JCNA scores to validate the work done may enhance the sales price. Good luck with it.
David: As an E-type owner I like to access www.forum.etypeuk.com. Lots of good technical advice there as well as a 'for sale' forum. They also have a section called FACTORY FIT, which shows, in excruciating detail, how your car left the Coventry factory...every nut, screw, hose clamp and bushing. As for E-type restoration shops, I can't say enough good things about Muncie Imports and Classics in Indiana. They often have a dozen E-types in their shop at any one time and they executed a flawless restoration of my '64 OTS...ten years later the car still looks and drives great. Alan N.J.
It's finally done. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
So you can't fly in for a week or so to enjoy the car before you sell it? Wow that is a shame. I just spent 4 days with a whole lot of Jaguars at the Watkin's Glen Vintage festival. I never saw so many E-Types in one place in my life! Jaguar was the featured marque. Sounds like now that it's so beautifully finished this is a terribly bittersweet moment for you. I still have my original 84 Maserati Biturbo and it's been kept in very good condition over all of these years. I'm not crazy enough to ever think about restoring that car though. There are nowhere near the kinds of resources for doing so like there are for an E-Type. It's also not worth very much except in memories for us and drives so nicely. You also started with a much older and far less modern car. Congratulations I think?
Thank you Staatsof. I was determined to finish it the way I intended when I started it. I am happy I was able to accomplish that goal. It really was no expenses spared. At every step I told him just do it right, even after I knew I was probably going to let it go. Nothing was done quick and dirty. I never took invoices, I didn't want to know. I just kept sending money and to this day I am not sure exactly how much I spent. Steve reports that it runs and drives incredibly well, and cool to boot. Absolutely no sign of running hot. I drove it a lot in the 80's and 90's. I had unfettered access to it in high school when I was 17. (My father who bought the car only drove it twice.) I remember coming back from some girls house on Long Island at 3 in the morning and it was raining like a typhoon. I was flying through deep puddles with the 3 wipers flying and then the motor just quit. I just pushed it to the side, locked it which was a joke, walked to the train station and took the train back to the city. I came back the next day and it started right up. I guess whatever got wet dried out. I had it in the Bay Area in the 90's, fun too. I got to enjoy it. I had planned on driving it just as freely here in Europe but life has taken many turns the last umpteen years, including many twists the last two. I hope whoever gets to care for it next appreciates all of the love that has gone into it and enjoys it to the fullest. Coming soon to BaT.
Yeah that's probably what's going to happen with a couple of my cars as well, sans the full restoration.
