A Mostly British Obsession
It only took 15 years, but it did eventually get restored.
This was a lot more “exciting” than I had hoped, or anticipated. The car was painted with the framework in place, though that’s not how early cars were painted–a decision we arrived at as the bonnet was shimmed and fit nicely. Plan was, I would later removed the temporary frame bolts one at a time, replace them with the refinished bolts, and no one would be the wiser. Ah, had it been so easy.
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Most of my fasteners have been re-plated–I’ve now finished the tedium of sorting the various items back into their proper place. Above and below are photos of that process. I took (bad) digital photos of each baggie’s contents back in 2002, before dumping the stuff into one big box for the platers. This turns out to have been barely enough information, and I should have recorded much more. Continue reading
I’ve been blasting and painting those parts I didn’t prepare a decade ago, and sending off large orders to the various specialists, while I wait for the fasteners to come back from the platers. Above you can see my replica of the crayon body-number scrawled onto the body when the car was new. It’s pretty close to the original in appearance; I may have finally found my calling.
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In an effort to get ready to bolt a few things back onto the car, my friend Paul came by and helped me move the bonnet from the E to a cart I made for the purpose. I always forget how relatively heavy the E-Type bonnet is…even without lights and bumpers it’s probably closer to 200 pounds than 100 pounds, and you don’t want to damage it or the car. (Edited to add another photo.)
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After more than 10 years, the E-Type is back in my possession. Charlie, of Classic Car Couriers, brought it up on his flatbed. The alley leading away from Britsport is even worse than the photo shows. Took about five years off my life watching the truck fall into every pothole on the way out!
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Mark Jones of Britsport just sent me a few photos of what happened in the paint booth today. Car will sit for a couple of weeks in the booth, and then it shows up here for the big mechanical pieces to go in, and then back for color sanding and polishing before exterior trim and interior.
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The E-Type is about to be painted! It’s in the booth and is having a final wet-sand before being sprayed next week.
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Mark Jones of Britsport of Seattle is almost ready to paint the E-Type and sent me these photos today. I’m going to drop by the shop to peek at it on Friday. Very exciting. I guess I should get the rest of my parts out of storage!
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John at Autosport Seattle hosted a “tech session” for the local Jaguar club today, featuring the tear-down and examination of an XK engine. The engine chosen was the one from the infamous Rusty Heaps “imaginary car.” So this counts as, gasp, some progress on the E-Type restoration!
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Visited Mark at Britsport today, and got a chance to see my E-Type again. Not much has changed (we’re waiting to paint it until I have a shop to reassemble the car), but by coincidence, a later car painted the same color that mine was (and will be again) was parked next to it, and I grabbed a snap.
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