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!

That said, we made it, and the car looks fantastic. It has not been color-sanded yet, so there is still a bit of orange peel and dust motes, but Mark did sand and polish the top of the scuttle so I can install the wipers and other bulkhead gubbons.

I’ve put the original dataplate back in…you can see it was very casually placed when it was new. I suspect it was either Friday afternoon after a liquid lunch–or Monday a morning after a hard weekend–for the plate guy.

The MGB is now living with the truck on the other side of the shop. The bikes will be moving over there as well, but I need to do some organizing. As usual.

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.

Of course, I have none of those mechanical bits ready to go in yet. I need a windfall–and my mother was just mentioning the accidental death insurance she carries…hmm. I like her, though; I should probably stick to trying to raise money honestly. Anyone for a mortgage derivative?

Progress is glacial, but it does eventually happen. (Of course, glaciers are in retreat all over the world so perhaps that’s a more apt analogy than I want!)

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.

I have to say this car has some of the nicest bodywork I’ve seen on an E-Type. Mark and company spent a lot of time and effort getting the gaps just so. The fit and finish is superior to the factory–not too hard on these early cars!

One non-original thing: we will be color painting the car with the engine frames in place. Early cars like this were likely painted first and then assembled, but it would be madness at this point to disturb the careful bonnet alignment.

Doors, cockpit, and bootlid have already had color applied to the “hidden” sides.

Mark had an opalescent silver grey car in the shop whose color I liked, so we used that color for this car.

Hardtop will be painted to match the body; I suppose on an early car it should be black but this car predates the hardtop in any case, and the cars look really sleek with the top painted to match.

Be very exciting to have the car back here. Too bad the restoration fund needs replenishing!

I also discovered a broken ground wire on the inner headlight on the driver’s side, which is now working again. Between the 7″ lights and the halogen bulbs, night vision should be quite a bit better.

Here’s the inside of the shop, as you can see I haven’t done a whole lot with the organization of the space. (You can click for a larger image.)

I hope to build in some cabinets and what-not this winter, mainly on the wall where I have a couple of ancient Ferrari posters tacked up (I found a stash from ages ago…anyone for a 1980′s Testarossa poster? I managed to put that one back in the tube). I did get casters onto the metal work tables, they’re now handy for moving close to the action or allowing access to all sides of an unwieldy project.

On the table closest on the left is a pile of junk awaiting sorting and placing into the other side of the building. Right below the posters are the camshafts from the XJ6–I’m doing a valve adjustment, and am awaiting new cam bearings and shims. In the corner beyond that is an ancient file cabinet with my shop computer on top and my elderly stereo above it. I finally have a sink for the bathroom, and hope to work on that a bit tomorrow (keep calm and all that).

Beyond my trusty Delta drill press (I think it’s circa 1956) is my toolbox; I hope to move to a couple under-bench units when I build a new bench along that wall, in about the same place and scale as this one, but secured to the wall, and wrapping around the corner towards the press. The white MGB is serving as a shelf for the dash top and a few other components of the XJ6–one of the windshield wiper wheel boxes stripped out, and I’m awaiting some new used ones. I figure after almost 40 years in Washington, that’s fair enough.

I also have the rear mufflers off the XJ6; I bought new tips, the proper curvy variety as opposed to the straight ones which this car has now. Imagine my (lack of) surprise when I pulled off a couple of standard American mufflers which had been creatively made to fit, and which will definitely not take the new tips. So I’m trying to figure what to do about that, too.

The bikes are pretty much in for the winter. I need to do a fluids change on the Triumph–oil, coolant, and bleed the brakes. Bike will be ten years old this coming year and while it hasn’t had many miles put on (just a little over 3,000 now), the oil has only been changed a couple of times and the other fluids have never been touched.

To the right is the parts washer, the blasting cabinet is beyond that, and the shelves holding the miscellaneous small bits of the E-Type. ETA on that machine returning is still a bit murky.

Looking forward to getting the cabinetry underway. Along the back wall will be largish upper cabinets, with a nuts-and-bolts organization under a 18″ deep bench. This bench will mainly be used for staging parts and stashing those small projects awaiting time, money or bits–thus allowing the main bench (by the tools) to be kept clear for actual work. The tables can be wheeled out if more space is needed (they will live on the storage side when not in use). I was originally going to build a paint booth along this back wall, in the corner you can’t see, to the left. It would be about five feet wide with an open front, but a closed ceiling and a exhaust fan utilizing the old stove chimney. This would be for spraying small parts, and I still think it’s a good idea. I need to investigate fans and theory before committing to it, though.

The short wall right by the red toolbox, is, I think, destined to be the “sit down bench”, connected with the main bench along the gable. I will have upper cabinets only on this short wall, I’m not going to put cabinets on the gable wall. This sit-down station will be the place for manuals, computer, and other reference pieces, and I’ll probably come up with a “fluids” rack for the current can of brake cleaner, penetrating oil, etc, as well as gloves and shop towels. This “short wall” bench will only be about three feet wide; the wall is five, but the bench along the gable wall will be 24″ deep. 5′ of upper cabinets, though, is just about the perfect size to hold all the stuff I mentioned, and 3′ is fine for stashing a couple of low bar stools underneath a short bench.

Anyway, given my glacial progress, I’ll probably have the valve job done by the spring, and the rest will still be in the planning stage.

Took a few photos of the XJ6 after giving all of the cars baths today. My 7″ headlamp conversion pieces are on the way, so this may be the last set of photos with the standard US lights. Some additional, very similar, photos after the jump.

It only took slightly longer than painting the Forth Bridge, but I have the new headliner installed in the Jaguar. I also rebuilt the headrests and re-glued the fabric on the back of the front seats. I think it all looks fine though, as with most things I do, doesn’t bear too close an inspection.

This is where we started from…

…and this is where we ended up. It’s not a terrible effort, though it’s definitely not concours or even particularly competent. I learned a fair amount, though, and would do it again. This is a task that would benefit from a spare set of hands–and I think only through doing a few would you get a feel for how to pull fabric and cut darts for a really smooth finish. I also think there must be a black art to re-installing foam-covered panels which need a good thump to seat without denting the fabric in a permanent way.

I’ll try to do a more detailed write-up in a future post.

Finally got to drive the car again, after all that interior work (plus the exhaust and coolant overflow fixes). I definitely have a vibration under hard acceleration and going around bends, which probably means one, some or all of the six driveline u-joints need replacing. Funny thing–I did not notice this vibration before I started fixing stuff, so maybe I’ve introduced a new gremlin. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Warning: Unless you like mechanical stuff, this will be the most boring post ever.

Fixing the two manifolds took me about three hours of leisurely work. (I had abdominal surgery last Tuesday, so I’m not working at demon speed–not that you can tell the difference!) Removing the manifolds from the car took about an hour and a half, and the repair took the remaining time.

Ideally, the lengths of the coarse and the fine threads on these would be reversed (as otherwise these are the right length), but that particular type of stud cannot be found on-the-shelf around here (the coarse side is always short, the fine side always long). I’ll see if I can find some slightly longer studs without increasing the amount of unthreaded shaft, which was the problem that led to the leaking exhaust. Worst-case scenario is having to run the appropriate die down new, longer studs to reduce the length of the unthreaded bit.

And that’s it. Don’t forget to use brass nuts when assembling the down pipes to the manifold, otherwise, you’ll never, ever, get this joint apart again.

This task, incidentally, would have been a nightmare to do on the car. It’s always tempting to see if you can leave something assembled and in-place, but I’d still be out there if I had done so, probably without any tools left within reach to throw angrily!

I have wanted an early “low bumper” XJ6 for a long time, and this car caught my eye on the local CL. Despite having had two owners in the last six months, both quite young, it was a one-owner car before that. Even in the crappy photos it looked pretty original. I like original!

It has just 75,000 miles on it and drives nicely. The interior has a nice, lived-in-but-cared-for patina. Headliner aside, it largely intact and in good condition. And that’s a genuine BL radio, which still works, as does the clock!

Mechanically it needs:

• A new coolant overflow tank, this one has corroded under its upper lip and no longer holds pressure.
• The front brake rotors are clearly warped.
• One of the exhaust donuts is blowing–I hate doing exhaust work, but it should be straightforward.
• I drove the car home on the left fuel tank, and made it 60 miles before the car quit with what felt like a fuel delivery problem. Switched to the right tank and made it the rest of the way without incident. I’m guessing it’s either the fuel pump for the left tank (I think they still had separate pumps for this model year) or…? Will have to poke around and find out.
• The A/C system is present and nothing seems seized, but it needs a charge. Not sure if that can be done without retrofitting some pieces as the new refrigerant available today doesn’t like old systems, or vice versa, from what I understand.
• The passenger front door glass isn’t going up and down, that should be easy enough to sort out.

Cosmetically, the paint is tired but serviceable (the photos flatter it a lot). There is a horizontal ding just above the grille that’s annoying, but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing about it at this point. The interior definitely needs a new headliner, this one is thumb-tacked into place where it’s not flapping around. As a bonus, the Jaguar Patented Crumbling Headrests (as seen on every S2 and S3 E-Type) are in present in this car. I hope these can be fixed without too much pain.

In any case, I’m pleased with the car. I poked around it a bit tonight and I cannot find any rust, which is something of a miracle, seeing as I’m not much older than the car and you can practically see me fall apart minute-by minute.