If you read the blog frequently, you know that the new building has been up for about a year now, and we are STILL not moved in… Some of that is by design – I didn’t want to rush refinishing the interior to try and get in there before Winter, and now that things have warmed up, we’re just too busy!
Meanwhile, a new problem is developing – stuff just keeps accumulating – making moving in a bigger task with every day that passes! I now call it “the world’s most expensive storage building…” The new plan is to get into here sometime this year – it’s this year’s big goal…
When customers come by, they always seem to get a big kick out of all of the panels upstairs, so I thought I’d share some photos with the rest of you guys – especially since I just straightened up a couple of weeks ago. What we really need up here are shelves – I have them all picked out too, but again, we can’t get into all of that before this space is insulated and finished off – AAAGGGHHHH!!!!!
Finally, last week another center section that we acquired was shipped in, and then later that day, I was making arrangements to possibly purchase 2 more bonnets. After I got off the phone, I actually caught myself looking up “hoarder” on Wikipedia – I’m NOT kidding!
I think I’m safe here, though – according to Wikipedia, I’m only a hoarder if I’m the only person who thinks this stuff has value. Luckily, I know at least some of you dig this junk as much as I do – Phew!
P.S. If you see anything that can help your project, give us a ring – there are one or two customer-owned panels in these photos waiting to be worked on, but for the most part, every part in these photos needs to find a home on a road-going E-Type!
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Welcome to “the attic”…
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Frame rails, etc. The black set on the left is a brand new set from E-Type Fabs – man, these guys do FABULOUS work! They are a little pricey I guess once you get them shipped over here, but you REALLY get what you pay for on these – outstanding! The rest of the pieces in this photo are pretty much dead. We need to sort through this (I think we can make up one decent set), and then throw the rest away.
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The door department – this is just the short-wheelbase pile, the long-wheelbase doors for the 2+2’sd and V-12s are downstairs.
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Bonnet valances – lower and inners. The inner valances aren’t a very glorious part, but nice ones are getting harder to find and they are crucial for a good looking bonnet.
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I made some tooling this past Winter for the power hammer that can smooth these later Series headlamp scoops right out – it’s amazing! We can take even the most pretzled scoops and reshape them perfectly – rust is a different story on these, though. It’s funny – we almost NEVER get these in without a million extra holes drilled into them for the mounting rivets, and carefully welding those up is a real pain…
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We are always on the lookout for good original pieces that can be restored. Some of these qualify, some don’t, but we rarely throw anything out. When you call for a restored bonnet to be supplied outright, we start here and choose the best pieces available for your project, then blast them bare and restore them to nearly factory perfect condition, requiring little or no filler.
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This Series 1 center section is the most recent addition, we were supposed to take it in trade for the restoration of a Series 1 lower valance, but that lower valance was just too far gone to make sense to repair, so we ended up just purchasing this panel outright.
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We grab straight roof panels whenever we can – these are for Series 1 coupes, we have some 2+2 roof panels as well. The white one isn’t pretty, but it is straight and that is what counts most. Inside the white roof are two pairs of V-12 inner valances, late model on the left for the bumper shocks, early style on the right without…
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This is just a small portion of the “new” panels in stock – most made by us, some by the other suppliers, some NOS…