If you read the blog often enough, you’ll know that I am often headed out from the shop for the day (or longer), only to drag home some of the ugliest E-Types you’ll ever see! I’m usually after these cars for the body shells and bonnet panels, but sometimes we do manage to pick up project cars that can be restored. When that happens, we typically sell them to customers who then have the body shell restored here before taking them home to be completed.
In other cases, however, I’m out there digging up whatever “junk” comes along – and I do mean DIGGING – as I have had to drag several cars literally up out of the ground!
In those cases, I’m just grabbing what’s left to salvage what parts we can, But usually, I have some idiea in the back of my mind how I can combine this with that and maybe get enough together to build up a semi-complete car that can be restored. Well, we finally did that last week…
A gentleman called looking for (what else…) a Series 1 roadster project. I get this call about twice a week – “I’m looking for a complete, numbers-matching, Series 1 4.2 roadster that needs restoration” – OK, well, I don’t have any of those…
But this person and I spoke for a while – he started talking about working in the coachworks of Rolls Royce in the 70’s – which was pretty interesting. Then he said he didn’t really care about matching numbers, he can fix anything, etc. He had just finished a V-12 coupe that had been REALLY creamed in the bonnet, and sent photos of the bonnet that he had pieces together from several center sections – all seamlessly TIG welded, And so I started to think, “Hmmmm, maybe this guy CAN fix anything…”
And so in our next conversation, we devised a plan to combine components from several of the partial E-Type wrecks I have dragged back here over the past couple of years to give him everything he needs to build a Series 1 roadster “clone”.
I call this “the ugly duckling” – but I’m hoping to come back to the blog over the next couple of years to show how she is being turned into a swan. As we started pulling things together into a pile, I became more and more dedicated to the idea of actually pieceing together a buildable E-Type out of all of these parts that until I found them, were destined to rust away into nothing out in the woods somewhere…
Then, when we had her assembled into a steerable roller for transport, all I could see was my own car when it rolled into the driveway when I was 14. E-Types are fabulous, beautiful cars when they are fresh or restored, but the photos at the bottom of this blog are even more beautiful to me. They represent what I saw back then in that mangled up hulk – I don’t know how or why I saw this, but I did – to me, a rusty E-Type roller like this has always represented “a better and brighter future”…
And so I spent alot of time staring at this wreck at the end of the day – remembering how great it felt to own something like this as a kid, and actually envying the new owner of this mess – I wanted to keep it!
It took the better part of a week to disassemble the other donors and pull this all together – Brent and I had alot of bruises and bloody knuckles by the time it was done, and I got hit in the face so hard with an air ratchet that it made the ear on the OTHER side of my head hurt for 2 days… But yesterday afternoon when I dragged Janie out to the shop to view my new “Frankenstein” creation, she was (of course) speechless, but I finally said out loud, “I love this job.”
P.S. There’s more where this came from – call me if you have the guts!
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- This was our starting point – a VERY tired Series 2 roadster shell – but straight and solid where it counts. A couple of years ago, a customer brought this down as payment for the restoration of his Series 2 doors.
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- Next, we removed this engine, trans, subframe, and front suspension from another dead E-Type that had been sitting out in the woods uncovered for 17 years. This car was ROUGH, but we eventually figured out that it only had 17,000 miles on it wqhen it was parked. The bolt heads were all rusted to the point where you could barely get a socket on them, but then once you loosened them they came out easy, and the shank and threads were all gleaming gold cad – what a shame…
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- The inside of the trans looked brand new, but the top surfaces of some gears had rusted due to condensation in the housing over the years – but no water came out when we drained it, so that was good. This gear rust is not great, but it’s really not that big of a deal. The top gears can be pulled out, glass beaded, and then just reassembled and they will be fine – the corrosion is not nearly bad enough to hurt the integrity of any of the teeth.
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- This rear is from yet another donor project car, and the steering rack is from another. The car that provided the drivetrain had power steering, but we built this up with a manual rack instead.
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- Seats are from a Series 1.5 – which I prefer for a Series 1 roadster clone since they have no headrest and are the same basic style as a Series 1 4.2.
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- Frames and bottom pans are EXCELLENT!
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- Gauge package and the rest of the interior is all Series 2. What is being built here is basically a Series 1.5. I feel it is a pretty good combination – Series 1 body, Series 2 guts – and will have the MUCH better Series 2 brake calipers.
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- Doors came from here and there – they are messy, but all we care about are the inner shells and hinges.
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- Included in the package are excellent window channels and glass, etc.
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- Door guts – latches, regulators, etc.
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- First, we brought the shell over from storage and vacuumed out as much of the flaking rust as possible. Then cleaned up the bolt holes and prepped it for receiving the “new” front end.
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- Now we have attached the front end from the other donor, as well as a radiator and a better bonnet carrier bracket. Unfortunately, water DID come out of the engine… I was hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, and that’s what I got. When we pulled the plugs, there was standing water in the #1 cylinder. After some head scratching, I finally got that out with a straw and my mouth. The water was slightly rusty in the bottom and the taste was, well, “bold and earthy…” The we drained about 2 gallons of water out of the pan – although I will say it was CRYSTAL clear – followed by 6 quarts of old oil… The block and pan all loof OK – no freeze damage apparently. So we filled all 6 cylinders with LOTS of mystery oil, then filled the pan with 15 quarts of used Mobil 1 5W30 for now. We discussed all of this with the customer, and decided NOT to try and turn the crank for now – it has to come apart anyway and turning it doesn’t prove anything, but might break something! If the short block on this turns out to be un-rebuildable, we’ll ship out another block, crank and rods… That’s the difference in buying this from us vs. eBay – where you “get what you get” – in this case, we are up front about EVERYTHING – if I can’t make a living doing this honestly, I’ll quit.
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- These Webers were also outside for decades, but they look OK. I used to rebuild Stromberg 97’s as a kid, and these look just like those always did. The customer is taking them on an “approval” basis – he’ll either send them back or send our agreed upon price for them – which I think is a steal…
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- I looked the frame rails over WELL – bizarrely, I think they are actually going to be OK!
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- Aside from a few small luggage rack holes, this boot lid is very good, and is the original from this shell, as are the hinges. Also included is a restored, cad plated latch mechanism and bracket. The car was a combination of what we had – so some things were actually brand new! This tail will be converted to Series 1 using panels made here.
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- I threw in all of mthis sheet metal for free – these were rusted NOS panels, “factory seconds”, etc. – but all useable pieces.
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- Then the customer purchased all of these pieces as well…
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- Out in the light of day, it’s starting to look like something!
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- We have assembled a bonnet from all restorable Series 1 panels. This is another example of where it pays to deal with someone you can trust. All of these panels have issues, but they are all restorable, and we discussed each one with the customer – “OK, which do you prefere on the center section – rust or crash damage?” – etc…
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- This was INSANE! The shell is one car, the front frame assembly is another, the bonnet carrier is another, the bonnet is built of from pieces from over 6 original bonnets. We bolted on some brackets loosely with a few shims, bolted it to the bonnet carrier, and this is how it dropped down – I SWEAR! Breant and I agreed that this was “just not fair…”
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- Components from probably 10 different cars, and here is how they mate up first shot! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you just can’t beat the real stuff! I have spent DAYS trying to get the reproduction bonnets to fit half this good!
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- OK – NOW she’s starting to look like something!
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- Here’s the scary angle, but listen, ALL of this gets replaced on every E-Type we do here anyway!
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- This semi-restored rear looks a little out of place!
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- She’s definitely got possibilities, and this whole rear deck is expensive stuff to buy, so there is alot of value here.
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- Feels just like home already!
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- Like I said, for me, there is more beauty in this than a 100-point show car!
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- This bonnet is going to be GREAT! I actually didn’t realize this stuff was this good! There are issues to be dealt with here for sure – the rust in the edges of this center section is pretty severe, but I know that the new owner has the skills to handle it.
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- Unbelieveable – this ugly duckling is looking better already! It’s funny, I didn’t realize that this car was “here” until I started thinking about it – and the next thing you know, a Series 1 roadster just seemed to “materialize” off the parts shelves! Call me if you’ve got the guts to start from the very bottom – there’s still more stuff here, and it’s really the only way to get a GOOD E-Type where you know EVERYTHING is done right!
