New Paint for an Old Friend!

Just before Christmas, I had the opportunity to visit my customers and friends, Alan and Maragaret.  I stopped in one Sunday afternoon during the holiday season to see their freshly painted ’62 E-Type FHC – whose body shell was restored here a couple of years ago.

This was a very satisfying trip for me.  It was just about exactly 4 years ago that I drove up to their place to meet them one evening and discuss the restoration of their E-Type.  Alan had recently restored an MGB to very high standards, and had also recently purchased the E-Type to restore – his dream car (which, ironically, is almost the same scenario as the new customer I just sold the ’66 FHC to – AND they are both British guys transplanted in the US!).

Alan and Margaret were great to meet!  They own their own machine shop just outside of New Hope, PA, which is kind of a touristy little town along the Delaware river.  Driving up to their house was an exciting trip on a cold evening in late November, and I can still remember the Christmas lights and decorations driving through New Hope that evening!  As I recall, I stopped to get a cup of coffee just before their house – undoubtedly unleashing the FULL Chuck experience on them…

That night, Alan showed me the early FHC with a VERY rusty lower body shell.  He then went on to tell me that no less than THREE other restoration shop owners had been over to see the car, and had pronounced it a “parts car”…

These were the early days of Monocoque Metalworks, and at the time, it was about the roughest E-Type I would undertake yet…  But I didn’t get into all of that, and just confidently said, “I can fix it – NO problem…”

Flash forward many years, and I’m now good friends with Alan and Margaret, and I’m headed up once again on a late afternoon during the holidays, past the same decorated streets and shops, stopping at the same place for the same cup of coffee.  We had hot meal with warm company at the same table, and then went out to see the same E-Type in the same little building outside their home…

Only this time, thanks to a little “over-optimism” – and ALOT of hard work, the car is now painted in its original British Racing Green, and well on it’s way to a VERY high-level restoration!  I felt like a proud parent of this important E-Type that we had worked together to save.

Yes – I did say, “Important E-Type”…  Well after the body shell restoration was underway, Alan made a few “strange discoveries” among the parts and pieces of the car, and after researching things a little further, it turns out that the car has a rare history, and had passed through the hands of one of the biggest names in E-Type history!  More on that later, but let’s suffice to say that this one was WELL worth the effort!

Parts Car…  Not on MY watch, baby!