It might not be Fall yet where you are, but I felt like I travelled through time into the future last weekend when I headed to northern Michigan to pick up two 3.8 E-Type Coupe projects – because the Fall foliage was in FULL SWING up there!
Things have been as busy as usual around here, and they get busier all the time with new shells to restore coming in as fast as the completed shells move out!
We finally had to stop production for about a week during the first week of October to take a big road trip that has been planned since Spring, when we purchased two 3.8 E-Type Coupe project cars in Northern Michigan. Since then, we have been planning drop-offs in that area, and also found ourselves buying additional E-Type panels and parts that we knew we could pick up along our route – all Summer – and the next thing you know, we had QUITE a bit of stuff to retrieve!.
These are not metalwork photos, but there are some interesting photos here of my October E-Type adventure – Enjoy!
By the way… This is the story of picking up two E-Type project cars/shells that we sourced for customers – and there are more project cars where these came from! We purchase quite a few “parts cars” and abandoned projects to get “core” shells, and end up with more parts and cars than we can handle or store – many with matching numbers and clear titles.
The thing is, I hate parting out E-Types… I’d rather take the components from a couple of these basket cases, and see them put them back together into a properly restored E-Type – kind of like “parting out” in reverse! If you are searching for an E-Type project, give us a ring – we might have what you are looking for!
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- Starting out Thursday AM in northern Maryland at 6:00 AM. This Series 2 bonnet is headed for Bridgman, Michigan, and in the back seat and bed of the truck are some Series 1 bonnet panels headed for Indianapolis that will get dropped off along the way.
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- On the road headed for Baltimore, and things are going well so far, but…
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- I guess 6:00 wasn’t early enough, and I hit MAJOR weekday traffic on the 695 beltway. Hopefully, the rainbow is a good sign of the things to come on this trip!
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- Finally out of the Baltimore rush hour traffic, and over into western Maryland.
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- This flag was HUGE!
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- We’re headed up into this cut that just looks like a gash in the landscape, but the layers were cool!
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- Making progress – this is the bridge across the Ohio River and into Ohio.
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- Towing a trailer means you have to use the “trucks” side of the rest stops. At this stop in Ohio, I pulled up next to this truck that I assume is a giant pump for “fracking” – pumping high pressure water into underground shale deposits to shatter the rock and release natural gas.
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- Here’s the pump – now that’s ALOT of PSI for water!
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- A quick check of the plastic on the Series 1 center section – that was a pain to keep on there – I usually plan my trips on clear days and they are close runs, but for this one I needed the plastic. The large X doesn’t actually do anything and doesn’t touch the panel, but it’;s there for safety – I don’t need to look in the rearview mirror and see this panel flying down the highway!
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- Goodbye to Ohio, and Hello to Indiana!
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- This is a gas stop just East of Indiana, the sun is setting and we’re behind schedule – gotta keep moving!
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- From Sun-up to Sundown, and still moving!
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- I didn’t do a very good job with photos at the first stop – probably because I got there so late – around 8:00 PM on Thursday. The owner is restoring a ’66 coupe and will be able to put the restored center section and fenders we brought out to good use! I did whip out my phone and get a picture of this, though! This is the ONLY un-torn RH inner valance that I have ever seen – IN MY LIFE!
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- She’s JUST starting to crack a little bit down in the corner…
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- The customer and I went out for a nice dinner and talk about E-Types, various car adventures, etc., and I was supposed to check into a local hotel… BUT – to keep me going, I had a large coffee around 7 PM, and I was WIDE awake, so I hit the road again and headed for the next stop in Bridgman to try to get ahead of schedule a bit. I snapped a quick shot of the odometer with my phone on the road when the truck hit 111,111 miles…
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- I got to the next stop pretty early, and the customer and I had some time to kill before his body shop opened up where we needed to drop off the bonnet. So he said, “Let’s take a ride and I’ll show you some stuff around town. You can drive.” – and threw me the keys to his restored ’59 Corvette – his first car! This instrument cluster looks a little different than what I had been staring at all day yesterday!
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- We drove down to the shore of Lake Michigan, and this car ran like a TOP! She started right up, and never missed a beat while she warmed up with the automatic choke – and that was with dual quads! The motor sounded VERY healthy – and you could immediately notice the thumping of the wide duration Duntov cam – with solid lifters!
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- Early Friday morning on Lake Michigan – I LOVE THIS JOB!
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- This photo is a little out of order – I took this when I got up that morning and just before the adventure in the Corvette. I made it all the way to Michigan, and then pulled into another rest stop just across the state line. This was my hotel for the night – I just crashed in the truck… When I woke up, the day was a little overcast, and the trees were starting to show a little color.
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- Next we headed over to “Corvette Central” – one of the top suppliers of the Corvette restoration hobby, which was located just a few miles outside of town. This is the warehouse and shipping department – looks a little different than ours!
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- Customer #2 – Darrell – with his first car, a 1959 dual-quad Corvette, standing outside of the Corvette Central headquarters.
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- This was too cool not to grab a photo of! This is a 1957 Chrysler (I think) airport car. This was used to transport passengers and their luggage out to planes on the runway.
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- That’s just neat! I’ve spent my life around antique cars, and have never seen anything quite like this before!
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- We dropped of the bonnet, which the body man was very happy with, and headed north to the next stop – Canadian Lakes just south of Big Rapids, MI. The truck and trailer were both empty now, and I was headed to visit my aunt and cousins for the evening before the big push on Saturday to go grab the coupes.
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- Here’s another great shot – the picture does not even come close to showing how big this wind turbine blade was – I think it was about 200 feet! And the coolest part was that the tip was so thin, that it was just fluttering all over the place as the truck went down the road!
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- We headed due north all afternoon, and the Fall colors just kept getting more and more bright.
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- We’re off the highway now and headed over to Canadian Lakes. The scenery looked like a cross between Minnesota and Lancaster, Pennsylvania to me. Really beautiful! The sky was overcast, but it was a perfect Fall day – On October 5th!
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- I met up with my aunt and cousins and we went out to dinner in this small town.
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- Here’s a shot of me and my two cousins at a local Pub – it was a nice break from the road.
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- Saturday morning – after a good night’s sleep, I was back on the road before dawn, and caught this quick photo of the sunrise over a farm before the sun dipped behind the clouds. The weather looked really dicey for the pick-up of the coupes.
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- After a couple hours, we were REALLY into the Fall color – WOW!
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- Light rain kept coming and going the whole way up, and soon created this rainbow.
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- We don’t get color like this here in Maryland. It’s just nowhere near as brilliant, and the landscape is different – you don’t have as many wide open spaces, and I guess the mix of mostly hardwoods is a Michigan thing too. The camera just doesn’t show what it was like in person – fabulous!
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- We finally made it! And as soon as I pulled up, the rain started coming down heavy and steady… The shell on the cart to the left is a ’62, and the semi-complete car on the right is a ’64. Well, I guess it’s time to get wet, because these need to get loaded up and there’s alot of work to do!
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- Four and a half hours later, and the previous owner posed for this parting shot with his cars – and an E-Type dream unfulfilled due to life’s other twists and turns… One thing I did promise him was that I would find both of these shells a good home where they would be restored – and over the Summer, I did! The ’62 shell in the truck is being restored in our shop, with our internal subframe, but without an external skin. It will then be shipped to New Zealand, where it will be skinned in aluminum as a perfect replica of the original “Low Drag Coupe”! The ’64 on the trailer will undergo complete restoration in our shop next year, and will emerge as a high-performance, lightweight driver, with a carbon-fiber and aluminum bonnet from our molds!
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- And here’s me – ready to hit the road and head back down to my aunt’s house – who sure did live in a convenient location for this trip! Her house three hours away turned this pick-up into a manageable day trip. And of course, now that all the work is done, it’s dry and sunny!
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- A few miles down the road, I pulled over to check things over. The tongue weight was heavy, but manageable. Check out those colors!
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- Headed down the road, and it’s back to a bright, sunny day!
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- I had that truck packed FULL of cars and parts, and there was still more stuff to be picked up at other stops – LOTS more!
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- Another check of my load in Northern Michigan, and the wet weather is coming back…
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- I finally made it back to my aunt’s house safely – with the rainbows continuing to show the way! Weird – maybe these E-Types are the “pot of gold” it was leading me to!
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- I slept in on Sunday and enjoyed a big family breakfast in the morning before finally hitting the road around 10:45. Next, it’s down and over to Toledo, OH to pick up a wrecked Series 2 bonnet.
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- The gentleman I purchased this bonnet from was mostly looking to see these panels get some use rather than be scrapped, and we can make that happen! He grabbed this center section and carried it out to the truck faster than I could grab the camera! This is a solid piece – NO rust, and the damage is virgin – no-one else has beaten it up worse than the wreck itself. We should be able to snooth this right out as good as new!
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- All of these panels were included as well – some use-able, some not, but ALL of it went into the truck, and we were on our way again – next stop, Akron, Ohio!
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- It’s evening again now on Sunday, and we’re pulled up in front of a small panel shop in Akron. We purchased a really nice Series 2 RH wing frome these guys earlier this year, and rather than risk shipping damage, decided to grab it on this trip.
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- We scour the country for this stuff, and this panel took us into the very back of this building. You’ve got to search high and low for good original panels, and we do!
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- The next stop was also in Akron, where we grabbed a rebuilt 4.2 short black from a Series 2 2+2 that this gentleman had left over from this project – an XJS HE convertible…
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- …with a few personalized touches…
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- …and an E-Type engine sporting Weber DCOE carbs!
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- The owner of this project was a real tinkerer, and a mechanical genius – this is a working JET ENGINE that he built from an old turbocharger!
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- After grabbing the 4.2 short black late Sunday night, I was tired, but I was ready to get this trip over with and see my familiy again. So I took a catnap for about an hour in the truck, grabbed another large coffee, and hit the road! Here is the sun coming up Monday morning on the Pennsylvanie Turnpike.
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- Looking South out the passenger window of the truck over the Susquehanna just outside Harrisburg, PA. The nuclear plant in the distance is the infamour Three Mile Island.
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- Home Sweet Home!
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- I arrived back at the shop on Monday, October 8th, at 10:15 AM – with a BIG load of E-Type parts!
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- Parts and panels were squeezed in anywhere I could find room!
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- Here’s the 4.2 short block from Akron – sticking it right on the tail of the trailer behind the ’64 coupe solved the tongue weight issue!
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- And believe it or not, I found these gloves belonging to the engine’s previous owner right here where he left them on the tailgate of the truck. They stayed right here all the way from Akron – 600 highway miles!
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- I told you there were alot of parts and panels stuffed in there – this is just SOME of it! Everything in this photo is going into our supply of good restorable original panels, so if you need some straight and solid bonnet pieces for YOUR E-Type, give us a ring!
