#1 Off the Road for 25 Years, On the road in 8 weeks
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 2:43 pm
Afternoon, My name is James from Lincolnshire.
This is my car that I brought 3 months ago.
It is a fairly early S2 4.2 FHC manual Opalescent Silver Grey with red leather. It covered 73,000 miles from new with USA history.
It had been in storage on the West Coast of America since the 1990s, the previous long term owner being a doctor.
A dealer landed it in the UK in April 2016, I bought it from him sight unseen, on the basis it was a running, rust free project car with matching numbers and in its original colour scheme inside and out. After paying the money, it arrived at our place 2 days later.
3 months ago I knew nothing much about e types. How things have changed.
An inspection on the ramps revealed sound condition, with no repairs or rust anywhere to be seen. A pretty good start. All the correct spot welds in attendance. An unmolested car.
My time during the day is occupied by real work and a young family, so I had evenings and weekend to get it done.
My mobile dent man car around and took out various little parking dinks. We also removed the bonnet lower air intake panel to gain access to the lower valance, that had a bow in it which has now gone. I understand these cross headed screws rarely come undone with a screwdriver, well they did this time. This was fairly representative of the ease with which everything came off the Jag. No corroded bolts anywhere. Maybe this is one of the main reasons why it is now back on the road so soon.
Here is a picture as the car arrived. You note the USA running lights, LHD, Chrome Wheels, mismatched door cards, wipers parked LHD side.
The IRS was a bit grubby but had no corrosion and had the original factory finishes, Glyptol and Black with Cadmium and zinc plate. It Cleaned up perfectly.
I decided I wanted a RHD car and I also wanted a car I could drive somewhere without having to worry to much about being left by the side of the road.
A compression test of the engine was good, so my plan was to buy all the perishable bits, retain as much of the original stuff as possible, replace where necessary and leave the paint until winter.
A brief summary of what I completed includes dropping the IRS to replace diff seals, shocks, springs, bushes, callipers, discs, new yellow nuts and bolts, braided brake lines.
LHD to RHD conversion including new masters, slaves, throttle assembly, pedal, seals grommets, refinishing the bulkhead, alterations to the pluming, steering rack, ball joints, front shocks, springs, engine mounts.
A mobile local auto electrician spent 3 days shortening the loom from one side of the dash to the other. He also rewired/ refurbed the cooling fans and heater motor fan.
I fitted new dash thirds, re-skinned then in vinyl, refitted the clocks, glove box, new dash top. The choke and heater mechanisms were fiddly to reinstall.
On the engine, I rebuilt the carbs (they were leaking), did the valve clearances, replaced the cam oil feed, fitted hi-torque starter (excellent), 123-tune dizzy (nice), new heat shield (lovely) re-cored the original radiator, fitted a new otter switch, new hoses, water pump, new Cheney clips and removed the balast resistor.
Under the engine bay I also replaced the voltage regulator, did the mudguard rubbers, re-secured the bulkhead heater pipes, relocated the fluid reservoirs with new brackets, refurbished the crusty heater box with new heat exchanger, paint and seals. All the ties are the correct period ones. I replaced the air filter box, intake and breather pipes. This meant buying two new mounting brackets.
I replaced the exhaust for a stainless item, accurately fitting it required the use of a proper 2 post ramp for access.
Inside I replaced the door cards, relined the sills with new vinyl and chrome strips, fitted new carpets and re-coloured and replaced various panels. A couple of dash warning lights needed replacing too (expensive). The reverse switch and handbrake warning switch were replaced. The seat bolts are cross headed screws that came undone easily, luckily.
I changed the wiper position from LHD to RHD in about 15 minutes by altering the position of the motor arm. New wiper arms fitted with new blades.
I didn't fancy running around on 50 year old wires so I purchased a set of new silver 6J wheels with period looking Michelin XVX tyres to fill out the wheel arches and try to give me as large a rolling radius as possible to combat the 3.51 gearing in the LSD ( as it happens the gearing is fine). I replaced the federals with twin ears at the same time.
New brakes/callipers all round. Yellow Cadmium looking nuts and bolts all round too.
At the rear I fitted Lotus lights, chopped down the US number plate holder and fitted a rectangular plate to clean the back up a bit.
I completed the work 3 weeks ago and now have 1,000 miles of the car. It seems very good so far.
I quite like the "mat" finish, but I suspect I shall go to town on the paint over the winter.
The most important thing for me to do though is rust prevention.
I shall be cavity injecting everything shortly with odourless wax-oyle. Its the rust that comes from the inside that kills these cars, not the rust that starts from the outside.
Driving wise, the car is everything I hoped she would be. Great engine, good brakes. Good handling. Pretty fast. Really special.
This one is a keeper. I am looking forward to meeting more owners.
James
This is my car that I brought 3 months ago.
It is a fairly early S2 4.2 FHC manual Opalescent Silver Grey with red leather. It covered 73,000 miles from new with USA history.
It had been in storage on the West Coast of America since the 1990s, the previous long term owner being a doctor.
A dealer landed it in the UK in April 2016, I bought it from him sight unseen, on the basis it was a running, rust free project car with matching numbers and in its original colour scheme inside and out. After paying the money, it arrived at our place 2 days later.
3 months ago I knew nothing much about e types. How things have changed.
An inspection on the ramps revealed sound condition, with no repairs or rust anywhere to be seen. A pretty good start. All the correct spot welds in attendance. An unmolested car.
My time during the day is occupied by real work and a young family, so I had evenings and weekend to get it done.
My mobile dent man car around and took out various little parking dinks. We also removed the bonnet lower air intake panel to gain access to the lower valance, that had a bow in it which has now gone. I understand these cross headed screws rarely come undone with a screwdriver, well they did this time. This was fairly representative of the ease with which everything came off the Jag. No corroded bolts anywhere. Maybe this is one of the main reasons why it is now back on the road so soon.
Here is a picture as the car arrived. You note the USA running lights, LHD, Chrome Wheels, mismatched door cards, wipers parked LHD side.
The IRS was a bit grubby but had no corrosion and had the original factory finishes, Glyptol and Black with Cadmium and zinc plate. It Cleaned up perfectly.
I decided I wanted a RHD car and I also wanted a car I could drive somewhere without having to worry to much about being left by the side of the road.
A compression test of the engine was good, so my plan was to buy all the perishable bits, retain as much of the original stuff as possible, replace where necessary and leave the paint until winter.
A brief summary of what I completed includes dropping the IRS to replace diff seals, shocks, springs, bushes, callipers, discs, new yellow nuts and bolts, braided brake lines.
LHD to RHD conversion including new masters, slaves, throttle assembly, pedal, seals grommets, refinishing the bulkhead, alterations to the pluming, steering rack, ball joints, front shocks, springs, engine mounts.
A mobile local auto electrician spent 3 days shortening the loom from one side of the dash to the other. He also rewired/ refurbed the cooling fans and heater motor fan.
I fitted new dash thirds, re-skinned then in vinyl, refitted the clocks, glove box, new dash top. The choke and heater mechanisms were fiddly to reinstall.
On the engine, I rebuilt the carbs (they were leaking), did the valve clearances, replaced the cam oil feed, fitted hi-torque starter (excellent), 123-tune dizzy (nice), new heat shield (lovely) re-cored the original radiator, fitted a new otter switch, new hoses, water pump, new Cheney clips and removed the balast resistor.
Under the engine bay I also replaced the voltage regulator, did the mudguard rubbers, re-secured the bulkhead heater pipes, relocated the fluid reservoirs with new brackets, refurbished the crusty heater box with new heat exchanger, paint and seals. All the ties are the correct period ones. I replaced the air filter box, intake and breather pipes. This meant buying two new mounting brackets.
I replaced the exhaust for a stainless item, accurately fitting it required the use of a proper 2 post ramp for access.
Inside I replaced the door cards, relined the sills with new vinyl and chrome strips, fitted new carpets and re-coloured and replaced various panels. A couple of dash warning lights needed replacing too (expensive). The reverse switch and handbrake warning switch were replaced. The seat bolts are cross headed screws that came undone easily, luckily.
I changed the wiper position from LHD to RHD in about 15 minutes by altering the position of the motor arm. New wiper arms fitted with new blades.
I didn't fancy running around on 50 year old wires so I purchased a set of new silver 6J wheels with period looking Michelin XVX tyres to fill out the wheel arches and try to give me as large a rolling radius as possible to combat the 3.51 gearing in the LSD ( as it happens the gearing is fine). I replaced the federals with twin ears at the same time.
New brakes/callipers all round. Yellow Cadmium looking nuts and bolts all round too.
At the rear I fitted Lotus lights, chopped down the US number plate holder and fitted a rectangular plate to clean the back up a bit.
I completed the work 3 weeks ago and now have 1,000 miles of the car. It seems very good so far.
I quite like the "mat" finish, but I suspect I shall go to town on the paint over the winter.
The most important thing for me to do though is rust prevention.
I shall be cavity injecting everything shortly with odourless wax-oyle. Its the rust that comes from the inside that kills these cars, not the rust that starts from the outside.
Driving wise, the car is everything I hoped she would be. Great engine, good brakes. Good handling. Pretty fast. Really special.
This one is a keeper. I am looking forward to meeting more owners.
James