The 'E' Type Forum

Hello everyone,
We finally bought an (almost complete and almost metal free) E type 2+2, 1969, from the US.

Needless to say, it needs lots of work and a non negligeable investment, but that's the only way to get such a car for us (a friend bought it with me). I am a panel beater and Oldtimer enthousiast in Bremen, Germany. Sure I will visit the "basics" section of the forum. I'll post pictures when it arrives. In December 2016.

Besides taking care of the body work, I intent first to get it running and then get a few more PS. My plan is also to get it a bit lower, and kind of achieve a very decent racing look. Might be quite unusual to "tune" a 2+2 or am I mistaken?

Meanwhile, I'll read the forum to kill time.

Cheers
Michel

Michel, welcome to the forum. Lots of useful, friendly advice and information on here.
Your ideas sound interesting. A good read of the restorations projects section will show you some of the things others have done.

I'm sure you'll get warned about lowering the suspension by others more knowledgeable than me, clearance of wheel arches, handling, etc. Certainly getting it up and running in normal condition will be a good start to enjoying your E Type.

Good luck with it and please post those photos when you can (there is info on how to do that on the forum)

Geoff

Welcome Michel,

For the racing look, you have an exemple into the forum.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6087

Mich

Hi Michel.....welcom from another 69 2+2 owner.....all tbe best and enjoy the forum

Hi,

I did some work in Bremen, overhauling an old shopping mall in the town centre recently (Hanseatenhof).

There's another 2+2 restorer nearby, his name is Mathias, to be found on the german forum, 66-EJag is his nick.

Carsten

Hi guys,
so much interest, so quick, wow... I'll keep you posted with pics, and I recon that lowering the suspension might be a bit optimistic. I am reading hungerly the upgrade section right now.

Thanks for all advices.

Michel

Hello,
Our car should be coming from the US about Christmas time, so while we are waiting, I'll give you today all the pics I have. Here you go. Hope it works, I uploaded in amazon as I have an account. And yes, we bought it from Beverly hills car club.

https://www.amazon.de/clouddrive/share/ ... _link_copy

Cheers

Michel.

Lowering it or tuning are, sorry, the least of your worries....

Ich habe noch nie einen von oben so verrosteten Tank gesehen. Rechne 3-5tsd nur für Karrosseriebleche, wenn Du nicht alles selber dengeln kannst - wobei Du ja sagst, dass Du Karrosserieschlosser bist.

Hut ab für den Mut, ich hätte ihn nicht gehabt. Meiner war wesentlich besser, aber das ist 10 Jahre her....und er fährt immer noch nicht.

Carsten

Hi Carsten,
well, the thing is that not much can be hidden on this car. You can buy the same a bit better, and change the sills, tank and bootfloors anyway, and throw away the extra money you just paid for. A bit more worrying in my opinion is the fact that it crashed, the conditions of the crash being unknown. I always say that's only metal. If the body is twisted, however, we enter the nightmare of body repair, with almost no hope of being able to straighten it. I stay optimistic that it is not the case. Time will tell.
I am a bit worried with you spending ten years on your car. Is there something specific that slows down the process, that I should pay attention to?

Anyone with parts should also obviously feel free to contact me. Me wife's a Jordy and we travel with the Ferry towards Newcastle once or twice a year. I am french and travel to South west of France once a year. We live in Germany. Hard to get a better coverage than that.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
Michel

Things which will slow you down on E-Types are:

- children
- divorce, or
- generally women
- running out of cash, restoring an E-Type is like living with a vampire which lives in your pocket
- the landlord may change his mind and build houses where your garage now is
-...

Generally, life gets in the way. Thats it.

In my case, I learned that these cars are quite complex, special washer here, half-cut bolt over there. My car was dead in any place - there were about zero things I could take off and put back in without investing time and money. Example- starter motor. Did rotate but sounded awful, so either

- feed the pocket vampire and buy a new one, whilst deleting the soul of the car slowly,
- let the pocket vampire starve, and restore this item, but this means your wife is at home, alone.

I recommend buying Chris Rooke's book- his took 9 years iirc. He and I both re-shelled our cars, with shells from others who gave up.

Of course I got shipwright's disease and plated every nut and bolt, but still, my car was rotten symmetrically, as any part of it came of in an unusuable condition.

Carsten

P.S. - I do collect Citroens, see my signature. A VERY good book on them generally is Meyer's Reisen, describing the adventures of a few young lads buying voitures anciennes en france dans les annees 71-80, and the things which went horribly wrong on every tour. You cannot stop reading it once started, I have given it away as a present quiet a few times now...

Michel,

welcome to the forum! Answers to almost any question regarding E-Type can be found here. I second getting Chris Rooke's book. It's an honest documentation, showing life can get in the way. I also suggest reading in detail (which can take quite a few months) any restoration blog available. Read the restoration stories posted on this forum. IIRC the average time spent on an E was 7 years, so dig in for the battle. What slowed me down a lot: a.) is my aim of getting my car on the road without a total dismantle. b.) family and house upkeep c.) putting kids in university d.) fettling with all kind details on the car takes ages (e.g. Differential change 3.54 to 3.07, speedo to km etc.). But, I'm in it for the fun, your well advised to do likelwise to keep moral up.

Main objective have fun with your car!

Martin

Hi guys,
Looks like we are creating a german community, .
well I already had the change of landlord, so I guess you can only be unlucky once per item. I'll put the book on my christmas list, thanks for the tip. Kids...hopefully will make the french national team, and play in the premier league.
Now, when to stop changing everything is the question. My friend wanted a new coat of paint on his Tr4. Then his friend told him to check for rust between body and frame, you all know the story that comes after that: Nuts and Bolts restoration. For us kind of not the same story. It is quite a wreck we bought. So getting it naked will be the minimum treatment.
Looking at the motor and frame numbers in the database, it might even be a matching number, I'll order an heritage certificate to make sure. Thid could be an indication that the car was parked as a result of a collision, and badly stored, the rear exposed to weather elements.I keep my fingers crossed that this is what happened and that the car was not too much played with, although it's been repainted once.

Can't wait, can't wait.

Do you guys have threads to your restorations?

Cheers
Michel

Welcome Michel,
Just read your intro and saw the pics of your car, chapeau that you decide to go for this project and wishing you all success.

Thank You Ralph,
The car is slowly approaching. It is in the middle of the Atlantic right now.

Hi Michel,

Could you write which Citroens you have ?

I am a bit curious :-), see my signature for a reason :-)

Carsten

Chris Vine's website covers all sorts of aspects of restoring e-Types in enormous detail, and is very well organised.

www.etype.chrisvine.com/

Hello and thanks for the tips,
The car is in Bremen now, we are just awaiting release from the transporter. We have no finger nails no more. Will it be a complete wrack or doable?

On the other side, I own a 2 CV Charleston 1986, a ID21 F 1972, a ID19 1965, a CX GTI 1978, a CX GTI Turbo 1985. More or less all of them are queueing in the "to do list". Some of them are quite close to road ready (both CX), while the others are going to be preoccupying projects (ID21F and ID19). The Charleston had a broken chassis. I found one and I need now to reassemble it. I retrieved them for a few reasons. The Charleston ist first hand with maintenance book, bi tone grey. The ID21 F is a break (safari), most of them being gone with the rust. The ID19 is the last year of the motor with 3 bearings for the "mainshaft". The CX GTI has the unically superb rare black and white leather interior . The CX GTI Turbo is part of the few built with small bumpers and new tachometer, before the plastic era overtook the world. But presently, we restaure with a friend a Triumph TR4, which should be on the road for the better days, around April. A younger friend also got a Cabrio 205 Roland Garros with nice interior but with a crash, so, I guide him during his repair. Before I drove a Mercedes w123 200te, rust color, a VW scirroco I, BMW 633 and 635 CSI, a BMW 520i shark nose, a 2 CV 1974 and a 2 CV 1959. Moving away a few times got me to sale all of them. I stayed clean for about 10 years as I had no garage. Now I have a barn

Quite busy now though. I guess that I have work for the next 15 years...or a lifetime...or 2 but who hasn't too many projects? I will never have.

Sure is that the Jaguar will top the list since it is our dream to drive such a car. Our goal is to participate to the Hamburg Berlin Klassik in 2018 with my friend if we are picked or to a similar event.

Hopefully I will be able to post next week, meaning the car is in the barn,

Cheers
Michel

...and by the way, my Mercedes left me on the week end, for someone who can take better care of it. It was a daily driver and deserved better. See I am getting ( is that american?) reasonable .

My very first own car was a late 1974 DS 23 Break....still miss it.

I used up a few CXes. Best of them was a 1985 S1 CX TRd turbodiesel I break, in which you could put 2 washing machines and did not notice it.

I know Pete had a CX (IIRC correctly ?).

Compared to the Jag the DS and the SM even more are space ships, but then the E vs SM shows they are 10 years apart. I love both so I got both :-)

Carsten

The SM, another dream car in my opinion. Citroen has just the thing to make different cars.