The 'E' Type Forum

Nothing to update just yet. The car has been in storage over the winter as I didn't have a workshop ready at home. It's coming home at the end of April. The workshop still isn't ready but I can keep the car under cover and it should be much more motivating to have it here. Something else will have t...

The AI videos are annoying. It is surprising that a company like Google/Youtube can't filter out rubbish like this. Presumably they will eventually filter them out as I can't see how thouse videos would be useful to anyone. I use the three dots and select 'Don't recommend channel' to feed back some ...

The 'Personal Export Scheme' allowed the car to be used in the UK for up to 12 months without paying purchase tax so long as it was exported after that. I guess that helped sell cars to visitors from the US - they could drive the car while they were in the UK or Europe then ship it home when they re...

I think a lot of images on here are hosted on the Imgur platform who have blocked access from the UK. The fix is to install a VPN. A bodge is to edit your .hosts file to tell your computer that imgur.com is hosted locally. That way you only get a little broken link icon so can see Quick Links a litt...

I have learned some of the history. XKE Data have the description and photos from a US auction in 2015: http://www.xkedata.com/cars/detail/?car=889214 The surprise for me is the car was recommissioned in 2015 having been stored from 1977 and has covered 10 miles since then. The photos are a lot nice...

That is useful to know. Thanks. I have service history from 22000 miles in 1967 to 51000 miles in 1976 (5000 miles ago) and it did have antifreeze in that period. Hopefully the later owner continued the tradition and it doesn't look like anything has been apart since it was in Browns Lane. The engin...

Good points - I've added those things. It's therapy not hard work - I like to have a project on the go that I actually want to do. Makes up for the things that I don't necessarily want to do which fund the projects. I looked at engine rebuilders and they seem to offer a fixed price for doing everyth...

Hopefully this image will work. There is plenty to do - I understand the engine doesn't turn freely so will need to come apart, and the car will need a year of recommissioning. It appears to be completely original apart from an exterior respray so I plan to be very sensitive with the aim of preparin...

I had been trying too hard to find an E-Type over the last few years. I looked at several and the one thing I noticed was that in my price range nobody seemed to be all that good at bodywork. I've bought one! A '63 Series 1 3.8 FHC imported from California. It is completely original apart from a res...

I like the early cars too. The MG has no plastic at all (apart from bakelite in the horn button and heater control). I've found it to be very sustainable and I don't worry it won't still be going strong after another 65 years. Renaults are basic enough to be much the same and of course E-types are t...

Hi politeperson, we've chatted on Clementine's Garage. That's quite a collection you have and I didn't realise you had an E-type. Clearly a person of good taste to run a R4.

Buy a good one definitely seems to be the best way forward for E-types. Basket case E-types with no floors left at £40k seem odd. I'm hoping to find a sound useable example. I sold a car a couple of years ago partly because it was too good and I was afraid to take it anywhere so it just sat there de...

Thanks for all the replies - they have helped me to figure out the question. :bigrin: I don't care how much my house is worth as I don't ever expect to sell it, and I imagine I would feel the same about an E-Type. Though at the moment buying one might leave me a little exposed if other things go wro...

Apologies. If you could point me in the direction of the rules that would be most helpful.

I feel there has been a generational change. I should imagine most E-types are still owned by people who bought their first house in their 20s and had enough money to buy a toy a few years later while they were cheap. I managed to buy my first house in my 40s and E-types have become a bit more expen...

I think I need a sanity check. Or maybe encouragement. I've always wanted an E-type because they are pretty and I have focussed on the S1 FHC because they are the most pretty. I have rebuilt a few cars over the years so would look after it on a DIY basis. It has to be a fixed roof version as I have ...

I put some LED headlamps in a different car with notoriously bad headlamps after completely losing sight of the road at night on the A1. I found out a couple of things. Firstly they can be extremely bright. I was a bit spooked so went for bright ones and 70W is far too much even for my feeble projec...

£30K seems less than market value for a promising project but market values are very silly at the moment. I've been struggling to find anything like that near that price. The auctioneers would spray it with dust and sell it for over £50K.

Another vote for the rotor arm. It's a pain to diagnose as by the time you stop and check for spark it's working again. Lucas outsourced manufacturing of the old rotor arms a few years ago and the new ones short out when hot. Buy alternatives from specialists or put the the old one back in.

30 years ago post '80s classic car boom I visited a barn full of cars in Scotland that had been imported from the USA. They had S1 E-type projects for under £10K. Couldn't afford them so I bought an abused MGA roadster rolling shell for £2K and made it into a car. I still have it. It's quite scruffy...