Introductions.....

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Thu May 15, 2008 9:40 am

Hello everyone,
I guess my wife finally believes in the male mid-life crisis - having been through the big bike stage with a Ducati 998 and track days, I've now decided the time has come to fulfil a long term ambition and move on from the 1/18th scale e-type S1 roadster which has sat on my toy shelf for years and get the real thing!

Am I the only one who reads the various books and online resources and concludes that the worst part is finding your car - so many horror stories and lurid warnings of hidden rust! Who to trust and where to buy? I can only hope that reading the boards and listenming to others who've been down the road already will help to avoid the rocks.

I'm looking forward to interacting with the community.

Best regards to you all....

MarkE · Post by **MarkE** » Thu May 15, 2008 10:38 am

Ah, the old mid-life crisis. I must be on my 3rd or 4th by now, but also my 8th or 9th childhood. Welcome.

My big bike era was followed by a TVR Griff 500, but after 2 years and 11 points on the licence, it had to go. Nothing to do with self control, you understand.

Buying any 35 to 50 year old car is a huge minefield, and you must know what you?re looking for, and looking at. The E Type is at least a fairly straightforward car to appraise, and restore.

I looked at many before I made up my mind what to aim for and indeed, what model to buy. If you don?t know what you?re looking at, the first shinny red E Type you see in your price range will have you reaching for your cheque book, such is the appeal of the looks. The cars I saw in my (low) price range included some absolute horrors?poorly restored with a flash paint job, they all needed doing again properly, or restoration cars that were really only fit for parts.

At the other end of the spectrum are the perfectly restored specimens with eye watering price tags.

I chose something in the middle, which was totally rustfree, but needed everything else doing to it. And that was such a good experience (after restoring a very rusty Healey 3000) that I bought another 2 E Types from the same source. I?ve since sold one of those (needing full restoration) to a chap in Kidderminster, and after 8 months, he?s nearly finished it.

Do you know what sort of car you?re after? S1 / S2 / S3, Convertible / Coupe / 2+2? You?re very welcome to come have a look at my cars and I can talk you through what to look for. They are a S1 Coupe and a S3 convertible. I?m just down the road near Gloucester.

Mark

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:11 am

Thanks for the welcome, Mark, and since you ask; I'm after a roadster, ideally series 1 because I prefer the closed headlamps and the S1 rear end.

I'm reluctant to buy a car which doesn't need any work. Its not so much a budget thing, more that this is a hobby for me - I love working on things mechanical when the weather is poor or the wife is mowing the lawn.........

I'm pretty handy mechanically - I've stripped and rebuilt Porsche 911 engines and gearboxes, and done most things mechanical and I'm lucky enough to have a large garage and a wide range of tools.....BUT dealing with rusty bodywork is not my idea of fun, to be honest (so what am I doing buying an e-type, I hear folk ask?). What I really want is a perfect bodyshell with knackered mechanicals which I can sort out - but somehow I suspect this may be the hardest thing to find.

Thanks for the offer to show me your cars - I may just take you up on that.

andyp · Post by **andyp** » Fri May 16, 2008 12:19 am

Even if you buy a car that needs "nothing doing" you'll find plenty to keep you busy and that "good body with tired mechanicals" is called a new shell to go with the car you thought was sound.

Mark is not far from you so I'd take up the offer to go and a look at some cars that are not for sale. That will give you a chance to look around an E properly without being tempted to buy.

My advice is to find either a car that has not been touched or one that has been properly restored by somebody with a track record of putting Es together.

The only problems you are likely to run into mechanically are that you can't remove the engine on a trolly jack any more and that all those lovely metric spanners you have will no longer fit anything (OK the 11mm makes a pretty good 7/16"). I'm not sure that this metric stuff is going to catch on anyway.

Andy

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Fri May 16, 2008 7:58 am

Appreciate the advice, Andy.

My (big) trolley jack could still be handy for the rear suspension, though.....fortunately (is that the right word?) past ownership of some of British Leyland's finest 1970s efforts have left the imperial section of the tool chest in reasonable shape - and anyway an excuse to buy more tools is always welcome.

By the way, I'm curious - what is a MOD conversion? I'm sure the answer will be blindingly obvious and everyone can have a good chuckle at my ignorance!

Cheers
John

MarkE · Post by **MarkE** » Fri May 16, 2008 8:34 am

Do you remember the scooters that used to turn up at Brighton festooned with mirrors?.or the movie Quadrophenia? They had the MOD conversion. Yep, pretty sure that?s it. An E Type with about 20 mirrors on each door.

It could be manual overdrive but, no, more likely to be the mirrors on an E. :D :D

Mark

andyp · Post by **andyp** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:40 am

Thanks Mark [he says while carefully hanging his Parker]

John

The MOD is as in Manual Overdrive. I've fitted the gearbox from an XJ6 so I have a nice high cruising gear in overdrive top (2200 rpm at 70mph). It can only be done with the 2+2 cars as you need the extra 9inches for the OD unit.

Andy

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Fri May 16, 2008 10:07 am

Nice mod, Andy - I did something similar many years ago by putting an OD box from a Spitfire into a 4-speed TR7 I owned (along with a Dolly Sprint engine). Misguided youth that I was..........

John

Erikantwerp · Post by **Erikantwerp** » Fri May 16, 2008 11:24 am

Hi John,

a warm welcome too to this forum. You definitly came to the right place. I am the proud owner of a FHC series one 4.2 and have never regretted ever since.

Good luck with your car hunting.

Bye the way, a few of us are getting together (with quite a Uk contingent including Harry) in my home town just north of Antwerp during the weekend of June 14 to June 15th.(more info to follow on this forum). If you are inetrested in joining and looking at some models "live" (all series are pretty much represented) as well as talking to other enthusiasts about possible pitfalls...

In any event, welcome again
cheers
Erik

p1vickers · Post by **p1vickers** » Fri May 16, 2008 5:19 pm

Welcome to the forum John.
My best advice based on a year long quest to bye an "E" is to look and drive as many examples you can get your hand on, that way at least you will get to know a bad car from a good one.

Except for the the top professional complete restorations, they will all have some sort of rust problem which is most likely to be hidden, but if you don't mind the work a U.S. sunny state import might be worth considering.

I managed to find a car that was bodily very good but mechanically very tired, and I have spent the last twelve months rebuilding most of it.

If you find a car that interests you in the Essex area I will only to pleased to do a preliminary accessment and hopefully save you a wasted journey

Good hunting

Pete
S1 2+2

harryetype · Post by **harryetype** » Fri May 16, 2008 5:52 pm

Hello John

Welcome to the Forum and thanks for joining. We only got the Forum up and running at the end of last year and as you can see there's already a good community going.

As Erik mentioned he has kindly organised a Euro meet in the middle of June which would give you a good opportunity to learn a lot about the cars and find out what to look out for and hear of ownership up & downs straight from the Horses mouth, not that I'm suggesting Erik is a Horse.

I hope you enjoy the Forum.

Harry
E-type UK

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:47 pm

Many thanks to everyone for the warm welcome - it sertainly feels like this is a greatforum for "e-type-heads"............

Erik, thanks for the invite to the Antwerp gathering, unfortunately work commitments preclude me coming along - maybe in the future.....

Pete, that's a very generous offer and I'll keep it in mind as the search unfolds. I'd spoken to Mark on Friday and he was telling me about US sunny-state cars as well, and this is certainly an appealing idea. I was particularly interested to hear from Mark how easy LHD to RHD conversion is - I'd looked into this for my 911 before I sold it and was quoted around ?10,000 and major bodywork mods, but it sounds like a real practical option for e-types.

Any leads on where to look for sunny-state cars would be most welcome.

Harry, thanks for the welcome and congratulations on the forum. I'm finding it very helpful already.

John

Post by **Heuer** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:44 pm

John

Another option is to get a really rotten but complete car from the US and buy a new body shell from Martin Robey at about ?15k. It will just need painting and you can start the mechanical reassembly. E-Type Fabs can supply new sub frames.

A S1 3.8 OTS went for $15,000 a few weeks back admittedly fitted with a Nissan engine and no sills. But the original engine and gearbox were with it as were all other essential parts. There is an example for sale at the moment (a S1 2+2 though) which will give you an idea of what to look for. For the mechanically gifted this can be a better and cheaper way to go.

David

andyp · Post by **andyp** » Sun May 18, 2008 10:47 pm

John

Mine was a dry state import and she is in great shape for a 40 year old car that has never seen a welder. You do need to know where your US import has been living though - some parts of the States are as rusty as here. I think I'd rather look at a car that has already landed back in England and let somebody else worry about what they have just imported.

THe LHD to RHD conversion is about as simple as they come. Jaguar very kindly made the dash in 3 parts so you just need to swap the outer sides. The holes are all there for the pedals and column.

I think the main point is that if a good US LHD car comes along don't be put off.

Andy

Post by **Heuer** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:47 am

M & C Wilkinsion sell a LHD to RHD conversion kit which has all the necessary bits to make the car indistinguishable - costs about ?950. Many people short cut the conversion and just change the dash panels and steering rack which does tend to devalue the car. Obvious signs are wipers parked on wrong side, indicator stalk on wrong side of column, instruments & switches in wrong order, brake/clutch bottles in wrong location, washer bottle in wrong location and white indicator lenses.

If you are going to do it it is worth doing the job properly.

david

Car-Nut · Post by **Car-Nut** » Mon May 19, 2008 1:48 pm

John,

Welcome to the community...

Currently looking as well at the moment for S1 FHC....

The best thing Ive bought so far is:-

The Essential Buyers Guide for Jaguar E Type 3.8 & 4.2 by Peter Crispin

Ive found you can ask a load of questions over the phone and perhaps save a wasted journey, and ive had a few of those :(

Good luck with the search

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:11 pm

Andy, I agree with you about not all US states being dry - I lived over there for a few years and it varies hugely. I agree with you as well about letting someone else do the importing - but I'd certainly be interested to hear suggestions/recommendations for where/who in the UK are good sources of imports needing work.....

David, thanks for the info - that's good to kknow and I agree with you about doing a job properly. Maybe its my engineering training but I've always been unable to accept a botched job, and have tended to "over maintain" my cars over the years as my bank account will tell you.

Car-nut, I've bought that same book!! By the way, weren't you selling an M5 recently - just so happens I have a 2000 M5 as my daily driver, which I absolutely love. If you stumble across a good S1 roadster during your search, do let me know :D

Post by **Heuer** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:39 pm

John

A guy by the name of Carsten over at Jaglovers recommended importing a car to the Netherlands as the duty is 6% and no VAT as classic cars do not attract it. Once it is in the EU the free market means you can move it anywhere. Not sure myself if this is correct but worth checking. He recommended http://www.pangaeacargo.com/en_index.html (ask for Mr Buse).

Be aware though if you import the car as "parts" to avoid tax you will not then be able to register it against the original chassis number.

David

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:35 am

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I've now bought a 3.8 OTS - see my post in Owners Gallery if you're interested.

Cheers
John

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The 'E' Type Forum

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