series 1 FHC

[astonman]

Hi,

my father owns a 1963 3.8 FHC RHD e-type. we have it for at least 35 years now, and never driven it, as it's all in boxes, and will be for the forthcoming years
originally delivered in england, but imported to NL around 1977 . original exterior colour yellow i believe but changed to red, although not sure about this. the interior is red. I was wondering where to get some information about the car's early life? I searched the DVLA website with the old english registration mark, but strangely without luck, as with our other brits we can still find info on the DVLA website.

thanks in advance

[andrewh]

A nice back ground. Welcome to the forum. From memory, yellow was not a 3.8 colour so if I am correct, that is not the original colour. They have all been red at some stage! Can you tell us the chassis number? It will be on the data plate or the front engine frame on the RHS at the top of the shock absorber mounting . We will be able to tell you much more then.

[Gfhug]

Welcome to the forum, do we assume you also have an Aston Martin? If so lucky fellow to have one of those as well as an E Type.

If you can find the data plate as Andrew mentioned then you can search in http://www.xkedata.com/ for chassis serial numbers close to yours. It will give ideas of colours for cars produced at the same time.

Also if you look in the forum knowledge section you'll find lots of useful information and a list of books that are beneficial to own, e.g. Clausager's Factory-Original Jaguar E-Type.

Geoff

[astonman]

thanks for the welcome. the only info i get from xkedata is that it's a RHD 3.8 FHC.
I found the old english green logbook that goes back to 1973, when it replaced the old one i pressume. in the logbook the colour was stated as yellow, but changed to red on 14 feb 1974. the registration mark was 2993 KX during this time.

Geoff, yes you are right with your Aston Martin assumption. we have 4 at the moment, but only classics.

[Gfhug]

Only four Classic Astons? Poor boy

A rather nice looking DB5 passed through our village this weekend, registered ADB 5A, one of yours?

As for xkedata, enter your details on there as you get them, either from the data plate or from the engine, gearbox, picture frame as you find them.

A Jaguar Heritage certificate will tell you about the car when it left the factory, colour, dealer etc. But you'll need to give them as much info as you can.

What is your plan for the car? Restore yourself or send away to a company? If the latter there are good ones that can be recommended by people on the forum, just accept they have long waiting times.

Geoff

[astonman]

thank you for your sympathy, much appreciated . definitely not our car the one you saw. as we have a very early DB4 which looks much better than the later DB5 imho. also i'm located in the NL instead of UK.

I have already ordered the heritage certificate, but that won't give me any details about former owners. at least not with the one i have with my series 2 XJ. but will see when it arrives

will do the restoration myself, but only after my DBSV8 is finished, so that might take some time.
also not sure what to do with the e-type. back to original concours spec or doing some upgrades?

[Gfhug]

Have you tried using V888 form with the DVLA? It might help trace some former owners.

BTW do you have a name? At least you can't claim it's Bond if you don't have the correct DB

Concours or upgrades? Depends what you plan to do with the car, there are many differing opinions. The upgrades on the knowledge section give you some ideas: brakes, headlight upgrade and the like can be very discrete. Ask those with similar vintage E's for their thoughts.

Geoff

[Mich7920]

Hi,

Welcome in this forum, you'll find EVERYTHINGS about The E Type.

You have a topic " Your dream garage" where you could put a photo of your Astons around the E Type.
it could be nice ! ( Aston is my dream...)
If you don't want to fit a Ford small block into the E , everybody is going to be agree with you for some security upgrade. Normaly they are all reversible. Just keep the original restored parts for the case of selling the car.
As for your vintage Aston, don't imagine, even if there's a lot of E Type upgrades, rebuild a modern car as "Eagle".
I think It must stay with it's vintage caractere.
It's sometimes a little bit annoying...But it's the game and why we love driving our E Type.

Mich

[astonman]

I don't have any extreme upgrades in mind, but more like swapping the SU units for webers and some improved braking, and possibly fit a more modern 5 speed gearbox, but no structural changes. with our other cars originality is very much important, but as there are quite a lot of e-type's i don't mind doing some upgrades especially when reversible. most work should be close to concours standard, we will however not enter a concours.
By the way is there a big price difference between RHD and LHD series 1 coupe E-types? as there appear to be far more LHD than RHD cars

[Heuer]

Don't swap out the SU's unless you have a great deal of time on your hands to set up the Webers. Doubt you will see any improvement in performance other than a dramatic increase in fuel consumption. Read these first:
Weber Set up Guide 1: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8496016/Weber%2045DCOE.pdf
Weber Set up Guide 2: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8496016/Weber%20Wisdom.pdf
Tuning DCOE Carburettors by Kimble & Trindal: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8496016/Tuning% ... uretor.pdf

There were 169 3.8 cars painted Pale Primrose Yellow between July 1963 and August 1964.

Original RHD cars are worth more than LHD because there were relatively few made and the UK climate and heavily salted roads were not conducive to longevity. They certainly attract a premium in the UK, Japan and (oddly) Switzerland and Germany. Seems owners in those two LHD countries feel a British classic car should be RHD.

[astonman]

i'm not yet sure about the weber upgrade, but i'm really keen on the looks of them.
I do have quite a bit of experience wtih setting up webers so that shouldn't be a problem, although i have to agree that setting up the SU's is a lot easier and less time consuming.

[astonman]

received the heritage certificate today;
the afforementioned registration mark is as originally supplied with the car.
original colour: opalescent silver blue. not a bad colout so will take that in consideration for the restoration.
originally supplied by Henlys, London