Just Picked my E-Type up!

[ian68]

As per the title, just collected my E from Alan Proctor this morning after having my sill ends repaired.

I can honestly say from the photo's Alan took during repair and the quality of the finished job, he does some superb work. I'm very pleased with the result, and being no stranger to restoring bodywork myself in the past and knowing just how time consuming it is, i'm also very pleased by his bill!

I would seriously recommend him.

Below are a couple of photo's of the inside of my sills. These are the original sills on a car that has spent it's whole life in the UK. Not bad considering they are 44 years old and have never seen any wax!!
(they have plenty in now though!)





Ian

[MarkE]

Fantastic Ian, and very rare. There must be a story with your car, being tucked away most of it's life and not allowed out in the winter or the wet.

I well remember trying to fix a mate's E Type that had terminal rot in the sills / floors / rear wings, and there was nothing solid to weld to. That was in the 70s, when his car was less than 10 years old. It ended up in a scrapyard with a Cortina parked on the roof...very sad end, but I think that was the fate of most in the UK.

Have you traced any history of the car yet? Could be interesting.

[ian68]

Hi Mark, so far I have been able to trace the fact that the car was sold new to a deep freeze company in Luton but the original name on the log book was of a chap called Brian Digby who also lived in Luton (the company owner or MD maybe?).

I think he must have treated it well because he owned it for 20 years! He sold it to a small (long defunct) garage who kept it for two months before selling it in 1985 to a Mr. Terry Johns who restored it between 1987- 1991.

After nine years of ownership, Mr. Johns sold it in 1994 to it's next owner who, after two years and nine months sold it on to it's next who owned it for only just over a year. (Speculators?)

The next owner (the chap I bought it off) kept it for nearly eleven years until I bought it this year.

So if you discount the short ownership by the garage, it's had six owners including me!

So thanks presumably must go to the original owner (Mr. Digby) who clearly must have taken very good care of his car over his twenty years.

I will see if I can track Mr. Digby (or his survivors) down and indeed Mr. Johns, as it seems these two individuals contributed most to it's history.

A job for the cold winter nights in front of the computer with telephone at hand I feel :D

[MarkE]

I'll bet you'll find that this was Mr Digby's pride and joy, used for fine weekends only. For work the 'S' Type and later on, the XJ6 would have been used. He must have loved the car to keep it for 20 years!

A keeper if ever there was.