The 'E' Type Forum

Hi,

As per the subject, I'm interested in your experiences on how you purchased your first e-type. It's of course a significant cost and the advice I've had on the subject has been quite diverse, i.e.

"Don't buy from a garage as their primary interest is to shift it as fast as possible."
"Buy from a garage so you can at least get some peace of mind with a warranty"
"Buy from a long-term owner who's a member of a club.."
"You'd be crazy to buy a car 'sold as seen' from someone for that much cash"

So, how did you guys give yourself as much confidence as possible that what you're buying wasn't a lemon? To me, buying from an owner known in an owners club with a PPI sounds like the best bet, but that's assuming someone happenes to be selling what you're after!

Anyone have any dealer recommendations in the UK they absolutely trust or other thoughts to prevent me from over-thinking all this?

cheers,

Matt

I’ve had 3 e types.
The first I bought from a garage and a distant relative, rotten as a pear !
The second ( older and wiser) bought privately and was ok structurally but needed engine work.
The third ( now much older and maybe wiser) I bought privately. Got one of those cheap throwaway work overalls from screwfix. Spent about 3 hours with the owner, looked at all the paperwork, crawled under it.
Made a comprehensive checklist before I went and ticked bits off during inspection. Still had faults but at least I knew what they were.

Not sure what that tells you.
The other option if you’re not “au fait” with these cars is to pay for a specialist to give a view. A recognised specialist not just any national firm.

Firstly establish what model you want and a budget for purchase and work that may need to be done.

Are you interested in a coup, 2+2 or convertible, series 1, 2 or 3. Colour & interior.

The best cars obviously would be early cars that have been recently restored by a reputable establishment and as original as possible. Those will be the most expensive.

Buying from auction can be risky. The best option would be from a long time owner who is a club member or is a member here.

You don’t want to buy a car that requires full restoration as that can prove to be very expensive. These car are very complicated in their construction as opposed to other classic sports cars.

I bought mine at the peak as a driver for a respectable amount, it was the model I wanted but discovered it needed a lot of work so decided on a full restoration. That took three years and much money. As it stands it owes me a lot more than it’s worth.

Once you decide on what is acceptable to you, the advice given here as regards employing a specialist to examine your prospect will prove most beneficial.

Read as much as you can on here to discover what is involved in e type ownership and discover the various pitfalls one could face. There are quite a few good videos on YouTube that should interest any prospective owner.

I hope this is of some help.

In my view, best advice is to take someone with you who knows what they are looking at. I did that and was for ever grateful. It might cost a couple of hundred but worth it in the long run.
Look at plenty of cars, make a shortlist of what you think, then take the specialist. I ended up turning down my first choice as a result, and bought the second which turned out to be a gem.
I'm a member of the JDC, and the Technical Guru of the Club is John Burton who provides such a service. I'm sure there are many more as well.
If you want his number, PM me. He's down south, but there are others people on here will recommend one of which will be in your area

My buying experience
When i was buying in 99/2000 I looked at 12 cars all over the country all 4.2 s1 dhc which i was interested in owning after many years admiring them. Get to know the spec and original build details of the model you are interested in. Of the 12 cars i saw very few where at a dealer, i remember visiting the Etype centre in yhe midlands seeing poor overpriced cars, but offered with a limited warranty!! So that put me off dealers.
If i was happy with what i saw I had the etype specialist of the JEC come out and inspect. One car i was beaten to by a dealer while arranging this. Another converted RHD S1 in Carmen red and chrome looked amazing but on inspection the sills where riveted on and put on too far forward meaning metal had to be welded on the back edge of the bonnet. Once pointed out the private seller would not reduce the price and said he would sell to someone else. So dodged a bullet there as I would not have noticed. A couple of years ago i saw this same car for sale and it had another restoration in the meantime.
I put a wanted advert in the JEC magazine with the car details i was looking for it ran for s few months and was then contacted by a reluctant seller, car #13 viewed, a car he had spent last 7 years completely restoring at great expense. Once again after seeing it I got the specialist to check it over, drive it and he recommended to buy it. 25 years later I still have it and have spent embarrassing little money on it. So paying an expert and buying the best you can afford was money well spent.
Best tip i got was while looking at a shiny "restored" car is lift the fuel filler flap the finish inside should be the same as outside if its had a propper restoration. The number of "nut and bolt restorations" i have seen for top money at places like Goodwood that have failed this simple test and i have smugly asked why the 4 bolts holding the flap on to the hinge where not included in the full nut and bolt restoration the claim.
Good luck be patient the right car is out there somewhere.

The money’s in the body work. Repairing a rusted out shell can turn into a bottomless money pit. Regardless of what you buy you want photo evidence of a bare metal respray on a restored car or to be very convinced that an unrestored car isn’t rotten, especially in the uk.

Mechanical repairs are less of an issue. All parts are available and if you can’t do the work there are lots of reputable people who can.

To me buying from a dealer is no guarantee of quality. They have been lying to people professionally for their entire career and know all the ways to get out of refunds. I’ve just taken delivery of a “good used “ diff for a prewar MG from a well known seller. Paid 1000 quid for it and it is totally stuffed. Not one moving part of it is useable. Seller is so far not prepared to come to the party at all.

As an aside, when I bought my 3.8 coupe as a total restoration prospect, I did it sight unseen in a city about 3000 km away.

I was quite reluctant to just transfer the money electronically when I couldn't even be sure that the car actually existed. But I have a good friend in that city and he agreed to go and pick the car up and pay the owner in cash.

I duly transferred AU$50k to my friend and he took it in cash and did the deal with no problem whatsoever.

When I told a friend in the motor trade this he was horrified. "You realise someone might have killed him for $50k in cash, don't you?!"