Buying advice please

[MarkE]

There are another couple of other options to keep an eye out for, Dave.

Firstly, a lot of genuinely rust free and straight E Types where brought into the UK in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, from the dry USA states and South Africa. I bought two of these, an S1 Coupe and a S3 OTS, and they were both easy restorations (relatively) and have resulted in the most stunning and original cars, which retain all their original panels and have never been welded. I restored several cars previous to these which involved considerable panel work, and I was never happy with the results.

Importantly with these cars, they also retained all their original brightwork, brackets and small bits and pieces. If you have to use reproduction bits, a lot of work is required to make them fit anywhere near properly, and often corners are cut.

I would imagine that there must be several hundred cars similar to mine in the UK, and they will come up for sale from time to time. The chap I bought mine from, Paul Webb, bought in over 300 cars in the 90s, and Eagle E type brought in a good number as well for building up their specials, and for restoring for customers.The provenance is probably the most important aspect of buying these cars, alongside what you can see in front of you of course.

Another option to look out for is the car that has been restored to professional standards, and has then sat unused for a few years. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, there are probably many of these cars. They can be original RHD cars that have probably had a major body restoration, or of course, they can be the original rust free ones above. They will require a bit of re-furbishing to get back to reliable running condition, but most if that can be done at home..

Again, it?s the provenance of the cars that is so important. A restored car will have a binder full of invoices totalling many tens of thousands of pounds, even if the owner has done much of the work himself. It will also have photos of the car before, and most importantly during, the restoration. If it is a genuinely rust and accident free car, the owner and bodyshop would almost certainly have taken a lot of photos of the bare shell, in disbelieve if nothing else!

I think that it?s going to be a better buyers market over the coming year than it has been for a while, and taking your time / getting to know what to look for will really pay off. But unless it?s a restoration project, look for a lot of history with the car that should substantiate the claims being made for it.

[damawe63]

Once again, thanks for all advice....

I'm encouraged to hear that it may be a good year for buying after this years 50th celebrations come to an end, please no more price rises or we won't be able to buy a decent car after all.

We will be pateient and take our time to source a good car and will no doubt share the expeience with the forum as things progress. It would be great to take along a second pair of eyes when it comes to any serious inspection, thanks to those around the country who have offered to help.

Our thoughts at the moment are to buy the best we can afford with documented history and be as original and rot free as possible as opposed to buying a car to recommission or restore as having no workshop is a major problem, we'll see what turns up in the new year, looking forward to it!!

HNY.