John Faine unveils the ongoing saga of his Jaguar E-type recovery
My singed E-Type is well on the way to revival. I have taken the opportunity to not just repair the fire damage, but repaint the entire car an upgrade other compentns as well.
After last year’s electrical fire, and my heroic selfless superhuman efforts to put the fire out – I unloaded a small extinguisher whilst trying not to soil my jeans – the primary damage was assessed as confined to the scuttle and dashboard.
The instrument panel and all switches and gauges were totally destroyed, as was everything behind the dash fascia. The windscreen and rubbers were burned and clearly a new complete wiring harness is warranted.
There was paint blistered across the scuttle where the wipers protrude and burnt paint along the central section of the firewall. It is called a “firewall” for a reason, and thankfully did its job of stopping any fire spreading forwards. Keeping petrol and fire apart is rather a good idea.
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Close inspection after strip down showed no buckling or weakening of any metal nor distortions in the heat zone. I was spared from my greatest nightmare – having to scrap the car.
But the corrosive powder that works so well to extinguish the flames is also fatal for steel. Unless completely purged from every crevice it will slowly but surely eat the car from the inside. A thorough vacuum cleaning or even a solid blast with a pressure washer will not suffice. The cabin and everything in it had to be pulled totally apart.
I did not ever entertain the prospect of DIY and stripping the car in my shed. I decided to hand my toy over to someone who would look after all the tricky bits of the job whilst I was happy to take on time-consuming annoying tedious things like ferreting hard-to-find parts.
In the pursuit of feeling more hands-on and forging an emotional connection, as well as saving some dollars, I also wanted to do some of the slow and fiddly low-skill things like polishing chrome and stripping glued-on rubbers from window channels and the like.
As it was being disassembled at Historic & Vintage Restorations in Blackburn, the archaeological history of my car was on display. It still had the original ‘Old English White’ paint and will stay that way, tempting as it was to change it to British Racing Green which I have always admired.
But any changes would compromise this Series 2 E-type with an interesting history – one of the last six-cylinder cars made and with the rare optional factory power steering, as well as the Webasto vinyl sunroof. I bought it directly from the late and great John Bryson. His son Mathew had been using it for some years and along the journey, it had been in a small crash that required repairs to the driver’s door.
Paul Chaleyer at HVR picked the ageing repair although I was oblivious to it. In certain light you could just see a variation in the paintwork. Some rust was bubbling up in the patched door skin so a new one is on its way from Martin Robey in the UK, along with some other bits and pieces. While the motor and gearbox are out, a new clutch has been thrown at the lump as well as new engine mounts. I will need new wheels as the triple laced wires are rusty and replacing them is cheaper than attempting to repair them.
The exhaust manifolds have come off and been on a holiday to Competition Coatings in Coburg. For $350 the ceramic coated manifolds will look good, reduce under bonnet heat and nicely match up to the new stainless exhaust.
There have been a few surprises including some rust in the windscreen pillars and a minor patch needed on the floor. For a fifty-year-old English classic, that has never been restored, it is pretty impressive.
All the switches and gauges are available new, but the quality is notoriously fickle and I prefer original parts. Everything has been found, some local from Jag1 and Ebay the rest. The super rare clock – so hard to find – arrived from California within a week of purchase and together with the other gauges is off at Lionel Otto Instruments for checking before re-use. A period-correct radio cassette player is being reconditioned to finish off the cabin in style.
My weekends at the moment are consumed by scraping and polishing all the chrome. Better than a gym subscription, the results are deeply satisfying. Most of the bling is in very good condition and with some AutoSol polish paste and occasional use of 000-grade steel wool, it is recovering its original deep shine.
There had to be some serious reckoning at this stage. There is some pitting and occasionally a patch of slight rust erupting through the original chrome on one bumper bar. I had to decide what I was prepared to ignore. If the car has new paint, and new rubbers, should I also re-plate everything?
I may live to regret this, but I have decided to re-use the original parts, polished but not replated. I am not doing a rotisserie restoration – the repaint is with the car still on its wheels, albeit with the engine, all chrome and glass out. The interior is all being reused as much as possible with only those parts destroyed being replaced. I am trying to keep it as original as I can, and re-plating everything seemed over the top.
Let’s face up to the truth – the whole car is over the top, but that seems totally OTT!
From Unique Cars #470, Sep/Oct 2022