After it was almost lost in a shed fire, Jon's E-Type, like a phoenix, rises again.
It was a sunny, serene morning. I caught an early train to the city, dodged the unruly school kids and the bored commuters immersed in the fantasy world of their phones and then against the traffic took a quiet carriage out to the Eastern suburbs.
A short walk from Bleakburn – ooops, sorry, Blackburn Station saw me sauntering along Cottage Street at the end of which I caught the first glimpse of my finished car, waiting on the forecourt of Historic & Vintage Restorations, gleaming and polished in the morning light.
Yes, sometimes a restoration does get finished, and the day finally arrives when your car can be driven away and enjoyed.
How to describe the feeling? Regular readers will have followed the occasional reports in these pages of the acquisition, gentle and gradual refurbishment and then the devastating electrical fire that ruined my 1970 Jaguar E-Type S2 manual fixed-head coupe. Now, after two years and three times the original estimates and budget, it was ready to come home.
Having kept readers up to date on the hiccups along the torturous path of restoration, it is good for our collective spirits and a boost to the morale of those of you still toiling to know that eventually projects do get completed.
When the headlight switch shorted and the melted plastic dripped down and set fire to the fibrous lining of the radio and speaker console, I was devastated. What I loved about this car was not just the iconic shape, the astonishing performance and the exhilaration I felt just cruising behind the wheel, but especially that it was an unrestored example of this groundbreaking model – a rough diamond, a useable, reliable, safe but far from perfect example of a dream car.
I could enjoy owning an E-Type without feeling precious about it or worrying about leaving it parked somewhere.
Exceptionally rare was the combination of factory power steering in a six-cylinder car, and a factory original Webasto folding sunroof to complement the leather seats.
The sunroof gives the best of both worlds – it makes a coupe like a convertible, without the hassles and scuttle shake. It also transforms the renowned XKE ventilation shortcomings on warm days. It is a poorly kept secret that many early coupes – not just Jaguars – can get uncomfortable on even just a warm day, and downright unpleasant on a hot day. Fibreglass bodied cars can be unbearable – the Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ I had 30 years ago was sometimes horrible – the radiant heat from the motor made the pedal footwell a furnace.
Anyone who has had the privilege of driving an E-Type will confirm that they do not really need power steering, and purists scoffed when it was introduced towards the end of six-cylinder production. But the trade advised head office that it was essential to meet expectations in the USA market – buyers demanded it, so Jaguar complied. While it is irrelevant on the highway, I confess as a stale pale male with a sometimes-sore back, it does make the car much easier to drive and park around town.
The restoration followed a typical pattern and one that most readers will recognise with a wry grin and painful memories. Once you start, you have to keep going. The fire damaged the bulkhead, scuttle, entire dashboard and all instruments and – surprise, surprise – the firewall! It is called that for a reason.
However, the main damage was caused not by the flames but by the fire extinguisher. Powder extinguishers do a great job dousing the flames but leave a toxic and corrosive legacy, which if not thoroughly dealt with will literally eat the car. Every grain of powder must be removed from every crevice and corner. Any powder that remains will simply eat steel and a few years down the track the car is ruined.
So the E-Type was stripped, internally and externally, charred bits all replaced, others reconditioned before going back in. But along the way, the opportunity presented to address and attend to 50 years’ worth of wear and tear, to address ancient scars, to make the car better than it was before the emergency. It made no sense to ignore bog in wheel arches from crash repairs 30 years ago, or sills and door skins that were beginning to bubble. So a repair that was originally confined to the fire damage became a complete strip down.
It is pointless to put pitted chrome back on a newly painted car. It is counterproductive to reuse old rubber, leather, carpets, trim and so on. The advantage of restoring an E-Type, like many popular period sports cars, is that pretty much everything is available – at a price! For example, how a piece of pressed chrome trim smaller than my hand can cost over $100 beggars belief, but there are two choices – you either buy it or you don’t!!!!! I reused anything that was serviceable and replaced anything that was not.
So how is it after all the expense, the anxiety and the stress? In a word – fabulous. First drive was to get up very early one morning and to head to and then along the Great Ocean Road before there was any traffic. I may have just occasionally unleashed my inner hoon, but I deny all allegations and will plead not guilty.
What advice do I give? It is absurdly naive for anyone to think they can finish a project with their budget any more intact than their ego. It is a deeply humbling experience. If your budget is actually fixed or even just tight, be realistic about how much you can achieve. I have over-capitalised but have no regrets – the alternative would have been riddled with compromise and false economy. But I am very fortunate that I did not need to sell a kidney to finish.
Choose a shop where you are welcome to regularly visit. Only ever work with people you trust, and who can explain what they are doing and who actively seek your input in the decision making. I undoubtedly could have got the job done cheaper elsewhere, especially in regional towns where overheads are substantially lower – and the standards are just as high. But that would have denied me the opportunity to regularly drop in, be involved in making decisions at critical junctures and to know exactly what was being done as it was happening.
And final word – do not ever add up the totals at the end. It spoils the fun.