Initial Checks Before Buying

To get back to the E-Type, after I had seen the ad in Auto Trader, I made several visits to view and check the car before finally deciding to buy.

I had been told right from the start that the car had not run for at least 7 years, had been rear-ended and had some repair work and a respray done following the accident.

The rear-end collision was proven by the damage to the petrol tank - it had a bulge in the middle, and didn't locate with the mounting points.

Bulge in the middle of the petrol tank

However, the back of the car looks fine - although it wasn't confirmed, I have to assume at least the back number plate panel must have been replaced.  Although I would have expected the lower boot panel assembly to have also been replaced, it looks original, because there is rust on it, making a small hole in the bottom of the spare wheel well.  The back bumpers are distorted and the rear light assemblies were smashed.

The original fuel pump was no longer working and had been replaced by a newer version which you can see in the photo above.  I was also shown a retrofit wire to the cooling fan, because the previous owner said that the car had been prone to over-heating.

Knowing these things, I still wanted to know that the engine had not seized.  We were able to move the car, and verify that the crank shaft was turning, although, at the time, we didn't verify movement and stroke of the pistons.

As far as the bodywork was concerned, I checked as much as I could - I checked visually and with a magnet to verify that there were no major areas rebuilt with filler, and I probed underneath, particularly the sills to make sure my probe didn't go through underseal into nothing.  All checked out OK as far as I went, but I'm still under no apprehension that, with the respray and the underseal, I may still come across area of corrosion that will either need repairs or even new body panels.  All will be revealed (or not!) as I progress.

Having as much due diligence as I felt comfortable with and feeling reasonably comfortable that I could tackle a lot of the things that would need doing, I made the decision to buy the car, as a project that could keep me going for some time.

The Path to 3 Jaguars

As an afterthought, I decided I'd write a bit about what got me to the situation of having 3 Jaguars, and doing work on the E-Type before I got too far into the process, so........... I'm Stuart Walker. I'm married to a beautiful and understanding (has to be with me!!) wife.  We have 3 young children and I have 3 old cars - all Jaguars. (My wife also has a new Toyota Sienna, so at least we have one car that doesn't need "more than average" maintenance).

When I was a kid I was really into cars. I had, what seemed at the time (especially to my Mum who had to tidy them up after I'd been playing with them) like hundreds of toy cars.  My favourites were a crimson E-Type Jag and both the silver and gold versions of the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (good taste from an early age!). I could also name pretty much any car that we passed on the road.

My interest waned over the years, though, and, although I still kept abreast of current models, I didn't do much with them after I helped my Dad to lap the valves and replace the cylinder head gasket on my first car - an orange 1976 Mini 1000.

My cars since then have been a Mini 1275, 3 Vauxhall Astras - the last being a 16v GTE, which was really nice - and a Ford Mondeo, in England. My interest in the Vauxhalls came from the 3 models of Vauxhall Victor my Dad had during the 1970's and '80's, after he sold the Morris Oxford, which is the first family car I remember, although I think there was a yellow "something" before that.

I remember the registration of the first Vauxhall Victor we had - it was MHF 687.  I'd be interested to know if this number plate still exists, and if it's still on that same car.  (The last Victor we had was XKC 262 J. Again, I'd be interested to know if that's still around).

While still in England, I also had a Honda CBR600 motorbike, which was great fun, for a few years before I emigrated to Canada (to get married, of all things!). (Oh, and I also drove a Daewoo for 3 years in Nigeria).

Since being in Canada I've had a Pontiac Grand Am, a Toyota Celica, a 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (a wonderful bright yellow vehicle), a 2008 Cadillac CTS, and now my daily driver is my 2001 Jaguar XJR.

My Monte Carlo - a wonderful (and bright!) car.

My first foray into Classic Cars was in the late 90's in England when I bought a 1976 MGB GT V8.  Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to enjoy this fully as I was out of the country for part of the time I owned it, and it was in the shop for repairs a lot of the rest of the time.  I had to let it go when I moved to Canada, although under different circumstances, I would have loved to have taken it with me.  I'd be interested to know if anyone knows if that car still exists - it's UK registration was ORF 976 P.

My time with Jags started in 2007, when I bought the XJR.  It was on a bit of a whim; the Monte Carlo was my daily driver, and Liz, I think, had the Buick Rendezvous at the time, so we didn't really need another car.  But, I felt I had too much money in the bank and needed to get rid of some (yeah, really - nothing to do with the fact I'd just made an emotional connection with an inanimate object), so we gained a third family car. (Apparently my Dad said to Liz that he couldn't believe I wanted to buy a Jag, when I took him with me to pick it up).  So the XJR became my summer Sunday car, resting in the garage during the winter.

In 2011 I had to change the Monte Carlo, which was experiencing paint detachment problems that I  didn't want to deal with, so I got the Cadillac CTS (with a manual gearbox!).

In 2012 I started looking at Jags again, this time at the XKR (I had, some might say foolishly, downloaded the "Auto Trader" app onto my phone, and kept looking, out of interest only, at used Jags for sale).  I saw one advertised at a local garage, so went to take a look.  It was a bit rough inside,as was the next one I saw, but at this second garage, there was a 1994 black XJS convertible.  Just visually this exceeded any thoughts I had of the XKR, so I went home, talked to Liz (actually begged, but that doesn't sound as mature!) and the following day went back to buy the car. Imagine my disappointment to find that the same morning another customer had gone to the garage to view the car, and had paid for it and driven off in it within a couple of hours.  Now, where was my Auto Trader app?

Luckily, shortly afterwards, I found an ad at another local garage for a 1994 black XJS convertable - virtually the same car.  I went to see that one, quickly verified that it was in good condition and put a deposit down.  I now owned 2 Jaguars.

My XJS - just about to be bought.

Not long after this, we decided that 5 was probably too many cars for just 2 drivers in the house (the first of the kids won't be able to drive (legally on the road) until 2020) - we also had Liz's Mum's Buick Enclave on the drive so we sold the Enclave and I decided to let one of mine go; so which one to sell? I have to admit, I'd been disappointed with the CTS - maybe because it was the manual rather than an automatic - and I had nothing like the emotional connection with it that I had (and still have - be warned!) with the Jags. So the CTS was sold and the XJR has been my daily driver since (yes, during the winter as well - it's fun in a supercharged, rear-wheel drive car in the snow!).

Then .......... Steve and I took all our kids - 5 of them between us - to a car auction in Toronto ( not really the best place to take 5 kids between the ages of 5 and 9).  While there I saw an XKR (not again, I hear you say!) in blue with matching blue interior.  The auction not being the place for me to buy, I went back to that Auto Trader app - yes it was still on my phone - and found a blue one for sale in Toronto. When I went to see it, turned out to be the same one that was at the auction but hadn't sold (should have told me something!), so I went to take a look.  I almost bought that one, but had got so carried away with it, that I realized that I hadn't discussed it with Liz, and we also had other financial commitments to cover at the time.

Anyway, some time later, I was browsing through the Auto Trader app again (I really should get rid of it before I get into serious trouble) and came across an E-Type for sale in Toronto. A bit unusual for this to be in the regular Auto Trader, rather than in the Classics, but I went to see it anyway ....... And that's how I ended up owning an E-Type to complete my set of 3.  Maybe that's the end of my Jaguar acquisitions, but after I've got the E-Type to where I want it, I may start looking again........that app is still there!

There's more about how I acquired the E-Type to follow, as well as the story of how I'm "resuscitating" it. Hope you enjoy the reading.

Today's Activity

Went over to the car today to work on the brake reservoirs, but every time I go at the moment, I run the car, just to keep the engine turning over and the oil circulating. (The brakes don't work at the moment, so I can only idle the car.  I'll get back to the brakes later.

The last couple of weeks, since I first got the engine running, the engine has fired after a few turns, but today it took a while longer than usual.  It was turning but not firing, and I was starting to think I would need to use some quick start again.  However, finally it started firing on individual cylinders, and eventually ran fully.  As usual, I kept the choke out until the temperature was up to "normal", then when I pushed the choke fully in, it settled down to idle at about 1500rpm.

Around running the engine, I was getting off the bottom brake reservoir.  This one has been more difficult to remove than the top one, because it's in a more restricted location - you can get a bit of an idea from the photo.

(You can also see how bad the level sensor in this reservoir was from the next photo - the float (cork-like thing) on the end of the thin rod is supposed to be enclosed inside a metal tube - the top of the tube had completely corroded away so the bottom part had fallen off into the reservoir).

The other problem I had with this reservoir was that the hose clamp on the outlet from the reservoir was completely corroded so I couldn't turn the screw to release the clamp to remove the hose from the reservoir.  In the end I hacksawed the head off the clamp screw and removed it that way.  Because of the restricted space, I couldn't get a full stroke of the hacksaw, so it took longer than I expected to saw the head off, but once I'd done it, the hose pulled off the nipple easily.

I also removed one of the cover plates under the back seat to check the access to the back brakes (located inboard on the e-Type).  I had to remove the back seat belts in order to get a cover off the transmission tunnel so that I could get at the last of the 8 screws holding the brake cover plate on (some things are not straight forward on this car!!).  Once the plate was off, I found that I can easily get at the brake bleed nipple, and it has free rotation, so, it will hopefully be easy to bleed the back brakes.

So, on my next visit to the car next week, I'll aim to fit the new bottom brake reservoir, then start on the process of bleeding and setting them up.

Introduction

I bought my 1973 E-Type Jaguar in August 2014.  I was under no illusion that this was going to be a project car; it had not run for 7 years, it had been rear-ended, which caused it to be taken off the road, and had been recovered from a repair shop, part-completed, just before the shop went out of business.  So I bought a partially completed car, with lots of bits!!  But, I got it for a reasonable price ........ and I now actually owned an E-Type Jag!!!!!!!

Since buying the car and getting it to somewhere that I could store and work on it, I've been documenting my progress, mostly in texts to a friend, Steve, who has also been helping and advising me (I'm very much a novice at this) on some of the work I've been doing.  So I thought, as I'm documenting my progress anyway, why not publish it on a blog.  Some people may find it interesting, and others may find it useful to read about the work I'm doing, and especially the mistakes I'm making, that may help them in doing similar projects themselves.

My progress is fairly slow - I manage to spend a few hours each week working on the car, but I usually manage to get at least one thing done each time I'm there, so hopefully there will be enough progress to keep peoples' interest.

The work I've done so far I'll cover as we go, while trying to give updates as they happen.

So watch this space to see if I can first get the car road-worthy and then how much I can improve its condition.