This weekend we’re buried out in the shop trying to get caught up – but last weekend had some fun E-Type adventures!
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- We started out the weekend before dawn, jumping in the truck with the trailer attached and heading out into the country several hours to retrieve an E-Type project from another shop. The car is a VERY early LHD coupe (first 50…) that we built a correct welded-louver and flange bonnet for this Summer. After seeing our work, and meeting some of the other restorers we work with, the owner has decided to change shops. The car is incredible, and literally hundreds of special early E-Type pieces have been hunted down and restored to concours quality. Now it’s time for a meticulous restorer to assemble the car, and we have just the person…
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- Here is a shot of the engine – it is rebuilt, but that will all be checked.
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- And here is the monocoque shell, and the reason we’re involved. We are taking the shell home to be gone over and have the bonnet we built fitted to it.
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- This shell has many early features that will be detailed in a later post. But incidentally, it is the most original, and most solid flat-floor shell I have ever seen!
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- The parts just went on and on and they were all laid out on tables and shelves – it took 3 guys 5 hours to pack this car up, and we were MOVING the whole time!
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- We just kept running into parts properly restored and ready to go – these are the front suspension wishbones – silver cad plated.
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- We finally have the shell into one of our carts. I built this cart earlier this Summer for the shop where this car is going – and it was a little embarrassing after we set this up to say, “Ummm, hey – can you bring that cart with you?” – I just can’t get enough carts!!!
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- Here is the rear – it is a half-decent amateur restoration (it looks alot better than my rear ever did!! – but for this car it will be taken back down and done right.
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- Saturday was a long day, and we were at it again bright and early on Sunday to do a swap. The car in the foreground is the ’61 for sale on our website – our sister shop had it for a general tune-up. The car behind it is a ’68 they brought us to fabricate a special shift linkage so that the original interior could be installed above a Cosworth 5-speed. One coming in, one going out… If you look closely, you can just see the Weber carbs peeking out under the bonnet of the ’68 – AND, the truck still crammed to the ceiling with boxes of parts for the ’61 FHC!
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- And here’s how the weekend ended – testing the new tune on the ’61, and WOW! I determined that everything was perfect now in about the first 5 minutes, but it was close to 2 hours before I made it back to the shop… 🙂
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- Back home and back to work – we need to finish our asessment on the ’61 FHC, get the ’66 OTS into the rotisserie for new floors and sills, and oh yeah – finish the facelift on the old shop so she’s as pretty as the new one!
