This is a project that has been patiently waiting to start over the past few months, and I’m happy to report that we are finally underway! The project is near and dear to my heart, because of how close it came to suffering the fate of a parts car.
This car is owned by a British couple that own and run their own machine shop. They are great folks and welcomed me into their home and even served me a GREAT meal on a cold Fall evening when I went up to go look at the car.
The owners had recently completed a very high-quality restoration of an MGB, and has even won several awards for the work! And so they quickly jumped into the restoration of their dream car – a Series 1 E-Type coupe. They were able to find a complete car near home, that a father-son team had big plans for, but sadly, threw in the towel on due to extensive rust.
Next, my customer quickly determined that the rust was also beyond what they were capable of, and while they felt confident with the rest of the restoration, knew they would need professional help for the monocoque shell and bonnet. So, they called a restoration shop – who looked the car over and proclaimed it was too far gone… And then another said the same… And then a third agreed as well – and even went as far to say, “This is a parts car – this can’t be repaired.”
Cant be repaired? – Watch me…
Parts car? – Not on my watch!
Now, she’s ROUGH – make no mistake, but the roof and quarters are solid and straight aside from the usual wheel edge rust on coupes, and the rear IRS area was excellent – as was the cowl. These are the only areas I really even care about – I know the rest usually gets replaced anyway. And it’s a good thing, because the rest – the floors and sills for example, had almost ceased to exist!
Follow along as we prove once again that at Monocoque Metalworks, there is NO SUCH THING as an E-Type PARTS CAR!!!
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- As you can see, she’s been here waiting for a while – when we brought her home the new building was still under construction…
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- Here she is with the whole place all to herself – that didn’t last long…
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- She was quickly joined by a few siblings – a ’67 coupe on the left, and a ’66 roadster on the right – the “lead sled” – which was completely rebuilt this Summer and early Fall and is back home already.
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- This project came with 2 bonnets, 2 hatches, and 2 sets of doors. The owner was able to find the extra stuff inside of a box truck in a local junkyard – it’s amazing to me that this stuff is still out there. But it’s sad to know that based on their story, the box truck contained the remains of a parted out, gold, Series 1 coupe. 🙁 The red center section is toast – MASSIVE rust through the outer skin. We can fix anything, but sometimes the labor/cost is just too prohibitive. Funny though, I never throw the parts away…
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- This is the pulley system for getting the shells in and out of the rotisserie and carts. It’s the best thing I’ve come up with – so far – but it does work very well. You can’t do this with “a bunch of guys” – no matter how many you can round up. The problem is that there just isn’t anywhere good to grab an E-Type shell in the rear…
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- Other than this typical rust, the wings seem solid and straight.
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- I very rarely see rust in the bottom of the driveshaft tunnel – even on the worst cars, it is usually so full of oil and grease that it doesn’t rust. This car proves that there is an exception to that rule…
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- HERE is what I believe started all of the MAJOR rust in the bottom of this shell. Some moron sheathed both sills completely in galvanized steel. They mad no attempt whatsoever to cut out, repair, or stop the rust underneath – they just sealed it in to “cook” between this and the wet carpets, and cook it did!
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- More barbaric damage – this is just pure laziness…
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- This one’s GREAT! On the outside of the galvanized sheet is FIVE EIGTHS OF AN INCH of filler!!! This is on there to match the bonnet to the sill – obviously they had no clue about the slotted hoiles in the fender flange to loosen the bonnet bolts on the mudshield and adjust the wing in and out…
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- This is a classic – I need to go outside after I write this and pull this piece out of the scrap bin for the “wall of shame”…
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- This is beyond amateur – this is just SO bad… We will dive into this car and rebuild this shell to factory new condition, but stronger – by including one of our hidden subframes. Stay tuned!
