{"id":10038,"date":"2014-10-23T22:31:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T02:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/?p=10038"},"modified":"2015-02-18T12:33:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T17:33:16","slug":"the-adventure-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/2014\/10\/the-adventure-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventure Continues!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been looking forward to getting the maroon shell completed and out the door all Summer – we need space SO bad!<\/p>\n

The customer who purchased the maroon shell had a Series 1.5 roadster in Colorado.\u00a0 They purchased the maroon shell, had it converted to a Series 1\/1.5 tail, and then sent in their bonnet, doors, and decklid to be restored and fitted to their new shell.<\/p>\n

This all meant that once the work was completed, they had to drive over to the shop – from COLORADO – to pick it up – Yikes!\u00a0 On top of that, there was the issue of what to do with their old shell.\u00a0 Even though the rust and past filler was pretty extensive, I of course still wanted to get my hands on it…\u00a0 So around August, I came up with a plan…<\/p>\n

My brother-in-law Dave lives in Columbus, OH – and if you’ve read the blog for the past couple of years, you know that I’ve used his place as a rest stop on Western trips in the past.\u00a0 So I agreed to take the maroon shell out as far as Columbus, OH as part of our overall agreement for the work and the return of the old shell core.<\/p>\n

Well, about a month later, I started talking to a pair of brothers in Chicago, IL about a somewhat wrecked 1967 E-Type coupe.\u00a0 They had “found” the car in an older gentleman’s garage that they were helping clean out.\u00a0 They said that inside the garage were boxes stacked floor to ceiling, and after a while, they moved one and saw a wire wheel – to which the owner said, “Oh My God, I forgot that was in here!\u00a0 There’s a complete ’67 Jaguar connected to that wheel!”\u00a0 Who forgets they have an E-Type in their garage!?!<\/p>\n

This gentleman was in his 80’s, and had purchased the car new in 1967.\u00a0 He drove and cared for the car quite well until in 1980, it was in the middle of a multi-car pile-up at a redlight – getting crunched in the front and the rear.\u00a0 At that point, the local Jag dealership would not fix it, and so it was parked until a solution came along for repairing the shell – which ultimately I guess was me – last Sunday.\u00a0 That’s a LONG time…<\/p>\n

So anyway, to keep telling you how this unfolded, Janie and I had a weekend away without the kids in September that we spent in Alexandria, Virginia.\u00a0 I was trading emails with the current brothers who owned the car in the days leading up to that, and that morning in the hotel, while Janie was in the shower, I shot them an offer.\u00a0 I figured that even though Chicago was pretty far, I was already going to Columbus, OH, and I’d do my customer a favor and take their completed shell alot closer to Colorado…\u00a0 It was really just a fleeting idea and a long shot, really…<\/p>\n

Well, I was standing in line in the rain waiting to tour Mount Vernon (George Washington’s house on the Potomac River), and I checked my email real quick which is actually kind of abnormal for me – it was their response accepting my offer.\u00a0 “Uh-Oh…” – I said out loud…<\/p>\n

“What?” Janie asked…<\/p>\n

“I think I just bought another E-Type…\u00a0 In Chicago…”\u00a0 That’s when Chicago seemed REALLY far away!<\/p>\n

Since then, I have been keeping e real close eye on things for sale on eBay and Craigslist between here and Chicago, because if you can knock off more things on one trip, it just makes sense, and then – JACKPOT! – I found a great, complete Series 1 bonnet in Ohio just 1 hour North of Columbus!<\/p>\n

So fast forward to last week – of course it was another rally in the last days to get the car completed, and we loaded it into the trailer in the dark the night before I had to leave.\u00a0 Then I was off on another whirl-wind, cross-country E-Type adventure!\u00a0 Enjoy riding along!<\/p>\n