{"id":11266,"date":"2015-03-05T14:18:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T19:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/?p=11266"},"modified":"2015-03-05T15:19:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T20:19:14","slug":"think-spring-part-1-66-fhc-drop-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/2015\/03\/think-spring-part-1-66-fhc-drop-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Spring! \u2013 Part 1 \u2013 \u201966 FHC"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Winter is NEVER going to END!!!<\/p>\n

I hate to just join the masses and complain about this Winter, but honestly, enough is enough already!\u00a0 Fortunately, though, my latest adventure took me VERY far away from it, and the warmer weather was a VERY welcome change!<\/p>\n

We finally found a good home for our ’66 FHC project car, and the first order of business for this trip was to deliver it.\u00a0 This car has been around here since May of last year, and it took a long time to find her a new home – due mostly to the fact that she LOOKED like an ugly duckling – AND was a non-matching numbers project as well…<\/p>\n

This is the third E-Type in a row that I have sold to a British guy, and let me tell you, they are tickled pink when they get them – I LOVE IT!\u00a0 It’s great to deal with people this way – it truly does make me fell good – like I’m the guy that is making their dreams come true!<\/p>\n

This ’66 FHC was the car that initiated the LARGE parts purchase in Montreal, Canada last year.\u00a0 I was told about the car from a good Canadian customer who already owned 2 E-Types, and was going to buy this one as well, but eventually “came to his senses” as he put it, and turned me on to it.\u00a0 Go back into the blog about a year, and look for the two blogs titled “Jackpot!” – parts 1 & 2 for details on that adventure.<\/p>\n

My best friend from High School, Graham, went on that trip with me, as he does about once a year.\u00a0 He is a fun companion and a BIG help – a lifelong friend that I’m comfortable with, so we never run out of things to talk about, and also a past 4-wheeling buddy, so he’s a big help when things get rough with winches, trucks, trailers, etc.\u00a0 He’s the #1 pick when you play the mental game, “OK, you’re stuck on a desert island with a handful of people, who are they?…”\u00a0 Wait – I mean #2…<\/p>\n

So it was a bit serendipitous that he came along on this trip, to deliver the same car to it’s new home – meaning that he and I picked it up in Montreal, Canada, and then delivered it in Gainesville, Fl – 1600 miles!<\/p>\n

We had been planning this trip for a while, and I set it up for late February as a good time to get out of the Northeast, and head to Florida – man, did THAT ever turn out to be true!<\/p>\n

We left at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning – planning to head to Savannah, GA to spend the first night – I wanted to get the lion’s share of the driving out of the way on the first day.\u00a0 Janie and I had been to Savannah years ago, and I knew it was a neat little waterfront town with alot of good restaurants on the water.<\/p>\n

Monday – Wednesday were CRAZY getting ready, and it was about 7:00 PM Wednesday night before I was done…\u00a0 One of the key parts of this sale of the ’66 FHC was that I was delivering it, because it was VERY much apart.\u00a0 So of course, it took ALOT longer to gather everything up and load it than I had planned for (as usual…).\u00a0 I had promised her new owner, Dave, to pull together as complete a project as possible, and following through on that by digging through countless bins over at storage was a multi-day task.<\/p>\n

When I bought this car, it came with a period and correct Jaguar block and head, but they were not the originals from this car, and were not E-Type either – though that is only because they were stamped with other serial numbers as they went into a 420G (I think…).\u00a0 When we picked up the car in Canada, along with TONS – literally – of other parts, we also got a beat up and stripped E-Type head, and an E-Type block.\u00a0 In the end, I gave Dave the 420 head and block, because they were the best condition, and they will work fine – and he agreed.\u00a0 I did write down the serial number of the 4.2 E-Type head, just to eventually look up it’s vintage…<\/p>\n

Just about the last thing I did on Wednesday night was pull out the title and data plate for the car, to make sure I had the right stuff and it all matched.\u00a0 As I looked at the data plate for a few minutes, something caught my eye…\u00a0 OH MY GOD – that beat-up head casting over there is the head for THIS CAR!!!\u00a0 That is IMPOSSIBLE – but true!!!<\/p>\n

When we picked up the car, it was all in one big pile with the 420 head, and that other E-Type head casting only was in the back of one of those tractor trailers full of parts on the shelf.\u00a0 there must have been two dozen Jag heads in there, but it was the only E-Type, and he said to take it since our deal was for “all of the E-type parts I have…”<\/p>\n

That shop owner had owned this ’66 FHC 20 years ago, sold it to another guy, and just recently bought it back before he sold it to me.\u00a0 That “dead” head ws not SUPPOSED to be from this car, but it is…\u00a0 CRAZY!\u00a0 This BLEW MY MIND – I just don’t overlook things like this – EVER – but this car had lost it’s original engine, and the idea that miraculously, a part of it was in with that other junk was just so far away from possible, that I never even looked…<\/p>\n

SO – when we dropped off the car, I told this story to Max and Lisa – Dave’s son and wife – sadly, he was away on business for the delivery.\u00a0 And I also told them that the head is on its way down (storage was closed by the time I figured this out and then I left at 5:30 the next morning).\u00a0 It’s on it’s way down – free of charge.\u00a0 It belongs with this car.<\/p>\n

So there you go, Dave!\u00a0 Thanks for trusting me to put together as complete and restorable a project as possible.\u00a0 For your faith, your non-matching E-Type just got ALOT closer to a full numbers-matching car! – Chuck<\/p>\n