{"id":6611,"date":"2013-09-24T09:45:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T13:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/?p=6611"},"modified":"2015-02-18T12:52:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T17:52:24","slug":"e-type-rescue-parting-out-in-reverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/2013\/09\/e-type-rescue-parting-out-in-reverse\/","title":{"rendered":"E-Type Rescue \u2013 Parting out in reverse!"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you read the blog often enough, you’ll know that I am often headed out from the shop for the day (or longer), only to drag home some of the ugliest E-Types you’ll ever see!\u00a0 I’m usually after these cars for the body shells and bonnet panels, but sometimes we do manage to pick up project cars that can be restored.\u00a0 When that happens, we typically sell them to customers who then have the body shell restored here before taking them home to be completed.<\/p>\n

In other cases, however, I’m out there digging up whatever “junk” comes along – and I do mean DIGGING – as I have had to drag several cars literally up out of the ground!<\/p>\n

In those cases, I’m just grabbing what’s left to salvage what parts we can,\u00a0 But usually, I have some idiea in the back of my mind how I can combine this with that and maybe get enough together to build up a semi-complete car that can be restored.\u00a0 Well, we finally did that last week…<\/p>\n

A gentleman called looking for (what else…) a Series 1 roadster project.\u00a0 I get this call about twice a week – “I’m looking for a complete, numbers-matching, Series 1 4.2 roadster that needs restoration” – OK, well, I don’t have any of those…<\/p>\n

But this person and I spoke for a while – he started talking about working in the coachworks of Rolls Royce in the 70’s – which was pretty interesting.\u00a0 Then he said he didn’t really care about matching numbers, he can fix anything, etc.\u00a0 He had just finished a V-12 coupe that had been REALLY creamed in the bonnet, and sent photos of the bonnet that he had pieces together from several center sections – all seamlessly TIG welded,\u00a0 And so I started to think, “Hmmmm, maybe this guy CAN fix anything…”<\/p>\n

And so in our next conversation, we devised a plan to combine components from several of the partial E-Type wrecks I have dragged back here over the past couple of years to give him everything he needs to build a Series 1 roadster “clone”.<\/p>\n

I call this “the ugly duckling” – but I’m hoping to come back to the blog over the next couple of years to show how she is being turned into a swan.\u00a0 As we started pulling things together into a pile, I became more and more dedicated to the idea of actually pieceing together a buildable E-Type out of all of these parts that until I found them, were destined to rust away into nothing out in the woods somewhere…<\/p>\n

Then, when we had her assembled into a steerable roller for transport, all I could see was my own car when it rolled into the driveway when I was 14.\u00a0 E-Types are fabulous, beautiful cars when they are fresh or restored, but the photos at the bottom of this blog are even more beautiful to me.\u00a0 They represent what I saw back then in that mangled up hulk – I don’t know how or why I saw this, but I did – to me, a rusty E-Type roller like this has always represented “a better and brighter future”…<\/p>\n

And so I spent alot of time staring at this wreck at the end of the day – remembering how great it felt to own something like this as a kid, and actually envying the new owner of this mess – I wanted to keep it!<\/p>\n

It took the better part of a week to disassemble the other donors and pull this all together – Brent and I had alot of bruises and bloody knuckles by the time it was done, and I got hit in the face so hard with an air ratchet that it made the ear on the OTHER side of my head hurt for 2 days…\u00a0 But yesterday afternoon when I dragged Janie out to the shop to view my new “Frankenstein” creation, she was (of course) speechless, but I finally said out loud, “I love this job.”<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0 There’s more where this came from – call me if you have the guts!<\/p>\n