Today the Keno Brother’s will stage their first autmotive auction in New York and offer 40 of the finest cars they could find. One is this first-year 1961 Jaguar Series I Roadster chassis 875323 with an estimate of $390,000 to $590,000USD.
Having just benefitted from a ground-up restoration by Classic Showcase in Califronia, this Opalescent Bronze roadster on white-wall tires really stands out. Classic Showcase are the predominant E-type restorers in America and took special lenghs to ensiure accuracy with the Butler license lights, voltage regulator, generator, starter, Dunlop master cylinders, sealed-beams.
Being among the first 400 E-Type’s produced chassis 875323 has many interesting one-year features such as the outside bonnet latches, a pumpkin-colored cylinder head and black-oxide fasteners.
Once our BJ8 project was stripped bare and blasted, we then had a unique opportunity to address the weakness of the original design and deal with any present or future problems.
We trusted Steven Gicas to do the job. Trained by Roy Moore for Jetstream, he has put together several of the Hugh’s brothers Healeys and will be working on more Healeys in the future.
After cutting away the inner, intermediate and outer sills, we decided under Steven’s guidance to replace all 10 floor board pieces. These were simply tacked onto the chassis by the factory with little regard to corrosion protection between the floor and chassis. Steven applied weld-through primer the entire ‘sandwich’ surface which when combined with seam sealer should outlast the intended lifetime of the structure. This also refreshed the flanges that the inner sill attaches to.
We also spent considerable money to get the fenders, doors, sills, shut panels and hinge panels sufficiently lined up. Steven weighed down the chassis to mimic the 690 lb engine and transmission, but I would recommend leaving the engine in for this process otherwise.
This leaves the Healey ready for Trevor Black to do final bodywork and prepare it for one his superb topcoats. It will be going back to its original hue of dark Britsh Racing Green GN25.
