Category Archives: restoration
With the suspension now completely assembled, The Italian Job, our 1965 E-Type restoration, is coming along nicely and ready for phase two.
This week it was delivered back to our customer who will carry out some work and look after the car while we are away in Monterey.
The entire assemblage benefits from CAD plating and a high regard for finished fit.
LH Torsion bar is installed to its factory original position.
Hubs are on and the torsion bar energy is forcing the suspension towards earth.
Fully plated stub axle carrier with matching guards, bolts, nyloc nuts and locking nuts look absolutely fabulous.
Twist Pliers and Lock Wire complete the look.
Worked part time this week on The Italian Job, our 1965 Jaguar E-Type restoration. Careful and correct assembly of the engine Reynolds 531 sub frames and pressed steel picture frame were completed, then work could begin on the suspension and steering rack. The project is now complete enough to pass through the wiring harness, attach the steering column and attach the wheel hubs to have a rolling restoration!
Plated pieces for the upper control arm were restored by Electroshine Metal Refinshers Ltd. Their fine work reveals all the intricate machining of these parts. These were CAD plated without ACID pickling to avoid embrittlement. Original finish from 1965 was bright silver zinc .
This image depicts the intricate sandwich around the picture frame with the long 4-inch sway bar bolts passing through 5 components.
Nice image showing the plated control arms and stub axle carrier.
One of the most complex areas is around the steering rack which has 3 mount bolts and 2 limiting bolts sandwiched with the upper control arm bushing.
Today we are presenting The Italian Job, a Series 1 1965 Jaguar E-Type Fixed Head Coupé that was originally ordered new in Italy and delivered in New York.
This bright red car has spent a large portion of its life in Boulder, Colorado where it was loving preserved and cared for 65,000 miles. Fortunately, the Colorado weather has preserved this car far better than most. For instance there is none of the typical corrosion and every body panel is original.
The intention with this job is to refresh the front-end of the Jaguar. This means giving the engine, suspension, brakes, steering box and cooling a mechanical and cosmetic restoration.
Exemplifying the preservation of 1E31166 is the original and unblemished serial number plate
We stripped the entire firewall and manually etched it prior to a layer the Epoxy primer. Original and straight panels are free of rust.
Carefully stripping the firewall revealed the honest spot welds.
Our client’s 1969 FHC is coming along nicely, the body was manually stripped and Todd from Fox Customs carefully touched up the tight areas with media blasting.
Todd also removed the lead which gave us a unique inside look into the real joints that lie beneath. The results are posted.
Also included is some of the expoy primer in red which was the original hue that jaguar used on this particular car.
Today we delivered a new engine-bay restoration which will be at the 9th Annual Restoration Fair & Swap Meet held by the OECC tomorrow.
This particular job took 100 hours, which included a strip to bare metal, etching, epoxy primer, careful seam-sealing and a polyurethane top-coat.
Everything was taken out and refurbished back into the bay. This included rebuilding the wiper motor, pedal box, ignition wires and master cylinders as well as looking over the carburetors and distributors.
Original bolts were cadmium plated as well as the fuel lines and brake lines. To help with long-distance touring we used new Zebra hose clamps where required. Almost all the speciality items such as the new battery leads, engine breather cap and all rubber came from the Roadster factory.
