E-Type Jaguar Restoration Manual E-Book

Classic Motor Cars

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The E-Type Jaguar has been described on countless occasions as one of the most beautiful cars in the world. Over the years it has built a reputation amongst Jaguar enthusiasts and classic car collectors for being the ultimate classic to own. If you are lucky enough to own one and are planning to undertake the restoration work by yourself, this manual will take you through the full nut-and-bolt restoration of a very early example, E-Type Jaguar Chassis No 60. Restoration experts from the world's premier Jaguar restoration company, Classic Motor Cars Ltd, have written each chapter, giving you a first-hand account of the process. Contents: Preparing a workspace and dismantling the vehicle; Restoring and painting the body; Engine, electrics and transmission restoration; Assembly of the sub-assemblies, and final assembly; Trimming; Road testing and the first outing. This comprehensive manual for the complete restoration of an E-Type will be of great interest to motoring enthusiasts and motor mechanics, and is superbly illustrated with 700 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

E-Type JaguarRestorationManual

Classic Motor Cars with David Barzilay

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2017 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

© Classic Motor Cars Ltd 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 285 4

contents

preface

prologue

  1   how to restore an E-Type Jaguar

  2   preparing a workspace and dismantling the vehicle

  3   dismantling the sub-assemblies

  4   restoring the body

  5   preparing and painting the body

  6   flatting and polishing

  7   differential rebuild

  8   gearbox rebuild

  9   engine restoration

10   restoration of the carburettors

11   electrical restoration

12   assembly of the sub-assemblies

13   final assembly

14   trimming

15   road testing

16   first outing

contributors

index

preface

by David Barzilay

The E-Type Jaguar was in production between 1961 and 1975, and during that time more than 72,000 were produced; it was the car that every young man about town aspired to, and the car that Enzo Ferrari described as ‘the most beautiful in the world’. It is also one of the few motor cars that has never lost its appeal, being revered by different generations for different reasons, and all the while growing in value.

The car was designed by Jaguar’s Malcolm Sayer, but there is no doubt that he received significant input from Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar cars, and when it was introduced it caused a worldwide sensation. It was affordable, costing just over £2,000, while its Aston Martin counterpart cost more than double that sum. It was a fantastic design, with a 3.8-litre engine that Jaguar had installed in its XK series, and which was both powerful and proven. The engine could take the car to 150mph (240km/h), and immediately put the E-Type on everybody’s wish list – and it made other manufacturers such as Aston Martin and Ferrari think about what would be expected in the future.

Over the years the E-Type has become the ultimate classic to own, with early roadsters becoming the most popular, and early outside bonnet lock versions the most sought after. That is exactly where this restoration manual starts, with the potential owner of Chassis Number 60, Chris Anderson, talking to Classic Motor Cars in Bridgnorth: the car coming up for auction, what should be paid for it, and how it could be restored, if indeed he was lucky enough to be the winning bidder.

prologue

by Chris Anderson

Why did I do it? We have all done crazy things. I have done a lot of crazy things. Most of them are best not discussed, let alone put into print, but this one is.

I first made contact with Classic Motor Cars a few years ago when I bought a car from them – another E-Type, as it happens: a newly restored, 1961, opalescent dark green flat-floor E-Type roadster with green suede interior, welded-in bonnet louvres (and internal bonnet locks). It was just beautiful, and a joy to drive, a proper car with no plastic hiding the engine, a gear change that needed love and practice to master, the odd oil leak to prove that there was oil in it, a choke as an anti-theft device to confuse anyone under the age of forty, and surprisingly good handling and acceleration to surprise a few modern drivers. Perfect. My wife loves it too. I still have it, I have no intention of selling it, and I drive it – lots.

I was talking to CMC one day, and I happened to mention that I would really like to get my hands on one of the mythical 91 RHD outside bonnet lock roadsters, the handbuilt pre-production semi-prototypes that back in 1961 either went to dealers as demonstrators, the great and the good, or those with connections. And that was that. They rarely come up for sale, so realistically it was a fairly hypothetical conversation. Or so I thought. But CMC had filed away my request and did not forget.

Over the months that followed CMC got a number of ‘leads’, but nothing that was any good – either the lead turned out to be nothing really concrete, or the owner didn’t appear that serious about selling. There were even a couple where the only thing that was ‘correct’ or original about the car was the chassis number itself. Everything else was new or wrong.

Now I am realistic enough to know that a car that is half a century old will have new parts on it. Parts wear out, or even decay, and need to be replaced. But virtually the whole car? I didn’t want ‘Trigger’s Broom’ from Only Fools and Horses. Originality is important because that is then a piece of history and not a modern copy. So we weren’t really getting anywhere.

Then one day the phone rang. It was CMC. Again. ‘There’s an outside lock E-Type coming up for sale at a Bonhams auction. We don’t know the chassis number or where the auction is, but we think it’s worth following up.’ Really? This one sounds like a wild goose chase, I thought, another waste of time. So I told CMC straight: ‘Fantastic news! Let’s investigate further!’ I really must work on connecting my thoughts to my words.

And that was that.

Two days later the phone rang. It was CMC again. ‘It’s Chassis 60. The car is for sale at the Bonhams RAF Hendon auction on Monday 29 April [2013]. We don’t know much else. We are not sure about its condition or how original it is. We are in touch with Bonhams who don’t have the full details yet. We will find out more and get back to you.’

And true to their word they did. It had been found in a garage in Somerset where it had been stored since the early 1970s. These garages are apparently now called ‘barns’ hence ‘barnfind’. It also needed a bit of work. That would later turn out to be one of the understatements of the century. We could view the car on the Saturday, two days before the auction.

Now I am not mechanically inept, and I know a bit about E-Types, but I’m not an expert like the technicians at CMC. I would need help to evaluate the car properly and make a decision on what to bid, if at all. CMC offered to drive all the way down from Shropshire to London on the Saturday to view the car with me.

I arrived at the RAF Hendon Museum and met the technician. The two of us walked through the first hall, surrounded by our fantastic aviation heritage, towards the hall where the cars were displayed for inspection prior to the auction on Monday. There were some beautiful cars: an early S1 Land Rover, a stunning XK140 drophead, a Ferrari Enzo, a gorgeous 1929 4½-litre Bentley, a DB6. But I couldn’t see the outside lock E-Type we had come to look at.

The car before restoration.

And then tucked away at the back we saw the E-Type. There she was, hidden under a layer of dirt, pockmarked with rust, disfigured by a (horrid) Lenham hard top and looking rather sorry for herself: a neglected, rusty wreck. But a neglected rusty wreck proudly wearing outside bonnet locks. There they were. But was she who she said she was?

The technician carefully lifted the bonnet – carefully I think in case the car fell apart in his hands. He scratched the dirt and grime off the top of the ‘picture frame’ (engine frame) by the offside front wheel. And there it was: under the light of the technician’s torch were the numbers 850060. That’s ‘85’ signifying a RHD home market roadster, and ‘60’ being less than 91, showing that it was one of the mythical outside lock roadsters I was looking for. But what a state it was in.

The technician continued his forensic analysis. I walked around the car, trying to look as if I knew what I was doing, but feeling slightly bemused that he was taking this seriously because it was obviously way beyond saving.

Then we went for a coffee and a sandwich.

‘So what do you think?’ I ventured. After all, it was only polite when the technician had travelled all this way. I knew he was going to tell me it was a waste of time. ‘She is unbelievably original,’ he declared. ‘She can be saved, but it’s a big project to save the body and not replace the panels with new.’ I hadn’t seen that coming. So this was the one we had been looking for. We chatted some more about what was required, likely costs and so on.

So there she was. In desperate need of restoration, very original, matching numbers, outside bonnet locks: the Holy Grail. All I had to do was buy her at a sensible price. How long is a piece of string? You could rephrase that as ‘How much should you bid at an auction?’ I had no idea. In fact I had never bid at a ‘grown-up’ auction before. The estimate was £25–30,000.

‘What about £56,000?’ ‘Sounds sensible. It’s way above the estimate.’ ‘But it would be a shame to miss out on this car if someone else has spotted how original it is…’ ‘£62,000 then?’ And so it went on. Truthfully, I don’t really remember the exact figures we bandied about, but we settled on about £70,000. Now that was crazy. The estimate was half that. I would have to pay a buyer’s premium on top of that. And the car needed a six-figure restoration.

‘One last thing,’ I asked. ‘How do I bid at a car auction?’ ‘Just wave your paddle about,’ he said. Very helpful.

I thought about my limit a lot for the rest of the weekend, and eventually settled on £82,000 plus buyer’s premium. Clearly madness, but I was surely guaranteed it at such a crazy level. There was some logic, it costs the same to restore a less desirable car in the same state as the one we were looking for, so I ended up deducting the restoration cost from the restored market value to get a purchase price. I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.

The technician couldn’t get to the auction on the Monday, which was probably a good thing, as he would have injected an air of sensibility into what happened next. So I took my wife Ali. An expert shopper. Get her involved, I thought, and then we’re in it together and she can’t complain.

We arrived at the auction early. Ali wanted to see the car. Reasonable enough, I suppose. We casually walked towards the car trying not to look too interested. ‘Is that IT?’ said Ali looking shocked. Good start, I thought. So I explained why she was so special. ‘You’ve been looking for ages,’ she said. ‘Go for it.’ So I did.

Or more accurately, we did.

We watched the auction for a few lots. Actually we watched a lot of lots to try and get the hang of things. The strange thing was that whilst there were a lot of people in the room, there were not that many bidders for each lot, and many lots were going at below estimate. We were going to get a bargain.

And then the bidding started for ‘our’ E-Type. And the room went crazy. It was like a bar brawl, with an additional nine bare-knuckle fighters on the phones and heaven knows how many internet bidders. I tried to get a bid in, but couldn’t. The auctioneer was rattling off numbers like a machine gun. We were already at £40,000 and I managed to get my bid in. But the price continued to rocket.

‘I have £80,000 on the telephone. Do I have £82,000?’ the auctioneer asked and looked at me. I raised my paddle. ‘£84,000 on the telephone.’ I shook my head. That was it. I had been outbid.

I felt a jab in the ribs. It was Ali. ‘Stop being so sensible. If you are going to lose it, lose it for a lot of money.’ And she thrust my hand up. ‘Thank you sir. £86,000.’ said the auctioneer.

The bidding continued until the man on the telephone was at £94,000. I waved my paddle. ‘£96,000’ said the auctioneer. I looked at Ali. ‘That’s it. No more.’ I said and sat on my paddle. I was finished. Another pound and the telephone bidder could have it.

But he didn’t. Fortunately he couldn’t see me because I would have made a lousy poker player at that point. He folded.

‘Going, going, gone!’ She was mine. I grinned.

And then I got a round of applause. I don’t think that’s a good thing, by the way.

‘Bang goes my shoe budget,’ said Ali.

So I rang CMC. ‘I changed my limit to £82,000 but it’s blown that away and sold for £96,000 plus premium.’ ‘How much?!!’ he said. ‘At least you tried, but you can’t win them all.’ ‘No,’ I replied, ‘some idiot paid a small fortune. And you’re talking to him!’ ‘Fantastic! I’m so pleased,’ said the technician.

And so that is how I acquired Chassis 60. The story of the restoration follows, and is written in such a way that you can follow it to restore your own pride and joy. It has been an amazing journey, and a privilege to watch some amazing craftsmen do their thing and turn back the clock. Anyone who thinks we no longer have these skills would do well to visit a windy industrial estate in Shropshire.

There is a little twist to the story. After I, and a few other bidders, had moved the perceived value of these early cars through passion rather than logic, a further three suddenly appeared on the market. They were lured out of their lairs by the story of Chassis 60 at RAF Hendon. And suddenly, the crazy price that I had paid did not seem so removed from market value after all.

So there you have it. That is why I did something crazy with a fifty-two-year-old beauty in a museum in Hendon. And my wife was with me, and is delighted. We are still married, and a very youthful (now) fifty-five-year-old has moved in with us.

1

how to restore an E-Type Jaguar

by Peter Neumark

Classic Motor Cars Ltd was set up in 1993 in order to restore classic Jaguars to the highest levels. However, our experience started back in 1982 at the dawn of Jaguar restoration. Over the last thirty-plus years our workforce has grown and developed into one of the most skilled bands of craftsmen in the world. Today we employ some sixty people, including six apprentices. We occupy a state-of-the-art facility covering some 60,000 square feet (5,600sq m), and carry out every aspect of the restoration process in house, except for chrome work.

As with most things in life, there is not a right nor a wrong way to restore a classic motor car, and while we set out our way of restoration, it should not be taken as sacrosanct as there is always more than one way of skinning a cat. The book itself is a guide, littered with helpful hints and tips, but it is not an attempt to create a step-by-step instruction manual.

Organization is the key to a successful restoration, cataloguing everything, making lists, taking photographs and carrying out research. Taking your time is also important. When you are not used to completing a certain task, it can take twice as long as someone who carries out that work on a daily basis. We have spent exactly 2,956 man hours restoring Chassis 60 – the featured car – which means that someone with limited knowledge and experience could spend 6,000 hours and more in order to complete a similar restoration.

My advice is to set some targets, such as completion dates. If you have limited spare time, you must be realistic about what you can achieve at home in your garage. Also be aware of your capabilities. Do not try and do too much. Perhaps when you set out the parameters of the project, put a list together of which parts of the project you can undertake with the skills and tools you possess. Also put together a further list of skills and parts of the project that you would like to attempt. You can then decide whether additional training is required, or indeed whether this task should be entrusted to a specialist company. Once you have an overall plan you can sit down and work out the budgets required.

We live in a world that gives us all free access to almost every piece of information available to mankind, so please do not try and over-analyse it all, as it will lead to paralysis. Keep things simple, and follow the ‘KISS’ rule: you will have an enjoyable journey and end up with a beautiful motor car.

2

preparing a workspace and dismantling the vehicle

by Ian Ryder

For the restoration of any motor car you really need at least the space of a double garage: one half where the car can sit, and one side that can be racked out with shelving to take parts as they are removed, plus another clean section to keep the restored parts. The overall square footage required will be some 360sq ft (33sq m). This could be a single garage, plus a large wooden shed or attic space. But do not fool yourself into believing that the restoration can be completed successfully in a single garage or shed.

Once the workspace is organized ready for the dismantling process, there is one more very important stage to complete prior to getting those spanners out, and that is to photograph the car – and by this we mean photograph every possible part of it: outside, inside, underneath, engine bay, boot and so on. When you think that you have taken all the photographs required, go round the car again: the more photographs, the better. These photographs are imperative for recording the detail and will act as an aid, not just for remembering how the basic vehicle comes apart and goes back together, but also for all the small details, such as where a particular transfer fitted, or which way up a particular split pin was inserted. When you have taken the photographs, load them on to your PC and file them. Be as organized with the photographs as you will be when laying out the nuts, bolts, wishbones and the rest.

You are now ready to open that toolbox. This book is not going to itemize all the tools and equipment required in order to restore a classic Jaguar, so if it is your first restoration, we suggest you start with a much simpler vehicle.

Cleanliness is very important; also, do not use any products that contain silicone, as these will get into the atmosphere and on to the car body, which causes problems when you come to the painting process.