A trip into the unknown
In last months article I started to go through the purchase, inspection, registration and strip down of the US sourced E-Type and left off with the front end slowly and methodically coming apart. This is the first time for a while that I’ve restored a complete car, as everything I’ve tackled lately came in cardboard boxes chucked inside a rusty bodyshell. It was nice therefore to take a slow methodical approach this time, so I bought a huge variety of clear bags in lots of sizes along with a cheap little label printer, as my handwriting is so terrible I often can’t read it.
The advantage of a full strip down on an E-Type is that you can remove the bonnet for greater access and not worry which way the engine comes out. The power plant on these cars is not easy to remove otherwise and you could see damage on the bulkhead where it had come out in the past. I slowly removed, marked and bagged each suspension component and stored them in the racking to come back to later. The ball joints came apart easily and some components, like the dampers, were obviously new, saving some money later.
The torsion bars are notorious for being a fiddle to remove, but these came out easily with a bit of patience, probably helped by ease of access. With the suspension off and the engine on it’s own it has a bit of a Spitfire feel to it, and I do recall being told the brief for the XK engine was to have power and beauty… it certainly has that!
The engine frames were a nightmare to remove, as the captive nuts in the sills just sheared off. Some very very delicate work with an angle grinder and cutting disc was needed here. I’m reusing the frames, as the only damage was to the picture frame where mechanics in the past
had incorrectly used it as a jacking point. Otherwise they were rust free, so it was a case of careful removal.
at this point I had to start being very careful, as the bonnet area is a third of the car and the engine, gearbox, suspension and bonnet make up a significant proportion of the weight of the car. With all this gear removed, most of the weight was biassed to the rear and of the car and I needed to be careful it didn’t tip off the ramp.
I’d forgotten to mention last month that the first job of any restoration is to remove the fuel tank for obvious safety reasons. This was a real fiddle to take out, as someone had welded extra brackets in place over the years. However, with a bit of delicacy the tank was removed and I similarly took off and stored the original fuel tank brass labels. The fuel line bulkhead fittings were also removed and, in the pictures you can start to see some of the poor welding that’s been done over the years – an example being the boot floor, which is a poorly formed sheet of steel pop riveted in place.
next job was to start carefully removing the E-Type’s tailgate, doors and side glass. The doors were easy to remove apart from one bolt that proved difficult to access. On the other side of the car some one else had encountered the same problem and had cut a huge hole in the inner skin to get over the problem. The ¼ light glass chrome was in lovely condition but will be rechromed anyway, but the screws proved very difficult and in some cases required real care to remove without damaging the chrome or the interior trim sheet steel. removal of this certainly exposed some metal work below that was a tad corroded. next month we will move onto the rear axle and interior.
An example of poor repairs on the E-Type was the boot floor, which was a poorly formed sheet of steel pop riveted in place