Disassembly is easy to do but it can also be the undoing of an ongoing restoration. That’s been a clear lesson in project car ownership for yours truly: finish what you start. When life gets in the way, days can turn into weeks between improvement or rebuild jobs that get interrupted. What seemed easy to remember when you began tearing out the interior or rebuilding the motor can appear significantly more complicated when you finally get the time to put it all back together. For the owner of this 1967 Jaguar E-Type spotted here n eBay by reader Jim S, it looks like clearing this project out of his crowded garage might help get another car closer to completion!
I remember the first time I took apart the interior in my ’87 325is. It seemed pretty straight-forward to pull apart the center console, front and rear seats, kick panels, the parcel shelf, and so on. Even the steering wheel came off with ease. But when it came time to move the car and I had to throw it back together rather quickly, I completely spaced on how to rewire the horn and for a solid 15 minutes, the horn blared constantly! Not helping things was the fact that I had a compact Italian air horn installed, and as it pierced the air of my tiny storage garage and bounced off the cement walls, I nearly cut the wires in half to regain peace and quiet. I didn’t, just pulled a fuse, but it reminded me how important it was to watch how things came out so you can more easily put them back in!
For owners of projects like this one, it might get to the point where it’s easier to move it on to the next person for re-assembly. Just looking at the car in its disheveled state, especially when surrounded by other projects in similar condition, can likely seem overwhelming. If you read the ad, you’ll notice this closed-headlight E-Type Series 1 is in New York while the seller is in Los Angeles. I have a hard enough time managing parts and car storage within a 5 mile radius; it seems unfathomable to do it from across the country. But then again, if it was safely stored with friends or family, it may actually be almost too easy to sock away projects wherever I found them! Perhaps it’s a good thing my network is almost exclusively on the eastern seaboard.
I tell my wife often my goal in life is to live in a place where my garage is attached to the house and my projects are safely stored within. It’s such a simple pleasure, but I am deeply envious of people who can wake up, grab their coffee and wander out to the garage to tinker. This Jaguar is ripe for restoration, with minimal body rot and a ton of spares. Being an early car and a genuine 2-seater, not the less desirable 2+2 configuration, this E-Type will surely find a new home that brings it closer to as-new condition. I hope the seller keeps in touch with the new owner to see what could have been! So tell us, would the scale of re-assembly needed scare you away, or does this project E-Type represent the perfect opportunity to restore the car on your terms? Let us know in the comments below.
and yes, it is sold already. no surprises really as the seller tells us to call and not wait until the last minute to bid.
also selling an early avanti. the description of that one makes me wonder about true ownership. then that thought crept into this sale.
car was ready to be restored. hopefully someone got to check one off the list.
Hmmm… The logistics and descriptions in the two auctions would turn off all but the most dedicated buyers, especially the Avanti listing. The E-type listing might also be a problem because I couldn’t verify the chassis number on any of the four Jag E-type information sites I consulted because 4E23352 doesn’t correspond to any VIN series that any of the sites listed.
The E-type auction lasted only 2 days but got lots of bids up to $15K by the time the auction was stopped. It looks like a serious offer likely came in that the motivated seller accepted. The way E types are appreciating these days I’m not surprised that someone decided to take a chance on it.
What is the orange car on the lift next to the Jag? Miura?
Both the E type and the Avanti are scary projects that reek of disappointment and expensive surprises. The “life is too short” bell is going off loudly in my head…
I am always humbled when other folks projects get the better of them. There but for the grace of self awareness go I, says me. Except sometimes not. The advent of iphones has greatly simplified the “keep track of what was there and how it was” process…..until it doesnt.
Trying to get an ’82 Kawasaki running I took the carburetor apart and set it in a solvent bucket minus the rubber bits; and I didn’t take pix because I thought it too simple. Couple of days go by and I finally get around to putting the carb back together. Once in place, the bike ran but the throttle would choke out at high revs. Drove myself crazy taking the carb apart over and over trying to remedy the problem and finally surrendered to the inevitable Took it to a bike guy. $200.00 later and whatever hours of his fumbling he discovers that I left a plug off the bottom of the carb above the float. I deserved to pay for THAT stupidity. The plug sat on my work bench obscured by all the other detritus.
So lesson learned….again Document document document. Baggie baggie baggie.
Of course with this or the Avanti.it would be box….box…box…room…room…room
Hmm, the problem when restoring an E-Type is their Monocok chassis, the only way to do it really is to rent space at a specialists or at the Jaguar factory where they will have all the jigs required to take the car apart and put it back together without seriously expensive mistakes and the profesionals to help if you need it.
Calling Peter Egan. He redid one of these and it wasn’t easy.