1966 FHC (DS) Restoration Archives

The following pictures show the new Nardi Anni 50 wheel installed, as well as the gas tank and the interior side panels starting to go into place. The dark blue piping looks great against the light blue trim materials.

Watch for regular updates from this point forward!

Just a teaser of what is going on in David's trim room.............

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Report date - February 16, 2001

The bonnet looks even better on the car! A friend in Norway has described the progress photos of your car as Internet Porn...I think he was being complimentary ;-)

I am delighted to report that we now have the Kevlar bonnet back from the paint shop complete with its new extra length aluminium louvres and NACA intake vent. The car will be moved into David's trim room tomorrow morning (now that the XK 150S is finished) and I will take a bunch more photographs for you then.

This car is now getting VERY close!

We thought you might like to see how your new Wilwood vented brakes look on the car.

They register a Perfect 10 on the Team CJShiny Scale!

It was great to meet you during your recent visit to CJ. We love happy customers - and as the first two photographs below show, you may just be the most enthusiastic customer we ever had!

I am pleased to report that the car is coming along extremely well. David has begun the process of installing the interior, and has already completed the dash, wiring, headliner, gas tank and fuel lines. The new Triplex screen has been installed and every single piece of chrome trim has been trial fitted and sent for replating. The vented Lexan rear screen has been trimmed for fit and will be installed in the next few days.

Your car has reminded me of a long held belief - that the Series One E Type FHC is perhaps the most beautiful road car ever built.

I forgot to include the pictures you requested of the Nardi Anni 60 steering wheel - sorry!

Click on thumbnails to view larger images.

Starting to come together! The photographs below show the engine frames being installed, followed by the suspension, hubs, steering rack, torsion bars, adjustable reaction plate, etc, etc, etc. The rear end has also been bolted in place and the car is rolling once again.

Hope you are pleased with the progress!

Here you can see the fitting of the Kevlar bonnet. Obtaining the desired fit has proved to be a challenge, although I am pleased to say that it now fits perfectly with matching contour to the cowl and a beautifully uniform 1/8" gap all around.

Jeff has now put back the projected date when we will be receiving the fully painted body until Friday...we shall see!

The following photographs (taken around 3 weeks ago at Jeff Snyder's shop) show the car almost ready for paint. We are actually hoping to have the painted monocoque delivered back to us on Monday or Tuesday.

Look for some exciting photographic updates next week!

The following series of photographs show the rear suspension being completely rebuilt.

Our plan is to have the major mechanical components rebuilt and ready to install as soon as the painted body comes back from Jeff's in the next two or three weeks.

Click on thumbnails to view larger images - and allow plenty of down load time as there are quite a lot of photographs!

Happy 4th July from the crew at CJ.

It's been a little while since we updated you so we thought you might like to see some of the interior restoration going on while the body is still away at Jeff's being painted. (Jeff estimates that he has about another 4 weeks of work before we have the shell back at CJ).

Incidentally, the differential has now been rebuilt and John should be assembling the rear end for you over the next few days.

We did manage to find you an alternative core 4.2 engine (after the first core was found to have too many problems) and that is already at the machine shop in Illinois.

Hope you like the way the seats turned out!
 

The following photographs show the body following the paint stripping process. The only panels that will need to be replaced are the forward section of the right hand sill and one footwell. All in all, a remarkably rust free E Type!

The final photo shows the repaired frames being trial fitted.

Lots of progress since our last update!
 

The following photographs show your car once the engine and gearbox had been removed earlier this afternoon. This sequence of pictures also shows a novel use of bondo to fill the areas where the data plate and voltage regular is positioned and also a broken gear tooth that fell out of the transmission when we drained the fluid. Amazing that the gearbox worked as well as it did!

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Update report - February 19, 2000 (AM)

Today's photographs show the shell almost completely stripped out. Within the next few hours we should have the engine and transmission out and the body ready to be loaded up and taken off to Jeff at the bodyshop.

I hope you are pleased with the progress being made!
 

 

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Update report - February 18, 2000

David is currently stripping out all the old interior. By the middle of next week the car will be completely disassembled and the bodyshell, doors and frames will be delivered to my painter. If you are having second thoughts about the colour, now's the time to speak up!

Watch for regular updates over the next few days, including more photographs of the stripped out interior later today.

Editor's note: Although David is using the Dyno as a convenient work bay, I have to be honest and admit it will be quite a long time before your car is ready for dyno testing!
 

The following photographs show the new Suffolk & Turley interior featuring the contrasting piping that we specially ordered for you. I thought you might be interested to see your hides laid against another car at the shop we recently painted Opalescent Dark Blue. It really is a stunning combination.

The pictures also show the early 3.8 engine which has obviously been retrospectively fitted at some time before you owned your E Type. As per our discussion on the telephone, we will provide and build a 4.2 engine for your car.

The photographs of the carbon fibre bonnet show the additional venting that I ordered either side of the bonnet mouth. We will eventually run ducts to both front brakes during the construction process.

We hope you enjoy watching the car take shape and thank you for entrusting such an important project to the team at Classic Jaguar.
 

I am pleased to report that we now have your E type safe and sound at Classic Jaguar. A number of the high performance Team CJ components that you have specified have been set aside for you, including the triple Dellorto carb set up shown in the photographs below.

We look forward to beginning the project in earnest soon and will keep you abreast of progress through these pages. Look for regular updates after the first of the year.

Click on thumbnails to view larger images.