As we are typically building cars for people thousands of miles away, it is always a treat for us when we have a local customer who can pick up his or her car personally. In this case, motorcycle legend Kevin Schwantz and his faithful friend Tank visited CJ earlier this morning to pick up Kevin's E Type. They should be easy to spot out and about in Austin!

Chris Scarborough explaining all the controls and switches to Kevin	It has been a thrill for Chris to work on his hero's E Type!
Time for a test drive!	Kevin and Tank ready for the open road!

We had lots of fun road testing your car yesterday, and even strapped on the Go Pro camera to capture some of the sights and sounds on film for you. Click on the image below to link to the video.

Click on the image above to view a 5 minute video of road testing (filmed 12/14/15)

Fine tuning the engine on the chassis Dyno..

Team CJ Stage Two 4.7L engine is putting down some impressive numbers on the chassis Dyno (click on image above for video clip)

Stage Two 4.7L engine developing huge torque	Great power output even in conservative street tune

Your Stage Two headers and exhaust system have now arrived and we are only a day or two from firing her up!

Weber carbs now installed
	Team CJ Stage Two headers and exhaust

Engine and transmission now installed...

	Engine bay filling up rapidly
Grade 8 fasteners used throughout	Koni shocks front and rear
	Almost ready for the 45 DCOE Webers

I am pleased to report that we have now installed the rebuilt IRS and the car is almost ready to set back on its wheels. We have also begun the process of installing the new wiring loom, and we have received your stunning Borrani CJ wire wheels. Lots of progress!

New fuel line fabricated and installed beneath car	Rebuilt IRS now installed
	Almost time to put the car back on its wheels
Pedal box rebuilt and reinstalled, new clutch and brake master cylinders	Laying new wiring loom in place
Installing the new dash harness	Stunning Borrani CJ wheel

Installing steering rack, front suspension, brakes, etc..

Installing new stainless steel heater pipes behind the firewall	Wiper motor rebuilt and rewired
Vented brakes, uprated Poly suspension bushings, rebuilt steering rack..

Installing the new engine side frames and picture frame..

New grade 8 fasteners used to assemble frames	Front suspension will be installed next

Your firewall has now been stripped, repaired, primed and painted..

Going back together with the IRS assembly...

Differential has been completely rebuilt	Rebuilt front brake calipers moved to the rear
	Uprated CJ springs and Koni shocks

Lots of progress in the CJ machine shop..

Machining relief in main cap for stroker crank	Billet oil pump also needs to be modified to clear stroked crankshaft
Torque plate cylinder hone in progress
Balancing new clutch with ultra lightweight CJ flywheel	Rear suspension components powder coated
Firewall will be stripped and refinished
Rusted inner dash heater pipes will be replaced with new stainless steel pipes

Nickel plating front suspension, polishing engine valve covers, etc..

Front suspension and handbrake components prior to plating	Front brake calipers will be relocated to rear to keep balance with new upgraded front brakes
	142 items were Nickel plated
	Engine valve covers, repaired and polished

Lots of progress in the CJ machine shop in the last couple of weeks! We have performed align hones of the block and cylinder head, repaired a hole between an intake runner and a neighboring water jacket, made huge gains ont he flow bench following our port work, and completed the cylinder head machine work. The short block rebuild is in progress..

Align honing the cam saddles after straightening the head
Setting cam bearing clearances	With liners removed, Magnaflux testing revealed cracks between the deck and water jackets
One of the cracks visible above the upper water jacket	Machining the valve seat pockets
Previous shoddy work grinding main caps	Main housing itself had been adjusted by grinding
Align hone in progress	Note how rough exhaust ports were before we did our port work
	Port work in progress
Port work will result in huge gains on the flow bench	Porting the intake runners
Corrosion and porosity issues between an intake runner and water jacket	The wall between the chambers is too thin to repair with weld
A tapered plug kit will be used to correct the issue	Drilling the intake runner to receive the plug
	Cutting the tapered threads
	Plug screwed into place
Plug before both ends are machined flush	Pressure testing at 40 psi - problem solved
Machining the tappet guides for oversized tappets	Setting desired valve stem to guide clearances
Matching new custom CJ seats to venturis
Flow testing head after port work	We picked up more than 54 cfm in the intake
Machine work now completed
	Machined head now painted gold

We have now removed the front and rear suspension and have the IRS rebuild underway.

	Front engine frames and suspension removed
Car placed on a rotisserie jig	IRS on work bench ready for tear down
	Diff, suspension and brakes will all be upgraded
Both radius arms are damaged and will be replaced	Cage and wishbones will be blasted and powder coated
Rear splines are worn, hubs will be replaced	Rear brakes will be upgraded to 2 1/8 inch calipers

Damaged water jackets will be milled back into shape	Grinding out the worst of the corrosion prior to welding
Excess weld will eventually be milled and surfaced	Etching the desired shape of the water jackets
Machining the water jackets on the mill	Measuring the custom top hat sleeves
Machining out a frozen water jacket plug
	Installing a threaded steel insert
Baseline flow testing the head	Flow numbers for exhaust ports
Flow numbers for the intake ports	New crown wheel and pinion will solve the growling rear end!

We now have your Stage Two 4.7L engine rebuild underway.

Cylinder head looks recently serviced	Disassembling the cylinder head
Excessive tappet guide wear	Measuring cam saddle warpage
Pressure testing head - OK	Head has some corrosion issues that will be addressed during the rebuild
	Billet stroked crank and other goodies that are incorporated in a CJ Stage Two rebuild
Forged Carrillo rods	Billet CNC machined RBR oil pump

I am pleased to report that we now have this project underway. First task is to remove the engine and transmission for rebuilding.

Engine and transmission have now been removed
Crudely repaired engine frames will be replaced
	Time to get the Stage Two engine rebuild underway
Original 4 speed will be rebuilt

Before embarking on this project in earnest, we have given the car a basic service and tune so that the owner can enjoy a few miles behind the wheel before we tear everything apart. We have installed an Ignition 123 distributor, new plug wires and plugs, a Team CJ K&N filter set, changed the carb jetting and ignition timing, changed all the fluids, installed a CJ spin-on oil filter kit and tuned the car on the dyno. These simple steps saw an increase of around 39 rear wheel horsepower (to 169 RWHP). This equates to around 210 HP at the flywheel, which is a fairly typical number for a stock 4.2 E Type engine. We will be looking to increase that dramatically when we perform a Team CJ Stage Two rebuild, taking the cubic capacity to 4.7 liters by virtue of a stroked forged crank.

Changing needles and tuning carbs	Team CJ K&N filter kit
Tuning the ignition curve of the new Ignition 123 distributor
Prior to tuning - 130 RWHP	After tuning - 169 RWHP

I am pleased to report that your car has arrived safely at Classic Jaguar and we will have the work underway very soon..