1966 E Type roadster restoration

1966 E Type roadster (PP)
Team CJ restoration

Specification (briefly) for this project is as follows:

Total restoration with various performance and reliability upgrades

Update report - November 3, 2011

With extensive road testing completed, it is time for another total CJ restoration to head home!

We have now installed the rebuilt engine and have been busy breaking it in on the dyno. So far, everything is running perfectly!
I will post a video clip of a dyno pull for you next week.


Engine and Webers installed	Installing the new exhaust system


	Vented brakes up front


Tuning the car on the dyno	Combination of Webers and headers sounds fantastic

Your convertible top has now been installed and the engine bay is ready to receive the rebuilt engine and new CJ5/600 transmission.

The doors and interior door trim, as well as the windscreen and surrounding chrome have all now been installed, along with the convertible top frame. Next up will be the installation of the engine and CJ5/600 five speed.

Wiring the dash, gauges, etc...

Back on its wheels, installing new wiring harness...

Time to start going back together with this car...


We have received the first shipment of replated chrome..	Installing new engine frames


Carlos installing Dynamat to the cabin floor

The bonnet is the last thing to be painted...

More Signal Red paint...

Painting inside the cabin and boot compartment...


Masking freshly painted underside		Javier applying the Signal Red base coat

Time to apply the first of the Signal Red paint...


Underside will be painted first	Applying Rocker Guard prior to red base coat


		Cabin will be painted next

More chrome trial fit, repairing a rust damaged front bumper blade...

Trial fitting the chrome and brightwork...


Measuring and marking to drill holes for boot lid insignia		Trial fitting rear bumpers


	The challenge is to get A & B to be the same height...	Modifying screen pillar chrome


		Note how door top chrome now flows into screen pillar chrome

More sheet metal repairs...


Fabricating a filler panel for top of rh 1/4 panel


Repair finished off with lead	Lead loading the front of the rh door opening	Door top chrome initially fits very poorly with screen pillar chrome


After lots of welding, grinding and hammering, chome now fits well	Same repairs required at top of lh 1/4 panel


Lead loading at front of rh outer sill

The following sequence of photographs show Darrell replacing the lower edges of both front wings...


Lower edges of both front wings are cut away	New replacement panels are fabricated	Lower edges rolled around steel beading


Preparing to weld new panel in place		Leading edge of outer sill will be built up with weld to meet front wheel arch


	Finally the area is lead loaded	Process will now be repeated on left hand side of car


	Some major surgery on cowl	About to weld side cowl panel into place


Bonnet fitting process now virtually complete

Time to install the new engine frames and begin the process of fitting your bonnet. Fitting the bonnet, in this case, is going to be a bit of a challenge. With absolutely no fore/aft shims installed, there is still a huge gap where the bonnet meets the cowl. However, with a little ingenuity and a pair of CJ bonnet hinges, we should be fine...


Fabricating a new panel for right side of firewall		Welding new panel into place


Gerardo installing new engine frames		Trial fitting throttle housing and pedal box to new panel


Belly pan does not fit very well with front wings	Better...


Bonnet fit needs a lot of work!	CJ hinges with 1/2" additional throw will help	Back edges of front wings are pretty nasty and need work

Installing the new floors, rear quarters, outer sills, upper cowl, etc, etc.


Installing the new floors


Welding the new tranmission mound side panels into place	Darrell suddenly camera shy


Inner front dash cleaned back to bare metal then coated with epoxy	Trial fitting new cowl top panel


Spot welding new cowl top panel into place	Cutting away ugly old rear 1/4 panels	Trial fitting new...


Outer sill, door, 1/4 panel and front side cowl panel are all trial fitted together	Checking door bottom gap with trial fitted outer sill	Wurth Body Wax is applied to all inner surfaces


Darrell's room looking rather like a hospital operating room	Spot welding the license plate roof panel in place	Trial fitting new rear cowl panel


Lights are trial fitted before welding new 1/4 panels in place	Now to do it all over again on the other side of the car...

Lots of progress over the last few days..


New B pillar structures now welded firmly into place	All previously exposed bare metal 'weld zones' then sealed with epoxy primer	Wurth Body Wax is applied to all inner box sections


Starting to weld the lh inner sill in place


Screen pillar bases are completely rotten	Rebuilt with new sheet metal	Cutting away the last of the floor and trans tunnel


Trial fitting new floor cross member		More new panels waiting to be installed


New driver's door stripped of junk shipping primer		Fabricating and installing new rear bulkhead support brackets


Trial fitting new rear bulkhead

Fabricating, assembling, trial fitting and installing the entire left side B pillar assembly.


B pillar structure made up of lots of separate panels welded together		Trial fitting


Darrell welding the new structure into place

Reconstructing the rear end of your car...

We have had to buy and/or fabricate more panels to restore this car than any other E Type we have ever rebuilt. As well as showing some of the new replacement panels, the following photos show Darrell reconstructing the IRS chassis legs, which were paper thin and literally crumbling away.


Weld zones around edges of new panels are masked before priming		A pretty substantial collection of replacement body panels


IRS chassis legs were crumbling		Series of small panels had to be fabricated and installed first


	Trial fitting the IRS cage


	Wurth Body wax sprayed inside the box section	New chassis leg being spot welded in place


	These panels were fabricated from scratch	Engine rebuild in progress

We now have your car back from being media blasted and unfortunately, as we suspected would be the case, the news is not good. Virtually every square inch of the body is corroded and/or crudely patched. The good news is that we already have the restoration underway and it will be plain sailing from here on in

We have now reached the point where we have to tackle the bodywork on this project. Having spent the best part of a week cutting out mangled and corroded sheet metal, I have to say this is one of the worst condition cars we have seen. It is really, really nasty. Replacement panels have been crudely installed directly over the top of rusted origial panels - and there is barely any good sheet metal left to send off for media blasting. Having said all of that, rest assured that this car will be better than new when we are finished with it.


Bonnet is disassembled for media blasting	Cutting away old boot floor


	Both door shells were beyond economical repair	Double skinned and home made panels everywhere


Shipping primer is stripped from new replacement panels	Not a great deal left to send for blasting	Sorry looking engine frame


		New panels are sealed with epoxy primer

Time for final reassembly of the short block. The following pics show Harold carefully checking your main and rod bearing clearances.

Align honing the block, porting your cylinder head and Weber intake manifold.


Intakes are the first to receive attention	The plan is to match the intake ports to the cyl head ports, as closely as possible


The areas you can see in red will be carefully ground away	Factory manifolds, whether Weber or OEM SU, rarely match intake ports very well	Measuring the main caps (which were out of tolerance)


Min and max spec shown at bottom left	Grinding main caps square	Align honing in progress


	Mains now perfectly re-sized	Porting the exhaust side of the head

More progress with your Stage One engine rebuild...


Honing the block to the requisite size for the new sleeves		Water jackets clearly visible in this shot


Small crack between 3 & 4	New top hat liners	Chris performing a base line flow test on your head before porting


	A base line velocity test is also performed	Measuring main caps prior to align honing


	CJ Stage One engines feature forged pistons

The following sequence of photographs demonstrate very clearly why all Jaguar (3.8 and 4.2) XK engine blocks should be re-sleeved during the course of a full rebuild. The need arises because of concealed water jackets that are cut into the block, behind each of the cylinder walls (see photos below). These water jackets become blocked with sediment which petrifies over time and cannot be removed with the cylinder sleeves in place.
In photo # 4 below you can clearly see 'hot spots' on the reverse side of the sleeve Harold has just removed from # 6 cylinder of your engine. All CJ built engines are re-sleeved as a matter of course - and now you know why


Tapping all the threads on the block	Boring bar used to remove the old cylinders	Water jackets behind the sleeves are completely blocked up


Hot spots on the reverse side of the sleeves correspond to the blocked water jackets	This is why all Jaguar XK engines must be re-sleeved during a rebuild

Unfortunately, your cylinder head is badly warped. On the top side, across the cam saddles, we are measuring a .035" bow. There is also a .005" bow on the lower deck surface. Compounding this problem is the fact that the head has already been extensively resurfaced, so even if we straightened it out (which is possible), there just isn't enough material left to resurface the deck once it is straight.
OK, so that's the bad news. Fortunately, because this is not a 'matching number' head, we don't have to go to ridiculous extremes (and expense) to try to save it. The best solution is for us to provide you with a good core head and we will rebuild that instead.


Disassembling the cylinder head	Using a straight edge to measure warpage


Head is also warped on the bottom surface	Extensive machining in the past means there isn't enough material left for us to resurface the bottom of the head after straightening

We have your engine, differential and IRS rebuilds well underway.


Disassembling the IRS	Diff ratio is 3.07	Items being sent out for powder coating


Items for Nickel plating	Tearing down a very grubby engine


Evidence of problems in cylinder # 2	Some extensive corrosion will have to be dealt with during rebuild