Restoration of XKE series III

Car cost almost $14,000. Average house in Toronto in 1974 was $44,000 ( we purchased out first house in 1971, a small 3 bedroom bungalow for $41,000), so say roughly 1/3 the price of a house. At that time USD was less than Canadian $. Now-a-days a toronto house is $600,000+. Equivalent would be $200,000 car. And purchase agreement shows tan interior - I know Leda ordered so she ordered tan interior with the hardtop $950 and automatic $350. The rustproofing obviously did not work out on these cars.
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Original shop manual and receipt
With it in 1974 was $32.70.
Original brochure # 250M 1/74. Some picture from it - beautiful brochure with schematics of engine and driveline work up.
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Don't know if I want
The girl or the car
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One more picture out of brochure before anyone gets bored. It really is a quality brochure with complete description of car.....not like current stuff.
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both

 

....until she comes home in may.
metal work and paint all done. Sophia being moved to new location for reassembly. Even though it was an overcast day, the dark blue colour was showing and it looked amazing....could see 6 feet into the car as if looking in a mirror.

sorry....I should have written down the paint code. but it is a 2 stage, and it is as close as possible currently to the original dark blue colour.
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as it turns out, the metal fabricator has a rear-end clip which has been sitting for a while and he no longer needs it. I was showing him the attached picture for a trailer which I had printed of the internet. he said for sure he could do this. still deciding but it does look really interesting and would definitely be a lowering of the sunglasses as one drives by.
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Hi,

That's most likely because what Jaguar called "Tan" was what you would call "deep brown" or "Pigskin" like the American football. Almost orange or tangerine in bright light.

What you most likely are looking for is what Jaguar called "Biscuit" in the 1950's and 1960's and "Cinnamon" in the 1970's. "Beige was very light, almost like later "Magnolia" or what Ferrari would have called "Crema".

I can get you some Connolly colour codes for referencing if you give me a few hours (or PM for e-mail) as I do have a few genuine Jaguar Connolly colour sample booklets and lots and lots of original colour charts with actual leather samples (but unfortunately without colour codes).

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.

 

Hi,

Well a friend of mine has for a long time had the idea of turning a Mini into a trailer he could have "follow" his Daimler Double Six Coupé. Matching colours, BRG of course.

I think just seeing an E-type with a tow-bar would be enough to raise a few eyebrows, right?!?

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.

 

Pekka, that would be great just for my reference.
The interior was actually completed by a shop about an year ago and has been sitting and waiting for the rest of the car to be finished. The colour is the same as the original unfaded areas.

some pictures of the car in 2015 before the metal work started.

using a dc motor with cable tied to the rafters of my garage, lowered the v12 and transmission onto my Subaru Baja bed. I drove like this for about 600 miles to deliver the engine to the shop. while I was driving, I could not go over 50mph as the rear weight was so much it was actually pivoting the front tires of the ground and at higher speeds there was to much shimming at the front.
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last set of final pictures. so great to see the pre what was stage, and what it looks like now.
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Hi,

Wow, some photos, yes it is quite a heavy unit, even if the block and heads are aluminum.



I guess my memory is fading, "Cinnamon" was mostly used with Regency Red, Sable, Turquoise and British Racing Green.

What was used with Dark Blue as standard (in late 1972 thru 1974 end of production) was Red (VERY strong contrast!) French Blue (never seen) and Biscuit.

Here's a link to a similar colour chart from late 1972: (the last one of those three photos)
Welcome to Jag-lovers - Members Photo Viewing Page

Some pretty wacky clolours they had back then (Like Heather/Cerise, Greensand/Olive) huh?

So I am 99% sure that ol' gal had a Biscuit interior, but only a JHT sertificate would confirm that. If you don't have one, I recommend getting it, it used to cost £30 GBP, now I think it is £40 GBP but it's really nice, and although I know Classiche does a lot more (regardless if you actually want it or not! but if you give them all the numbers you have (chassis, body, engine, gearbox) and all the info you have on first owner, registration etc. they will kindly verify what they have on the archive (build sheets) and the birthday and dispatch date from the Browns Ln. plant.

Jaguar Heritage. Heritage Certificate

In North America you have the option to get on locally as well, I am no sure of the details and cost, but here's a link:
Jaguar Certificate

Also looks to me as if the hardtop was painted body colour (Dark Blue) which is not uncommon, many owners had the hardtops painted in a matching colour to the body, although they all came in Black from the factory. I have a white OTS so I am thinking of getting a hardtop only because I think Black on White looks sooo cool.

But I love that Dark Blue too, it's really dark, I once built a 1:24 scale OTS and painted it Dark Blue, IIRC it also had a chromed luggage rack. Not sure I'd mount one now, but as a kid I thought it looked so cool too!

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.

 

I can confidently somewhat state the hardtop came in the body colour from the factor - dark blue. the only way it could have been painted, other than at the factory, was by the dealer prior to leda picking it up. but there are no receipts for it, there are no notations on the purchase agreement, and the purchase price is consistent to the pricing by the dealers at that time.
we have known leda since prior to her purchasing this car. my sister-in-law went with her to pick up the car and the pictures I recall were of the blue hardtop. leda kept every receipt, did not throw anything away, from the shop manual receipt, to the taxi receipt to picking it up after servicing. I do know that it was an order by leda and maybe one of the order parameters was that it was ordered body colour from the factory. maybe the dealer painted it, but there is no notation or invoice anywhere for it. the metal fabricator did the sanding and patching of the top. he confirmed original base from factor just as the factory did it, which has not been sanded down previously and the top coat was original (though badly faded and the front left had worn off). this guy has literally done a hundred e-type restorations and I am hopeful he knows what he is talking about.
I am not saying I am 100% correct....so at some point I will do more research in this area.
thanks for the directions in your replay....very much appreciate and I will follow up next month.
ciao.

 

just checked....it is $50 USD now-a-days based on the website information. for sure I will follow up next month when I return from some travel. again thanks for the directions.

 

Hi,

It's been a while, I hope you got the Heritage certificate (any useful info? any need for interpretation?) and your project will progress as planned.

After almost five months of winter layup I finally fired up the beast yesterday, as it was a nice day with some sunshine. Of course once I was out of the garage it had already gotten a bit cloudy. (and in the city I was being followed by a V12 F-car...)

BTW did you know that (albeit before Jaguar acquired it) Daimler, or actually Lanchester had a model in the 1950's called "Leda"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Conquest
"Presented as a new car, the 75 hp (1953–1956) Daimler Conquest saloon chassis and running gear had originated in the 1950 Lanchester Fourteen or Leda."

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.
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Engine also finished reassembly.
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Car being reassembled. Will deliver the interior to the shop next week.
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correcting the rotation of the pictures from I phone. rear view is distorted as probably from shaking from seeing the status of the car. really like this original dark blue colour.
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I've owned several XKE's of various years also. Oddly.......the most reliable of the unreliable lot was .........a 71 V12 Roadster.
I'd own another XKE in a second.
Even Enzo said it was a beautiful car.

 

Other than the soft and hard tops, delivered all the interior panels to the shop. My mom is happy to have had them removed from her den room where they have been resting for the past couple of years after having new leather fitted. I promised her I would have the 69 420G interior also removed by the end of this summer.
The engine is just a vision of loveliness, just patiently waiting to slip in-between the front leg rails. Rear is about 90 percent done. I should have taken pictures when I visited the shop yesterday.
With the exception of changing the front and rear bumpers to euro style ones from 1972 era, and a custom exhaust system which will still terminate in the stock quad outlets, everything else is being kept to stock.

 

Pekka, I have double checked. The restoration shop confirmed that the hardtop convertible only had the original colour of dark blue. it was not sanded down before. actually on the invoice (see picture of original invoice previous picture) it states "Colour Keyed Hardtop" and this was a customer ordered spec. As such, it would appear that a customer could order colour keyed hardtop if they were ordering and not picking up from dealer.

 

Hi,

Thanks, I believe you, no problem. It's just that the factory records only show that both the SWB and LWB hardtops were always painted black. But there any many small things they did not record either, so I am not saying it's impossible to have ordered a hardtop in a matching paint, but most of them were then painted by US dealers or first owners. But there are stranger things they sometimes did and did not bother to record it on the build sheet. (but most of those were show cars)

Did you get the colour information from the JHT certificate? Is it Dark Blue and Cinnamon, or was it something else? Lovely project, I hope you soon get to enjoy this smooth cruiser in action.

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.

 

Sold new in Canada but with US DOT spec bumpers and side markers? Did it have US emission equipment too? Why was this?

 

At that time, and actually the same today with the exception of a few minor items (ie Canada has DRL), it was really just a North American spec. Whatever was good for the USA was good for Canada. Thus Canada received the big ugly overriders just like the USA. The only difference was options, ie some manufacturers offered cold climate packages (rear defogger/defroster) which were not available in the USA. Emissions did not apply as cat converters did not arrive in north American until 1976 when unleaded gas became mandatory.

 

Delivered the soft top today. Need to fabricate a holder to deliver the hardtop to the shop next week. The engine looks so majestic sitting there. All the air lines for emission removed and holes threaded and plugged up so it looks like it was all stock. Rear end is in. Where I a more religious person, I would pray. Look at the massive engine holder (original from jaguar in UK) to hold up this engine. I am reposting a picture of when I delivered the driveline to the shop last year in my little Surbaru Baja.
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