Last week Butch & Patrick stripped out this series 1 E-type  to get it ready for refinishing and a little judicious straightening.  There are two methods for extracting a six cylinder E-type engine, the “Up & Out” method pictured here, and the “Down & Out” method whereby you lower the engine past the chassis sub-frame into your pit.  Not having a pit, or a sharp enough chain-saw to make one, we used the first method, which always works.  

In order to gain sufficient clearance for engine removal, the torsion bars & front suspension need to be temporarily disconnected.  This picture is a pretty good illustration of some of the sheer genius that went into the making of the E-type.  50 years on it’s still an incredible design.  

An unusual event:  The full crew working on the same project.  Butch, Patrick, John & David push the E-type back into storage on a sunny 10 degree winter day.  Now we’re waiting for the summons from Jason Marechaux to deliver it to East Coast Collision & Restoration for some serious freshening up.  

  Next week: An MG progress report

 

 

   Jason Marechaux of East Coast Collision & Restoration in Mount Holly, Vermont fits up a new door post on a Morgan +4 body tub, the old timber no longer being suitable even for kindling. When we first got our hands on this car the doors didn’t close, but we were able to fix that simply by taking out the engine & gearbox, which took the load off the broken chassis.  

 

Here’s a better look at what was underneath the sheetmetal, no surprise here really, the exterior  panels were pretty sad looking, too.  While many of these timbers are available at a price, the decision was made to fabricate them in-house at East Coast Collision & Restoration, thereby saving the owner both time and money.  

 

Applying wood preservative to the wooden body frame.  Just behind Jason’s right elbow is a sheetmetal panel in the process of being formed on the Pullmax Power Hammer.  On the wall in back are pulling chains for collision work.  

 

And here’s what the Pullmax can do in skilled hands:  A new quarter panel on the rebuilt body tub.  Here are two esoteric  craftsman disciplines coming together very nicely.  Above the open cabinet door is the forming buck for the rear wheel arches.  

   Can we have something built for you ?

 

  Repaired and newly fabricated sheetmetal panels get a trial fit up on the finished wooden body frame.  This is skilled work that very few “body men” can really do anymore.  Here at Sports Car Services we are doubly fortunate, we work closely with two restorers who work to these standards every day.

   Very soon we’ll be taking you for a quick look around Sports Car Specialties,   the establishment of Jon Thompson in Grafton, New Hampshire where one of our Austin Healey projects, which has been completely rebuilt from the frame up, including the frame, is receiving its outer sheetmetal right now.  Scan back to our January wrap up for another look at that remarkable car.

All good repairs begin with a road test.  In this case the repairs will be quite extensivebecause this E-type Jaguar is coming apart for painting and structural & mechanical reconditioning.  It was worthwhile, for instance, discovering ahead of time that the gearbox was jumping out of 2nd & 4th on the overrun, but taking off the console and the shift boot fixed that, and we have a good general sense of what we’ll be working over on this end after Jason Marechaux at East Coast Collision has worked over the sheet metal and paint work on his end.

You’ve heard it on these pages before, Road Test & Compression Test.  This Jaguar was losing coolant and overheating,  so it also got a cooling system pressure test which revealed several loose hose clamps and a slight head gasket leak under the exhaust manifolds.   Butch tightened the hose clamps, but we’ll be dealing with that head gasket leak when we strip the engine.

Since everything was thrown together quickly, it’s also coming apart quickly.  The headlights were held in with sheet metal screws, very classy !  Patrick has marked out the bonnet for the correct replacment hardware.

Back in the day there was another Coventry in-line twin cam with hemispherical combustion chambers in as well…

While Bill Lyons was building his SS 100’s in the late ’30’s, over across town another manufacturer was building a four cylinder twin cam hemi which Lyons and his director of engineering Bill Heynes were paying very close attention to.

While Jaguar were building their quasi-bespoke SS & Jaguar cars, Hugh Rose, a former Riley engineer, designed a very spanky 1500 cc engine for the Lea-Francis firm.

Does this timing arrangement look familiar ?  The nose of the idler sprocket shaft is housed in the timing cover, which has been removed for access.  A small amount of  vernier adjustment is available via the slotted bolt holes on the idler chain wheel.

Utilizing “the wrong tool”and with the idler sprocket removed, your scribe has clamped the intake cam position while he adjusts exhaust cam timing.

Something interesting is going on downstairs, too.  Underneath the legend 584-550 (no, it’s NOT a Moss Motors part number !) is theLaystall Engineering trademark.  This was an expensive top of the line crankshaft forged from EN 16 alloy by the same manufacturer who built the cranks for the Formula One Cooper Climax race cars.

An ad placed by Laystall Engineering in “The Autocar” commemorating the launch of the Aston Martin DB 4.

“T” series MG guys are always on the lookout for “Laystall-Lucas” high performance alloy cylinder heads.  I’d be looking for the cranks

A Lea Francis 14 Sports, resplendent in deep blue, at Sports Car Services.

Next up:  Triumph, Healey, Morgan.  Some cars in the pipeline at East Coast Collision & Restoration in Mount Holly

 

 

We retrieved this gorgeous Old English White MGB from Tullio at Ash Creek Classic Motors in Bridgeport, Ct. on Monday.  We believe it to be an authentic overdrive equipped 1966 car.

There are still a few squirrely problems to sort out, a large number of missing parts being one of them, but we expect to have this car in running order sometime around Easter.

In keeping with the overall intent to put together an attractive, well sorted car, we started by stripping out the brakes & suspension, and there underneath an indeterminent amount of grease, grim and overspray were some relatively new king pins and recently overhauled brake calipers, although their exterior condition provided no clue as to what we were going to find on the inside.

 

John can be seen here cleaning down brake and suspension parts prior to a trip thru the bead blast cabinet, and a coat of etch primer and paint.

 

And this is Patrick setting up the supplied short block for installation of a VP11BK performance cam from APT in Riverside, California.  This cam pulls hard from about 1800 rpm thru roughly 5700 rpm with a three degree advance, but we’re kicking the advance up to five degrees to move the power band down lower, which should make it even more user friendly for casual touring… with a little something extra in reserve.

 

Butch has soldiered thru an absolutely ghastly bout of “You Are The Craftsman” with a carpet set which the West Coast manufacturer consistantly trimmed a little too short, and he has also had to repair a number of interior panels which the new carpet rendered a little too shoddy to leave alone.  This TR6 was recently painted at East Coast Collision & Restoration in Mount Holly by Eddie Johnson working with Jason Marechaux, and it’s a wonderful subltle metallic blue.

 

Your correspondent is also soldiering away on this 1949 four cylinder Twin Cam Hemi LEAF engine, and in the accompanying picture is installing the center and rear main bearing scantlings onto the crankshaft.

We’re busy here, but not too busy to talk to you about where you’d like to get to with your car.