2006-08-26 07:22:20 | pauls writes:

Ebay item 8/26
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jaguar-E-Type-1972-Jaguar-E-Type-XKE-2-2_W0QQitemZ280021 ...
Current bid $1,136 reserve not met, 5 bids, 5 days left in auction.

Sellers description:
This car has been my daily driver for the last eighteen years. The exterior is in very good condition, the chrome is close to perfect, and the five year old paint is very shiny. The only damage is in the right rear quarter panel, where a tire delaminated a few years ago, and slapped the body work. There are a few other chips at the edge of the bonnet, driver and rear hatch door. The interior is mostly original; worn, as you might expect from regular use, but still fairly presentable and serviceable. The engine and transmission is correct but not original. Everything works fine mechanically, but the engine leaks significantly. The engine starts easily, runs strong and cool, with a recently re-cored radiator, and shows 25psi of oil pressure at 1000rpm. Oil pressure is accurate because I change to a direct pressure read gauge instead of the unreliable electric one.

I am selling the car, because I’ve finally bought the roadster I’ve always wanted and can’t keep two.

History
I bought this care, sight-unseen, from a guy in Utah through an ad in the Auto-Trader. When I got the car it ran, but not very well. The history, that was related to me, was that there was one owner before the guy I bought if from. When the car was about five years old, it was in a repair shop where someone broke in and stole the engine and instruments out of this car. The guy I bought it from replaced the engine, instruments, and had the heads rebuilt. He had it for five years and never drove it because it didn’t run well. When I got the car in August of 1988, I discovered it had two bent valves and two of the carburetor diaphragms had holes in them. I replaced those items and the car ran great. I drove it for about six month to see what other issues it had, and when I didn’t find any, I parked it for a year to restore the body.

Body Restoration
I restored the chassis by sandblasting it down to the bare metal. After stripping it down, I found it had been hit in the driver’s door and rear quarter panel. Since my intent was to drive the car, I did not replace the panels, but worked out the dents, as well as possible, and used a very high quality, lead filled filler to complete the repair. The bonnet was completely disassembled, each piece individually sand-blasted, epoxy primed, reassembled with new seam sealer, epoxy primed again, and them finally painted. Living in Florida, I was very sensitive to doing a good job of rust-proofing. The final exterior paint was done with a modern Amerflint paint, matching the original Ascot Fawn color as close as possible.

My First Decade of Use
I drove the car daily as my primary means of transportation for about the next ten years. In that time period, I replaced the driver and passenger seats, and the armrest with new ones, from Bartlett’s. The automatic transmission began to slip in 1992. I discovered that the transmission was just an American made Borg Warner, Model 12, so I called the most reputable transmission shop in town and ask if they can rebuild these. The guy said “no problem, we do those all the time”. The next weekend, I pulled the engine and transmission out, had it rebuilt, and back in the car two weeks later. While I waited, I took the opportunity to replace all six shocks, two in the front and four in the back. The only other mechanical problem I had was the front brakes. The pistons were constantly dragging and overheating the rotors. I replaced the pistons with stainless, put in new caliper seals, rotors, pads, etc., and haven’t had another bit of trouble since. (I also just put new front and rear pads on this year). The original electronic ignition has been replaced with a new upgraded digital electronic module based on recommendations from XKs-unlimited, a a reliability measure for a daily driver.

Second Decade of Use
In 1998, I went overseas for a year and left the car with a friend who drove it once a month to keep the fluids circulating. When I got back, I decided the paint was looking a little faded, so I took off all the chrome, glass, and rubber and had it professionally painted with a base coat/clearcoat. This paint you see in the pictures today. I also had the front bumpers re-chromed because there was an area where the original chrome was delaminating. While I was at it, I had the front grill chromed. That seemed to be made out of a low quality stainless that I could never really seem to keep shiny. I also put in a new stainless steel exhaust system, with the correct four outlet resonator. I also install a complete, all new rubber seal kit. Also, about this time, I was changing the plugs and noticed one of spark plug threads were becoming galled and stripped. Rather than trying to do an insert in place, I pulled the head off, and had the whole head replaced with one rebuilt by XKs Unlimited. I also replaced all the mounting studs when I installing the new head, set the valve clearances and cam timing. Engine runs quiet and smooth with very little noise from the valve tappets.

Recent years
For the last five years, I have done very little with the car except drive it. But it is getting to be in need of some attention. Here is a list of the things, other than what I have mentioned that need attention.

1. Right turn signal not working
2. Horns not working
3. Speedometer and Tach. not working.
4. Headlight high beams not working….low beam do.
5. Windshield wiper motor works but linkage is broken. Hard to fix without removing the windshield. I use “Rainex” once a month.
6. Driver side rubber air filter breather hose elbow needs to be replaced.
7. Heater valve cable sticks and has to be helped
8. Fuel gauge works some of the time, often is stuck in the full position……….probably the sending unit snagging at the top of its motion.
9. Temp guage not working.
10. Sun visors out of car and need to be recovered.
11. A/C not working. Always had a small leak forcing me to recharge it after about 3 months. I quit recharging it after the price of R12 went past $6/can.