XK Evocation - E-Type Restoration Tale

WK, the name our family originally awarded the rusting hulk has at last been officially christened. She is now called the Delta Lady and has a badge to prove it.

Close-up of the Delta badge mounted on the new dash

Close-up of the Delta badge mounted on the new dash

When I took the offside ‘A’ post apart, there tucked on the lowest level was something that looked like a piece of gold and amid the rust, distinctly foreign to the structure. Closer inspection revealed a winged badge of the American Delta Airlines. Some airline chap must have lost this years ago, and if I hadn’t torn the A post apart it would remained there forever.

Today it graces the all aluminium dashboard I have created, and if the original owner ever turns up, he, or even she might be pleased to know it has polished up beautifully and given WK a new name.

I have been a fan of Joe Cocker since he turned up at Woodstock and I am sure he will not mind me stealing his song title! Mad Dogs and Englishmen! Sure, I answer to both.

Delta Lady brings me nicely on to the female side of E-type ownership! Strange creatures, women! Perhaps they are from Venus!

My dear lady has taken to telling anyone who cares to listen that this project all came about simply because I acquired a job lot of lovely great fat Dunlop racing tyres for £20 a cover from a pal at Oulton Park Gold Cup last August.

Now there is a certain truth in that I was somewhat disappointed the tyres would not fit under the standard rear wings of the current 4264WK.

But to suggest that I have spent three months plus, and the GDP of a small African country rebuilding the beast’s original tub just to melt the rubber of a part worn set of racing tyres, is a little far fetched.

The trouble is no-one believes this, and Rita’s words are set in tablets of stone! Counter claims that my sole desire is to restore a piece of motoring history sounds nothing like as entertaining.

‘Did you hear the one about a guy who bought some old tyres for 80 quid and then spent £8,000 rebuilding a car to fit them?’ Total fiction of course, an urban myth in creation, but a great tale nonetheless!

Flashback to February 14: all rust and holes

Perception is reality! There is no doubt about it, and I was reminded of this when I displayed the partly restored tub of the E-type alongside the current WK at Cheshire premier classic car show in Tatton Park in early June. What’s more I spent a couple of hours polishing the package – a very rare occurrence I can assure you.

I have never been a member of the Ancient and Honourable Order of Auto Glym-mers and if I had any influence over my MP I would insist he introduce a private members bill outlawing the activity of polishing classic cars to death with hanging as punishment for persistent offenders. One small can of Auto Glym should last a life-time!

I still hold the Jaguar Drivers Club’s historic ‘replicar’ chairman, Ron Lea among my motoring heroes. We both joined a line-up of replica D’s at RAF Cosford for a Jaguar celebration some years ago and were surprisingly confronted by a group of men in bow ties, check shirts and clip boards.

With a measure of hubris only amateur car show judges can muster, they explained they were conducting the concourse competition as if it was a God given right.

Ron gave them short shrift and sent them packing with a reminder that D’s were built to be raced hard by real men and not for the likes of the yellow duster brigade. They didn’t understand!!!

Despite my usual neglect of a wash leather and polish, my earlier D-type replica was a massive crowd puller at car shows and race tracks, and it was estimated that it probably drew five times as many enthusiasts than any other car on show when it was taken to Tatton.

March 28: Peter prepares a new boot floor

The judges responded accordingly. Despite the fact it was a replica, they awarded the D ‘Best Car in Show’ a couple of years back and never failed to give it some or other prize in the Jaguar class.

Then I take a genuine E-type and a spare tub with a fascinating history and the judges didn’t give it a second look! Perhaps its heavenly retribution for long holding the view that the E, especially when compared with the D or C, is a bit of a hairdresser’s car!

This partial lack of respect is not, I hasten to add, the reason that today, three months down the restoration line and with confidence growing by the day – well earned or otherwise - there are few parts of a car I wouldn’t think twice about hitting with a big hammer if I thought it appropriate. But there are times when I even I bottle it!

My latest batch of Cliko clips arrived in the nick of time.

My entire collection – now almost uncountable – were employed en-masse to secure those wonderfully fat racing wings so beautifully created by RS Panels of Nuneaton. Then for days I unclipped them, rearranged them, sighted them up, measured the respective contours of the wings and finally plucked up the courage to snip off the excess metal. My hands were shaking!

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