2004-10-19 20:11:14 | pauls writes:

Ebay item 10/19/04
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll
Opening bid $25,000.00, no reserve, no bids yet, 5 days left in auction. The numbers given for the car by the seller are:
Car # CN72451 Body # 2R28705 Engine # 7R128249 Gerbox # DA200094. Those can't be totally accurate but some numbers may be correct.

Sellers description:
Car is entirely rebuilt -- from the ground up.

Rebuilt rear differential -- limited slip.

New brake system -- calipers rebuilt, new pads, new lines, master cylinders and power brake booster rebuilt by Apple Hydraulics.

New air conditioning lines -- air conditioning works great.

All new wiring -- every wiring harness element available from XK's Unlimited was purchased and installed. There are still a few wires that are original, but their connecters were cleaned up and replaced as necessary.

All rocker switches rebuilt. Each contactor cleaned, lubed, and tested. Plastic housings replaced as necessary.

All instruments rebuilt by Nisonger Instruments. All but the speedometer, which I thought worked fine, but it turns out that it reads a little fast.

3-core radiator. This radiator could cool a Mack truck. Car runs cool all summer -- even with the A/C.

All seven relays rebuilt. I took each of them apart and rebuilt them.

New thermostats -- both the mechanical and the thermal electric stat -- the two cooling fans operate as directed by the thermostats and automatically when the A/C is engaged.

Rear-window electric defroster system rebuilt.

Electric antenna is not a Jaguar unit -- it's a SAAB unit, and it is fantastic.

Entire interior is new -- supplied by OSJI of Muncie, Indiana. Interior was fitted and installed by OSJI, Erickson Auto Interiors of Madison, Wisconsin, and myself.

Stereo is 4-speaker AM-FM / CD / XM capable. You'll see from the photos that the flat, black face does not detract from the aesthetic of the old Jag's interior. Notice also both the custom made speaker boxes in the rear (removable for hard-core car shows), and the upholstered shims at the front speakers that allow good 5-1/4" speakers up front (the original Jag speakers are thin, with whispy magnets). Of note: I still have the original AM/FM/Shortwave radio for the car -- I've considered slicing off the front face of it and putting it in place of the removable face of the stereo for car shows.

Body work and paint was done in its entirety by Mark Baker, of Sport and Specialty, Rockford Illinois. No expense was spared. Workmanship is incredible. Sport & Specialty also rebuilt the differential, and did a bunch of the powder coating.

Engine was meticulously rebuilt by Ray Freidwald, Janesville, Wisconsin. The rebuilt engine features 9:1 compression pistons rather than the 8:1 pistons that were original to the car. Ray mostly does historic racing cars, but he did this work for a friend.

The two original Stromberg Carburetors were replaced with three SU carburetors, rebuilt by Joe Curto. I still have the original carbs and intake manifold.

I bought winged knock-offs to replace the original wheel nuts. I love knock-offs, but I still have the originals as well.

I polished those 30+ year old wire wheels until my fingers bled. Literally. This was a forgettable, grueling part of the many-years restoration of this car.

All the bushings, ball, joints, tie-rod ends etc. in the suspension are new.

I carefully re-worked the windshield wiper system. The squirters work, both speeds of the wipers work, and they even self-park!

The fuel tank was refurbished by Gas Tank RenNu, and the fuel level sensor was replaced. The "low fuel" light on the speedometer works perfect.

The brake warning light works as well, both when the parking brake (which is fully rebuilt and works perfect) is set and when (if) the brake fluid level is low.

I rebuilt the switches in the brake fluid reservoirs.

The entire fuel system is new. This includes the fuel pump. I bought a new SU fuel pump, and had a terrible time trouble shooting irregular running characteristics until I discovered that my new pump was no good. Then I bought a second new fuel pump, this time a non-SU, and it works great.

I tried hard to rebuild the locks in the door handles, because I thought the originals would be better than replacements. There was a broken part that I couldn't manage, so I bought the replacements, which, sure enough, aren't very good. I should have bought new door handle assemblies complete. They work fine, though.

Lots of the chrome trim is new, but the main pieces -- the bumpers, are not. The chrome's not perfect, but it's good, and they're not dented.

I never purchased chrome trim for the rain gutters, so that still needs to be done. It costs something crazy like $150.00 each side.

All the switchgear in the steering column is rebuilt. The horn button on the turn signal stem is cool. Unfortunately, I didn't center the steering shaft properly when I installed the steering rack, and as a consequence the turn-signals don't self-cancel as they should. I'm not taking the steering rack out just to make the turn signals self cancel properly, but you can if you want to.

When I purchased the car, which was disassembled and partially rebuilt at the time, the steering rack was missing. I had recently read a critique of a Series II E-Type by John Surtees, and he disliked the lack of road-feel from the slushy power steering. I purchased and installed a manual steering rack from a Series I car. I've still got the power steering pump and hoses, if you're interested.

I met Mr. Surtees at Road America a couple years ago. Nice guy.

The tires are new. The redline tires look great on the car. The spare tire is new as well. All were purchased from Coker Tire. Prior to purchasing the tires (and prior to knowing how torturous polishing the wheels was going to be), I had the opportunity to fit the car with a set of wide tires on new Dayton wire wheels (a client of mine was building a V-8 powered hot rod E-Type) to see if I'd like them better than the originals. I was sure that I'd love the wide wheels and tires, but I didn't.

All the rubber on the car is new. I'm not saying that the car doesn't leak when you run it through the car wash, I'm just saying that all the rubber is new.

The windows crank up and down nice and smoothly, the doors close solidly, the bonnet and rear hatch work perfectly.

I re-built and replaced all that was necessary to make the front license plate fold flat as you open the bonnet. This is a very fun feature of the car to show people who don't know E-Types.

All the hoses are new. You'll notice that I didn't purchase a set of original style hose clamps. I didn't purchase those original style wire-ties for tying stuff to the frame either. If you need these, they're easy to change out.

I have the original distributor in-tact, and it works perfectly. I installed, however, an electronic ignition system (in a different distributor), because I love, and am familiar with this system. I installed the brain-box with double-sided tape behind the steering rack.

The exhaust system is old (calendar years) but nearly new use-wise. I have wrapped the down-pipes with black heat-shielding wrap (header-wrap). It is very discrete, and fantastic at keeping the heat away from the A/C hoses. The air conditioning was a dealer installed option, and wasn't engineered as well as it could have been.

I have not installed any "stickers" in the engine compartment. I own quite a few of them, but have not researched enough to be comfortable fixing any into place.

I took extra time carefully -- very carefully making the myriad ground wire connections good, and long-lasting.

The clutch disk, pressure plate, and throw-out bearing are new.

The clutch master cylinder was rebuilt by White Post Restorations, and the slave cylinder is new.

There's a new pneumatic bonnet-strut.

All light bulbs are new, including those in the dash.

The interior light goes on both with the dashboard rocker switch and when either of the doors are opened. The map light works appropriately as well.

The posi-traction works perfectly.

The heater works great. Both fan speeds.

The A/C works with its various fan speeds as well.

The floor mats that I got from OSJI don't fit very well. They've been bugging me since I completed the interior. Only the other day it occurred to me that perhaps the floor mats I've got are for a flat-floor car. I'll take this up with OSJI in the next few days.

The back-up lights go on when you shift to reverse, and the license plate light works as well.

Regency red, and a light beige interior. Fabulous.

Prior to my registering the car in 2002, it had last been registered in 1976. I still have the license plate. Mileage is about 43,000 -- I haven't read the odometer lately. The car was originally owned by a woman in Iowa, and was driven until it dropped a valve in the mid 70's. The fellow I purchased the car from, my friend Ron Slavin, had purchased the car from a used car lot in Iowa around 1980 in an ill-fated attempt to make money in the exotic-car marketplace. Ron moved the car from shop to shop over the years, and had amassed well over $30K in receipts by the time I purchased the car from him. The car was partially in paint at the time, and all other parts were in various states of restoration / rebuilding. The money doesn't matter though -- it is water under the bridge. The tens of thousands of dollars I spent additionally, and the four years of my spare time put forth don't matter either.

I believe that the alterations I made from stock were all appropriate. Each one makes the car better, and there's no real point in making a concourse-correct Series II coupe. Also, converting the car to purely original would be a matter of simply installing the original parts provided with the car (and purchasing a power steering rack).

I did mention the quality of the body, didn't I? There was a section of the floor replaced when the body work was done, but this car is fabulous.

Once I sell the car, I'm going to take the money and begin building an airplane. I'll sell the car any day for $35K, or I'll sell it to the highest bidder I can find in the near future. One thing is clear - I'm going to sell it soon. It could easily cost $100K to have this much work done.