look what popped up…! Dang, I can’t wait to hear mine!
T’will be interesting to see if there’s a bidding war in the last hour…mine went from 30k to 57k in that time frame.
I’m betting it will crest 100. Very strong interest in this one from the first day. It’s a very cool car with tasteful mods.
Looks like you called it. Just went over 100,000
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I have no experience doing body work, tinning, or painting.
#1. Were most of the Jag owners on this forum in the same boat and are were you also rookies that learned to do the work on your own cars? I need to save as much money on this '69 as I can, I just don’t want to get in too deep on things like the above if it is a waste of time/effort and won’t yield decent results for this future '69 driver. I’m pretty savvy at most things.
#2. Do these engine mounts look usable or should I replace them? If replace, is there a recommendation? Go to OEM or is there any advancements in material/design?
#3. I am trying to remove the lower ball joint/knuckle on the front wheel hub assy. It appears to be bigger than the upper two? I used a 3/4" ball joint separator on the top, but it doesn’t fit on the bottom. Same as top, rapping it hard with a hammer is not working. I’ve spent 10 minutes looking for a bigger ball joint tool, but haven’t found one. It was implied earlier NOT to use the fork tools to separate them. What now?
No, those mounts are junk, and Ill send you better ones, that cost FAR less than from ‘the usual suspects!”
Yes, many here learned to do bodywork in the commision of their restorations: with this gang, and YouTube, you too, can become a good amateur panel beater!
I didn’t and probably wouldn’t attempt body work, but I also didn’t need it. Can you weld? It’s an essential skill for doing your own body work on these cars. It’s a big savings but also a big learning curve and a lot of hard work.
The harbor freight tool I linked to will definitely work on the lower ball joint, at least it worked on mine. It is a larger nut than the uppers. 7/8 maybe? possibly 13/16.
Previous to my E-Type I had never even considered panel beating and lead work. After reading and Youtubing and help from Chuck at Monocoque Metalworks I undertook the panel beating. Came out ok BUT my plan is only to get the big stuff done that I wouldn’t trust a body shop to do. I have replaced panels, I have welded in fender bits, and I have replaced rusted out holes. I have also replaced tons of bondo with solid steel. I will be undertaking painting the underside of the bonnet this weekend again because I want it done right AND the paint doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. As to the exterior finish work, I want it done by someone who does it for a living.
Good luck and hey, what have you got to lose. Oh yeah, call Hagerty for insurance NOW! 
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Auto body work is an art form. It is sculpting in metal with a significant mathematical element.
I started doing body work when I was 18. '57 Chev coupe. Lots of fibreglass and bondo. Painted it with a vacuum cleaner attachment. I graduated to pop rivets and bondo doing up a '67 MGB, then a few years later to spot welds and Metalux when the rivets began to work loose. The B was my first ever paint job using a compressor - when I get around to shooting my current project it will be my last of a couple dozen. By the time I got to my first E-type body job, age 30, I started using oxyacetylene and slinging lead, which I carried through to XK120 bodywork. I graduated to MIG and body solder for the nut-and-bolt rotisserie resto of my '68, redoing the suboptimal work I’d done decades earlier, finally going to TIG a couple of years ago. I do not use plastic body filler. I consider myself to be a good body man, but it’s been a long road.
From observation the quality of bodywork done by many amateur restorers (and some so-called professionals) is generally not high. I’d say most restored E-types I’ve inspected critically were not done well, though they may look good from ten feet away. Conversely the very best restorations I’ve seen were done by talented amateurs who’ve put hundreds if not thousands of hours into them.
As Erica points out, if you’re going to do bodywork then you’ve got to know how to weld, and the better you are at welding the faster the job will proceed, the less the need for filler will be and the greater will be the longevity of the result.
But I wouldn’t recommend learning how on an E-type.
I sorta get your point, but, I learned on an Auburn Speedster…
Sure, there are pitfalls to an E, but nothing one cannot tackle, using this resource of crusty old men and women!
By all means, some preplanning and good equipment needs to be done and acquired, but I think Steve is up to the task.
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all!”
~Helen Keller
Steve;
If you have an interest in doing the work your car needs, and I don’t know what all the work is, and are willing to spend the time, over weeks, months or years, then get on with the effort. Take pictures and notes and ask all the questions you want. Get a book about welding, MIG (wire feed) is fairly easy to learn but it will take some practice. Some schools offer night classes in areas such as welding which should be helpful. Body work (welding) will be mostly 18 and or 20 gauge metal. The more you work at it the better you get. The same can be said for body solder and engine work and electrical work.
Many of us like the idea that ‘we did it ourselves’ and that does not always mean a sloppy or poor job.
Nick is correct in that to do a flawless job will require a dedicated effort. As you look at various cars, boats or whatever there are very few flawless examples.
Go for it!
Regards, Joel
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Some community colleges have body shop classes and they will let you bring in your car to work on. The instructors guide you along and you get help from other classmates, plus, they have the equipment. You have the car apart and I feel you will not be happy unless the end product is done right. Heck, the people on this forum are like instructors if you take the time to pick their brains for mistakes they have made and how to avoid them. You could almost do it with a forum search. Be careful to not get burned out. Take a break every so often. I almost sold my car twice in the six years it took.
“Flawless:” not a bad goal…but unrealistic, unless one is severely OCD, or you just want bragging rights.
These cars were sold in a FAAAAR from flawless condition, and, if I have my signals correct, Steve aint aimin’ for flawless (correct me if I am wrong,@69cat), he’s aiming for a good driver status.
Ive been very impressed with Steve’s willingness to ask questions, indicating he’s a noob, but always in the spirit of , “teach me, I wanna learn!”
Steve, keep on, keepin’ on, and I GARONTEE ya, the journey will long, arduous, expensive, and in the end, really fun!
Well it will be at least two out of the three… 
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“Flawless:” not a bad goal…but unrealistic, unless one is severely OCD, or you just want bragging rights.
snip
Steve, keep on, keepin’ on, and I GARONTEE ya, the journey will long, arduous, expensive, and in the end, really fun!
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Fer shure…3 outta 4! 
Flawless is a fool’s errand; an exercise in frustration and disappointment. Solid is a more realistic and essential amateur objective. As aesthetically imperfect as many if not most (if not all) E-types were as they rolled off the assembly line they were all, to a single one, solidly constructed. The first order of business when restoring E-type bodywork is to cut out and replace the inevitable rot that has set into structural sections, in particular the sills, floors and stiffeners and bulkheads. This requires careful fabrication, precise fitting, followed by good seam and fillet welding. You will otherwise end up with a monocoque that will flex where it should not - it will not handle as designed and eventually will fatigue and deteriorate, even if not subjected to the usual corrosive metal losses. Getting the body back to rigid can’t be accomplished with pop rivets and/or spot welds where seam welds were originally. I learned this the hard way.
If one was to plumb the archives for posts from those seeking advice on having their bodywork done rather than attempting it themselves, in all cases the sage feedback is to seek out a shop that knows what it’s doing, that has specific experience restoring E-types. That is because even experienced body shops don’t know what they don’t know and can’t afford (or could not possibly charge the customer the expense of) what it will take to figure out the best way to proceed when confronted by structural rust or collision damage.
If you take the time to do the job right, and have the welding skills, you will be able to reconstruct an E-type with as good, or even better (see Chuck Hadley’s mod) structural integrity as it had originally. Any aesthetic finesse is gravy. It’s what you don’t see, what’s under the paint, that takes the time and considered effort. To create an aesthetically pleasing E-type that goes only skin deep is not all that hard to do, but it will not endure.
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My car is flawless, and I am very nearsighted.
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I classify my nearsightedness (-5.0 diopters) as an asset. I remove my glasses when I’m welding because my close-up vision is acute. I can see the puddle perfectly, which makes it easy to control.
My optometrist tells me one of his clients, a micro surgeon about ten years older than I and whose correction is similar, elected to have his cataract surgery (provided in Canada) with replacement lenses of the same Rx.
It renders down to enjoying our cars for as long as possible. I had to restore my E-type twice before I got it right.
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I have a special combination of nearsightedness, plus presbyopia, and night blindness My car looks especially flawless if I hold it at arm’s length, and squint at night, purrrrfect.
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Wise words: it is also a good time to stress, these things rot from the inside out: by the time you see external evidence of bioturbation—from the tin worns!!— you are in deep doo-doo.