This one is a true OBL and was restored, with a few mistakes, contrarily to the early 1961 recently put on auction by the same seller that was RNM: Early 1961 OTS (flat floor, welded louvres) on BAT
Apart from the OBL/non-OBL aspect, let’s see if the current market is more favourable for restored cars vs preserved/unrestored.
My prediction: $275,000.
$305 plus 20
Toolkit is wrong - it is from a saloon. All E-Type’s had a tool roll. Also appears to be missing the correct. Shelley jack. Both easily sorted for about $6,000!
Looks like a repro horn push i think and repro wheel spinners
Steering wheel wood is a replacement being thicker and not laminated.
Regulator should be alloy cased RB310
Wrong generator - should be 25 amp C45PV6 not PV5 which is a 20 amp output
Brake pistons should be malleable iron not Cast Iron which have the C suffix
Plug caps should be Champion ‘dot’ versions
Marston tag on the wrong way around
Sugar scoop mounting screws wrong way around
David
Is the header bow correct? I know some number had the fiberglass bow without the wood bow added. One of them lives incorrectly on my car.
The assembly canopy was made of metal on the early cars but changed to glass fibre sometime between November 1961 and June 1963. This must have been a short lived experiment because it reverted back to metal for the remainder of production. The chrome bezels for the strap assembly fixing the hood when folded are also interesting. On the early cars they are #BD20659 and have an 1-7/16" O.D. However the bezels on later cars were 1 1/8" O.D. but the part number remained the same. The glass fibre canopy had different chrome bezels #BD23610. I assume it they would be deeper to account for the thicker material.
I think the bezels on this car are the smaller (incorrect) ones.
This is the difficulty restoring the early OBL cars - some parts are unique and not reproduced whilst original bits are very hard to find but having them is what gives the OBL cars their value. A car composed of early and later parts, not so. Don’t get me started on springs and dampers!
David
Appears to be an OBL car that was neglected, and then “restored” using parts that could be found at the time. Some of the “unique to the first 500” features are present, some are not. It will take someone with a lot of knowledge, and time, and money, and probably luck, to replace the non-authentic parts. Who is interested in doing this? A collector who just has to have an OBL car for bragging rights (and will they care if quite a few parts aren’t authentic?), or someone who thinks he can make a buck? WIll be interesting to watch how it goes.
A couple of question from me, an S2 owner… in photo 176 is the Jaguar emblem askew?
Do all Es have coilovers? (photo 217+) ?
Interesting that the floor mats were swapped in and out in a few of the photos.
The growler is indeed poorly located
The coilovers are only on the rear as in all E-Type’s. Front suspension is torsion bar and telescopic damper.
The floor mats with the leather square and X stitching are correct. The other mat appear to be sacrificial to preserve the leather ones.
They will when someone like me looks at the car and, with a long intake of breath through clenched teeth, mutters “That’s wrong”. Kinda takes the edge off their pride and joy bragging rights!
Assuming that the bodywork part of the restoration was done properly and the engine & transmission are in good shape, it appears that a lot of the things that are wrong about the car would be fairly easily addressed at fairly low cost. Just going through it and replacing the things mentioned above, plus fitting proper Cheney clamps, getting rid of zip ties and replacing with proper strapping, etc. would probably get this car very closely to 99.8% correct. That final 0.2% would be tougher, but probably good enough.
When I see a car like this, I’m always a little surprised the restorers left some things that are so easily fixed, like the Cheney clamps and zip ties. It would take almost zero cost and no more effort to do those correctly. Always makes me wonder a bit about those things under the surface - what other shortcuts have they taken.
Can people please say “not factory original” or “reproduction part” or something like that please, instead of “this is wrong”?
I hate this sort of language because it implies there is blame.
Having said that, it’s likely that there is very little that is original looking on such a car, certainly not the 2pack paint job nor any metal that is polished. Nit picking at a few components does rather miss the wood for the trees in thinking it can ever be close to “99.8% correct”. By analogy, will the Mona Lisa be 99.8% correct if we wipe the canvas clean and repaint it with nice new super glossy acrylic paint?
It’s just a very pretty old car.
kind regards
Marek
Interesting, maybe my canopy is not incorrect after all. I think it’s an Oct 63 build. The only other person I’ve talked to here with one, had a car number just a few digits from mine.
I’ve now had a good look at the photos and reduced my price that I think it will reach to $240k……
There is a lot on this car that is poorly fitted or just plain wrong
Let’s start with the hood ……not stretched properly and incorrect material …inside was not herringbone and it certainly didn’t use seatbelt webbing to hold frame in correct position
No Butler covers on licence plate lights, reverse light bulge in boot should be rivieted as should the ribs ( I think) no clips for jack handle ….and no jack!
Non correct fuel Line , air intake for heater we’re body colour I think
All the other stuff that others have mentioned.
There are NO underbody photos nor any of the restoration ….it appears that this was started by the previous owner and finished by whoever owns it now …. So may have been a stalled project ….being finished for a quick turnover
It’s also very grubby inside the convertible hood and the bonnet needs to be aligned better.
To a owner who wants bragging rights this will not be a good candidate ….but to a collector this would not be a good car ….there would need to be significant amount of money to be spent to get it right, and the lack of restoration photos would put me off
Having said all that it does look pretty……without the hood up!
Which is likely to sell for $300,000+ despite having the wrong generator and regulator amongst many other deficiencies but does have the magic outside bonnet locks. In the case of OBL’s originality matters and with due diligence and time they can be put as close as possible to Factory which is what the marque deserves.
OBL owners are in a different orbit and work together to document their cars, share information and withhold information to ensure rogue cars do not appear. Difficult club to join but this car will need a lot of work to get right.
Wrong, wrong , wrong!
David
I’m not all that familiar with the OBLs, but a number of the setscrews and locknuts appear to be modern replacements and not original. Maybe I’m being picky, but I like originality. Also, the front suspension appears to be painted silver. Is this correct. I believe some early cars had black painted metal suspension pieces. Not sure about silver.
–Drew
There should be no Phillips/Pozidrive screws on the car. Bolts should be oil blackened. Front suspension on very early OBL’s was black and after that cad plated.
Some listers assert that we, as folks who know these cars extremely well, shouldn’t say that things are “wrong:” I think it is perfectly OK to call things wrong… When things are wrong!
The lister of the auction is putting forth this car as being a true, completely OBL car, and that’s at the very least unethical.