He does a restoration and delivery of a Nov 1961 silver grey with red interior OTS on what looks like is the latest episode of Chasing Classic Cars that first aired today on MT channel according to my TV guide. It is an hour long episode so lots of footage of it. Looks like will air again tonight at 11pm central time in the USA.
David
68 E-type FHC
it is an early car, flat floors, welded louvers, no ribs on oil sump and 3 post intake manifold linkage. Nice car.
They removed the engine and trans separately. I thought this was not possible because of the reaction plate.
I noticed that too, and wondered what the point was. Separating the engine from the bellhousing/gearbox in situ must be very difficult as access to the bellhousing bolts must be a challenge. And what’s the point? They took the transmission out separately anyway.
Good episode. Super story. Car ended up with an enthusiast (who was overly insistent that his Son - who seemed to be a decent kid - would not be driving this car period).
Makes me cry that I sold my 62 Flat Floor for nothing way before the internet informed me it was somewhat valuable. Actually the flat floor WAS more uncomfortable and an extra inch really does mean a lot…Is there a link to the story ?
I missed this yesterday and I don’t see it on the program list for next week or two of Chasing Classic Cars. What was the name of the episode? I can keep a lookout for it later.
There is a episode coming up with a '67 Series 1 E-type (probably more about the sale though, part of a group of other cars like an AC Cobra.)
Thanks,
Dave
He was certainly enthusiastic, but I don’t know if I’d call him an enthusiast. He didn’t seem very knowledgeable about the car, such as flat versus sunken floors, how to open the bonnet, etc. It seemed he had never driven one before. But he was certainly giddy with his new toy and no doubt will enjoy it thoroughly. Hope he discovers J-L and shares his experience here!
The other story lines in the episode were pretty interesting too, with the discovery of the barn find 300SL and the brass cars.
If they were able to take the gearbox out without removing the reaction plate then that may have been their goal.
While F40 may do good restorations, I saw few things that caught my eye. Balancing the carbs with the ball level flow meter seems more inexact than the gauge style meters. The ride height of the real wheels looked off to me. Not many good views of that, but the wheel appeared high in the wheel well. Then there was the comment “If Wayne’s happy everybody is happy.” That may well be true, but it does not mean the car has been set up properly. I’m just being picky.
–Drew
the 300sl gullwing on the show was sold by a friend of mine. warne carini was not the buyer though.
Peter Kumar, Gullwing Motors was.
Saw the episode last night. Nice looking car. Hard to tell how good of a restoration it was without seeing up close, certainly sparkled and sounded nice. It seemed to me it wasn’t driven enough to sort it out, but one can’t really know.
Owner reminded me of myself when I first got back into the hobby with a 1961 190 SL full restoration from the “master.” First I saw the car was when it was shown in a concours. I didn’t even know how to raise the hood. I was nervous and so was the restoration crew. Talk about a lesson learned, didn’t end well.
I’ve always let/encouraged my kids to drive my cars (with me). Be nice if they got bitten by the bug. Now that my son is 30, I asked him (said I wouldn’t get angry) if he ever took my cars out without my knowledge. He confessed he and a friend went for a spin in my Porsche 356 when he was in high school. My daughter, now 27 learned to drive and took her test (and passed) on a manual shift 2000 VW Beetle. Still have the car.
I see it now on the MT Channel site. It is season 15 episode 3… NO REPLACEMENT FOR DISPLACEMENT.
I too was wondering about the shots where it looked like the engine had been separated from the trans. Maybe we should send him an e-mail asking about it.
I also wondered about the gold paint on the head. I thought the early cars like this had the pumpkin color paint on the head instead of gold ?
https://www.motortrendondemand.com/show/chasing-classic-cars/85981982/
David
68 E-type FHC
The Pumpkin paint was on the very early cars. As this one did not have the outside bonnet latches, it was not that early. Also, the seats were coupe seats. A few of the early prototypes had these seats but they interfere with the top mechanism. Should have had the more pointed seats at this time. also, all the early hardtops were black from the factory.
Hi David, The JCNA Series One judging guide, that has been available free from the JCNA web site since 2003, can answer many questions like this by engine or vin numbers. The question concerning the change in cylinder head color from pumpkin, which I believe Tom Haddock originated, to gold has over the years has been traced as far as R 2518 on cars known to be original. As we are now going on close to sixty years after the change and original owner cars have became a thing of the past and even two owner cars are very rare, I doubt that number R 2518 is likely to ever change.
I am certainly no expert on early cars. I was just thinking that when Wayne was reading from the Heritage certificate on the show that he said it was built Nov 1961. There used to be a nice original OTS here in Houston that was still in the original family that had the pumpkin head and my memory is she said it was a 1962 so that is why the head color on the show confused me. I have not seen too many flat floor cars.
David
68 E-type FHC
Another data point on the head colour: In Haddock & Mueller’s Originality Guide (p.165) it states “Based on observations, the pumpkin-colored paint was used as late as engine R2550-9. There may also have been overlap between the two types of paint.” Based on xkedata, engines around R2550 were installed in cars with build dates in the first week or so of November 1961.
Flat floor cars are not, at least to me, that big a deal as several thousand were built and they’re not that visible whereas there were only 500 outside bonnet latch cars built and that feature jumps right out at you.
I agree. I am very glad mine has the non-flat floors and inside bonnet latches. I do not worry much about $$ values either since I have so much emotional investment with my plain ol’ '68 I cannot envision ever selling it willingly. I just want to make sure I insure it for enough so I can repair or replace it if I smash it up since life is not as good without an E.
David
68 E-type FHC
I agree. Most period photos show the rim of the fender sitting 1.5" or so above the edge of the rim. Now, anything goes, but period photos are most likely to still have their factory settings intact.