And clutch alone is hella better than a rear main. At least the lump stays in one piece. Of course no proper shipwright would do the clutch without thinking, “While I’m here…” and do the seals too. For me it’s the reverse. My clutch might be fine, but no way it will go back together without a new one installed.
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Just install a collapsible drive shaft and it becomes a joy. 
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As they say in Maine…a-yup. That was also an ancillary reason I sold the car.
So I guess I shouldn’t ask you to do mine then 
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Eh…no hablo Ingles, senorita…que???
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Manuel was the funniest character on Faulty Towers.
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What Eric and Erica said (and others) - so true. We could have all of us written those words. Inflation is a dirty word which I can’t speak when talking of the Jaguar. We owned it in pieces for so long, and much of the money was spent at a higher value. Doing everything except some machine work ourselves we are still nearly upside down without considering inflation. My dear wife says it was a good retirement project, maybe the cost of some other guys bass boat and snow machine (classic money pits).
Now we’ve only just now driven it around the block a few times, but good grief, it drives like a modern-ish cars! Moss box - no problemo, in fact it shifts as well as the Borg Warners I recal in our '58, '59, ‘63 Vettes and the Warners in our Falcon Sprints. All, and I do mean all, of these cars had shaky 2nd gear sychros. No doubt some artifact of my driving.
What we can’t fix is that in and out Eric mentioned. I ain’t that big and it is a tight fit (5’ 11" and 170 isn’t exactly at the far end of the bell curve.
Wish it was worth less so we could drive it more.
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I must either be incredible flexible or exceptionally tolerant of this in/out business. I’m 170 5 “10.something” and squeezing in/out is nothing to me. Squeezing underneath it to turn a bunch of greasy fasteners…whole nuther story altogether. I’d rather grow another set of wisdom teeth and have them extracted again.
Why own it, if you dont drive it?
I admit, wrt to a relativly plentiful car like a Jag—unlike a Duesenberg, or Bugatti—not driving it because of an (alleged) future value is not something I grok.
Exactly, it’s only a car and can be fixed.
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Even if E-type values go down in the short term, it is nothing compared to depreciation of new cars. The last new car I bought was a 2000 XKR (in the background of my avatar). It was about $75k new and I sold it in 2006 in the low 20s…
So even if I end up a little upside down with the E-type and even if it goes down a bit in the short term… it is still a great value.
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FWIW, this BAT auction is doing quite well for a nice driver quality car, with six days to go.
I heard a good quote on a recent car-related podcast. Someone was talking about keeping his mileage low to preserve the value of his car, and another guy responded “Not driving your car to preserve its value is like not making love to your girlfriend, so that her next boyfriend enjoys her more”
Somewhat crude, but makes a solid point…
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It seems to be doing amazingly well. I’ve been watching it and am very surprised by the bidding so early in the game. The dark blue paint job certainly draws you in, as it did me when I first saw it on Hemmings 2 or 3 months ago. They were asking $95K for it then. They’ve had it for nearly 4 years and done the paint job, and soft top to spruce it up. Take a look at the details of the interior though apart from the seats and carpet, and the engine bay (particularly the wiring). Looks like a #4 to me with new paint, soft top (“professionally installed” means they paid someone to do it?), and newish carpets. And most of the photos are more than a year old… Love the colour though!
#4 may be unnecessarily harsh. At least the underside of the bonnet and frames is the correct color and not smeared with black. The biggest failing with the interior is the god awful speakers everywhere. Most of the messy stuff underneath is correctable like the tweaked t-bar guards. I’ve seen hella worse.
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Agree with that. New door cards required. It just looks like a neglected interior, engine bay and underside to me. Just like mine did when I got it. Wrinkled and torn vinyl, black painted areas with most of the paint chipped or worn away, driver door switch missing, and wire hanging out, middle wiper missing, mismatched cooling fans, holes in front and rear overiders from removed Amco bars, steering wheel frame oxidized and pitted, steering wheel wood split and poorly filled, split in radio console surround, missing dipstick?, torn ball joint boots, mangled torsion bar guards, missing half shaft dust covers and more… I think the recent paint brings it up to a #3 overall, so maybe we are in agreement. No doubt there are much worse out there. It will be interesting to see where it ends up, and whether it meets reserve. It’s been for sale there for several years, so maybe they are motivated to sell now?
Baring any unforeseen rust or mechanical problems there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong that can’t be fixed with wrench , screw driver and credit card. It presents well in the pictures.
I will leave you guys to your wet dreams regarding “E-TYPES” here is the car I have ALWAYS LUSTED after
Pete
Don-know, Pascal. The Camaro I just sold cost me $900. a year in depreciation. Big engine, six speed, foot wide tires, I liked that car…
LLoyd
Don’t you just hate those who live in the US for ten years and never bother to learn the language?
I think no one should graduate from grade school without learning either Cherokee, Apache, Ute or Arapaho.
LLoyd July, 2014
This one looks interesting too if it really is all original
David
68 E-type FHC