Longest period of stewardship

Well the car was at the 2017 Oil Leak in Montana. It will be ready for the 2019 event but it’s presence may depend on who goes with me. Dorothy likes the comfort of our recently acquired coupe for distances – alas so do I, but it’s also complicated by the ABFM in Portland the weekend 2019 starts, and the various slalom competitions there – at which the mostly stock coupe is a decided also ran. We don’t want that! So the definitive answer is “maybe”

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I was meaning of the previous owners of my car. prior work was evident but not to the extent of the current effort.

You RAWK!!!

I could never bring myself to finish the interior in Tweety: he wouldn’t have driven one damned iota better, for that $3000-$5000 investment.

A 5-speed, however…woulda been niiiice!

We share a slightly-common ‘gene,’ in that regard!

I took it that you have had your car apart for only 18 years.
30 years ago I was trying to sell my car. I needed the $850 I thought I could get for it. Then I got hit at the B post when a young girl turned into me at an intersection. I collected from her insurance company, bought a new rear quarter panel, shut face pieces, junkyard door, and all the rubber seals I would need to repaint the car. I stripped it and life interfered. Fast forward 30 years. I finally realized I was never going to actually do any work on it, and that if I did, I would never be satisfied with what I could accomplish. Typical for me. I chose my only viable solution - a checkbook restoration.

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I hate to tell you this but you’re probably not even the also ran category! When we joined Jag of Mi. some 35+ years ago we met and and became friends with fellow that had taken his 66 OTS apart to change a head gasket some five years before and one thing lead to another and when Frank died some 30 years later it still wasn’t together! It’s now been in his son’s hand for five or so years and I wouldn’t take any bets that it’ll ever be on the road again unless it’s sold!

Don’t jinx me, dude.

I took mine apart because the windshield was so pitted, I couldn’t drive the car except at high noon.

Besides, what I meant is…the longest of my car’s previous 3 owners…

And I’m right behind Ed with 28 years, 2 months, 27 days as of 11 DEC 18.
Pull the engine next summer fall
Rebuild engine and IRS next winter
Paint and Body in Spring / Summer 2020
Reassembly . . . until done 2021???

what. you didn’t take out the dash?

Robert_and_Darlene_S:
for five or so years and I wouldn’t take any bets that it’ll ever be on the road again unless it’s sold!

Don’t jinx me, dude.
I took mine apart because the windshield was so pitted, I couldn’t drive the car except at high noon.

One thing leads to another and after Frank’s car had been off the road for 15 years or so he decided to do some body work that was never finished! A few years before he died I went through his engine and we put it back in the car so at least now the engine runs but I’m afraid that unless Frank Jr., who is 50 or so, works a lot faster then his dad did, he may not live long enough to finish what his dad started!

And Im just a few hours north, to keep ya company!

Ok, well shoot! I didn’t know there was going to be a subcategory of “how long apart”. I would like to enter my '69 to the contest.
First owner had it from new for the FIRST 48 years; I now have officially owned it for 365 days… and began disassembly 364 days ago…
I hope not to beat ANY of the above records for longest time apart.
-Steve “the hopeful”

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Not an E but should qualify as an honorable mention. My ‘54 XK120 has reportedly been apart since 1970, when the second owner bought it from an estate sale (it had been parked since 1966 when the original owner died and hasn’t been running since), took the body off the frame and had it dipped. Then, when it broke in half where the sills had rotted through, got discouraged and did nothing with it for a decade and a half when he sold it to the third owner, who stuck it in his barn for a few years before he sold it to the fourth owner, who did zero with it and sold it, in 1991, to the fifth owner, me. I’m going to have the car in paint this summer (maybe), refresh the engine (20,000 miles on the clock) and get it running for the first time in 53 years then by spring 2020 (maybe) take it on its first drive in 54 years.

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After that long apart, will it know what it is supposed to do when it hits the tarmac :slight_smile:

I have had my E for almost 19 years but it is still my most recently purchased car. Reading some of this makes me glad I have always treated it and my other 3 cars as rolling restorations. My '74 was off the road for a little over a year with engine rebuild and paint job but this as far apart as I have ever had one. I know some cars get too far gone and must come apart to become usable again but so many I have seen never go back together. I hope not to have to do that to any of mine and would rather live with some flaws than risk any never seeing the road again.

David
68 E-type FHC

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PRECISELY the rationale that guided my resto of Tweety: I’ll never look back with anything but thankfulness, that I opted for “scruffy driver,” over, “perfect.”

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In my experience with “old” cars, they come apart one helluva’ lot easier than they go back together. To “dismantle” is easy and sorta’ fun, but, to “mantle”, is hard and expensive.
To that end, I don’t buy junk anymore. Best to buy someone else’s hard work at a steep discount.
Phillip

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The problem is when you start tearing up and fixing rust, replacing sheet metal and you have to respray… Then what? You have nice paint with bad chrome and lousy mechanical and a ratty interior?

May as well finish the job.

Not entirely sure of your point, wrt Tweety, but, overall, I had ‘good bones,’ having had the car since it was 2 years old.
It ended up perfectly useable, for a relatively inexpensive investment.

In the case of my XK the degree of disassembly wasn’t onerous. Mostly complete sub-assemblies and all parts were there. Best of all it was an original car that hadn’t been messed with, which is always desirable from a total restoration perspective. The problem with buying someone else’s hard work is that it’s not always - even not usually - done to a high standard. I’ve seen a lot of poorly done body jobs, and what’s under the paint on the ones that look good may be bodged.

My philosophy is if you want the job done right do it yourself. It also helps if you really enjoy doing it yourself, even if it takes a few decades.

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