My father-in-law wants to buy an E Type convertible (likely a series III, but he is open to suggestions) as a project car for the two of us.

Anyone been down this road? Any recommendations on resources or dealers/brokers in the GTA?
Frankly I don't need another project, but it is pretty hard to say no.

 

very old technology the way these were built, lots of places for rust to hide. parts are very expensive and hard to find. very bad Lucas electronics. beautiful cars though. better off to buy someone else's restoration completed (these are always way over money and time budgets). I probably would look for a XK120/50 if I wanted a Jag...or go the Aston Martin route.

 

I owned a 1970 6-cyl coupe for one year; it was a one-owner car with 40k original miles on it. I loved looking at it and driving it (I put 10k miles on it while I owned it) but since it sat for many years before it came to me I fixed it constantly (electrical, and especially cooling issues; mine had factory air and really liked to overheat. Also, the rear brakes are inboard and can be a real pup to do......and if you get a car with wire wheels make sure you follow the "undo" arrows on the knock-offs; IIRC they are reverse thread). And again IIRC my car called for 98 octane fuel which meant a can of octane booster with every tankful or I'd be messing with the timing to avoid pinging; more $$$......but as stated above all this pales compared to what you'll spend to repair rust in the tub or the front tubular subframe especially.

There's nothing like an E-Type but set aside $$$$ for maintenance if you plan to drive it, even if you buy one that's "done"....and especially if you do opt for the Series III V12. Lots of plumbing on those....there are a ton of books that I believe are still in print for these cars so do some research to see what you might be in for. Jaguar World magazine is very good also as they get into repair work on the cars.

 

Two best days of owning an E-Type are...