I have had a lot of the parts plated. Most of them came back from the plater, some of the windscreen wiper parts didn't. They appeared to be some kind of aluminium alloy and dissolved in the prepping solution. The parts that came back look brand spanking new.

They're plated clear zinc, the plater calls it "blue", as it has a blue haze. The preparation of the parts shows through the zinc plating, as can be seen in below picture.

Blasted parts have a nice finish and the smoother surfaces are very shiny.

Blasting

I have been waiting to get some of the smaller work done. With the blasting cabinet -which my friend Willem is kind enough to let me use- installed, I have started to clean up some of the smaller parts and prep them for painting or plating. The blasting cabinet is big enough for almost every part of the E-type -short of the body tub- to fit in.




Almost al of the front suspension is ready for plating now, I am not sure whether to go with zinc or nickel yet.











The parts clean up nicely and look even better painted, like the pedals.

Workshop organised and work started

The workshop is a bit more organised right now. I have also fabricated a rotisserie, which I saw on other restoration blogs (http://www.classicjaguar.com/3297es28.jpg, http://www.mckennasgarage.com/xke/jag6.htm) and looked liked it would make work a lot easier.

That proved to be a project in its own right, as welding was not a skill I had already acquired. It took me some time to get it right. It does look the business now, at least from a distance, although it could do with some paint. Well, looks are not important as the rotisserie works like I thought it would. It makes working on the underside of the tub a lot easier, as well as changing the position of the tub.

I have started removing the undercoat, which I thought would be a tedious job. It is going a lot faster than I anticipated, it will probably take me two full days to get it all off.

The sheet metal appears to be not too bad as far as I can see now. There is some superficial rust in places, but nothing that gets me worried (yet).

I bought an E-type

A couple of weeks ago I picked up the Jaguar E-type I bought in the first week of 2008. It is disassembled to the last nut and bolt and came with a lot of extra parts, a spare engine, new pistons, new chrome wire wheels and tyres, a new G.W. Bartlett trim kit in black. There are a couple of things missing that I know of: windshield, rear callipers, and probably some other parts that I will have to pick up along the way.

Body wise it appears to be in good condition, apart from the fact that it is purple. Virtually all the greasy work has been done, apart from getting the paint, the sound deadening material, and the undercoat off.

In the above picture the original colour is visible (top of the sill and on the bulkhead). Originally it was Opalescent Maroon with a Beige interior. As the trim kit that came with the car is black, I am contemplating my options for paint and upholstery. I could try to swap the black trim kit for a beige one and redo the original colour combination. Right now I am leaning towards keeping the black trim and painting the body in Opalescent Gun Metal, which would make it look like this:

... which is the same combination as the one at the 1961 Geneva Car Show:

Well, I have plenty of time to decide. After unloading my newly acquired project from the lorry it looked like this: