1965 Jaguar E-Type

 After getting the exterior and interior whipped into shape, I decided the one other area that I'd always wanted to address was the engine compartment.  You see the car was originally white, so all underhood sheet metal was white.  But the exterior has been black since about 1970, and black exterior looks so awesome on this car.  So the challenge becomes how to make all that white sheet metal black under the hood. Here's three before pictures: Taking the bonnet off (that's British for hood) does provide some great access.  But still there's a lot of very cramped spaces with white sheet metal.  You could pull the engine/transmission to clear out access.  I've pulled this engine, not a job I want to do again. My friend Ray has gotten pretty good at engine bay painting using painter's tape, aluminum foil, and rags to mask off the area being painted.  He also uses a combination of spray cans and brush paint.  So Ray helped me get started.  P...

 I've owned this car since 1980.  But I've never created a blog for it until now.  Of course, in 1980 no one even knew what a blog was! So let's start with some history.  I bought the car locally with some rust on the rockers and rear wheel arches plus an engine that would turn over but not run.  Sold a perfectly good ski boat to buy this non functional car!  But it was an awesome looking car with only 44.653 miles on it. First key finding was poor compression, turns out the valves were bent due to over revving the engine, "floating" the valves which then smacked the pistons.  Not good.  Removed head, had it rebuilt by Central Machine, and re-installed. Next issue was  poor oil pressure.  Prior owners had skipped a few oil changes.  Result was scored main and rod bearings.  So pulled engine and had crankshaft turned with new bearings by Central Machine.  Car had such low mileage we did not have to replace the pistons, just...