Off For Another Chapter in Life

After handling claims for the wildfires I was talking to our auto insurance agent about some of the classic cars we’d seen that had burned. She said that the insurance company for our exotic cars now had a requirement, that the cars must be garaged when at home in order for coverage to be afforded. This will affect our plans for trailering cars here and there.

On Sunday night Dale moved the RV to the front of the house and put the car trailer in front of the garage door. Our plan was to load the car first then leave, hence, leaving the car in the garage until the last minute. This was a good plan but took so long. Figuring out how the tie downs were put together was only one of the time-consuming tasks.

Loading the Jag this time was so much different than when we took the Jag to British Sports Cars in 2013, just to have them start it. (you can read about that in my blog from 6-10-13.) In that case, it took a neighborhood to help. This time we had an electric winch so we didn’t need to round up our neighbors.

Dale stood on the trailer with the winch while I sat in the car and steered. Sitting there I remembered how much I love this car!

Getting the car onto the trailer

It's a Jag

An old truck, old guy and old car

On the way to British Sports Cars, I called ahead, this time speaking to the owner. He assured me that they would be there when we arrived.

Upon our arrival, our grandson, Elias, was waiting outside the shop. He lives nearby and having us as grandparents, has developed a love for cars! We wanted for him to be involved in the restoration process so that, if we are called away to work, he can be our eyes and ears. Of course, Elias was assured that he could visit the car whenever he wanted.

I went into the shop and let them know we had arrived. I saw Justin, the son and part owner, and introduced myself. He remembered coming to our house to look at the Jag and then starting it back in 2013. He rounded up the mechanics and they all came out to help unload the car from the trailer.

Offloading using muscle power

After the car was unloaded we reminisced with Peter, the dad, how they started the car for us back in 2013. He remembered that he’d wanted to unlock the trunk with his master key but Dale had told him not to worry about it. He really had wanted to do that and regretted that he couldn’t. We assured him that we didn’t want for him to spend his time on a project that he was not getting paid for.

 Unfortunately, the shop is very busy at this time so the restoration project will be on hold for another couple of weeks. But what are another 2 weeks after the old girl has waited patiently for 30 years.

Waking up in 2013, it takes a neighborhood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB9xKLU0UKU
A quick start up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmkldSmFdVo

Restoration Time on a Very Old Jag

Well, I see that it was about 4-1/2 years ago that Dale worked on the latch and we thought that we’d get the car running then. I’m guessing that we were called away to work and for the past 2 years we have been busy the entire time.

Feeling very British with my pint while blogging

When we got home from claims in Toronto and then helping in Oregon, we decided enough was enough. Time to work on cars!

We assessed the situation, the Jag has an immense amount of work, most of it trying to figure out how to repair the 60+year old handmade car. We decided that we’d involve professionals who could get this done within our lifetime. We had discussed the 2 repair companies who we are familiar with and decided to go with British Sports Cars in San Luis Obispo. This is a 2-1/2 hour drive from us.

I gave Dale his cell phone and insisted that he call to set an appointment to bring the car in. No more messing around. He called and set an appointment for this coming Monday, July 9. We will trailer the car over in the morning.

Looking up the phone number for British Sports Cars

Now Dale decided that we should try to have the seats recovered prior to our trailering the car. Unfortunately, bolts under the seat are bolted in and rusted so it became a project that was not really do-able in the short amount of time. We will let British Sports Cars remove the seats and then Dale can rebuild the frame and we can have them recovered.

Unfortunately, 4-1/2 years ago, as blogged, Dale took the latching system apart. This had to be put back together. Only 1-1/2 days were needed for that little chore.

Now we are getting the car ready for her big trip to San Luis where she will get ready for some fun driving. What is really fun is that our boys are 200% behind our driving these cars, as Nate said: "I hope you race it".

We are looking so forward to joining a local Jaguar Club or 2 and participating in their activities. And just maybe I'll even retire a little bit so we can drive.