It's Only 1 More Thing

We took a break from inspections to visit our Jag. We were able to watch as Peter started the car with a push of the button.

Wheels are beautiful, the dash is in and looks great. Seats were waiting to be rebuilt, the newest hang up.

It was anticipated that the car would be ready within the next couple of weeks. Alas, nothing is guaranteed with a 60-year old car.

We made plans for picking up the car after a quick trip to Atlanta. We planned to take the car, with our grandson, to lunch in San Luis, then head off to friends in Cambria, travel up the coast, visit friends in Morro Bay, then head home. That was the immediate trip along with lots of other ideas for the future.

Friday, as we were flying back from Atlanta we got a call from the shop. As we only got a message to call back we were so hoping that the message was to come to pick her up.

We called the shop 1^st thing Monday morning to find out that the car was having overheating issues and needed additionally driving to find the problem and uncover any other issues.

We called again today for an update: the heater core went out causing the overheating. Another part went out causing the newly rebuilt generator to fail and a metal bar on the rear snapped. We do not remember what went out to cause the generator to fail nor the name of the metal bar.

We are glad that the parts failed in the control of the shop, as we don’t want to start driving our car only to have it towed immediately. It is nevertheless a bit discouraging.

So we wait.

A 3rd Visit To Our Jag

We went and had another visit with our Jag. Fortunately, we are always welcomed at the shop, or at least made to feel welcome. Peter stops what he is doing and goes over all repairs and future repairs with us.

We found the fuel tank installed and wiring in place in the motor. The wiring is sticking out of the dash area waiting for the gauges.

Peter proudly showed us the used wheels that had been dull when we 1^st saw them. The shop had detailed the wheels and they are now good as new, shiny and perfect. We were shocked by how perfect they now are as they look completely unused. Another wheel, a spare, isn’t quite as nice but it was given to us so we won’t complain at all.

Apparently, the radiator could not be installed as a piece of shrouding was missing, like totally gone. We have no idea what the previous owner did but a new one has been ordered from the UK, the only place that this shrouding is available. We should have brought one back with us when we returned a couple of weeks ago.

The dash has been recovered with red leather, as it was when new. The dash now makes the remaining interior look shabby. We do have a plaque that goes on the dash, a plaque that a fellow Jag-Club owner knew about. I’ll have to look up what he told me about the plaque but for now, we need to get it over to the shop to have it installed on the dash. The dash is waiting for the gauges before being reinstalled.

We asked the shop to give us an estimate to rebuild the seats. We’d planned to do that ourselves but would like to have the option of them having this done. I’m sure that I can do rebuild the seats but just am not sure about the time. Besides, the shop will include some other interior repairs that I can’t do.

The floorboards have been discarded, they were rotted. We knew about the damage and thought that we could do that later, but it seems that they had to go sooner than later.

We had hoped the Jag would be ready by our wedding anniversary. But as we are both sick, the weather is cold and rainy and not at all good for a picnic at the coast, we will celebrate living when our Jag is ready to drive.

The Jaguar Restoration Begins

We were in Mesa Verde when we got the call from British Sports Cars that our Jag restoration was beginning. When we got the first call we were getting ready to drive to a trail-head for our hike into a site. There was very little service, so the call went to voicemail. Since we had to get to the trail-head we did not have time to drive down the hill to find service and return the call.

We did the hike, picked up our RV, then finally made it to the Visitor Center, where we found phone service. By then we had a second voice mail waiting for us.

We excitedly phoned British Sports Cars and discussed the car’s condition. It needed a steam cleaning and we discussed the next steps. We told them that we’d come in the next week or so.

When we got to British Sports Cars, we found that our car was off to be cleaned. But some parts, like wiring, had arrived and were ready for installation.

We returned to see the car on the following Thurs. We were distracted by a Lotus 7 (we want one) and when we looked over we were ecstatic to see our baby, hood up, being repaired. We found the car with a wonderfully clean motor. The new radiator and gas tank were sitting nearby, wiring in the front seat ready to be installed and the dash out.

Peter pointed out that the dash had been red leather and we could see that it was still visible on the back. He will replace the leather with new red leather. He insisted that the old leather would not be appropriate for new gauges to be installed on. So new gauges will be ordered and installed.

We agreed that the wheels should be replaced with some used ones in the shop and tires replaced sooner than later. I didn’t see any reason to wait for tires as they must be replaced anyway so why wait.

Hopefully, the business that provides DMV service will come by soon to start the paperwork for the registration.

For now, we wait but we will visit again soon.

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.

The Latch Issues

The repair of the latch for the bonnet is way more involved, at least in time, than we thought of course. But since Dale cannot start other projects until he can open the bonnet when necessary he is working on that first.

Dale went to an open house at XK Unlimited a few months ago. While at the open house Dale found cables and fittings for the latch repair. These sat in their box until a couple of days ago.

Dale has now gotten back into his Jag groove and removed the latch completely from the body. He that thought that he’d clean it up and paint it but instead found the 60 year old part crooked and slightly rusty

Apparently, with the previous owner, the bonnet was difficult to open and the part became forced and crooked. Then someone put a couple of small bolts in place to stabilize the cable anchor as it had been pulled away.

He will try to clean up and straighten out the part, although he is unsure how to straighten it. Then attempt to put it back together with the new cables.

Opening the Bonnet, A 1st Challenge

Once we got back from British Sports Cars we really wanted to get the car project started but were quite busy. Additionally we had, and still have a garage that is packed with stuff. Some stuff is inefficiently packed in and some things we don’t need at all; however, it is quite a job to make a space and then build a workbench.

Dale with some of his car magazine and book collection

But even more pressing was the fact that Dale could not open the hood, more properly know as the bonnet. He spent several days trying to push this and pull that. Then he actually opened the bonnet only to close it and of course it was stuck again.

What he found was the anchor for the cable on the movable latch was very loose and the anchor for the cable sheath on the body of the car was also worthlessly loose. Needless to say that with most British Cars, removing these two anchors involves removing quite a bit of sheet metal. So for now the bonnet will stay open pending remediation of the latch and cable anchors. 

A Jaguar Roars Again

Why British Sports Cars you might ask, when it is so far away? Well we had an amazing thing happen to us. A couple of years ago Rafe Saber from Canada, the guy who put us in touch with BSC started a face book page for Jaguar owners. He has since started several other pages for various Jag owners. So Rafe loves his Jags and has enjoyed making the connections between people, events and Jag restoration companies. People post Jaguar related events and companies will post the Jaguar related items for sale or services offered.  One such company on the site is British Sports Cars.

Unbeknownst to us, Rafe and Justin from British Sports Cars spoke via facebook and came up with the idea of starting our car and videotaping the whole event. Their thought was that the video could be seen throughout the world as a “Rip Van Winkle” car. Rafe sent me a message via facebook about their idea and we in turn sent a message to Justin via facebook. We then actually spoke by phone and, of course, met in person.

We actually had sent messages to Justin about 1 year ago inquiring about their services after Justin posted photos of their service garage. So you see we all met on facebook, never knew of each other until we joined the facebook club, the true power of social media.

What was amazing to us is that Rafe and Justin afforded us the opportunity to have our car inspected and then the event without charging us anything. For this one simple act we will be forever grateful because we would have likely not gotten started with any restoration for some time to come. Starting a project like this is daunting at best but with their push we have quickly gotten excited about getting our baby on the road.

So back to the big

event; we got into San Luis Obispo about 10a.m. but were unsure where to park. Now we have a big crew cab truck with a long bed and we were pulling this car trailer. There was no place to park in front of the shop so we put the blinkers on, parked in the left hand lane on the one way street and I went in to get some instructions. A crowd quickly gathered along the sidewalk, people looking and pointing at our car. A woman asked me what model it was as I walked into the BCS shop. It was so exciting to see the reaction from so many people as they all were ooh’ing and awe’ing.

Justin soon came and along with his father guided us to the rear of the shop.

After getting the car off the trailer Justin got to work adjusting this and that. The lights worked fine but other electrical items need work. With 3 of the BCS people the car started with a roar! We didn’t remember it being so loud! It was a tremendous sound to us. Justin was unable to drive it because the fuel pump does not work but that will be fixed in good time. 

And just a side note, British Sports Cars had the car Amelia Earhart drove sitting in their shop. I was thrilled to not only get to see her car up close and personal but got to sit in the very driver’s seat that she sat in!!!

A day to be remembered!

Alink to a better quality video of the Jag starting is on U-Tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmkldSmFdVo

It Takes a Neighborhood To Move a Jag

To get the Jaguar on the trailer we needed wheels that would turn and roll the car, not a novel idea. But we had tires that were flat, flatter than pancakes, not great for getting the car around.

Fortunately our tires have inner tubes and we were hoping that they would not be full of cracks like the tires. We filled the inner tube inside the 35 year old tires and believe it or not they held air! We did promise to buy new tires next but to get the car on the trailer in a hurry we had to make do.

We had a big plan to get the car onto the trailer, just the 2 of us. But as these things go; we needed a new wench, needed fuel for trip, and on and on. So it was getting to be late afternoon before we could start.

We backed the trailer up onto our driveway but realized that we did need a little help. One neighbor was home and came over, then another came home and came over. Soon we had 2 more helpers plus moms and sisters with the cameras, grandkids running amuck and dogs on leashes to help protect us. It took a neighborhood to get the car up onto the trailer.

We had a glass of wine to help settle us at night before our early morning to British Sport Cars.

Brakes Broken

The old brake drum

So before we could trailer the Jag to British Sports Cars, Dale first needed to check the brakes on the car. He found that the brakes were binding and the car wouldn’t move. As the car had to be rolled up onto the trailer by hand the brakes had to be free. Dale found that he needed to remove the drums, so that the brake shoes would not bind on the drums, enabling the car to move freely.

Drum is off

In order to remove each drum Dale pried and wiggled each drum back and forth. The drums on the rear wheels came off easily but the 2 front wheels were somewhat of a struggle. After lots of prying finally the front drums came off.

Dale reattached the wheels on the car without the drums. Of course then we didn’t want to roll the car downhill as it would crash without any breaks.

After 40 years we can expect these things.

The Jag Will Run Again

So for now back to our Jaguar saga:

Getting ready for the inspection

This past January month a facebook friend, Rafe Saber, connected us with British Sports Cars. Rafe thought that it would be a great idea to get our car running; an old Jag on the road is worth more than many just sitting in disrepair.

We worked with Justin Jurgens from British Sports Cars, who would start the car if possible, in our garage. We scheduled the meeting on January 27^th.  

Justin stopped by our house to inspect the car and gave us lots of pointers on how to proceed but he really preferred to start the car at his shop in order to actually drive the car and access the motor. We did not set a date as we needed to check the brakes, tires and other items.

Justin Jurgens checking her out

Rafe really wanted to get this project underway so he worked with Justin to set a date for us to trailer the Jag to British Sports Cars where they would work to start it. This was most exciting but made us very nervous at the same time.

We had lots to do in a very short amount of time.

Time For A Larger Car

When we were about to have our 3^rd son we knew that we’d clearly outgrown the Jag and our truck. It was time to do some serious car shopping and we were really considering the Maserati Quattroporte.

As we looked at cars we realized that the Ferrari 308GT4’s were going to be replaced with a new and slower model. We found that there were only 8 308’s left for sale in the U.S., one being in Los Gatos. A quick trip to Los Gatos found a kind of aqua color 308 that they really wanted off the lot. Well it was time to help them out and the Ferrari was ours.

Driving the Ferrari was so much fun; we’d never experienced the cornering like that before. The speed on the straight away wasn’t so much of a thrill as we had to keep it down into the 90’sMPH, although we’d go over 100MPH when encouraged.

We couldn’t fit both cars into our garage so put our Jag into a friend’s barn. We still drove it occasionally so we didn’t put it into complete storage.

Dale was approached by a couple of people who wanted to buy the car but we loved the Jag and wouldn’t sell. Driving the Jag was a fun drive, different than the Ferrari, but a thrill: the open air, the purr, the power.

After a couple of years Dale did offer the Jag for sale to a guy. The Jag hadn’t appreciated much and we were not driving it so it seemed to make sense. As I took the guy for a ride I turned to him and said “I’m not selling the car, it isn’t for sale.” The guy replied that “my husband said it was for sale.” I told him that I’d changed my mind and wouldn’t be signing the Pink Slip, and as the car was ½ mine I could make that decision. We had an unhappy camper but I didn’t care.

A couple of other people tried to convince me over the next few years, offers to give me flowers every day and other nonsense. But we kept the car knowing that it would come back to life again.

Cars in our Early Years

When we were children, each Dale and I were taken to the car shows in L.A. Each of our dads were interested in cars and passed on their interest to us. My goal was to buy a Masarati. Dale’s, I believe, was to own a Ferrari but that is not clear.

My first car I bought for $500 a Ford Galaxy. From there I went on to purchase, on my own and brand new; a Plymouth Cricket, and then a Ford Pinto. Granted these were not the great cars but I did buy them with dreams of buying something better.

Dale’s dad gave him a car after college, a Lotus Elite which unfortunately got munched after a year.

We met at college, poor college kids. By then Dale owned a VW bus and I had my Pinto. On our 1^st date we went straight to the Ferrari showroom and looked at our new loves. We started dreaming of how we could buy one.

We got married, the poor college kids with our VW bus and our Pinto.

Many years ago, about 1973, a kid received a Jaguar XK 140 from his father. The kid decided to sell the car for the price of an airplane ticket to Europe and listed it in the paper. At that same time a pair of we, the newlyweds, decided to see if we could pick up a sports car. Not having much money we decided to look in the classified ads. Seeing the ad for the Jaguar we quickly rushed off to Household Finance and got a loan to cover the Jag plus a little extra to make sure it was ours.

The newlyweds got their Jaguar the very next morning and drove their car all over. A couple of years later they had a baby boy. Since there were no seat belt laws or child seats their baby was held by mom or dad whoever was sitting in the passenger seat of the 2 seat car. Top down the little family tooled around in style.

The Jaguar owners grew older and the family larger so a Ferreri seemed like a good fit for the growing brood. The Jaguar was put into storage for a later day and the 308GT4 was turned into a family car/nursery. Which role it served flawlessly.

Alas there were life issues, life got in the way, and the cars were put into an early retirement. But there was a plan that someday the cars would come out to purr again.

This is the story of our cars reemergence.