XKE Back from the Dead

[Yorkie]

I bought this back in 1995 and it took me 15 years to rebuild. Had to replace the bottom 12" including both floors and inner and outer rockers, door skins, trunk, etc, etc.

[ErVikingo]

Beautiful (and I will not ask).

[kach22i]

Congrats!

Is it a car show queen now?

[redstrosekNic]

Very beautiful!

[Steve F]

Fantastic!

[Bill Douglas]

I take my hat off to you. Beautiful job.

Originally Posted by ErVikingo

Beautiful (and I will not ask).

Gulp, we all know not to ask.



I just noticed. Hey, nice car in the background

[Yorkie]

Its a garage queen because it truly has to be one of the most finicky difficult awkward cars I have ever owned. I get to drive it in between repairs. But when I do drive it the smile never leaves my face. I took my wife on its maiden voyage from Long Beach to Santa Barbara to show it to the original owner and it was pure bliss. He was really pleased to see how it looked but strangely declined my offer to drive it.

I was quite young and penniless when I bought it and because it took so long to restore it (we had three kids moved twice and I did a masters degree all while I was fixing it) I cut some corners here and there and now I'm paying the price. Talk about do it right and you only have to do it once.

I tried to use all the original components but some of that stuff is simply crap. The calipers were wooden so I replaced them will Wilwoods and green pads and now she stops. I hate adjusting the points so I went to a pertronix system. LA traffic can be slow so I replaced the two blade fan with a multi-blade fan and now she is cool in traffic.

But she does turn heads and that 3.8 six truly has some poke. Cruise at 70 then stab the throttle and the hood raises up and she hauls ass. I just wish she would start on demand or cease leaving pools of liquid on the floor.

[Yorkie]

Ask what?

[fastfredracing]

Stunning! Fantastic work, hard to stay on something for that long, kudos to you for not bailing out.

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by Yorkie

Ask what?

How much it cost to restore?

[RWebb]

based on valuing your own labor at, say, 10 cents an hour...

[Yorkie]

It cost me $5K for the car and I reckon I must have $30K in parts in it. I had a friend do the interior and I had the paint done professionally (by a guy who disappeared with the car for 9 months but thats another story!) and I must have thousands of hours in her.

Would I do it again? Hell No!!! I enjoyed the process but never again. Now I have a bunch of old Kawasaki H1 triples I'm fixing up. Easier on the pocketbook.

[Les Paul]

Beautiful car and great job. Still one of my top 5 cars ever.

[azasadny]

Gorgeous! Congratulations on an excellent job!!

[Doug E]

Beautiful ... congrats !

Hard to tell from the pic but what color is that ? Reminds me of the E my Dad restored back in the early 80's.

[Zeke]

Yorkie, I thought you had posted about this before. Maybe it was not complete at the time. It is beautiful. As I said on another post of yours (I'm pretty sure), I didn't think you would get it done.

To everyone else: I was at Yorkie's to look at a 911 engine he had FS years ago. I saw this XKE sitting on that dolly stripped to nothing. I can vouch that he built this car from the bare tub up. I haven't seen it since, but I do get over to a house about 6 doors down where there is a 914 GT six conversion almost done. I have done a lot of work on that car including welding on the steel GT fenders.

There are 2 beautiful cars on one street.

Yorkie, here's a secret: there is an XKE 2+2 coupe sitting in a garage 2 blocks over from you, yellow, and has not run in 15 years. I know you don't want to hear another word about it.

But I wish I could get you to drive by when the old gentleman is outside. It might get him to do something. I'm sure he would be delighted to see yours.

[stealthn]

Sooo nice, thank you for saving one of cardome's greatest vehicles!

[bivenator]

The pic with the porsche in the background, two of the best bodies ever. Great job on the jag.

[willtel]

I often find myself looking at XKE projects on eBay but the body work on those things scares the heck out of me. It looks like you did a fine job, any other pics of the process?

I was lucky enough to drive a six cylinder car years ago and I was very impressed with the power. This isn't your typical gutless English roadster that relies on momentum for fun. These cars will move if you have you have the guts to push them.

[targa911S]

WOODEN.......only the brits...wooden...