E-Type restoration, one skinned knuckle at a time.
A soft, sinking clutch pedal is rarely a mystery once you stop swearing and start looking for fluid. Here is a methodical roadside triage for Series 1 and 2 E-Type hydraulics, from master-cylinder weep to slave-cylinder seal, plus the bodge that might just get you home.
Britain's 2026 roads are doing wire wheels no favours. Here's how to inspect spokes, splines, knock-offs and hub bearings before a small wobble becomes a big bill—and why a careful truing session often beats a shiny new set.
A raw petrol whiff in an E-Type is never just character. Here’s a calm, cold-engine routine for tracing the usual suspects — filler neck, breathers, banjo unions, float chambers and the boot pump — before a small weep becomes a very hot problem.
A bent sill seam taught me more about jacking an E-Type than any workshop manual. Here is where the jack actually goes, where it must never go, and how to get enough height for a gearbox oil change without cracking a wishbone mount.
E10 is the default at most UK pumps in 2026, with E5 super unleaded still there for those who seek it out. Here is a calm, practical look at what modern petrol does to an E-Type's hoses, S.U. carburettors, fuel pump and hot-start manners - and the inspection routine that separates real maintenance from internet folklore.
Every November we fuss over antifreeze and battery conditioners, then give the insurance schedule four minutes and a shrug. Here's the case for treating your E-Type's agreed value as a service item — camera, invoices, mileage declaration and all — before the renewal quietly rolls over.
When the Laycock overdrive stops engaging, it is easy to jump straight to gearbox-out panic. This is a calm, step-by-step triage from dash switch to solenoid, filter and pressure check — with honest advice on when to stop fiddling and start saving.
A mate’s Series 2 picked up a London PCN because the V5C still said PLG. Here’s the practical route to historic tax class, ULEZ exemption and Clean Air Zone confidence in 2026 — without turning the glovebox into a filing cabinet.
Lucas jokes are easy; diagnosis is harder. Here is a calm, meter-led routine for tracking down E-Type electrical faults in damp UK weather without replacing half the loom on a hunch.
SU carburettors do not need incense and incantations; they need clean oil, a vacuum gauge and a patient ear. A workshop guide to getting an E-Type's twin carbs back in step after winter.
Crossplies or radials? Tubes or sealed rims? A practical 2026 tyre guide for E-Type owners who actually drive their cars on British B-roads, including wet-weather notes, load ratings and the insurance quirks worth knowing before you buy.
Panel gaps on a freshly painted E-Type are not a cosmetic afterthought — they are the last 5% of the restoration that takes 50% of the patience. Here is a home-restorer’s order of operations, shim strategy and pre-paint measuring routine for getting the bonnet, doors and boot lid to behave.
Worm-drive Jubilee clips look tidy and cost pennies, but on a sixty-year-old Jaguar cooling system they can be a false economy. Here is why I swapped to constant-tension clamps, which hose grades I chose, and the torque settings that finally kept my garage floor dry.
Before the angle grinder comes out, spend a weekend with the paperwork. Chassis numbers, heritage certificates and old MOTs can tell you what your E-Type really left Browns Lane as - and save you from an expensive identity crisis later.
Coventry built the E-Type, and the city still carries the ghosts of that industry if you know where to drive. This is a practical half-day route through Browns Lane, Whitley and the transport museum, with parking notes, café stops and a few words from local owners who still use their cars in the city.
Historic-vehicle MOT exemption is a tax-time paperwork status, not a promise that your E-Type is safe. Here is a realistic Saturday-morning walkaround covering the fifteen things a tester would still have poked at, with the E-Type weak spots worth knowing before the first proper run of spring 2026.
A perfect E-Type is a lovely thing, but a used one tells a better story. This is an argument for keeping the stone chips, the scuffed chrome and the miles visible — while still drawing a hard line at structural rust.
The seller says the E-Type is solid. In a British damp garage, that word needs checking. Here is where to poke, what a magnet and borescope actually reveal, and how to tell a project from a structural money pit.
A soggy-garage diary of deciding whether to SORN or keep the E-Type taxed, then getting it through a British winter without feeding the rust worms. Battery conditioning, flat spots, ventilation and the sill, floor and boot traps that matter.
Most home restorers buy too many tools too soon and still round off the first SU carburettor nut. Here is an opinionated £500 kit for E-Type jobs that actually matter, plus five boot-sale bargains to leave alone.