E-Type restoration, one skinned knuckle at a time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.