A Car Story

All of us here at British Auto Works are trying hard to get as many classic British Sports Cars back on the road as we can.  Here are some pictures of one of our latest projects.  It’s a very nice Series II E type.  The customer has owned the car for several years, he is actually the third owner.  The car has had some suspension repair, and the engine has been gone through, but the interior and the paint needed to be done.

One of the best things about this car was that it had been well taken care of, and there was no apparent body or frame damage and there was only slight rust spots.  The sills and rockers were great.  We started by stripping everything off the car.

Once we got the carpet out, we did find some rust through spots in the floor pans.  These were small enough that we could patch the area with some fresh metal, and it would be better than new.

The next big thing was to get the motor and transmission out.  Typical Jag, taking the motor out is an all day project, but you do have to admire the engineering behind this car, it really is impressive.

After all this was done, it was off to the body shop and we got started on what few minor body imperfections there was, and prep for paint

Stay tuned to see the pictures of it painted, it’s the Carmine red.

Once we were able to get the motor in the car for the final time, everything bolted up Then came the hard part. We discovered that the drive line, though the directions said it was an easy install of the Morris “just fit the slip yoke from the Datsun”. We we didn’t get the Datsun drive line and we didn’t have a slip yoke. So off to the drive-line shop we went and put in an order for a new drive-line.

While we were still under the car, we decided to finish off the clutch linkage. Here too, we found that we were missing parts. Thank goodness we have a talented crew. Our guys took on the design challenge and came up with a very suitable linkage system that worked nicely.

Once this was done, the final task below was the exhaust.  We did receive an adaptor pipe but unfortunately it was for a different car.  So we had to modify that as well.  That being done we were able to lower the car and get started on the painstaking work of getting everything hooked up.  One thing can be said for Japanese cars, they have more hoses going more places and doing less things that any car on the road.  We did have a good diagram of what hoses went where, and what hoses did what, so we cut and plugged about two thirds of them and went on to hooking up the carb linkage.  This actually went quite well.  The Morris cable, with a few modifications, worked.  Then it was off to the wiring.  Fortunately the Morris dosen’t require much electrical.  The hard part was figuring out what we didn’t need on the Datsun.

After five days of work, and a little frustration and some standing back in amazement that we could do this, we put the cooling system together; which by the way, there is only room for a piece of paper between the water pump shaft and the radiator, but we found a fan to work.  We tested all the systems, and they all worked.  It was time for a test drive and a shake-down so to speak.  Wow, the Datsun engine really made a difference.  We have installed several B210 five speeds, and they really enhance the driveabliity of the car, but we had no idea the boost in horse power from the Datsun engine would make this much difference.  All in all it was a fun project, and the results were above expected.

Today was a good day. First of all it was my grandson’s sixth birthday. He is a great boy, has a lot of character, and is a lot of fun to watch grow-up. He has much of his father sense of humor, and at this age, he still seems to be the life of the party. His mom and dad are going to have an experience when he gets to be a teenager. I know every grandparent thinks their grandchildren are the smartest and the cutest, and I am no exception. He’s a great little boy and I am very proud of him.

The distant second good thing about today is that we finally delivered the beautiful 1600 MGA. It was the dove gray car with red interior and top. I hope to have a slide show to show you soon, ( I have to learn how first). This car is absolutely gorgeous. The customer has been very patient, and he has expected a very nice car, and Simon and the other guys at the shop have given him just that. The car is as close to original as we could have made it with two hidden alterations. The paint, interior and other details set the car off like few others we have had in the shop.

This is one of those with a story in that the customer had seen a picture of an MGA that was this color and these features, and he fell in love with that car. Now that he is able to afford that car of his dreams, he put his heart and soul into the car that he wanted. He painstaking researched every detail, and made sure we produced the car he wanted. At the end, he has that car. He cannot be any prouder of it than we are. It’s beautiful. I hope you will get to see it at the Concour’s in Forest Grove, or at the ABFM, I think you will like it too.

Doug loves his new car

Doug is an old friend of ours.  he brought this MGA into the shop for a complete restoration.  We love doing MGA restorations.  It’s so much fun to watch the car go from something that was sitting in the back of a barn to Doug’s favorite thing to drive.  This MGA restoration took 12 months and is waiting for the finishing touches.  This MGA restoration will be complete in a couple of weeks.