Archive for May 1st, 2005
The Find
The Jaguar 340 that I am restoring was purchased from a mechanic in Maryland in 1998. Per the mechanic – 10 years previously a customer had dropped the car off for some bodywork and subsequently never came back for it. The mechanic filed a mechanics lien and the car became his property. He proceeded to work on the body off and on for the next 10 years and finally sold it for cash.
I remember driving out to some barn in the wilds of Maryland to pick up the car with a friend of mine. The car was in grey primer, the bumbers were no longer chrome and a pile of parts were in the car. The speedometer showed 29K miles and the engine was original and had never been out of the car!
We loaded it up on the trailer and hauled it back to Virginia where it was destined to sit for a number of years in different garages, counties and even different states. Today it sits in Winter Park, Florida where on the weekends I attempt to put the car back together. I was holding off on rebuilding the car until I could restore it completely – but decided in the end that the car deserved a better fate than being labeled as another “restoration project” or “project car”. It’s getting old belonging to the local Jaguar Car clubs and not being able to drive to one in a Jaguar!
So join me as we start the process of putting the 340 back together and hopefully being able to drive it one day to a show.