It’s time for a progress report regarding the re-fresh of my 1967 E-Type 2+2. In my article here, I discussed areas where the car needed improvement to be competitive in a concours event. And so in the month of August I have begun my assault. I have been working on two fronts. The very first thing I did was address alignment of the bonnet at the cowl. This involved an inordinate amount of “fettling” and I would be hard pressed to describe where the hours I spent went. The goal was to allow the bonnet, when closed and latched, to be nicely aligned with the cowl. I wanted to get all this adjusted before I took the bonnet off the car for painting. Since the cowl is a fixed point, this requires massaging the bonnet to match the cowl. The bonnet has a middle and two wings. These can be moved around through adjustment of the backing stiffeners and the bolting. This is a gross simplification but I was able to ultimately achieve a good fit. Better than it has ever been!
Next I remove the bonnet and placed it on a stand. Then I proceeded with the installation of my Monocouque Metalworks closed headlight kit. This effort is on-going and deserves its own article. That said, here is a progress picture.
Closed headlight opening pieces being bonded using JB Weld. You can never own enough clamps!
Parallel to working on the bonnet, I have been dis-assembling the engine compartment to allow deep cleaning and touch-up. There is no half way on this effort. Almost everything is coming out. Just yesterday, I finally got the entire engine out and also removed the support frames. I tackled the filthy firewall with Purple Stuff cleaner and was pleased to find that it cleaned up very well. The paintwork is in good condition and will require minimal touch-up.
Engine and support frames removed.
Firewall cleaned up.
And finally, I raised the car all the way up on my single post lift and cleaned the bottom side. I used Purple Stuff cleaner, followed by my pressure washer. It also cleaned up nicely. The underside of a car doesn’t get judged in a JCNA concours but it’s nice to have it looking good.
Underside cleaned up!
And that’s what a month of progress looks like! Well, I took a week off to go visit the granddaughters so we’ll say 3 weeks work. Stay tuned!
New Hill Garage 
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