Last summer, at the Carolina Jaguar Club concours, I ran into a fellow, Brad Merlie, who informed me that he was marketing a stash of new old stock Jaguar parts. One thing that caught my interest was that he said he had some, but not all, of the items that made up the Tool Roll. None of my 3 Etypes have either a tool roll or a factory jack. At lot of folks like to have the correct tool roll and jack to go along with their cars. So after the event, I went to Brad’s website, www.vintagejagparts.com, and placed an order. Since I have 3 Etypes, I tried to get 3 of everything. I was moderately successful, although I certainly didn’t get everything I needed for an authentic tool roll. I also snagged two jacks that he had.
Brad referred me to an excellent article, E-Type Tool Kits by Roger Payne, that goes to great lengths to identify the correct tools and jacks for the various series of Etypes. The articles were written by Roger Payne and published between December of 2015 and February of 2019 in the magazine ‘The E-Type’, published by Porter & Porter, Ltd.. Electronic back-issues are available to members of The E-Type Club. More information is available at www.e-typeclub.com. As noted in the article, you can also get a pretty good list of the correct tools by referring to the Jaguar Parts List for the Etype. Also the March/April 2020 issue of the JCNA’s Jaguar Journal has a good article regarding tool kits.
Once I understood which tools I was missing, I was able to fill in the gaps with new reproductions from SNG Barratt. Some of Brad’s tools were not in great shape. I purchased a “blackening kit” from Caswell Plating. Please correct me if I am wrong but I believe a commercial term is Parkerizing. As defined in Wikipedia, “Parkerizing is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of a chemical phosphate conversion coating.” The kit from Caswell couldn’t have been easier to use, as long as you have a blasting cabinet to bring the various tools down to bare metal. A short 1 minute dip in the solution is all it takes to turn them a nice shade of black. Caswell provides a second step, a sealant, which also requires just a short dip. Hang them up to dry and the next day you’re ready to go.
The pouch or case for an original tool roll, if you find one, will be in very bad shape. I bought 3 reproduction pouches from Brad. Load the tools into the pouch and you are ready to go.
The jacks took a little bit of work to get them in presentable condition. I disassembled them to some degree to allow them to be painted. I used a Rustoleum color Winter Grey which is not perfect but close enough. The correct jack for a 1967 2+2 would have a separate handle and be designed to engage a pin that hangs down of the bottom of the car in 4 places. I will confess that at the time I restored the car I knew none of this and did not add said pins. To do so now would require welding and I am way past the point of being willing to do that. So I fabricated a bearing bracket for the jack that is more commensurate with the non 2+2 cars. Brad sold me the authentic Thor hammer and the pouch.
I also made up a tool roll for my 1963 FHC. The tool roll components for the 63 and 67 cars is very similar. The jack for a 63 car has an integral handle. Brad had one of these and, when I am done with the restoration of my 63 car, the tool roll and jack will go into its boot.
For my 67 2+2, I took the tool roll and the jack out to the car and laid them out in the boot for this photo.
Finally, I stowed them in the spare tire area. Sad to say, after all this effort, they will probably never be actually used but you never know!
New Hill Garage 
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