Edited on 2010-09-08 1:10:59
Edited on 2010-09-08 1:08:42
It took forever to find a way to reduce my registration photo down to 25kb or less, but it is now accomplished.
The photo is of a 1953 MK VII that I rebuilt in 1966-67 while in the service and living in Dothan, Al. I was an Army flight instructor and I purchased the car from a civilan instructor. The original color was a dark gold--almost bronze and the car was a basket case. It didn't even have a muffler and most of the instruments did not work and the chrome was awful, as well as most everything else.
The first thing I did was to remove all the chrome, boxed up all the smaller pieces and tagged the larger parts such as the bumpers, put it all on a Greyhound bus and shipped it to Mobile, Al. to be straighten if necessary and re-chromed. It all came back in less then two weeks and in the same way--via Greyhound bus. Try that today.:-).
I purchased everything else--gages etc. from a parts house in Jacksonville, Fl. Nothing I ordered took more then a week to arrive, except the dual oil pressure/Temp gage. May have been oil pressure and something else--can't remember, and that only took two weeks.
Rust, for some reason was not an issue and what little was there was easily repaired. Lead was the big thing to use back then and very little was needed.
I rebuilt the engine with all new parts. The head was redone locally and crank was grounded, also locally.. For some reason, I did not rebuild the two downdraft carbs at that time and believe it or not, I still have the carb tunning kit.
When all the labor was completed, I had the car painted Cannary yellow and Black as can be seen in the picture. There is more to the story, but to cut it short, not long after completing my labor of love, I got military orders to return to Vietnam for a second year. Not knowing what I should do with the car, I decided to sell it. I sold it to one of the brother's that owned the paint shop that painted the car there in Dothan. I wish there was someway to remember all the names and addresses, for I would truely love to know where the car went after that. I hope someone still ownes it somewhere, but more then likely it has ended up in the Big Jaguar Heaven in the Sky.
Garfield
05/XJ8L