With the suspension out of the car I have set to work in getting everything ready for remounting everything back into the car. I've had some mountings turned down that I can weld onto the ends of the engine bar to allow it to be bolted to the stock 911 engine mounts, I've also designed the rear engine mounts and made some better templates up out of cardboard. The mounts pick up on the existing bumper mountings and the inner valence at the rear of the car - they are very similar in design to stock 911 mountings that bridge the rear corners of the engine bay - I just need to get them laser cut and bent up.
Unfortunately the progress has stopped there.
Progress has been made on another new project however - a 1959 DKW 250cc motorcycle, or to be more correct, two motorcycles. I picked up a 1958 and a 1959 DKW from my partner (Mels) uncle - the '59 originally used to belong to Mels father whilst the '58 was originally her grandfathers. (these are obviously now heirlooms as Mel has since informed me). They were taking up valuable space in his workshop. After realising he wasn't ever going to restore them he decided to sell them. I went and took a look and struck a deal with him.
I've been spending the past couple of weeks getting the '59 back on the road - this has meant cleaning everything up and checking everything works - repairing stuff as necessary. I also had two new tyres fitted and bought a new battery. I managed to get the bike registered and am now just sorting out getting it running correctly as it still isn't quite right.
I've stripped the engine down on the '58 and need to source a few parts to get it running again, but intend to carry out a full restoration on it.
Whilst I thought my good fortune couldn't get any better along comes another offer I simply couldn't turn down. My boss at work had inherited a MkII Jaguar that needed restoring - I went and had a look at the car with him to help him evaluate it. After telling him that if for any reason he didn't want it I would be interested - he later decided that it was a bit too much work for him. A deal was struck and I am now the powner of a MKII Jaguar.
It's a 2.4 which is the smallest of the three capacities offered (the most desireable being the 3.8) and uses the 6 cylinder Le-Mans winning XK engine.
The Jag is rot free but does require a repaint and the interior retrimmed. There are no dings in the body or bumpers and only a few bits of bodywork that will require attention. Hopefully it should be an easy project.
I'll get stuck into this when the Ghia is finished.
(Or should that be IF the Ghia is finished???)
As usual there are more pictures in the media library - I've added two new sections - one each for the Jaguar and the DKW's - I'll keep them updated as I get more work done. Currently I'm getting the DKW running properly as it would be nice to use it to commute to work on. After that I will move back to sorting out the Ghia. :)
