I am new to this forum and was wondering if anyone has done some modification to the current Jaguar XKE that I am restoring?

I found this Jaguar on a local news station listing web sight. It is a one owner from California. The head had been pulled from the car and was laying in the passenger floor boards.
The man that owned the car had passed away. The car was in a storage unit in California, and the wife of the man cleaned out his storage unit and trucked the Jaguar to Salt Lake City.

I purchased it from her and have since started the restoration. The car is a 1963 Jaguar XKE Series 1 Coupe. I have all of the body work complete as well as pulling the motor and going completely thru it with many painstaking hours invested.

I am currently to the point of putting the motor back in the car and have read several articles about the XKE and some of the "issues" that they have. I am NOT going to make this a concourse show car but would rather be able to get in it and enjoy it.

Because of the value of these cars I will not do anything to the car to devalue it for future restoration, I would just like to make it more "street" worthy. Here are the issues

• Carbs vs Custom Fuel Injection
• Points Ignition vs electronic Ignition
• 4 speed without 1st gear sycro vs 5 speed
• Cast exhaust vs headers
• Glass Packs vs Tuned Mufflers

Many of these mods are free horsepower and would only make the car more enjoyable to drive. Three side draft Stromberg carbs suck, no matter what anyone says. Hard to start, inconsistent fuel mixture, fuel boil over ect.

All mods would be bolt on and I would have all the original parts to replace if I ever wanted to put it back original?

The purists on this sight will probably hate me while the newer generation will think it is a good idea.
Would love to discuss this with you

The car is silver blue with dark blue leather and should be stunning upon completion.

 

Welcome to the forum desalesg,

Your car - your choice. We have Jaguars here with alternative engines and transmissions and other vehicles powered by Jaguar engines.

Follow this link E type ( XK-E ) - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the E-Type (XKE) section for help, advice and information.

Remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User ID button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

You can also visit the US Western Region section by following this link Western US - AK CA NV OR UT HI WA ID - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to find other members in your region.

Good luck with the restoration.

Enjoy the forum.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum desalesg,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't already done so you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

Hey & welcome aboard desalesg, good to have you here with us here at JF

Nice intro thanks for sharing.
As for purists and hating? Thats not something we generally have a problem with here........as Graham says, your car, your choice.

Please check into the relevant section for your vehicle so that the guys in the know there, can help you with any questions you might have

Any useful information you may need such as how to post pictures, edit signatures, add videos, use the search facility etc, can be found here
Helpful_information


Please take the time to check out the regional section for your area?
There are lots of members local to you with the same interests.
Regional - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum


I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the whole site and all its features.

Please Jump on in and enjoy the site.................

See you in the forums

 

Wow, taking on a project I would only think about for a millisecond...I envy your diligence and courage. I would love to see some before and after pics of such a project. I would also love a ridealong, but maybe one of the two are possible.