Rebuilding a 1964 Jaguar XKE

I bought a 1964 Jaguar XKE in 1974 for less than a thousand dollars. The car ran but it had a lot of rust on the floor panels and the boot area (trunk) along with dents and dings from everyday use. The car had matching numbers and was complete. The paint was a brownish, bronze color that really didn't look that appealing and the top needed replacing. I patched the rusted areas with fiber glass and used body putty on the dents. These were not the best solutions but I didn't have the tools to do the job right, and I wanted to get it on the road ASAP.

Once I had the car up and running well I sold my 1967 MGB and the Jag became my daily driver. It ran well and was fast but the car needed constant attention to keep it running. Also, every time I hit a bump rust would fall out from under the car. I had a lot of fun with the car but eventually as I got involved in other projects the maintenance and upkeep kept getting delayed until I only drove it occasionally and then not at all. Also the car was parked outside for the first couple of years which didn't help the rust problem.

I refreshed the interior, painted the car baby blue and had a new top installed at Orange Motors in Miami.

I really enjoyed driving the Jag and it was way faster than anything I'd owned before.

In 1979 I moved to a new house and it took some effort to get the Jag started. Once I got it to the house I parked it in the garage and there is sat for the next twenty one years. My daughters used it as their hideaway and the cats used it as their private domain.

The car became a convenient shelf for storing all kinds of stuff that someone didn't want to put away and eventually it was almost impossible to know that a car existed under all the junk that was piled on top of it.

I kept the Jag for those twenty years because I always had plans to get it back on the road. I never had expected to wait 20 year to get started but life has a tendency of getting in the way. Around 1995 someone offered me 12 grand for the car just based on a description a friend had given him. The offer surprised me but I decided not to sell and around that time other people found out about the car and made offers. All of this new found interest got my attention and I decided it was about time to get it back on the road. Originally I figured two or three months would get everything sorted out and I'd have a sports car back. Real work began in September 2000

Well my estimate was totally naïve and in the next pages I'll cover the twenty plus years that it actually took to make it drivable. I've designed this web site with the work that took place each year.

If you are going through this adventure yourself please let me know and maybe I can help you avoid a few of the mistakes I made along the way. My email is wyldekeith@gmail.com or keith@miamimicro.com