Buying and evaluation

An E-Type is a monocoque car with a bolted-on front frame, which means its structure is the car. Paint, chrome and interior can all be renewed for known sums by known people. A rotten or distorted centre section cannot, at least not without a bill that dwarfs everything else. Inspect in that order, and be willing to walk away before you have fallen for the shape.

Structure and corrosion

Get the car on a lift, or at minimum on axle stands with good light. A visual walk around a car on the ground tells you almost nothing about an E-Type.

• Sills and floors. The sills are structural and are frequently covered rather than repaired. Look inside the car, under the carpets, and from below at the same time.
• Rear end. Boot floor, spare wheel well, rear wheel arches and the area around the rear suspension cage mountings. This is where water sits.
• Front frame. Corrosion is one problem, distortion from a past impact is another. Uneven panel gaps at the bonnet and doors, or a car that will not track straight, point here.
• Bonnet. A large, complex and expensive assembly. Check the underside, the inner valances and the fit at the hinge line. Poor fit is often a symptom of frame trouble rather than of the bonnet itself.
• Doors and shut lines. Consistent gaps matter more than perfect gaps. Sudden variation suggests the shell has moved.

Mechanical checks

None of this is exotic, and all of it is easier to assess on a car that is started cold in front of you. Insist on that.

• Engine. Oil pressure once warm, smoke on the overrun, and any sign of coolant and oil mixing. The XK six is a durable engine, and rebuilds are expensive. Overheating history matters more on a Series 3 V12, for reasons set out on the six versus V12 page.
• Gearbox. The early Moss box has no synchromesh on first and is deliberate in use. That is normal. Jumping out of gear or noise in neutral is not.
• Rear suspension and brakes. The independent rear unit carries inboard rear brakes, which are laborious to reach. Look for leaks from the differential and from the inboard callipers, and treat a car with an untouched rear unit as a job waiting to be paid for.
• Electrics. Check everything works, including the fans. Earths are a common cause of odd faults, and a car with a tidy loom has usually been cared for elsewhere too.
• Wire wheels, where fitted. Loose or broken spokes, worn splines and hubs that click under load. Splines are a wear item and replacement is not trivial.

Identity, originality and matching numbers

Two different questions get muddled under the word original. The first is whether the car is the car its paperwork describes. The second is whether it still carries the parts it left the factory with. The first is fundamental, the second is a matter of taste.

To answer the first, compare the numbers stamped on the car against the Heritage Certificate. Check the stampings on the car, not only the plate in the engine bay, since plates can be replaced and reproduction plates are freely available. Where a number is missing, restamped, ground or oddly presented, ask for an explanation and expect it to be documented.

To answer the second, use the series identification pages. A car described as a Series 1 that has open headlights, rocker switches and Zenith-Stromberg carburettors is very likely one of the interim Series 1.5 cars, which is a fact rather than a fault. Cars are also converted in both directions, most often by fitting covered headlights to a later car, and that is exactly the sort of thing a certificate settles quickly.

Paperwork worth having

• A Heritage Certificate, or the willingness of the seller to let you obtain one.
• Restoration records with photographs, invoices and dates rather than assertions.
• A continuous ownership and registration history, and old test certificates where they survive, since the recorded mileages tell their own story.
• Evidence of recent use, not just recent detailing.

A car with a thick and consistent file is worth more attention than a car with a fresh respray and nothing behind it. If a restoration is claimed and cannot be evidenced, treat it as unproven.

Get an independent inspection

Have the car looked at by a marque specialist or through an owners' club inspection scheme, and pay for it. A specialist who sees E-Types every week will find in an hour what a careful amateur will miss in a day, and the report gives you something concrete rather than an impression. This archive has no commercial relationships and recommends no particular firm.

Common questions