For your car

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was delighted to to be reunited with an old feline friend at the end of July. The 'cat' in question was a 1966 Jaguar E type, or XKE as it's know in the US, that sojourned in a garage in Southern California for a decade. The reason for the Jag's hibernation are complex and I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say that about 18 months ago I made the decision to wake it up from its overly long slumber and prowl around with it on the roads of the Pacific North West. Now when a car has been laid up for such a long time, even when it's been kept warm, dry and started on occasions, it can't just have a battery charge and be off and running as normal. Rubber and plastic parts go brittle and degrade, metal to metal components get gummed together, fuel degrades, hydraulic systems leak and fail, tyres harden and generally everything becomes stiff and creakey. So back in the spring of 2008 I asked friend and ace Jag mechanic, Mel Muzio , to bring the car back to life. My intention was to compete in the 2009 NW Classic Rally held in Oregon every August. I though this would be a good goal to aim for so work was duly started. The process was meticulous, methodical and turned out to be much more involved that I imagined. Here's an abridged account of the story: The first job was to replace all the sealing rubbers which had become brittle and useless. The general consensus is that they last for four years. Great! I sourced a supposedly superior brand in the UK but now, a year and a half after being fitted, are already showing signs of degeneration. Oh well...! The chrome bullet mirrors and roof antenna had become quite tarnished and were replaced with new shiny items. Truth be told, the Old Girl never handled that well. It didn't corner impressively, the steering was as vague as a politician making election promises and the brakes were mediocre at best and had a tendency to fade horribly. But now there were more problems. All the suspension...

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