New England is brutal on older sports cars. They degrade into a mound of rust in what seems like minutes. The odds are greatly against finding anything local that is in good shape. If you are looking for something specific you are in for a long search.
We live in an amazing time. Courtesy of the Internet you can search nationwide using resources like Craigslist, Ebay, Bring a Trailer, Hemmings, and others. You can find things in California, Arizona, and other less rusty regions. I refuse to say “rust free” because there is no such thing in a 50 year old car.
Hmm, here is a listing for a 1973 Jaguar XKE in Vermont. It is an estate sale and is a project car. Apparently it was pulled apart for restoration 20 years ago and now consists of a painted shell and boxes of parts. They were asking $11,500.
I know that I said Jaguar was too expensive to consider. But this is a dream car, one I thought was totally out of reach. There are plenty of red flags, but it is only 120 miles away. Road trip!
The car was basically as described. A 1973 Jaguar XKE 2+2 with V12 and automatic transmission. Both the automatic transmission and 2+2 configuration significantly reduce the market value of the car. The most valuable XKEs are convertible (automatically a 2 seater) with manual transmission.
The body, sills, and engine cradle seemed solid. But the entire floor was badly rusted and would have to be replaced.
The car had indeed been stripped for restoration. For example, the doors were nothing but two pieces of sheetmetal – glass, window regulator, latch, interior door handle, exterior door handle, lock, and door card had been removed. The entire car was like this.
The motor was siezed – you couldn’t turn it over at all. Transmission and rear end were in unknown condition. Windshield, rear window, and door glass were missing.
Looking through the boxes of parts it was apparent that many pieces were missing.
I said I would think about it. As soon as I got home I built a spreadsheet of missing major parts that I could readily identify. Checking prices I quickly came to $15K in parts. This is probably half of what would ultimately be required.
Purchase price, engine rebuild, and missing parts quickly added up to $40K-$50K, about what one of these cars in good running condition would sell for. Plus time for the restoration. I could do this, but the numbers just didn’t math.
A famous observation is that the most expensive car you can buy is a cheap British (or German) luxury car. Clearly the case here.
I contacted the Jaguar owner with regrets and moved on with the search.