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Dennis explained to me that Jaguar sports cars of the 50s and 60s were hand built. If one looks at the E-Types of the 60s no two cars were exactly the same. Quality control was not the culture it is today and so once a E-Types came down the line and to a team of "craftsmen" who took the car and "fitted" body panels eliminating manufacturing gaps and flaws. Today, buying a Jaguar E-Type bonnet is not just paying for the part but also paying for the fabrication that must go into fitting it properly on the frame. See the before/ after bonnet pictures below. You can see the fabrication work done by Pat in fitting the middle top of the bonnet to the body shell as well as the lower left and right sides of the bonnet that meet the lower frame. Pat built most of the car's bonnet from sheet metal pieces to produce the custom fit it needed. This was all new to me!! Pat took the hood, cut it shorter and did some magical fabrication for a perfect fit.

  

I never just knew how these E-Types were built i.e. the body shell is only from the fire wall behind the engine compartment to the rear of the car. The forward section that surrounds the engine to the nose of the car is all framing. See the pictures below to get the idea. Because the car had so much structural damage one can imagine what the body was like. Again, a lot of fabricating of raw metal to rebuilt corner panels, rockers, etc.... The picture (left) shows the head lamp tunnel from the inside view. You can see how Pat used new fasteners and then honed them down flat. All of the car's components were disassembled, reworked and then put back together again adding either new pieces or fabrication where needed.

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