Hey! I'm not dead yet! I still have a long way to go with this one....

 

645 miles in the Jaguar this weekend and there was only one mechanical failure. I went to start the car to head back home this morning and when I turned the key everything was dead. The battery cut-off switch failed open and it was easy enough to bypass to get me on the way home.
I did get the top of the dash installed this morning but the rest of the dash needs a final sand. I did lay the instrument panel and right-hand glove box in place to get a general feel for how it will look and it looks pretty awesome. Dad really did a great job with this.



For comparison, here was the dash as-delivered:

 

That looks wonderful! And the instruments look perfectly in period too. Make me wonder if I should have had them instead of repairing my cluster!

 

Fantastic - she sounds like a proper highway cruiser.
What are your plans regarding the body? Cut & polish? Leave as-is?

You're not going to let that one go are you?

 

For the body, as of now I am going to try a very light polish and wax then say good enough. I have trips planned for her now until the end of October so anything I do will need to reflect the reality of keeping it on the road.
I have considered a full strip-down and repaint but that after doing that I would be hesitant to take it on long trips for fear of rock chips - and long trips are the reason I built the car this way.

This is usually the point in the project where I start thinking about the exit strategy and I have not even considered that yet. I am very fond of this one and really enjoy driving it.

 

Thomas, That dash looks Marvelous! As I mentioned earlier, I've never seen such heavy burl!

And, I can tell you from experience, if you go to the work of strip and repaint, after what you've already done, the first ding or rock chip will be absolutely soul-destroying.
Much better to call it Patina and DRIVE THE WHEELS OFF!
(';')

 

Absolutely correct. "You should not bow down and worship graven images" - however understandable that might be in the case of a classic Jaguar - but DRIVE them. That is what they were made for!