I've decided to keep the silver and pink and blue, with a little primer and 3 clearcoats...
Yup, Keeping the 291H Dark Olive. It is the reason i bought the car in the first place.
I coveted this car as a teenager growing up in NY on Long Island. A red one on the North Shore kept my attention as I would try to find it after seeing it a couple of times. I also fell in love with a Jaguar XKE in British Racing Green I'd seen at a dealership there.
After my Dodge Challenger, an education and a few years of a career, I test drove an 1969 XKE, (it was white), and I couldn't get this old shotput and discus thrower body to fit. My head popped over the windscreen, and I couldn't get out of the thing. The car rattled and didn't run well at all.
But I still loved the BRG color. So when I finally got to the point when the kids went off to college, I stumbled across a Dark Olive one in my own backyard (here in Columbus), that had spent 30 years in Washington DC and South Carolina. I'm still picking pine needles out of the air vents.
It was robust, with little rust (that I could see) and a good drivetrain. It had been hit in the first year of its life in the front right fender, so I knew it had some work done. I did find a Hypodermic needle under the passenger seat, which may have played a role in the accident..... The son of the prior owner had brought it up to Columbus after his mother's passing, and started to restore it. He sent the heads off to California to be reworked, replaced the tie rods, subframe components, fuel injectors, lines, and pump, and took care of the smoking engine. It did leak a lot of oil though. Because of the leak, the engine bay was coated with blown oil, which was a bear to clean off. To make matters worse, the engin had been sprayed with a lacquer, which made a mess over the years. After a bunch of thinner, we cleaned up the engine a bunch.
Joe Alexander and I changed every seal in the engine, and all the mounts, etc, and he got it running superbly. Then, I replaced the cracked seat leather, pads, and the canvas top, bought new whitewalls, and drove it 9,000 miles last summer. Took it to the PGA championship at Oak Hill, and up to Michigan. I also bought a hardtop (w/ rear defroster) and a becker stereo europa to replace the mono europa, and even found a Kaco trouble light in Germany to buy. pulled the dash apart and had the tach and speedo serviced, sent the radio off to becker to be serviced (my am would cut out), and finally put in LED's in the dash to brighten it.
Next was the exterior paint. Which is where I am today.
After this comes the dash and side leather, and new carpeting.
No hurry though, as I don't want to finish too soon, as I need to have something to do with it, lest my eye stray to another vixen, like a 1958 Imperial with Fins and a Hemi.
Sorry I rambled, but a good Cabernet will do that sometimes.
Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH
