1959 Jaguar Mk2 'Resto-Mod'

This 1959 Mk2 Jaguar was the 59th Mk2 3.4 Litre built. The car is owned by Chris, a prominent South Australian wine-maker. In the late 1980s, Chris' wife had a scary accident when the brakes failed while she was driving the Mk2 through their local town.

Thankfully, the consequential impact was minimised due to some adept driving whereby Chris' wife guided the car along a kerb and she was able to minimise crash damage. Chris immediately took the car off the road.

Later, Chris decided to have a ground-up restoration performed on the Mk2, and also have the brakes upgraded. Chris took the car to a local crash repairer to do the work. Alas, the car was treated as the "corner project" to fill in the crash repairers' time between accident crash jobs.

Later the repairer went out of business, and Chris was forced to move the car to another local crash repairer. Alas, the project stalled again as the second crash repairer also used the car as the "corner project" to fill in time between accident crash jobs.

After five years of little progress, and the second crash repairer closing down, the project was mothballed. The car's body was stored at or near the crash repairer's shed, while Chris had the components stored at home. 

That is how the car sat for the next twenty-five years. During this time, Chris accumulated many New Old Stock (NOS) replacement parts and upgrade components.

Resolving not to use a crash repairer again, Chris sought out a professional car restoration firm and tracked down Finch Restorations. Chris then arranged for the car to be brought into Finch, and became reaqauinted with the car body that he had not laide his eyes on for 25 years. Over several trips, Chris also brought in to Finch all of the loose parts he had accumulated and stored.

Then the project began ...

Restoration Timeline

The timeline below provides a structured breakdown of the restoration. Please click on each section to read more details and see a related gallery of images.