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An Australian Restoration
by Nicholas Buckvic

Here are a couple of photos of my car, as I mentioned earlier I have had this one since January 1990 and as you can see it was a bare metal restoration which was started by accident one evening back in early 1993. The final result as you can see was well worth it. It still is a Jensen with the odd mechanical hiccup but otherwise being a bit of a fanatic it really looks and goes better than new. It was bead-blasted to get it back to bare metal than given to a local body shop for the body clean and fill which took 3 months.

The end result was top quality, in fact better than I had expected. It was originally white and shot me but I elected to have her come out in a 'Ferrari Rosso Corso' if thats how you spell it.

The motor was split open by a local engine builder who found that all it needed was rings and front and rear oil seals. Lucky there I thought. Anyway apart from the electronic ignition it is stock mechanically.

The interior was redone in leather (sorry for the shitty seat covers) and the wood was polished also by local shops. The restoration took close to 8 years. I spent a lot of nights in my garage burning the midnight oil but well worth it. It is a bit cold down here in Melbourne and I hope to put the hard-top on this week-end for a bit of a 'treat' as I think the car looks good with it on. I also have the original tornneau (spellcheck), soft-top retainer, parts manuel, owners handbook and work shop manuel.

I had paid $AUD12,500 for the car and I estimate I spent close to $20,000 for the restoration. My first Jensen was an early Mk11 which I bought back in late 1986 and had to sell due to financial problems, oh well. I went to the 21st birthday celebration (pub car park on a Sunday) in 1993, to mark the cars Australian debut where there was a few fantastically restored cars and as such gave me ideas for my project.

 

 

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