This restoration has been a labour of love, frustration, sweat and tears – not to mention money. As many Jensen owners can attest to. However now that it is up and running and sounding great – it has all been worth it. I first saw this car on Ebay around 6 years ago. My wife Jan had always loved the Jensen Interceptor after seeing 3 of them parade around the Sandown Park racing circuit in Melbourne back in 1969 to showcase the car – not to race it. We would see one very occasionally on the road and she would comment “I love to have one of those”. Well she got her wish even though she had to wait until 2015 to get one.
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The car was originally Californian Sage with Green trim from the factory. Believe only 13 were built in that combination. Sometime in the late nineties, the previous owner had it painted red but went no further with restoration. It sat in the back of a warehouse for 20 odd years until it was finally offered for sale on Ebay at $9000. It only showed I picture of the car on a trailer and mentioned 95% complete with just surface rust. This was too steep for me at the time. No one made a bid and car just disappeared. Thankfully it reappeared 2 weeks later for $7000 and we won the bid. Jan was very happy.
So began the full restoration process. Engine came out first. No carb or dizzy. Previous owner had put all pushrods in oilpaper underneath inlet manifold. Glad I did not try to turn it over.
Over the next 6 years we rebuilt engine, replaced front and rear axle bearings. Replaced all brake lines, shaved rotors, new pads, new shockers, dampers and recored radiator with more powerful Calibre electric fans. Auto trans fully overhauled. After water blasting, the body showed a large number of deep scatches and dents which needed a lot of body shop work. Utilised Rejen for all new rubber kits, all new floor carpets plus sunvisors, roof fabric and too many other items to list. Ross Hockley down in Sydney was also a great help with new taillights, bearings and indicators. Wheels are 15 x 7 Sprint Masters which closely resemble original wheels in looks. Decided on an exterior color called Prussian Steel matched with bone leather trim. Everyone comments on the color. Made up our own headrests which match the seats very well. Also being in a hot climate here in Queensland I made up hybrid style aircon system. The Mk1 does not make it easy to have Aircon and hide it behind dash, but with a bit of internal metal surgery I was able to adapt it to have evaporator fit into original heater box and flow through 3 main front vents. Works pretty well.
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Finally on our first trip out on the road with high expectations and visiting some friends suddenly 10 kilometres down the road smoke started to come through the dash. Everything stopped. Had the vehicle towed back home. Sometime later discovered bare wiring had touched side of alternator. Had to replace part of main wiring section right through the dash. That was almost a year ago. Since then we have had other wiring upgraded so hopefully those problems are now behind us and we can enjoy the car.
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