If you are looking for such a car, I generally advise people to look for the worst they can find. That rather outrageous statement needs some important and immediate qualifications. All bodyshells are normally very rotten and need the full works, with the exception in some rare cases of bodyshells which have lived in kinder climates. However, these good shells are rarer than most people would have you believe. It is also important for the car to be complete.

I would be very, very wary about buying a car that is in a collection of boxes, rather than one rolling lump. The restoration will probably have been started, and there may well be a selection of new parts with the job lot, but even the greatest expert can never manage to fully assess whether the pile of parts is complete or there are some missing. The only way to check exhaustively would be to sit down with a Parts Book and work through it. This would take weeks and is hardly practical. The missing parts may be unobtainable and thus be time-consuming and costly to find. Alternatively, they may be replaceable parts but the deficiencies can add considerably to your costs.

Such a car should, therefore, be worth considerably less than one which is a complete entity.

It is important to many people, and will affect the value, to have 'matching numbers'. In other words, the engine (particularly) and gearbox should be the ones the car started its life with. This is not vital and will not worry some people, but you should be aware that a 'matching numbers' car will always be more desirable than one with, say, a replacement engine. It is important that the engine is the correct type for the car and not out of, say, a much later saloon.

There are some cars which have been converted from Fixed Head Coupés to Roadsters, which in my opinion is most regrettable and must adversely affect the value - not that value is everything by any means. A number of cars in recent years have been changed from lefthand to righthand drive, and vice verse. These cars are possibly a little less desirable than original E-types, but only marginally so.

The point I am trying to make with regard to buying "the worst you can find" is that you can easily pay more for what appears to be a better car only to find that, in fact, you have to do the same amount of work and need the same quantity of parts. For example, if the car needs retrimming, it needs retrimming. Unless you can save the seats, it is likely that a total job will have to be done. If the car needs painting after body repairs, it needs painting. The price will be the same. Often you will be involved in the same amount of work, and thus cost, whether a car is quite bad or very bad (providing it is complete).

If you are able to do the work yourself, then this is the best route to satisfying E-type ownership, but it will take a very long time. Even professional restoration takes a minimum of a year.