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This site chronicles my experience with the restoration of a 1950/1951 Jowett Javelin. As with many car restorations, a primary motivation is the memory of one’s distant youth! I passed the driving test in England in 1959 at the age of 18 driving my family’s 1951 Javelin. In 1960, the car was handed over to me and I then managed to wear it out in the subsequent two years!
I have always been something of an amateur mechanic, doing most of the maintenance on the cars I have owned. However, I have never undertaken a complete car restoration or even a complete engine overhaul. I had been casually looking for a project vehicle for some time, thinking of a restoration as a possible post-retirement activity. I was focused on getting a vehicle that I had some familiarity with, i.e. a model that I had owned previously. A circa 1960 Riley 1.5 was my most likely candidate. I had owned one after the Javelin, and I knew that there had been quite a few imported to Canada. Then, on searching the Internet in 1999, I found someone who was asking for information on Jowetts. I posted a response describing my experience with the Javelin and mentioning that if anyone knew of the whereabouts of one in Canada, I could be interested. About six months later, I was approached by someone in Montreal who said he had one available. After exchanging a number of e-mails and his offer to sell and deliver the car at a fairly low price, I decided that this was an offer I couldn’t refuse if I was serious about undertaking a car restoration project. Consequently, I took delivery of my first Javelin for restoration in September 2000.
By August 2002, I had stripped that first car and completed the overhaul of many mechanical parts. Until that time I had been putting off a serious assessment of the body. Then I got an experienced restorer to take a look at it and very quickly concluded that the body restoration was well beyond my capabilities and budget! So the project went into hiatus until March 2003, when I purchased my second Javelin. The body of the second car was in far better shape than the first one was.
Since March 2003, I worked to get the second car on the road, and in late August 2004, that goal was achieved. On September 19, 2004 my Javelin was driven to its first car show. The round trip distance covered was 135 miles. There still remained some things to work on such as improving the air filter, and reducing noise; but now in early October 2004, I consider that the restoration is complete.
There were originally 433 Javelins imported to Canada. Based on my research I believe there to be six still in existence. There are four stored in a barn on Vancouver Island, and one in Prince George British Columbia, leaving my Javelin as the only one in Canada outside of British Columbia. Should anyone have knowledge of any others, please contact me.
The other pages of this site describe the progress of the restoration over the past four years and provide a bit more information on my early Jowett experience. Now that the restoration is complete, I hope that others may find this site of some interest and maybe even useful in a few instances. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any comments, suggestions or questions that you may have.
Updated: October, 2004
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