RichardK Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 I've yet to suss out making this work well on the phone, so might be a bit delayed, but today is an exciting day - one of my friends is popping over with a Land Rover and a trailer, and we're going hunting. Edits: Up for sale. General gist.... 1992 Facelift XJS V12, 91,500 miles, MoT April 2017, blue with cream leather. Bodywork generally good, a few bits need attention, bonnet paint is poor. Quad lights. Very recent Michelins all round. Interior has a few small damaged bits (seatbelt plastics, seat plastic) and headlining is shabby, underfelts missing. Central locking not working on passenger side currently. Good oil pressure, starts easily, runs well. Drives very nicely, smooth, good ride, nice handling, not wayward - slight pull on braking is the only vice. £3500. Will consider PXs, but there's a car I'm interested in so sale is more useful I've been generally told this has £5K potential, but I think getting into tidying the small issues - whilst not that scary - is something I don't have time or will to get into. It is a very straight, smart looking car. After 500 miles of mixed and motorway use I'm confident that the coolant leak is sorted and will be changing the water for proper antifreeze soon along with an oil & air filter change. Six-cylinder, Sealtainn, NorfolkNWeigh and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorfolkNWeigh Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Ah, the subtle clue didn't pass me by. Hunting...Hillman Hunter ?Singer Chamois? Chevrolet Impala ?Sunbeam Tiger ?Nissan Leopard ? Some sort of Jaguar ?Fox body Mustang ? Ok I give up. Magnificent Rustbucket, drum and Skizzer 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Like the possibilities but you haven't a cat in hells chance of guessing this at all. RichardK and chaseracer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 I could do a long, drawn out thread, but it's been a LONG day, so a short thread... At 10am, my friend Elwyn shows up, and we head off Southwards. We met a nice dog. We collected a car! I saw a very neglected Fairlady. I found a fan. The car sat well on the trailer. And then having been collected, it got a new home! ... .... .... Of course, to put it there, we had to move some old junk. Which didn't want to start. So it had to be pulled out... Good thing it'd go into N. It was in the way, so we decided to move it. PETROL STATION SHOT! (Towing it is more economical than driving it. Chap looking at the car reads a mag I contribute to). Another petrol station shot. FFS. Tailgated ALL the way home by some prat. Oh well. I might as well keep it then. outlaw118, Semi-C, Jim Bergerac and 21 others 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dome Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Just drop the jag at mine, I'll give it a home... brickwall and Magnificent Rustbucket 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 We can drop off the Olds instead. You know you want to. Huge thanks to Michael of this parish and of course, Richard and his mate for lugging the large american paperweight to the secret barn location somewhere in deepest darkest Essex. What in the name of arse is that Reliant doing there? RichardK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 The Olds looks like some kind of cartoon mollusc from the back. Weird. mouseflakes, Partridge and Uncle Jimmy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 It's clearly waiting. Biding its time. Plotting. The Olds is an interesting thing. Having looked at that transverse leaf, I reckon you could either get a single-leaf metal one to do the same job, or talk to I think GKN around Birmingham make them. It does not look like that much of a nightmare to deal with. The rest of the stuff on the car, minor trim and so forth, I reckon would be the harder issue to solve. Thanks for pointing out the XJS! It's got a long, dark time ahead of it in the garage, but I think it is worth every bit of effort, every skinned knuckle and two-hour-long stream of obscenities for the mixed metric/UNF/unobtanium bolts. And it turns out my circle of friends of friends includes a former Jaguar Land-Rover engineer and a bloke who has written the odd book and tech article about Jaguar V12s - it's one of his articles that convinced me I could take this on. Banger Kenny 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 No worries. Glad to have helped. Very happy it is going to a new home, etc. Please PM me with costs and so on for the Olds. Huge relief that it is now somewhere where I can uselessly clean it and faff about with it. Thanks so much for doing that and say thanks to your mate for me I reckon metal is the way to go - mostly cause no fucker in the actual world seems to have one. Might even pop over next week. Ahh, where da keys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skattrd Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Nice work on shifting the Olds whilst on a collection for a Jag. With regards to getting a spring made I had http://www.owensprings.co.uk in Rotherham fix my steel leaf Umm spring and can recommend their work. Although there is likely someone more local to you who could make a replacement spring out of metal. purplebargeken and RichardK 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 First step - the XJS is now in the garage, after I moved a LOT of old barn posts that were about 10' long. Resisted temptation to re-enact highland games, but was much happier reversing the Jaguar in with no chance of toppling hundreds of kilos of wood onto the car. Of course, getting the car in the garage means two things - one, I can sit in it and making Brrm brrm noises, and two, I can take stock of the condition at my leisure. Always a bad thing. I can pick holes in ANYTHING; people lend me cars when they want to know what's wrong with them - or want convincing to get rid of them, It's actually looking quite promising. Ignoring the engine maladies, there are some small areas of repair on the front wings, what may be filler on the rear arch but could be original - the paint, if resprayed, is good. The notorious rear valance area behind the rear bumpers is very crunchy, but the boot floor and floorpan rear sections are good. A slightly rough patch on the driver's footwell. All the sound insulation has been removed, no doubt to avoid damp or other issues, but it'll be replaced accordingly. All of this will be tackled in due course, after the engine is fixed. I could break the car for parts and not lose out, but it's a long-term car, potentially for life. Now I've spent some time around it I really, really like the facelift XJS shape. I want to drive one a decent distance, to get an idea what I'm working towards. mercedade and Skizzer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Partridge Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Well at least Gerald won't have the worst XJS on the forum now. Although your's does look clean. Is it? beko1987 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Bloody hell, you spotted more bits than I ever did. I haz impressed face on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigmund Fraud Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Is this Pete's old car ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reverend Bluejeans Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Anybody who fits four headlights to an XJS should be shot. Junkman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 It is indeed. I think sometimes folk find it hard to get the correct lights. I don't mind them actually. mat_the_cat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cort16 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Do what the septics did and get rid of the v12 of many tubes and fit a Chevy 350 or an LS1. Taff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Torana Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Anybody who fits four headlights to an XJS should be shot. Is there a cover that could go over the headlights to soften and conceal this? That might help make it look more "right", but does such a thing exist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Rustbucket Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Is there a cover that could go over the headlights to soften and conceal this? That might help make it look more "right", but does such a thing exist? Not to my knowledge. The four headlight front was originally a USA/Canada spec thing, but it was later offered by Jaguar in other markets including the UK. People do retro-fit them here, often because the headlamp units are so much cheaper. The same thing is done on XJ40 Sovereign and Daimler models - the Fishtank headlights are much more expensive. Have you removed the cylinder head from a V12 before? - I'm sure there is a special tool for removing the head. IIRC, it doesn't just pull off like the six. The V12 is a lovely engine. I would never replace one that wasn't terminally damaged with an American V8, no matter how good the LS1 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I've just been sick all over my keyboard at the thought of a lovely refined* British V12 being replaced by a shouty yank V8. cort16, Taff, alf892 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cort16 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I take it back! John F 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael1703 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Have you removed the cylinder head from a V12 before? - I'm sure there is a special tool for removing the head. IIRC, it doesn't just pull off like the six.It's called an engine crane Six and 12' s rust to the studs and they're heavy and a long reach. You have to get in the engine bay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Well at least Gerald won't have the worst XJS on the forum now. Although your's does look clean. Is it? It's pretty good by XJS standards - two years ago it was being advertised as a rust-free belter of a car at £6,500, and I can see Pete didn't pay that much for it from the paperwork, but it wasn't a cheap one and doesn't look or feel like a cheap shed, either. The arches look and feel good, but it's been undersealed with Schutz-type stuff and the floorpan repairs I've found suggest that the lumpy bits in the arches may not all be dirt, The plain and clean front numberplate, fisheye-paint bonnet with mismatched catch, quad-lights all hint at minor front end damage, but the inner wings look sound and straight. Anything the body throws at me, I really don't care - the XJS is well documented and it's not like the depressing feeling of say, welding up the S210's manky behind-bumper secrets, because it's restoring a genuinely appealing, classic car with a classic engine and a fair chance of one day being worth the same as the restoration/repair costs, if done sensibly. Haven't checked to see if it's got recorded damage and don't care, it's almost quarter of a century old with 9 owners and 91,000 on the clock. An unscrupulous dealer could probably bung some sort of temporary fix for the headgasket to mask it for a test drive (it sounds absolutely fine, bar a slight mis-beat, but I have only run it long enough to reverse into the garage and that's all it's getting until it's fixed), get an MOT on it and probably convincingly put it up for £4K. And then someone would buy their dream classic V12 Jaguar and enter a world of misery when all the bits let go. I'm very happy with it as it is - it wasn't too expensive to just take on and hope for the best, and if nothing else it's given me a better understanding of the appeal of the XJS. The frameless windows on the facelift make a huge difference to how special - and not dated - it feels. Quad lights. I quite like them. They're reputedly much better than the single-piece units. If I get all the trim and bodywork back to normal then I'd be very tempted to revert to the proper units, but it's way down the list. First I need to sort the loose door mirrors and make a decision on snapping up a reasonably priced NOS JaguarSport steering wheel rather than trying to refurbish this one. As for engine transplants, if I want a car with a yank V8 in it, I'm sure when this is done I wouldn't find it too hard to find someone who'd swap for a Mustang, Camaro or Corvette, but I reckon with an SBC in it it would be just as expensive to convert as to repair, and worth considerably less when it was all done. I remember one doing the rounds with a Japanese diesel engine. XJ-S. Diesel. (Though a perverse thought does wonder what an XJS with X308/X350 developments would be like - 2.7 V6 diesel). I've never removed the head on an XJS or anything else, the Twingo will be the first I do, the XJS, the second (and third). But I do have the luxury of dry, clean working space, no pressure to get the car usable, and possibly the best network of contacts I could have to get advice and warnings from - both here and IRL, where my friend Elwyn who did all the driving and fetching with me knows several people who worked at JLR and also Ralph Hosier, who has written a great deal about XJS V12s (partly his fault I decided I could take it on!). Access to Jaguar specialists will be used as much as possible! Sigmund Fraud and Partridge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplebargeken Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Steering wheel refurb would be a good article. I thought it was just a bit dirty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Top layer is a bit delaminated, so the leather underneath has ground-in grub. New wheel would be £150 - and if I got it and stored it, I'd still have a go at tidying this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dome Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Good effort. it'll be worth it in the end. I've read that the way to get the heads off these is to undo all the bolts and attach the head to an engine crane, Wind the crane up until the wheels are off the ground and leave it overnight. How true that is I don't know, I'd maybe do some research first I hope you know which head gasket needs done... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cort16 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 just like injectors on renault diesel engines. Sigmund Fraud and Rusty_Rocket 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Good effort. it'll be worth it in the end. I've read that the way to get the heads off these is to undo all the bolts and attach the head to an engine crane, Wind the crane up until the wheels are off the ground and leave it overnight. How true that is I don't know, I'd maybe do some research first I hope you know which head gasket needs done... Both, The nearside bank is suspect, but given how much work it is to get to one, both will be done. Plus any timing gear wear points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Top layer is a bit delaminated, so the leather underneath has ground-in grub. New wheel would be £150 - and if I got it and stored it, I'd still have a go at tidying this one! The Autoshite solution: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/car-Cream-Lace-up-Steering-Wheel-Cover-Soft-Grip-Leather-Look-Racing-light-brown-/121341915922 brickwall, purplebargeken and RichardK 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardK Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 This is helped no end by your avatar. Junkman and purplebargeken 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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