Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Car Transport Trailer Acquired!

[GeorgeB]

Schaefft,

Are you from the USA?

Gas pedal? Swaybar?

[Schaefft]

20 minutes ago, GeorgeB said:

Schaefft,

Are you from the USA?

Gas pedal? Swaybar?

No, but as many non-native English speakers I guess my vocabulary was pretty much shaped by US pop culture from early on. I do try to adjust once in a while but I just don't agree with the UK spelling most of the time 😂

Some more bonus content. The Corona is still a lovely car to drive. It rides so well considering it's roots.

[Split_Pin]

The Alfa looks glorious, lovely colour. 

I also can't get over how there's a real bit of Hadrians wall at the end of your street, very cool.

[Schaefft]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

The Alfa looks glorious, lovely colour. 

I also can't get over how there's a real bit of Hadrians wall at the end of your street, very cool.

It's particularly amazing when you are thousands of miles away from home somewhere in Italy/Greece and you know the Northern border of that former empire is a few steps from your front door. Puts the size and achievements of the Roman empire into perspective really. It also means that hundreds of tourists have utterly obscure shite in the background of their holiday photos. Can't wait to park my Caprice New York taxi there😂

[Split_Pin]

5 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

It also means that hundreds of tourists have Hadrian's Wall in the background of their utterly astonishing shite spots.

 

[Schaefft]

The Corona only made a brief appearance as its now switching storage spaces with the Z3, which is reawakened from its slumber over the winter. The Clubman isn't mine, neither is the Rover 200 convertible rotting away just outside the frame.

Today was actually the first time I could have a really close look at what I bought at Mathewsons back in October as the car went into storage not all that much later.

A wash was badly needed, even under a tarp the dust quickly built up.

So yeah, impressions are still very positive considering the silly low price I paid. There is a little bit of bubbling on the passenger front wing panel and outer sill. Since pretty much every exterior panel is bolt-on on the Z3 this should be a rather easy fix however, if I do anything about it at all for now. There's a scratch on the rear quarter and a few stonechips on the very large bonnet, other than that its really just very minor stuff for what is now a 25 year old car.

I've managed to clear the airbag light (driver seatbelt tensioner) and will keep an eye on any fault codes coming up over the next few days. The plan is to take the car out for a weekend in the Lake district tomorrow, plenty of time to get a little more familiar with it then! The cheap floormats will go in the bin once I got a proper OEM-like set. I want to replace the center console dials/shifter trim with the burl wood variant as well to brighten up the interior a little, if I can find a sensibly priced set for a facelift dash that is. The chromeline package helps a little but the less matte black plastic the better.

Its incredible to think that these were sold side by side in a BMW showroom back in late 2001/2002. With its E36 origins the Z3 feels easily more than a decade older inside, the E65 still feels somewhat fresh today.

Speaking of the E65 - the 18 quid pedal assembly actually fixed the limp home mode. It sucks that things appear to break all the time. At the same time parts are so plentiful and cheap that it almost doesn't matter. With the running issues sorted I was able to confirm that the windshield was sealing properly after all, no whistling sounds noticeable at any speed. That meant the A-pillar trims could go back on for one last time:

I've also had a moment to replace the bonnet badge. They are all prone to fading and its surprisingly hard to find a badge that's not clearly Chinese junk sold as OEM part, fake packaging and everything.

That's much better:

Still plenty of other things to sort but this was a satisfyingly easy improvement for once.

[Schaefft]

The Z3 is doing well so far. Neither CEL nor Airbag lights have come back.

The access to our Airbnb was half a mile of gravel roads/green lane so the car did a little bit of light offroading a few times.

In Penrith today. Early 2000s Roadster face-off. I know which one I'd rather have.

 

[brownnova]

That Z3 is a good looking thing in black with those wheels… like it a lot… 

As I do pretty much everything on your fleet in all honesty.

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

That Z3 is a good looking thing in black with those wheels… like it a lot… 

As I do pretty much everything on your fleet in all honesty.

It's a great spec which really makes it, just need a little bit of trim to make it look a little more upscale. I still don't get why these aren't more expensive, especially this exact car. I know there are a million 1.9l 4-cyl Z3 out there which I wouldn't recommend to anyone (although they can be pretty too in FL trim), hence prices for them generally being low. But the facelift really rectified a lot of shortcomings, the car looks more like a BMW-priced sports car, there are no narrow-body variants anymore and with the 2.8 or later 3.0 it goes appropriately as well.

These two were spotted while out and about today. Teal one was a late pre-fl 1.9, light blue one was a slightly rough looking facelift 2.0 i6 (looking at the Mot history proper rough...).

[Split_Pin]

The Falkirk registration on the light blue one probably explains why it has received so many fails and advisories for corrosion!

[Schaefft]

Weekend over, 250+ miles and almost exactly a tank later and the car did well without trouble aside from an annoying rattle from a heatshield with the top down. Pretty sure this was also the first time I drove over the Hardknott pass, which happened to be during a bicycle hillclimb type event...

A few driving impressions: Generally quite comfortable, the suspension and seats are definitely long-distance worthy. Noise levels are high with both the top up or down (naturally) at motorway speeds but the only comparable car I have ever driven was a 2-series convertible.

It handles well although I couldn't get even close to its limits with the gf in the passenger seat (constantly shouting slower SLOWER even at normal speed limits)😂. Tracking is quite easily affected by uneven road surfaces, much more than the usually much bigger cars I'm used to. That compactness really helps with the lake district's many one lane roads though.

Its not quite summer yet but with temperatures rising I'm definitely looking forward to some more top down motoring. Maybe I'll actually get the SL500 sorted and MOT'd in time to be able to compare the two.

[jmsguzzi]

I really enjoyed mine, but you're right about the tracking, it was awful on uneven road surfaces. Have heard there's a few things you can do to improve them, strut brace etc.

[Schaefft]

On 23/04/2024 at 13:40, jmsguzzi said:

I really enjoyed mine, but you're right about the tracking, it was awful on uneven road surfaces. Have heard there's a few things you can do to improve them, strut brace etc.

Its not terrible but certainly noticeable. Might investigate what can be done about it if I can be bothered that is.

Parts for the Celsior arrived on Monday so they went straight on the car after work yesterday/today.

We made a start with the swaybar bushings, as you can tell it was about time...

Things actually went surprisingly smoothly, no seized bolts or anything really. Replacing the bushes finally removed any frontend clunking the car had, straight forward job resulting in a major improvement right there.

I've also replaced the dodgy O2 sensors. Since I didn't want to buy an O2 sensor specific 22mm socket with a cutout for a wire I decided to take a sawzall to them instead, access wasnt great but just good enough to cut them down to a length just short enough to get a long 22mm on instead. The sensors actually came out surprisingly easily on both sides.

The new sensors are of the universal type, they are Denso though so OEM other than the lack of connector. With plenty of wiring on both sides they were cut down to about the right length and crimped together. I checked the connections and resistances of each wire several times to make sure I dont have to do this again. The plastic sleeve acts as heatshrink, I've wrapped it all up in electrical tape to make things weather tight and a little cleaner looking as well. The sensors came with anti-seize paste which was nice, too.

I took the car out for a drive afterwards, no CEL or limp mode after wide open throttle anymore, the car has full power and pulls well. Fingers crossed it stays that way, will confirm on a longer journey but we should be good there as well now. Another issue crossed off the list.

Rear brake discs happened today. Turns out they are paper thin even when new at just 1.6cm. 1.5cm is their minimum allowed thickness so I'm not sure who came up with that bright idea.

With the old discs being ancient and having some pretty noticeable lips it was time anyway.

Job jobbed. I didn't do the front discs as I'm cheap and probably get another few years out of them considering the miles these cars usually do, but aside from them all pads, the rear discs, brake hoses, the brake fluid and all wear sensors are new now, with all calipers greased in the hope to get a lot more life out of them.

I've also adjusted the coilovers in the front now and double-checked the rears. Its now sitting much better without being exessively low, at least as good as I can do without all 4 wheels off the ground at the same time.

I think there's still something wrong with the rear suspension but I might have to deal with that when the ebay special Maxpeedingrods wear out and I replace them with the BCs I got stashed away. Considering I only paid 135 quid for them new they are currently proving to be surprisingly good though. We'll see how long that'll be the case.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Particularly like the alfa it has to be said.  

Incidentally - did the agent call you?  Hats off to him/her if they did.

[Schaefft]

5 minutes ago, Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

Particularly like the alfa it has to be said.  

Incidentally - did the agent call you?  Hats off to him/her if they did.

It is a great car when you ignore it's build quality ha. And no, no further discussions really, the ad was marked as sold subject to contract so I assume that's the end of it for the time being.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

10 hours ago, Schaefft said:

It is a great car when you ignore it's build quality ha. And no, no further discussions really, the ad was marked as sold subject to contract so I assume that's the end of it for the time being.

I think it's worth 3 mins of your time to ring the agent.  I'm in the game, I'm seeing what's happening at the coal face (in terms of people agreeing to buy something ......and then failing to confirm their mortgage details or struggling to actually prove they've got the deposit or the survey gets a bit fiddly or the searches come back - bit early in this case for your deal as it were but it's an example - and there's a problem).

If you liked the house - give them a call and whilst you're on the phone ask them what else they've got coming up - you never know what'll come out of the conversation.  Nothing is certain until they've exchanged contracts.  Get a timeframe for exchange too - if they haven't even signed heads of terms  (should have by now) that tells you something immediately.

It's worth a shot.  

 

If on reflection the house wasn't as good as you thought it was...........leave it of course but it's still worth calling the agent and asking them what's coming up..........agents (sorry to say this) are inherently lazy (massive generalisation I realise and there are some absolute stand outs that work extremely hard and do what they say they'll do, when they said they'd do it........but your agent said he'd call you and .........he hasn't) - you have to do the heavy-lifting and keep chasing them I'm afraid.

[Schaefft]

Well, as the title suggests maybe not everything got fixed but quite a few cars had at least some attention today. The Z3's MOT would have expired in a week so it made sense to send it through the test today. While waiting for the bay to become available we had a quick look at the Caprice (which looks glorious even in its slightly dilapidated state) as the distributor might be the cause for it's recent reluctancy to run.

The Cadillac is just behind me there, soon to be put into use as wedding car (once, not sure if it would be worth the hassle to rent it out regularly). With the Caprice, Caddy, 300Cs, a faux Chevy (Captiva) and the Riviera there you could almost assume the yard is turning into a US car specialist garage.

Speaking of the Riviera, with a few minutes to spare I thought why not just throw a battery in the car and see what happens. We didn't even attempt to start it so far after all. Well, not only did it show some signs of life, it bloody started! And died immediately, indicating a potential fueling issue (the usual seized fuel pump etc.). Easy to confirm but I was quickly distracted by something else:

We have dash lights! And whats more important, the CRT touchscreen in this scruffy, 350 quid Riviera actually works! Considering the rarity of the unit and its tendency to bite the dust at age this is a bit of a miracle to me.

As you can tell it's detecting a communication issue which might be the reason I can't control the radio or adjust the blower speed. Stuff like this could easily be a blown fuse or seized up blower motor though, only further diagnosing will tell. It certainly wouldn't be a new one. I'll see what others have posted online before I'll have a go next time.

I've mentioned a few things about the CRT touchscreen system in GM cars of the late 80s in this thread before so I'll just post a few images of the various menus you can access:

It's quite comprehensive really and incredibly advanced for its time. I've got the feeling that with a little time spent on this car we should be able to get it up and decent enough shape fairly quickly. However, with time often being the issue we gotta move on to the Z3.

Long story short, it passed with two advisories. It'll need a balljoint (which means I'll actually replace both front lower control arms since they are crusty and original) and the 3rd brakelight doesn't illuminate (neither does the handbrake warning, but offically thats not an issue if the bulb check works at start-up). Not sure if thats just a fuse/wiring issue or the taillight is completely dead, I think the latter would be pretty unlikely but one of the easier things to sort.

Two roadsters of 90s, Munich vs. Stuttgart. In reality the convertible top and 2 seat layout are probably the only things these 2 got in common. The R129 was available with a straight six and manual outside the UK but in reality its over half a ton heavier and much more of a cruiser than a sportscar.

After months of just the occasional start-up and drive around the estate it actually got pulled onto the drive to have it's ASR fault code investigated. As posted here last year, after replacing the ASR module and steering angle sensor it now realized that there was a pressure sensor issue. However, in reality it was more likely that the precharge pump for the ABS/ASR system was just seized up after standing for such a long time (years before I got it). Its located behind the passenger front wheel so at least its easy to reach.

And here it is. It looks a little crusty but no apparent issues with the wiring or connector. I beat the hell out of it and tried to power it up with my Autel electrical tool but it kept tripping the internal circuit breaker, which means there must be an internal electric issue with the pump on top unless I'm just too dumb to test it (works perfectly fine on a spare BMW pump). Unfortunately this relatively early ASR pump, or any I can find so far that looks similar, is rare and very expensive. A theme that seems to be quite common with this SL.

I've also replaced the damage clear indicators with half amber ones. Forgot to take the after photo so more of that tomorrow.

Car #5 was the E38 today. It actually received quite a lot of attention to rectify some of its worst cosmetic issues but with it being filthy I'll wait with giving an update on those until I've cleaned it tomorrow. I will show the new windshield trim though. The glass never got replaced so the trim was still original and crumbling to pieces:

Part number of the OEM replacement:

And done. Here's a tip, use plenty of silicon grease and lots of patience...

Much better. A few more photos of the other improvements tomorrow.

[High Jetter]

That screen tho, still working!

[Split_Pin]

That screen set up is probably the coolest thing on Autoshite and nice one for having a plan to get it working correctly!

[Schaefft]

19 hours ago, High Jetter said:

That screen tho, still working!

 

10 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

That screen set up is probably the coolest thing on Autoshite and nice one for having a plan to get it working correctly!

I know right? Peak 80s hightech right there, and for some reason always reminding me of this:

Anyway, after most of the day being grey and rainy I gave the 7-Series a much needed clean just now. Which means I can finally show some before and afters without half a year of filth muddying the picture. Being a London car its seen it's fair share of action in the 59k miles it spent there:

You can actually see most of the paint just peeling off on this side:

The internet will tell you that you need to disassemble half of the trunk to reach the 6 bolts that hold the crashbar on. In reality you only need to remove 6 plastic nuts to lift a single piece of cladding to reach this bolt on either side, theres a round cover thats easily removable. The other bolts don't require anything removed at all.

2 clips and one 10mm bolt in each rear wheel arch and it just slides out. But hold on, whats this?

From what I can tell it's some kind of speaker? It's probably been there from almost new and had its cables cut since, if anyone has a clue let me know. It might just be an aftermarket alarm. Obviously I ripped out all the wiring leading to it, always very satisfying.

Bumper off. Its all looking remarkably clean, I wiped it all down to make sure it stays that way. These drain holes are where E39s love to rot from, not sure if E38s had the same issue. I removed the plugs and properly cleaned everything around them before installing them again.

And with the new bumper back on:

There are a few scuffs I will have to polish out but beyond that I'm very happy for 50 quid. I will have to replace the plastic rub strip as that's damaged beyond repair as well. With this being one of the very few E38 without rear PDC I'll probably just end up ordering them from the dealer again.

Moving to the front we had another battle scar:

The other side looked better but was badly faded. Can't remember if I replaced that side before.

Either way, I ordered  new front corners from BMW ages ago so off with the old ones:

I already knew that this bumper had been painted at least once, normally the lower half would be matte black plastic like in the back. The missing clip just confirmed it again.

Poor little bugger. I cleaned it all and replaced the clips, since I will probably have to take these off again to polish out those scuffs some day, it helps when you dont have a ton of grime making it all even harder to pull off. Here's the result:

Now its the faded plate mount that stands out like a sore thumb. I'll see if I can use a heatgun to get it back to black, if not another parts order it is. The original reg plates has seen better days as well. If anyone has a recommended place for ordering original looking dealer plates please let me know!

I've also used the chance to re-glue the "Hofmeisterknick"  trims. I didn't know back then but there wasn't supposed to be any gap to the upper chrome trim. Since the Gorilla superglue seemed to stuggle keeping the clips attached to the trim I chose 2-component UHU Endfest from the fatherland this time. Anything German starting with "End" means serious business.

That'll be it for now on the E38. Replacing the cracked bumper and crumbling windshield trim, realigning those chrome trims and replacing the corners on the front bumper really made a difference. I've been planning this for a while now but only recently was able to find a bumper in the right color. This will always be the best way of fixing paint issues for me, the factory paint is lightyears ahead of anything I've ever seen a bodyshop achieve longterm and unfortunately this E38 is the best example. Poor prepwork means that many of the areas having received a respray are now starting to peel again, and this has been the case on pretty much every car I've seen paint repairs on from more than a few years ago. Either people are too lazy or just don't have a clue how to paint a car, which is shocking considering how much it costs nowadays.

Speaking of poor paint, here's the SL with broken white indicators...

And non-broken amber/clear ones. If you look closely you'll notice that they are a slightly different shade of amber. I don't know why but Mercedes seemed to have different suppliers over the years which somehow lead to this situation. Will order another if I can ever get this car on the road.

For now its a major aesthetic improvement to me. I'll see if I can find that aforementioned pump anywhere over the next few days.

[Zelandeth]

I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera.  I definitely don't kick myself for not buying Craig's one in 2004. I don't need the Riviera...

I think the thing that surprised me the most about that touch screen was how much of an utter pain in the ass it *isn't* to use compared to its modern equivalent in so, so many cars.

[LightBulbFun]

17 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera.  I definitely don't kick myself for not buying Craig's one in 2004. I don't need the Riviera...

I think the thing that surprised me the most about that touch screen was how much of an utter pain in the ass it *isn't* to use compared to its modern equivalent in so, so many cars.

Yes you need the Riviera, Yes you need the Riviera, Yes you need the Riviera

 

 I mean I need you to buy it, so I can nerd out over that CRT touch screen  I mean its Motorola 68000 powered!, as a macintosh enthusiast, Fuck yeah LOL

I would totally buy it myself *just* for the CRT touch screen, but I would not know where to start when it came to getting the rest of the car fixed up sadly

 

((as I have mentioned a few times now, long before I was on this forum a fellow vintage computer enthusiast friend of mine in the States owned a buick Reatta with the same system in it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time)

[Zelandeth]

On 29/04/2024 at 20:18, LightBulbFun said:

Yes you need the Riviera, Yes you need the Riviera, Yes you need the Riviera

 

 I mean I need you to buy it, so I can nerd out over that CRT touch screen  I mean its Motorola 68000 powered!, as a macintosh enthusiast, Fuck yeah LOL

I would totally buy it myself *just* for the CRT touch screen, but I would not know where to start when it came to getting the rest of the car fixed up sadly

 

((as I have mentioned a few times now, long before I was on this forum a fellow vintage computer enthusiast friend of mine in the States owned a buick Reatta with the same system in it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time)

Shush you...you're a terrible influence on me at the best of times!

I'm quite partial to a 68K based machine myself, albeit with my background being on the Amiga rather than Mac side of things.

Being honest with myself if I were looking for one of these it probably would be the generation before this as I really prefer the more square styling.  The slightly melted look of these ones isn't so much my thing.  Though being honest I'd deal with it probably.  It will be a supremely comfortable way to waft around either way, and you can't see the outside when you're sitting in it.

Still reminded of the one that got away whenever I look at American car of this sort of era though, and will forever kick myself for missing the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Diesel just round the corner from here.  Never even noted the reg so unlikely to ever track it down if it changed hands again.  Yes I know that engine has its shortcomings, but it's so utterly strange that I just love it.  Plus it honestly suits the lazy wafty way they drive anyway.  I have driven one (well, a few variations of that body with a few engine variations), and it left a very good impression on me.  I'd like any of them, but the utter oddball value of the diesel just appeals to me.  This one popped up for sale on a nearby road to me here, but by the time I talked myself into going to properly look at it it had gone and I've never seen it again.  Not lying, in that in the ideal world I'd have been straight in touch with Kevin at Junkyard Digs to buy the white one which has just featured on their YouTube channel as it has to be the cleanest looking example I've ever seen, AND hasn't had the engine swapped for a petrol unit.

I mean this is all academic anyway as I'm at least one, realistically two cars oversubscribed here at the moment anyway, so even if this did pop up for sale my hands are tied anyway.  I physically have no space, and definitely don't have time for any more projects.  No matter how appealing!

[scaryoldcortina]

68000? Wow, surely a 6502 would have done or did they absolutely need 16 bit?

[Schaefft]

On 29/04/2024 at 20:07, Zelandeth said:

I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera, I don't need the Riviera.  I definitely don't kick myself for not buying Craig's one in 2004. I don't need the Riviera...

I think the thing that surprised me the most about that touch screen was how much of an utter pain in the ass it *isn't* to use compared to its modern equivalent in so, so many cars.

It certainly feels quick and responsive enough to be totally usable, definitely something a lot of modern infotainment systems cannot claim. A shame it didn't catch on to be used on in more cars really, although it might have lost its novelty factor.

And maybe its just my youtube infected brain but I'm fairly sure I've seen a diesel Olds 88 come up for sale on Ebay or FB marketplace not all that long ago. There are certainly more than one in the country, unless they ended up on the oval by now.

Not much progress over the last few days. I changed a reg plate bulb on the 540i today... With a house purchase still planned eventually we are now starting to rent out my GF's property first. That way we save a few hundred quid more each month while being more prepared for that eventual move. Until then my house will turn into a hoarder's dream by containing stuff worth two households. The E39 was put into good use once again to haul some of it over here (it was packed to the roof by the time it got dark). Pulled just as well as when empty!

Before all of that fun I had a brief chance to photograph my '90s rich rapper fantasy by having all 3 Mercs on the drive. 1996 SL500, 1993 S500 Coupe and 1992 500SEL, almost 1000PS combined, all in various broken states.👌

I've reached out to various people breaking Mercedes of that era asking about the ESP pump, naturally none of them got back to me to confirm whether they do or do not have one. Standard experience really and one of the reasons I just bought new from the dealer in many cases when I was looking for parts, 90% of people just are utterly useless unless Ebay/Paypal forces them to get their shit together.

So what do you do when you got several projects waiting to receive attention and/or new parts? Find out in tomorrows collection thread!🎉

[Schaefft]

After 12 years I can finally claim I have arrived in Britain by becoming a Jaaag owner. That or @horriblemercedes 1995 X300 XJ6 was just too good to pass up with the combination of seemingly very solid bones, BRG on tan paintwork and (here's the real reason): the factory fitted 5-speed manual gearbox! Collection caper can be found here.

This is not the first time I tried to acquire an XJ. I always thought the all aluminium X350 would have been a great winter beater (and the X351 an attainable dream car), and with @HMC previously offering his last of the line X308 V8 3.2 Sport for very little money (which then proceeded to break very badly) I was getting pretty close already. I always liked the XK8 as well, and with prices being at the very bottom of their depreciation curve it might just be a question of time until I own an XKR (hopefully not a completely rotten one).

Some may be surprised but this is actually my first British made car as well. Manual X300s are rare, with most of them having ended up on the oval or as XJR gearbox donors (apparently identical, making a swap very straight forward) I felt like the opportunity won't come along very often again. Since Shedfest wasn't too far out of the way and the tickets booked all the way in February I thought why not pick up the XJ on the way.

Well, as it turned out the event was a traffic nightmare (the event itself was good!). Who would have thought leading thousands of cars down a country lane through a single entry was a good idea. I probably burnt more fuel just waiting in traffic than it took to get there. It did give me plenty of time to look at the goodies that have been with the car for many years though:

Also owned by Paul Guinness of Classic Jaguar in which the car had a brief feature:

In general the car came with a ton of paperwork, in fact I pretty much got a full service history with it. Unusual considering I'm the 11th (!) owner. Generally cars are one wheel in the crusher when that number reaches somewhere around 5, the impression I get from this car is exactly the opposite.

Like many others I just parked the car and walked the rest of the way. That meant there were plenty of interesting cars scattered around everywhere though, like this C4 S4 which is an incredibly rare sight in the UK (any C4 100 for that matter).

Or this XJ friend coming all the way from Spain:

Look closely and you'll see car queueing up as far as the eye can see. And thats already quite a bit outside of town.

Once there I really enjoyed my time though, with many cars I own myself being on display. I had a chance to have a quick chat with Freddy (Tavarish) and Tom Lenthall and colleagues. They were quite happy to hear that I just picked up a manual X300, curious about where I found the car and how much I paid. I used the chance to ask what would be needed to do an XJR6 swap, not much at all apparently...

XJ next to my mate's Beat. Both RWD, 5-speed manual, they both have wheels. Thats where the similarities end...

Mandatory pez shot. Hard to tell what MPGs I'm achieving yet, should be in the mid-20s hopefully. First strange quirk: the fuel cap is magnetic and attaches exactly where the nozzle needs to go...

Quick group photo before I left with @horriblemercedes Maserati, hopefully it's clutch will get sorted soon. 10/10, will call dibs on should it come up for sale some day.

I got back around 10pm-ish, I had to collect my GF from the pub however (colleague leaving-do, who absolutely loved the Jag and knew a surprising amount of things about it, her dad apparently restored Defenders). That meant I was in bed around 1am, over 22 hours after the alarm rang on that day. However, the car did look just right parked outside:

Already had a quick look around the car today and did my first "fix", more about that later.

[HMC]

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

[horriblemercedes]

10 minutes ago, HMC said:

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

It still has the dealer sticker in the rear window! Stratstone of Mayfair. Also the key ring 

[Schaefft]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

The first owner was Morgan Grenfell & Co. who bought it in May 1995, 2 months before they got incorporated. As you can see they were pretty much in the center of London until they shut down in 2013:

Stratstone at Berkeley Street were indeed the dealer supplying the car to them (long gone by the looks of it), not sure who the 2nd and 3rd owners were but I got most of the details of ownership from 1999 onwards.

A few more interesting production stats from the day it was built:

As you can tell, the manual to automatic ratio was something like 1 in 20.

I've had a little time today to have a look around the car and give it a quick vacuum. Gotta love a front-opening bonnet. As you can tell, it was hit with the lowering stick while it was owned by a Retrorides member.

It actually received quite a bit of attention at the time (backbox delete, polybushes all around, lowered) but the thread ended with the intent to revert everything back to stock as it somewhat ruined the experience (what a surprise). I'm not sure how much of that reversal work was carried out but the lowering springs are definitely still present. Will see if I can find a stock set of springs to raise it up a bit.

The interior has held up well compared to most other XJs I've seen. Aside from apparently common pixel/backlight issues with the various displays and a cracked piece of wood veneer on the driver's door things are looking good. The gearshift is currently the biggest issue the car has though (aside from a lack of key fob and the resulting alarm spiel). The linkage bushes appear to be practically gone, making it quite hard to be sure that you are now in 2nd, not in 4th, or even worse, shifting into 4th instead of reverse (which is located where 6th would be, no "lift knob to shift" lockout or anything preventing you from making a very bad mistake there. Every gear feels like neutral basically.

Considering the XJ was thought to be fairly small compared to the E38, and certainly the W140, the backseat still feels sufficiently spacious. The LWB XJ would be the solution for anyone expecting a little more.

And check this out, have you ever seen an XJ without a sagging headliner? Now you have!

The famous AJ16 straight six. It probably would benefit from a tune-up, it seems a little hestitant to rev on the go and stumbles a little at first if you give it some decent throttle at standstill, I didn't see any obvious air or vacuum leaks but it might benefit from a bit of TLC. Comparing it to the M52 2.8 in my E39 this is a lot less responsive despite similar curb weights, you'd expect it to really pull hard in 1st gear. Official 0-62 times are a second apart, I'll have to check if it still manages to stick to them although the shift linkage will need sorting for that first.

I'm also not sure why but a critter has collected gravel inside the engine bay. All cleaned up now. The only leak I've found was from whatever this is:

First fix of the day, tighten up the throttle cable a little. As you can tell there's no adjustment left at this point and I'm sure I wasn't the first one to do so either, the cable might need replacing eventually. Still opens the throttle all the way but the less play the better.

I think all XJs come with toolkits from the factory, or at the very least a place in the engine bay to store them. This one came with an interesting assortment of stuff:

The boot is looking pretty good, too. New battery, however its clear the old one had leaked before, I cleaned up all the acidic residue here already. No harm done this time around but left alone this would have caused much more damage (my SL has a decent sized hole under the battery because of this). Will have to clean up the rust and reseal it all.

Someone had some pretty bad luck with the spare though. Also check out the Corrado line art on the period correct warning triangle.

All four jacking points look great, I removed the rubber covers to blast them with the pressure washer when I'll give it a clean soon.

Another rust trap right under the wiper cowl trim, you can see why:

Both sides look perfect after a quick wipedown though, and that is exactly why this car is worth every penny.

The XJ6 came with a full chrome grille. The Retroride member did wrap the vertical slats in dark grey though, a modification I approve.

I believe this style 16 inch alloy was standard on the Sport? One of my favorite wheel designs for the XJ so they arent going anywhere. Nankangs are from 2019 and have very good tread so no issues there either.

Any interesting loot then? Aside from the tools just a bunch of junk, a lighter and 30p.

I've had a quick look into the brochure that came with the car. I think the first line says it all.😂

[hairnet]

Not just screw loose

But diy

Screw loose all time #1

Cant see pics as boat wifi will look tomorrow 

Are you far enough away that eddy might not come round in the night with a windy gun