All. I'm not talking about inertia reel seat belts. They are of little help in a hard tail shunt or any really bad accident. About as much good as **** on a bull. I'm talking about pyrotechnic seat belts that fire off a small charge and tighten to the degree that you might end up with a greenstick break of a rib if unfortunate, but you will survive the accident. All the major German car makers use them and many others including modern Jaguars. When I say pull the belts tight I mean really tight so you are pulled back in the seat and effectively become part of it. They pre-tention the belt within microseconds of triggering the impact sensor. Their reaction speed is faster than an airbag inflates fully. Many are probably driving modern cars that have them & don't even realise it. My car has them front & rear as do many other brands. Nothing exclusive about it. Many lives have been saved because of them. Many cars have them hidden in the sills, tunnel, B Pillars & under the rear seats or parcel shelf. etc. etc.

Pretensioner Example hidden in the side of a seat cutaway. Pyrotechnic variety. If the car survives you just pop in a new cartridge. Or if scrounging a scrap yard to fit to your car. One of a multitude of fitment solutions. When triggered that concertina section to the buckle will be completely collapsed and the belt ultra tight.

 

Indeed! ,

 

he probably meant Purist. not snobbish. Purist as in keeping an old car Purely Original, which in today's roads and traffic conditions, does not translate to Highly Safe.

There is room for everything.

Once in a show in Franklin Tennessee, there was this incredibly and finely restored S type, better than a factory example, on a trailer. The car had no engine or transmission.
I asked where is the engine? The owner replied, I don't drive it, why bother? Ohh, Ok.

 

He has said it too often for that to be true ~ I have a good memory.

 

Returning to the original topic of swapping seats, we seem to have agreed that almost anything you do makes things better for use if not originality. Any swap will require new seat mounting brackets and some study to obtain the best height and position. This may be the most difficult part of the conversion. Also the brackets have to be strong enough keep everything in place in the event of an accident.

 

Purist is perhaps a better term to use but I am not out for the Concours example. Daily driver which is well maintained, small modern upgrades to make the car easier to drive such as electronic distributor, alternator rather than generator, high power starter motor, which are all hidden from view. When you start changing things that can be seen then I start to bulk or changing the Power train and gearbox to something that was not original to the car went built. Most upgrades that are talked about on here are power related. I want to go faster so I need to put a different engine in. Now the car goes faster I need to upgrade the brakes, My car is so fast now I have to upgrade all the suspension. Wow I slide all over the place when I go around corners so quick, I need to upgrade the seats. 1960s Jaguars were fast in there time and still are fast now but at 64 I no longer drive fast and if I want to I have a couple of modern cars to do that in. My wife's Mini Cooper S is a pocket rocket but I wonder if I could fit a V8 under the bonnet.
Why is it Jaguars that are "Upgraded" and it appears other British cars rarely are. You would never find an Aston Martin DB5 owner (Same era) saying "If only I could stick a Chevy V8 under the bonnet", or a Alvis owner saying "These 1950s seats are just not comfortable lets stick some modern ones in with head restraints." The price of the cars would drop like a stone to start with and everyone would frown upon the owners. I have known E Type Jaguars to have Chevrolet V8s stuck under the bonnet (Only in America) and the price of one of those is half the price of an original.
Lets stick to what we bought, a 1960s icon in all its glory and leave it well alone. If you don't like it as it is, sell it to someone who will appreciate it and buy a modern car.
Rant over.

 

Cass: Here in the States, V-8 "heart transplants" were often the result of maintaining a Jaguar like it was a Chevrolet. Big, lumbering American V-8s can shrug off quite a bit of neglect and/or abuse; the XK engine generally could not. I will admit, the "Carrol Shelby effect" was also a factor to be sure...

 

It would be absolute sacrilege to repower an Aston's Tadek Marek 4 litre inline 6 which has much in common with the XK engine other than an aluminium block & dry sleeves for combustion efficiency. The same goes for his V8. Any DB era Aston is left alone & precise. Civilised cars are left alone. I consider our late 50's & 60's Jaguars as civilised cars. Yes a lot more of them were built than Aston Martin cars, but that's all, other than Astons costing double the price + of a Jaguar being a handbuilt car.

Modding devalues classic cars in most markets & over time the vehicle becomes worthless. Not so with an Aston DB4, 5 or 6. They continuously climb in value if left well alone as the vast majority are.

I've never seen a repowered Aston. It would ruin the Value of the car

 

"A lot more of them were built" - I suspect that's the biggest factor. A lot more are available at a lower price.

However, I have it under good authority from M that his man Q replaced Marek's engine with a Heynes-Hassan masterpiece for more power, increased range and improved reliability, though he did have to fit stiffer front springs. As for seats, the passenger seat was swapped every few days.

 

Was just able to squeeze the X308 pretensioning front belts into the Mark 2. One of the problems with retrofitting these is all the associated control modules and sensors that support the airbag systems. No idea if anyone markets a stand-alone system for these. It's January in New England and the butt warmers in my less-than-charming modern seats are getting a lot of use - something else to consider if retrofitting seats.



Unfortunately this thread is typical of a lot of the content on the MKI/II/S-Type model site these days, and is the reason I rarely visit any more. I'm always on the X308 site looking for support for my mechanical and electrical systems, and the character of that site is different. It's a very diverse collection of owners mostly looking for or offering technical support, or sharing various aspects of a marque they enjoy. This site used to be that way when I first logged on nearly a decade ago, but today it's too often expressing judgements and very strong opinions - often offered up in a condescending manner. I suppose some of this has to do with the small number of active users and a lack of new content - folks babble on about what they know or think they know and what they like or don't like. That's fine if that's the purpose of the thread - I can chose to read it or not. It's bothersome otherwise and detracts from one's enjoyment of the site. My opinion anyway.

 

Sorry you feel that way Doug. If someone came on here having bought a 1960s S Type which had been radically modified and wanted to change it back they would get all the support under the Sun from all the members on here but as an aside how often do you get people buying an X300 3.2 then asking how they can convert it to a Supercharged XJR? Or do they just go out and buy a supercharged XJR?
Ask any question on here about fixing a Mk2 or S type and there will be loads of advice and support. Details in photos, diagrams and locations to buy spares, new or secondhand. Modifying is just not my thing and everyone is entitled to there opinion on it.

 

Doug is spot on! I can live with "purist" if that makes people feel better, but it does border on something stronger when people ALWAYS say a slew of negative posts to anyone talking about or doing anything other than bone stock. This is NOT normal behavior in virtually every other group of automobile enthusiasts. People should just stay only on topic and stop continually finding anything to try to voice your one sided opinions.

Back to the the topic, yes the XJ, and Vanden Plas seats will work and provide you with more comfort, adjustability, support, etc. Regarding slightly off topic the concern some have as to seat belts, the stock is just lap belts on these old cars. What you can do is easily install 3 point seat belts that look like typical modern cars. There is room to do the even more modern inertia versions; all of those are substantial upgrades over the stock lap belts. On the Vaden Plas seats the retrofit was fairly straight forward. If you want to keep it Jaguar but want even more modern seats I am sure that even newer Jaguar seats could be installed, just measure the width to see if it will clear. Newer than Vanden Plas seats may require more mods to bolt them up but any good minor fab auto shop that can do simple welding can fit them. There are also probably dozens of non Jaguar seats that could also be used but you will likely need to be prepared for some mods to the mounting as you will NOT find people whom will share any success stories of aftermarket seats for Jaguars other than more expensive Recaro type brands that already have different mounting options and are easily installed in many brands of cars.

The reason I would not dye the seats if you found a really worn set of XJ or Vanden Plas seats is that if you can afford it you would be better off with reskinning them in either all leather or to save money use leather where your body touches and vinyl on the sides and back to save money. If you find a small upholstery shop the delta from dying them to leather/vinyl is worth it in my opinion. Also if the color is worn usually the leather is also thin or cracking on the more wear areas.

If you need any more information feel free to PM me as you are also in California. Some people just upgrade the front seats but I opted to also do the back as I got the entire interior for the same price I have seen for just the front. Yes the rear is 1 foot longer but if you section it you can make it look factory and still have the rear arm rest in the center work and look like it was made for the car.

EVERYONE LET'S TRY TO JUST STAY ON TOPIC AND NOT BE SO DIVIDED AND BASH EACH OTHER AS DOUG HAS POINTED OUT SO WELL!!!!! The OP said he wanted non stock full headrest seats so there should be NO discussions on keeping it stock when the OP has stated what he wants feedback on.

 

Agree on numbers & price if not standards of finish. Some of which could be blamed on Pressed Steel & some on Jaguar.

Q was a bit dumb in that case & wrecked the car's value. Yes ~ Marek's engine required some understanding by the owner due to materials use (forced upon them by Govt after the war). & change of clearances due to different expansion rates at temperature & 100psi oil pressure requirement but it could easily be made to well outperform any XK as it did even in standard Vantage trim (with triple sidedraught Webers). The spring rates would be a lot greater with the XK lump and Aston's handling was vastly superior due to that cast iron lump not wanting to change course. Modern lubricants have fixed all engine problems suffered with the Marek Masterpiece. They are now tough as nails and completely reliable. They have also won a hell of a lot of races for such a small company. Remember a certain short chassis DB4GT? ~ as an example.
'Nuff said without getting into rope seals, cracked blocks, blocked arteries and the long list of XK maladies. I would have preferred to restore a DB6 MkII (in a heartbeat as you well know) but I love my old S Type ~ we will grow older together. It will outlast me unless a disaster strikes.

BTW the Baker? ejector seat worked well.

 

Interesting ~ you can effectively buy the whole bang shoot from Benz as a retrofit kit including harnesses If your vehicle is not prefitted with the harness required so the airbag system is independent, but at a price that will make your eyes water.

 

He got excellent feedback on his leather question with no OT. Stop shouting.

Why the Register works so well. It frequently goes OT but in a helpful way to the OP.

 

Still off topic: I think pre-tensioning systems are close to universal these days. It may be possible to obtain something for a small Peugeot, Ford or whatever, though retrofit may still run up against a need for a pre-wired/pre-programmed system.

 

Absolutely they can Peter. And they can function independently of the airbag system with a preprogrammed microprocessor or programmable with a PC. I know a number of people that have done it with their classics & Doug is an example above. Sensors harnesses and all as Benz will provide, but you could get a lot cheaper.

 

A nice Arduino project?

 

Indeed! But a matter of priorities. I think I have a delaminated engine mounting. Lucky my car has the front stabalisers or one very expensive new tropical radiator might have the fan throught it.

 

Glyn, Sorry to hear about your problem. We're off topic, but ... As you know, the engine mounts and Mk2 rear bumper mounts look the same and often are the same. Back in the early 1980s, there were a lot of problems as mounts suitable only for bumpers were being sold for engines and mounts unsuitable for anything sold for bumpers. It was a big issue and may even have involved the JDC's spares department. I'm wondering if it's resurfaced.

The stabilising links are an interesting addition. Are they unique to S types?