1984 Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas



My own car, as seen on some of the BAJrs runs. Genuine 70k miles. California registered its whole life, so absolutely no rust anywhere. Garaged most of its life, so still has original paint, interior and wood, all of which are in remarkable condition for the age of the car. 1st owner bought the car new and kept it until 2013 when I bought it. Car was seldom used but in very good original condition. I did some basic reconditioning to enable me to be able to use the car as my daily driver. I I have covered around 10k miles in the car….. absolutely trouble free.

General Condition :

Paint : 8/10. Completely original, including the pinstripes. The car has had some minor paint around both filler caps at some point, but for the most part this is not noticeable.

Wood : 8/10. All original. Door caps, which have the inlay as this is a VDP are perfect. The dash is in good original condition with only the slightest laquer cracking here and there.

Leather : 8/10. All original. There was a tear in the drivers seat when I got the car, which I have repaired. Still shows some minor cracking under close inspection but a lot better than it was originally.

Dash Top : Perfect. No cracks. Now covered with a custom made dash topper to prevent cracking

Headliner : 10/10. Absolutely perfect. No sagging, no rips.

Mechanical : 9/10. All original. Items replaced since I got the car include fuel lines, plugs, leads, Petronix Distributor and Flame Thrower coil, all vacuum lines, thermostat, air filter, oil and oil filter (multiple times). Car has just had through service from local independent Jaguar mechanic including brakes all round.

Fuel System : Both tanks function perfectly, including the switchover. Fuel gauge reads correctly per tank.

Electrics : All windows, door locks and mirrors work correctly. The sunroof works correctly. All of the switches and gauges work correctly. I replaced the broken electric aerial with the correct 2 piece electric aerial with the motor that fits in the trunk. Rear reading lights work as they should. Trip computer works perfectly and is extremely accurate.

Tires : I fitted a new set when I bought the car, still plenty of tread left.

A/C : Ice cold. Automatic temperature control also works perfectly.

Extras :

To make the car more usable everyday I have fitted the following, with the general goal to improve the car without making any obvious or permanent modifications.

1) Upgraded stereo system with bluetooth audio and handsfree calling. Replaced door speakers with correct sized (4”) Infinity Reference speakers. Nothing on the door cards was modified in any way to fit the speakers. Fitted 4 channel amp and subwoofer under the front seat. Sound quality is great, while everything apart from the stereo faceplate itself looks stock.

2) Remote central locking. The car had central locking already so I added the remote capability which also necessitated adding an extra solenoid to power lock the drivers door.

3) Lights on warning buzzer

4) Front foglights controlled from the original headlight switch

5) Period correct mobile telephone aerial on the trunk. The car had the base when I got it, so rather than leave just the base, or remove it and fit a blank plug, I hunted for and finally found a correct phone aerial for it.

6) Custom fit windscreen shade

Opportunities for improvement :

1) I am currently troubleshooting a slight hesitation while the car is cold (ie the first 3 or 4 minutes after a cold start) I suspect this to be caused by the EFI temperature sensor so I have a new one on order and will fit it when it arrives.

2) When I got the car the cruise control worked, however recently it has stopped working. I have found that one of the solenoids on the vacuum bellows has failed, so I have a replacement bellows unit on order and will fit that also. If this is not the problem I will continue troubleshooting the system and am confident I can get it working again because it did work until recently

3) The idle on these cars has always been an issue from new. I have done a lot of work to improve the idle quality and I am quite used to it by now, but it is not perfect. You would need to see a few similar Series III cars to judge how good (or bad) you think my idle is.

4) Every now and again the center air vent will not open, meaning all of the A/C air comes out of the side vents instead. This is rare and intermittent so I have not been able to trace the fault although it is likely to be an issue with the vacuum supply to the system.

5) During the last service we noticed an oil leak from the oil pressure sender. We replaced the sender but realized there are actually 2 different sender types, one which reads real pressure and the other which is basically a dummy switch which either shows middle of the gauge or 0. Unfortunately this dummy type was the only one available at the time so we fitted that. Ideally if you could find one you would change back to the real pressure type.

Summary :

An extremely genuine Series III that has been a pleasure to work on and own for the past year or so. I have complete confidence in the car and would happily jump in it and drive it across the country. Drives exactly as it should. A car you could use everyday or show every weekend and be extremely proud of it. I’m not desperate to sell it. I want to see it go to a good home to make sure it will continue to live on with the care and attention it deserves. The main reason I am willing to part with it is I don’t want to keep piling the miles on the car as I think it deserves better. It would also be nice to have something that did more than 14 mpg for commuting !

Price :

I would like to get back what I have paid for and put into the car. There are some similar cars around asking between $6 and $7k, which is a lot for a Series III. I am asking $3995 for this car, which I think is a fair price considering its extremely original condition and the fact that I have put a lot of work into it doing a lot of fiddly and time consuming things to get it as close to perfect as I could.

PM if interested.

 

Update :

Cold start issue was completely solved by replacing the EFI coolant temp sensor, connector and wiring

Cruise control fixed by replacing the bellows unit due to a solenoid failure in the original unit.

Center air vent troubleshooting led to a kinked vac line under the dash. Vent now works as it should every time.

That means absolutely everything on the car has is now working perfectly.

 

OMG! And now what happens next?

 

I am very glad to report that my Series III is now in the very capable hands of fellow BAJrs member Rhett, who I am sure will take very good care of her