The right one was a lot worse than the left. Before:


They both came out a lot better. Not like new, but pretty shiny:


Taillights come next, but they don't need much. I'll do them in place.
Also looking into pinstriping tape to replace flaked paint off engine cover. I think I need about 50 feet of 1/8".

 

Wow they came out great in the picture! Mine were looking like your lower one in the first photo. I took a different approach to refurbishing the lenses and marker lights:




This is self-adhesive smoke tint for lights.




And I gotta say I've been thrilled with the results! I don't think I shared this before but I have always thought the amber lenses were too orange. I wish they had done the same smoke treatment for the fronts that the rear turn signals got from the factory. The tint doesn't decrease the brightness too much. I also did the repeaters on the sides. Now those lenses are very subtle and don't clash with the red paint.

 

It's subjective of course, but surely the darker, when inactive, indicators look more at home than the stock bits in your CFH bumper.

Orange in a sea of Ice Blue actually works IMO (not my photo but is my car):

 

Goo Gone did nothing. Think man, what do we have lots of, that is known to demolish paint? Brake fluid! It's working a treat.


I took a quick video while I was installing LED bulbs into the center brake light. Guess which ones I've swapped?
EDIT: Replaced crummy plastic throttle bushes with oiled sintered bronze ones, Grainger PN EF050806. They were not a direct fit as reported elsewhere, but required quite a bit of sanding down using my drill as a makeshift lathe.


Also installed new weatherstrip to toolbox lid.


Plenum badge came out nice. Engine cover stripes are next.

 

I am running out of daily street parking permits by keeping the Miata around, so I took the XJ12 back to The Jag Shop today. They have been assigned to locate and fix all fluid leaks, determine if the harmonic balancer is slipping, install trunk struts, and put in condenser and lower rad mounts.

Before I took it in, I programmed in a Saab remote and discovered that the spare key IS NOT to my car. It also has a pip molded into the head, which I am guessing means it has a transponder chip to go with a newer car.

I took the car on quite a circuitous path to the shop, including a few miles of Interstate, and can say that the tires show no overt sign of flat spots.

 

Got the car back from the Shop. Hopefully no more drips! Harmonic balancer gets a thumbs up. But am noticing my front passenger door puddle light lens has gone missing.


Then I took it to the DMV for VIN inspection. Tomorrow I have to get a smog check, because my temp tag runs out Sunday.

Got a full tank of fuel for the first time, gauge still reads empty, gas light on. It seemed to be sane before from half a tank on down. Guess I need a new sender.

Also received a shipment from SNG Barratt today. Put in airbox grommet, mount, and clip, as well as fan shroud lower grommets. Those fought me. On the upside, I now have a proper fuse puller.

This stupid headlamp relay cover, also from Barratt, was clearly the oldest of the new old stock.

Installed with server cage nuts up front, but it's still very wonky. It will need trimming, bending, and velcro whose adhesive isn't a quarter century old.

New Gorilla lug nuts, 73187SMB. Only slightly less annoying than stock jingle bells because the washers aren't captive.

Still plenty of projects to work on. I have a replacement rear seatbelt, left headlight and bracket, dashcam hardwire kit, smartphone charging clamp, fire extinguisher, and Bluetooth M-Bus adapter to hopefully get installed.

 

Smog test passed, registration paperwork finally on its way to DMV.

Got a big thumbs up and approving nods from a guy in (I think) a CLK coupe.
Gas gauge behaved itself all evening while running errands, cruising, and showing off the car to my family.

 

Refitted checkarm covers with new 3M VHB foam tape that was on the slow boat from Deutschland. 5mm wide, 1.1mm thick is apparently a direct replacement.

Then moved my phone charging clamp to the XJ12.

Not pretty, but it'll do.
New brake pedal pad. Old one wasn't very worn but the part is super cheap. Difficulty level: 7.0

The new pad comes in an amniotic coating of paraffin.
New-used rear seatbelt latch and attendant lap belt installed, finally.

Found a pen, 57 cents, a spring, an eyeshadow brush, and a bobbin.

 

Yesterday I spent a LONG time trying to get my Bluetooth module working from the CD changer hookup. And I did, but found the same roadblocks that others already did:
1. The changer has to be plugged in and loaded with a disc before the head unit will patch through analog audio signals from the changer port
2. The "ACC+" lead to the changer is not capable of powering up even a dongle that only draws ~30mA while also triggering the changer to power up
3. The Bluetooth unit works fine from the B+ line to the changer, but would be drawing that 30mA at all times (though actually it seems to drop down to 10-12mA when connected)
So now I've un-mangled the changer's pigtail and will wait on a DIN extension cord to hack up so I can draw switched power from the accessory port near the battery. Already have a Faston 250 series 3-way connector for that.

 

Today I broke down and ordered the A2D-JAG97 so I don't have to muck about with making arcane harnesses to make my cheap Bluetooth dongle work.

I glued down the lifting corners of the carpeting on the trunk's spare and battery boards.

Just the before pic.

Also installed a replacement puddle lamp lens.

My trunk will not open with the key, only electrically, so I peeled back the trunklid liner just a bit to feel around in there. The lock cylinder was very loosely attached, so I did the nuts up finger tight. The key turns, but the arm attached to the cylinder doesn't move, and I couldn't move the attached rod by pulling on it. Manually pulling on the power actuator doesn't present any great resistance and opens the latch quite normally. Tomorrow I'll gather tools and go in for a proper diag, as well as hopefully put on a replacement right mirror assembly. Let's hope the '03 X308 part goes on uneventfully.

EDIT: Removing the trunk cylinder revealed that, indeed, it would turn, but only about 45°. A shot of Super Lube freed it up to go its full 90° and now the trunk opens mechanically as designed.


EDIT: Door mirror in. Managed to crack the triangle cover, and turns out the old mirror just needed the Phillips hinge screws within the bottom hatch to be snugged up, but at least the replacement is much shinier and was very cheap to procure.

 

While driving around aimlessly on expired temp tags because neither my plates nor an extension cord for my battery tender has yet arrived, the "Automatic Transmission Failure" light became illuminated. Restarted the car and it did not come back, but I plugged in the ELM327 and read a P1198. Manual says that's for Fuel Level High input, which wouldn't seem to have anything to do with the transmission light but could be related to the gas gauge having read empty (and reserve light on) with a full tank.

 

Nice work John, you're on your way to show car status! I assume you've dialed in the ATF fluid level already. Have you been underneath to check the trans mount integrity and the harness connector? That harness is sometimes known to be a bit short. Plus the build-up of road dirt in the area could be trouble.

Are you running the "orange dot" transmission? Or the original "delayed engagement" version?

 

Richard, your assumption has been subsumed with my assumption that the Jag Shop put the ATF level right during its two visits there. Next time I drive it, I'll be sure to check it. Likewise with the mounts, when they did the inspection, no mechanical faults were noted besides PS and oil leaks. I haven't been under the car to the point where I've been able to look over the trans. I'd be looking for a dot and slash in orange paint pen, right? If I had to guess, my car's trans is as delivered because it does seem a little lazy to go into gear.

EDIT: Aha, I found the "Delayed Engagement" TSB, but it says it applies to '96 MY. Tried to shoot some video of the trans but exhaust is in the way. https://photos.app.goo.gl/uAMhUbHZG6nw6yVGA
Cleaned up my spare and found the leak. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ipDogjGyUzrJUbrj8 Could not find a date code on that bastige, but I don't know that I drive enough to justify getting a brandy new one.

Drips are fewer, but still occurring.

Oh noes! My driver door lock actuator has suddenly stopped actuating. Hoo boy, gots to look in the schematics.

 

Today I attached a pigtail for a battery maintainer to the rear accessory connector.

Doing so made apparent that my accessory relay was absent, so now I need to replenish the underhood spare relay. Of course, the relay was not necessary for the maintainer, but I also installed the hardwire kit for my dashcam, which does need it, at the front accessory connector. Putting in the wire allowed me to pull out one of the A-pillar tweeter's remains which I can use to measure for getting the closest thing to drop-in substitutes.

When I was planning for the accessory connectors project, I hadn't noticed that both sides of the 3-way Faston housing were present, apparently as supplied in Coventry, with the car side populated (obvs) with blades and the accessory side absent of receptacles, so I had ordered complete terminal and housing kits. The aftermarket connectors would have been incompatible, with differing latching and keying molded in, but the receptacle terminals went into the Jaguar housing half alright after having their catch tabs bent flat.

The driver lock actuator did not miraculously return to life. Its failure is a way bigger heartbreak than it rationally should be.

 

The left rear door upper molding was becoming unstuck, so it got attended to today.
Old sticky foam off.

New sticky foam on. Two strips of 5mm x 1.1mm 3M VHB ought to do, which I had left over from reattaching the door check covers.

The top edge is no longer bowing away from the door.

The upper and lower moldings appeared to have been installed together using one very wide piece of foam tape and no attention was paid to the nominal 2mm gap called for. To be matchee-matchee with the front, I couldn't put one in.

 

ATF is a bit over full hot and is showing some little bubbles. 🤨

 

Two projects down today. I swapped in a good used low beam lens for the one with a broken ear and socket along with the bracket it rides on which had been missing a mounting stud and, it turns out, a lower mounting nut. Still have yet to aim both left beams.

A 6x9 surround repair kit arrived in today's mail so I dug the factory sub out to see if it could even be salvaged at all. The seatbelt escutcheons in the hat shelf pretty much shattered upon contact. I did not bother trying to save them. The center buckle housing snapped a tab while being wiggled through the cushion apertures, but I'm not expecting a full passenger load anytime soon, and a few drops of thin CA should keep it together well enough if I ever get around to that.

The photo makes it look a lot better than it was. The cone was quite wavy and the surround took about half of the perimeter that it overlapped with it. I had to build up the perimeter of the cone back up for the new surround to have something to attach to. At the right edge you can see some of the missing perimeter:

Gluing the surround to the cone and the ancillary cone extension:

Anyway, it eventually worked out and the sub with its new surround delivers the bass tones as well as can be expected from a single 6x9" without a real enclosure. Some cheapo aftermarket tweeters that are said to fit in the A-pillar spots (in H-K equipped X308s, at least) arrive Monday. That complement should be enough for my mostly podcast and audiobook consumption on the road.

 

Tweeters are in place. Not great, but they'll do. I didn't bother removing the pillar trims all the way, just pulled them as far as needed. Audio is not quite solved though, I'm still getting intermittent "NOT CONT."

Took out the headlight switch and blasted it with electric parts cleaner. Feels snappier and no longer flickers at a touch. Kind of amazing that the switch can't come out without scraping against the PCB. Even well into the Ford era, I guess service engineering was not Job 1.

2 missing interior door handle screw covers replaced with new. A third is loose, and the fourth is held in with double stick foam tape. With that fail rate, one would think they'd be available everywhere, but I only could find them from EverydayXJ.

Replaced driver door latch/lock actuator assembly. This is a hugely satisfying fix. The old mechanism, in addition to the bum actuator, had a very gummy feel to its lock action.

Adjusted driver door striker so the door closes a little higher, in line with the rear door. Muscled the door up on its hinges a bit to help it close smoothly. Before:

That's better:

 

I need some of these hard to find screw covers, thanks for the heads up.

 

I got tired of my transmission dipstick not locking/sealing well, so I ordered a Dorman 917-478 hoping it might be a drop-in replacement.

It's not, it's several inches longer than the Jag part.

The new one at least has a squish grommet that isn't all compressed.

So I put the new grommet in the old dipstick and soldered a lug onto the remains of the rivet I had to nibble out.

Success. Even though I essentially paid $11.48 for a rubber grommet.