Hello Everyone!

I've been a lurker on these forums for a bit with my 2003 S-Type R and have recently purchased a 2006 XJR in need of some MAJOR TLC and figured that this would be the best place to share updates and get some advice as I go through the car.



I bought this 2006 XJR for $3k USD in running and driving condition and drove it ~200 miles back to my home in Indiana. The Jag ran and drove quite well considering the mileage and lack of consistent service records and was surprisingly comfortable on the whole drive home considering the state of the vehicle. All the lights worked, the assisted cruise control maintained good following distance, the A/C blew nice and cold, and the engine ran pretty well and felt healthy. Heck, even the air suspension aired up and worked great! That's where the good with this car ends unfortunately.

Because of the massive dent in the roof from a large tree branch in a storm, and because the previous owner didn't put any sort of tarp or covering on the Jag immediately after the incident, water channeled in through the sunroof with the dent acting as a funnel. This caused water to pour into the center console and passenger footwell during multiple rainstorms and not only caused the j-gate parking solenoid to fail, but it also filled the cupholders with rancid water, damaged the headliner, and caused parts of the carpet to mold. At some point, the rear passenger window had rolled itself down partway as well, allowing rain to soak the carpets and seat on that side and let loads of leaves and other debris into the interior.



All of the joys that come with stagnant water and mold then get mixed in with the fact the previous owners smoked HEAVILY, as evidenced by every single ashtray being filled with ashes and the car absolutely reeking of the smell of cigarette smoke. This also meant that every surface of the car had a slightly sticky, tar coating on it.

The fun doesn't stop there either, the Jag has it's fair share of mechanical issues as well. It has an oil leak severe enough that in the two months that the car sat before I bought it, it required me to add 4.5 quarts just to get the oil to the middle of the dipstick. One of the VVT gear lock pins seems to be seized, so the adjuster makes a horrible racket for about 1-2 seconds on start up until it builds oil pressure, some of the suspension bushings feel loose and causes rumble in the steering on braking in certain steering angles, every wheel has a different brand of tire on it, shifts feel rougher than they should be in non-sport mode, suggesting that either the fluid is in desperate need of a flush or that the solenoids are on their way out and the pack will need rebuilt, and there were multiple jugs of generic "red" coolant in the trunk instead of Dex-cool orange.

As is very apparent, this Jag would've likely become a parts car. However, even after discovering all of this before handing the money over, there is a method to my madness. All of these issues allows me the opportunity to use this car as a way to practice various aspects of automotive repair that I have not dabbled in yet with my other project cars, like basic body repair and straightening. Even if I make some mistakes along the way or don't do things to a 100% professional standard, at least I'm saving a Jag which likely would've otherwise gone to the crusher and I get a much more enjoyable daily for the winter months when my S-Type is in storage.

First order of business is to take out a good chunk of the interior to get the headliner board lowered and get the broken windshield out, allowing me to take a crack at straightening out the roof enough to at least get the new windshield to set properly and to seal the sunroof.

Wish me luck and I'll be sure to post updates as they happen!

 

Yikes, good luck.

Count your blessings you didn't get pulled over driving the car like that...

 

Good luck, but I wouldn't have touched that except maybe as a donor engine for another car.

 

Best of luck to you, a real challange.

 

Hi VR6. As a project for learning the trade as you put it you have plenty of opportunity with that to learn a LOT. To get it back on the road however, the car isn't special enough to warrant what it would cost. If however you could find a better bodied car and combine the two that might be a better option. Still that would be a learning project that would be more fun than cost effective. Good luck with it.

 

How many miles?

 

Bless you for trying to save one of these fantastic cars. It sounds like you have the right attitude. If you just want to make it decent and drivable it could be a really fun project and we'll try and help you when the going gets tough.

Good Luck!
Jeff

 

Best of luck with it. Does it at least have low mileage? $3k seems like a lot for the condition unless its very low mileage.

 

I would not touch anything on the car until the body damage is sorted. I think this is the major problem area as the body is aluminium, brit car so brit spelling. You cannot just beat it with hammers like steel or you will rip the metal. I would say that needs a new roof panel.
Hats off to you for having a go but it is going to cost mega bucks and be a vertical learning curve.

 

As a freshman (like you &#128513 I just bought a 2005 XJ8L. But I would’ve never bought one like that. Maybe for a couple of hundred. As a mechanical donor car. Anyway, let me know what parts you’re ending up needing. I can help a little.

 

Thanks to everyone for the support and advice so far! I knew getting into this car that at BEST I would likely break even on the car considering the amount of work that will need to be done to get this car into good daily-driver state, but I likely will be spending more on this car than it would be to find an equivalent condition example for the mileage. My intent in fixing this Jag was not out of any sort of cost savings, but because I enjoy the experience of rescuing cars on the brink of becoming parts cars, it's a fun hobby to me! It also allows me to drive the car hard and enjoy everything the drivetrain has to offer guilt-free and not feel bad about subjecting a low-mileage, pristine survivor to that kind of daily driver use. It also helps that the XJR's driveline and suspension setup is very similar to my S-Type R, so I can learn and make mistakes on this XJR so I don't make the same mistakes to my pristine S-Type if the same issues eventually crop up.

As for current mileage, it's at 152k miles, which I will very easily admit that for $3k, I overpaid a bit after looking at equivalent and lower mileage running XJRs on the market with roofs that don't resemble a Pennsylvania valley. I put it down to my excitement that the Jag actually ran and drove really well and that nothing major faulted out, and that even the guy i bought it from really didn't have any idea of what the value the car at, so I just shot him an offer of $3k and he was down for it. I can certainly think of worse things to buy with $3k than a running and driving supercharged V8 Jag though, so I'm not losing sleep over it!

I've already torn quite a bit into the interior of the car to expose the roof panel with just about every piece coming out so far except for the seats, dash, and carpet.


With the headliner removed, you can get a much better view of the extent of the damage to the roof:

To my surprise, the metal sunroof tracks were actually perfectly straight, and once the assembly was removed from the roof, the sunroof sat perfectly flat again. The three plastic mounting points to the roof on the front of the assembly snapped, allowing the metal sections of the assembly to push themselves out of the way to avoid damage, so if I do choose to go through with re-fitting the sunroof, it may actually be salvageable.

I also went ahead and removed the entire stereo headunit assembly since I need the serial number to get the radio code as well as the massively filthy ashtray and shifter assemblies.


As I was removing the shifter assembly, some of the most foul-smelling, disgusting water I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing started dripping from the plastic top side of the shifter. Good thing that this shifter assembly was already going to be disassembled to remove that solenoid anyways, so I'll check the mainboard for broken solder joints and give all the electrics a through cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. The shifter was in fully-working order when I got the car other than the park lockout solenoid, so hopefully I can keep this shifter and give it a good cleanup and re-lube and not need to source a used replacement.

At the moment, I'm gathering a few tools together to fully remove the windshield so I can assess what needs to be done. My guess is that, like @JoeDredd said, I will end up having to source another roof from a donor XJ as the damage in the sunroof area looks like it'll be out of my skill level to make seal properly due to way it has crunched inward. Does anybody have any experience with panel bond for aluminum on these cars and whether I can do the equivalent of a butt or lap weld with the donor roof to the roof rails? I have no issue with taking it to a pro as I have a body guy I've usually gone to for my other projects, but I'd prefer to give it a swing myself if I get a whole donor roof assembly.

 

That project is the proverbial "eating of a elephant"....you just have to ignore the immensity and take it one bit at a time.

I would probably just get a mobile auto glass guy out to use their draw wire tooling to remove the glass. Probably take him 15 minutes with minimal additional damage to the car.

You might consider exploring some localized annealing of those distorted problem areas of the roof, to allow you to gently and quietly work on returning them back to desired profiles without undue force and stretching. That might be a better approach to preserve parent materials and restrict the invasive process of cutting out and replacing sections.
You might prefer to find a piece of donor material from a wreckers yard to experiment with the heat level required, or to get it sampled to ascertain the alloy composition which will then guide you on the temperature you need to anneal that material.
You might be very surprised at how little force is required and how little stress micro-fracturing is incurred when reworking aluminium.
You will also want to find a suitable process to reverse the process once you have your desired result achieved.
https://makeitfrommetal.com/how-to-a...ginners-guide/

If that doesn't work as you hoped you can always go plan "B" and cut out the damaged section, but if you can avoid cutting and insertion processes, the structural strength of the result will be less questionable.
You'll probably have less restorative body filling to worry about too.

I wish you the best of luck and good fortune with the project and please keep sharing your progress.

 

Cut pillars A.B,C. Have your bodyman give it a 3" chop while he's at it.
All joking aside, we love your enthusiasm and are rooting for you.
Welcome to the forum!

 

Given that there's potentially structure damage to the roof reinforcement cross-member right behind the windshield, I wonder if it might be easier to find a donor car, cut/take the roof/structure (A-pillars, roof, reinforcements over through C-pillars and maybe even rear quarters), then splice back into your car. A couple weeks back, I saw an '08 XJ in a self-serve yard, in my hometown in eastern Nebraska (it's still there), that might be worth cutting a chunk of the car off to use... That or find one closer to you, bring a battery powered recip saw and harvest accordingly. Now, IF the front roof cross-beam isn't compromised, then it'd be a fun experiment to see if the aluminum panels could be worked back to their intended shape.

When the X350 was developed, Jaguar presented a technical paper at a European conference discussing how the aluminum body was developed, joining technologies, diagrams of the sections that were bolt-ons, splice-ons, then core structure. Here's a couple screenshots from that paper:


Hope this helps,
Paul

 

There you go. The roof just needs to be "unstitched".?
It may end up being doable. The roof should be cheap enough since there is likely little demand for a top.

 

Quote: "...I also went ahead and removed the entire stereo headunit assembly since I need the serial number to get the radio code as well as the massively filthy ashtray and shifter assemblies..."

I also did not have the radio code when I bought my car, and you do not need the serial number of the radio to get it.

Just go to the next Jaguar dealership with the VIN of your car and the paperwork showing that you are the legitimate owner, and the dealer will be able to give you the radio code from his database. That's how it worked for me, at least.

Best regards,

Thomas

 

+1

 

The body on these cars is bonded and riveted, you should be able to get the appropriate materials from the dealer but they won't tell you how to do it.

 

Lots of updates to share!

Firstly, after getting everything out of the way of the roof and looking over the damage with a professional body guy, I've decided to let him handle the repair as the damage extends to major structural areas of the roof, and is not simply cosmetic as I had originally thought. He has experience with aluminum structures and has no problem with taking on the job. As much as I wanted to give it a go myself, I feel that important structural areas is probably not the best place for me to start.

Since I've been waiting until he is ready to take the Jag indoors to work on it, I've been doing lots of mechanical & interior work in the meantime. I went through and cleaned up the entire interior, removing all of the trash, cigarette ashes, mold, etc from the interior and doing a thorough cleaning of all the carpeting & seats.

I did an initial trash clean and three passes with some shampoo, a drill brush, and an extractor which made a world of difference to both the appearance and the smell of the interior. I also addressed the mold inside of the center console, a major source of the musty scent in the car and one of the places where water collected during the time the car sat after the tree had fallen on it.


I then addressed the shifter assembly (I completely forgot to take photos of this whole process). Not only was it filthy, full of ashes and dirt, but the park lockout solenoid had also failed, requiring the use of a screwdriver to get the car out of park. I tore the whole shifter assembly apart, cleaned out the old, gunky, dirty remnants of whatever grease remained, re-applied white lithium grease to all moving parts in the assembly, and removed the plastic piece responsible for the park lockout functionality. Once the whole unit was re-assembled, it was amazing how buttery-smooth the whole assembly felt. It was like it was brand-new!

I also cleaned up all of the other pieces around the center console including the handbrake switch, burl wood trim, and the whole stereo/nav unit since they were all caked in ash/tar, then re-installed all of the center console pieces and added new bolts where they were previously missing.



With most of the ash/tar removed from the high-touch surfaces, I then turned my attention to the headliner & other liner-covered interior trim pieces. The original headliner was not only sagging quite horribly, but it was saturated with the cigarette smell, so it needed to go.


I found a small YouTube channel from a guy who runs an automotive upholstery shop in Texas, and he said to steer clear of the aerosol adhesives for headliners and instead recommended that I go with contact adhesive run through a paint sprayer. He said that he used Weldwood Landau Top adhesive, but also said that the standard Weldwood in a can from the hardware store would work just as well, so that's what I went with!



Let it be known that yes, while you technically can use a tiny 3 gallon compressor for this, it makes the job take much, much longer than it really should (ask me how I know...). I opted for a charcoal grey suede material to give the interior a darker, sportier feel inside.

I can say for sure that the guy on the channel being an experienced pro makes the job look super easy, but it's 1% equipment, 99% skill, and when he says that once you press down, it's there. He's NOT joking. I have no doubt that the contact adhesive will hold long-term as when I tried to pull it back up slightly to remove a crease after I pressed down, this stuff started to rip the foam backing off of the suede headliner material I went with. After some struggle initially, I started to get a feel for what I was doing and was able to get the sheet attached without too much creasing (barring the grab handle corners, just ignore those...)


The guy's channel is an absolute wealth of information, especially with his tips about internal relief cuts, giving yourself "handles" to pull corners taut, and using an open palm on long edges to prevent waviness when folding the material over. The end result looked pretty good considering it was my very first attempt at re-doing a headliner. I also went ahead and did the a-pillar trim pieces too since I already had them out, and those turned out fantastic!



With the headliner re-upholstered so it's ready to go back in as soon the roof & windshield are fixed, I then turned my attention over to the engine and it's massive oil hemorrhaging issue. No wanting to be the guy who makes someone else have to clean oil off their shop floor, I wanted to address this issue before getting it taken to the body shop. After pulling the lower plastic guard away, it became much clearer where the oil was leaking from. Turns out, it wasn't leaking from anything down below, but instead from much higher up in the engine. I was able to see that the oil was coming from the top side of the engine on the right and was draining next to the mount for the right side motor mount. Tracing the leak up further revealed that lots of oil was coming from the bottom of the crankcase vent valve as well as the VVT solenoid gasket. I found a good site for the o-rings from another thread here, attached is a picture of what I ordered if anyone else needs the size & supplier.



With that leak resolved, I then wanted to resolve the VVT gear rattling at startup. I had read some people on this forum solving the rattle by running engine flush, unsticking the lock pin in the VVT gear and fixing their rattle. Given the lack of service history with this car, I figured it was worth a shot. At worst, I'd clean some of the varnish and gunk out of the engine. The initial oil drain showed some very filthy oil that looks like it's time in the engine could've been counted with 5 digits. The oil filter had been on the car for so long that it had developed it's own rust holes and was weeping oil. Don't worry, the debris in the drain pan was not from the engine! Instead, it was from the massive rodent nest that somehow survived being wedged between the bumper support and the accessory drive.


With the old oil drained, I filled the engine with some cheap 5w-30 from the local parts store and a can of BG EPR. I followed the directions on the can to a T, running the engine for a little over 10 mins at 1200 rpm, then immediately drained the oil. What came out was amazingly dirty:


Keep in mind this oil hadn't been in the engine for more than 15 minutes total and the flush had picked up this much crud. I refilled with more cheapo 5w-30 and put in a new filter, but still heard the VVT rattle on startup. I did the flush again with a 2nd can and the oil came out looking about the same, but still no difference in VVT rattle.

Perhaps the lock pin sheared at some point? I haven't heard of any reports of timing failure due to metal fatigue of a VVT gear, so maybe I'll just live with the rattle or install an Accusump to build oil pressure before startup.

While waiting for new accessory & supercharger belts and the transmission filter & pan kit to arrive to do a transmission fluid change, I decided to try out a Sylvania headlight restoration kit to fix the extremely cloudy headlights. After a ton of elbow grease and a couple hours, I must say that the initial results look fantastic!


How long the "UV blocking" clearcoat lasts once exposed to rain, bugs, and the outdoors is yet to be seen, but they look almost brand-new for now!

The last thing I've done up to this point was investigate the cause of the "Low coolant" warning. Turns out, the coolant float is working just fine. At some point, the wires to the coolant level sensor were severed, resulting in an open circuit and the warning light. Not sure whether a rodent chewed through the wire or perhaps a belt snapped, but the wire is completely damaged and will need to be crimped together again. I'll address the harness as well as the belts once the Jag comes back from the body shop though.




I'll be back soon with more updates, thank you all for the comments and support!

 

Amazing post! Working on my Super V8 makes me pretty nervous at times so I completely understand your idea to have an inexpensive project car to make mistakes on. I would absolutely have an X-350 beater car if only I had the space!

Good luck and keep sharing.
Jeff

P.S I also discovered the Old School upholstery guy! Learn a lot from him!