Awesome, love to see someone bring back a car from the dead. Best of luck with it, I'm sure it will turn out great.

 

And I though the work I did in my Jinxie was hard enough, you are a brave guy! Keep us posted, I can't wait to see how the fixed roof looks.

 

It's been a hot minute, but I'm back with a ton of updates!

Firstly, when I was going to repair the severed coolant sensor wires, I discovered that a rodent was for sure the culprit, and it had also chewed up some wires to the supercharger coolant pump and the auxillary coolant pump. Some replacement wire, new heat shrink crimp connectors, and some new wire sheathing later and that problem is sorted!


While I was in there, I also discovered that the old auxillary coolant pump was no longer functioning. I tore it open and found that the carbon brushes had simply worn away. A couple new ones soldered in and the motor was spinning perfectly again!

I also replaced both the supercharger and serpentine belts as well as the idler pulley bearing while I was in there as they were showing quite a few cracks and signs of old age.

The transmission fluid pan, valve body seals, bridge seal, and mechatronics plug seal were all changed as well, with the transmission getting getting about 6 liters of fresh Lifeguard 6 fluid!


Made sure the Jag was fully level as well to ensure the proper fluid fill amount!



Now to the start of the body work, where I'm currently at.

So my body guy had some unexpected health complications come up, putting him out of work for a year at least. Every other body shop I tried in the area basically gave me the nice form of "Hell no, we're not touching that job with a 10-foot pole". That leaves it up to me to get this thing mostly straightened-out!

My plan of attack has been to gently over stretch the aluminum and apply a bit of heat to get it to change its shape to conform back to where it needs to be to line everything up. Any splits or small ripples or variations will be addressed with some color-match paint and body filler. I grabbed my engine crane, got the Jag on some ramps for ground clearance, and set to work!


My main goals are to get the windshield frame straight enough to get a watertight seal on the replacement windshield and get the sunroof opening straight enough that either I can mount the sunroof track mechanism enough that the water drainage can function properly, or just rivet a paint-matched aluminum delete panel in the sunroof's place, reducing the possible sources of a future water leak and reducing curb weight. The smaller, purely cosmetic dents will be straightened as much as possible, but I'm not expecting perfection. As can be seen in the before and current images, the windshield frame is already much more in line with where it should be now! I'll be able to dial in the exact alignment once I can source a good donor windshield or a new one.



After much struggle (the old windshield fought me at about every step of the cutting process), the old windshield was removed (mostly, the bottom corners were basically inaccessible with the full windshield in place with the tools I had). I just have to finish off the bottom corners, then vacuum up the copious amounts of glass shards from everywhere in the car, hood, and cowls as well as clean off the old urethane to prep the surface for new sealant.



That's where I'm at as of now! If anyone has a good source for a new or good, used windshield for an X350 within ~250 miles of NE Indiana, please let me know! I can come and pick up!

I'm eyeing a windshield on eBay, but it ships out of Texas and costs more than the windshield itself in shipping alone!

 

Sorry for spamming and not adding isht to the thread...
...just wanted to express my utter respect for you for undertaking this.

Witnessing you saving the car from getting scrapped (or disassembled for parts) fills my heart with joy 👍🏻🙏🏻

 

Nice progress!

Checking www.car-part.com (great resource for junkyard shopping throughout the US, btw), there's a salvage yard between Indy and Bloomington, IN that supposedly has a windshield for an '04 (un-heated) for $75. Welcome to Brickyard Imported Cars There's also a yard in Hammond that says they have an '05 windshield (again, not heated). Going further afield, it'd be west central IL, OH, or MI for a used one.

For a heated windshield, closest/probably cheapest is in Elgin, IL. There appears to be one in Benton Harbor for $125.... Otherwise, it looks like Brickyard in IN also has a heated glass for the same price as unheated.

Hope this helps.
-Paul

 

Awesome, thank you for the info! That site looks to be exactly what I need, and it'll help make the search for other bits and pieces I'll need a ton easier!