Hello to all, my name is Chris, and I own this 2001 X308 Daimler Super V8.







The car is actually known as "Aston's Daimler" in our household, because I did a lot of the work aided by my 3 year old son, and he took quite a shine to it. During the COVID lockdowns it was our favourite thing to go out and do more work to the Daimler or one of my other cars. Obviously the following pictures are not all with Aston's Daimler, but you see Aston loves to spend time in and around the cars...













I also have another son, Spencer, but he is only 1 years old so has not quite got into his cars yet! These are my two boys together.



There is also my wife Lindsey... but she may bury me under the patio if I start posting pictures of her too...!

I have owned a random and perhaps strange selection of cars over the years, and I have been posting on a similar forum to this one, called jaguarforum.com, for around 15 years. I made a decision this week to close my account there; If anyone is nosey, they can always visit that forum and read my old thread and explanation, but it's not really very exciting. I just didn't think it was my kind of place any more.

I also post on a Mercedes forum and a detailing forum, and will continue to do so as I enjoy both, and own several different brands of cars.

But from the point of view of the Daimler, and if it is OK with the general collective here on this forum, I was planning for this to be our new home. The way I tend to post on my thread, is I write about all of my cars rather than just the Daimler, with plenty of photos on what and how I have done upgrades/repairs. Then I tend to throw in stuff about what we are up to as well; I currently have a new 3-bay garage about to be built, and I am also doing a property development on the side; very random... that sort of thing.

If anyone objects to that then by all means let me know, and if I am posting in the wrong section then please by all means let me know too. But given my Daimler is the lead star in this thread, I thought this was most suitable.

A quick introduction

The Daimler was purchased in 2017, after a friend let me know it was going cheap. It had rear quarter damage and looked relatively repairable, so I made a good offer to the seller, and took it home. These are some photos mid restoration.







We currently have four other cars on the drive, thank goodness I have an understanding wife!

There is my 2003 Mercedes CL500. I love this car and had always wanted one. As usual I bought it cheap knowing it needed loads doing to it. Work has not even started yet sadly, but I hope to do lots this summer.



My BMW 730d Xdrive M Sport - I am currently selling this for reasons I shall explain later, but this has been an incredible car.



My Audi A6 Avant S line 2.0 litre Diesel Auto. This is my slightly boring daily driver, as I do 25,000 miles per year for my job.



...and last of all my wife's car, a 2018 Lexus RX300h. We bought this as something sensible, comfortable, and reliable. The Lexus has not disappointed, and the dealerships have been wonderful too.



But before I dive into these, I'd like to share how I got here.... I'll give a brief history of the different cars I owned, what happened when I bought the Daimler, and then I shall step through the work I did to it, as well as perhaps some interesting things I did with other cars.

If that's not OK on here, then please let me know. I won't go off posting until I know it's OK. But otherwise I shall make a start tomorrow.

 

Welcome aboard c16rkc (interesting site name), nice family pics, future car wranglers taking over for dads herd.
I don't see an issue with you posting like this (not that I have any say), but you may want to check this thread out and possibly find it more suitable... https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ictures-52060/ ...but have at it right here if you like as well.

Nice assortment of vehicles...I see you have lambs wool floor mats in the Jag, ..are they factory?
That was a bit of work to get done with that damage. How long did it take?

 

Thank you kind sir, I shall have to sort out a signature.

The Lambswool mats are standard, the Daimler is equivalent to the Vanden Plas in the US, not sure if the come with those mars too?

I think it took a few months to sort the bodywork out, I had a local bodyshop do it for me. I'll put more photos of the process later on.

 

Good looking Jag. How many miles or kilometers does it have on it?

I’m very surprised that it doesn’t have the headlight washers on it.

 

If a car looks like this after how you bought it, you know there is a proud owner behind.
Welcome to the forum!
Were you also posting on the UK Jaguar forum before?

 

Thank you for the compliment.

It currently sits at 97,000 miles, and yes oddly quite a few of them do not have the headlight washer option (at least here in the UK they do not). The headlight washers were an optional extra when these were new, and the majority of UK cars have no optional extras added on them, although they did come pretty well specified as standard. I find it odd people spend so much on a car and are too tight to add any extras... but it seems the same with a lot of luxury brands.

 

Thank you Eric,

I remember you from when I first bought this car, you showed me some photographs of your own X308, which was absolutely stunning.

Yes I used to post on the UK Jaguar forum, but there have been some changes to the way the UK forum is moderated recently, and after around 15 years posting there I decided it was time for a change.

 

Some of this is not particularly relevant, but these are the cars that led up to my purchase of the Daimler. I'll post little about the boring ones, but I might add more detail on some of the more interesting ones; particularly the Jags!

The early years

As a youngster I looked up to a couple of rather flashy uncles who drove similarly flash cars. In particular I always loved a 1990 Jaguar Sovereign in red, owned by my uncle Colin, I was only 9 years old when he got it brand new, and I wanted one from the minute I saw it. That feeling never died, and as you see below I eventually bought my own. This started my love of Jaguars.

I started out my driving life at the age of 18, in 1999 with my embarrassing first car, a 1991 Peugeot 405 1.9GR (library pic below)... and followed a year later with the purchase of my first "nice" car, which was a 1993 BMW 520i SE (only photo I have below).



This kept me going until I turned 21, at which point I racked up three years of no claims bonus on my insurance and could finally afford to insure the Jag I wanted. I bought a 4.0 litre 1992 Jaguar Sovereign in Flamenco red for the sum of £1,750. I can't remember exactly, but I believe it had around 170,000 miles on it when I bought it. I sold it a couple of years later with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock and it was still running fine; though the engine was a little noisy.

The photo below is my attempt to look cool before I realised all my hair was about to disappear down the plug hole in my mid 20's.



After this car, I had another XJ40 Sovereign, this time a 1993 model, but this looked nearly identical so I will not post an image of it.

In 2007 I can remember seeing the new X350 Jaguar in the film Casino Royal, and my XJ40 started to seem old. A year later I gave in to temptation and upgraded to a 2000 model Jaguar Sovereign with the 4.0 litre V8 engine. This was my first V8 car, and I remember it felt so much more modern than the XJ40.



After this I started seeing the Daimler models of the X308, and made my mind up I wanted one. But they were always too much money. Then one day I saw one advertised on Belgian number plates that intrigued me. The car was definately over priced, and far too expensive for me, but I book marked the advert like I often did when I saw something I liked. The car was UK specification right hand drive, and was for sale in London, the advert did not explain the Belgian number plates. It had very low milleage, and I loved the colour scheme in the photographs.



Over a period of a few months I watched the asking price go down to around £6,000. Then curiosity got the better of me and I phoned the seller.

It turned out the seller was living in Belgium, and his brother was selling the car on his behalf. They were both Thai restaurant owners. An attempt had been made to sell the car in Belgium, but the owner could not sell it due to it being right hand drive in a left hand drive country. The car was shipped to the UK on Belgian transfer plates with hope it would sell more easily in the UK. By the time I came out to look at it, the Belgian transfer plates had expired, so if the car did not sell within a few days there were going to have to ship it back to Belgium, or apply for a UK registration for the car.

The seller had been less than honest about the cars condition. It had a dents and scratches over the body, and the interior was filthy. But I could see it would not take much to bring it back to it's former glory. I made an offer of £2,500 and out of desperation the owner accepted. I became the proud owner of my first Daimler.

I had the car headlights put back to UK right hand drive ones, and got the car registered back to a UK number plate. I also cleaned the car inside and out, and had a local body shop repair all of the damage. After this it looked pretty much brand new. I was thrilled.



I changed the standard Daimler "Crown" alloys for the Super V8 "Solar" wheels, and I enjoyed owning this car for a mere year before I got itchy for something else again...













...to be continued....

 

The Jaguar Super V8

As you will all discover over time, I am a complete idiot, so even though I was already lucky enough to own the stunning Daimler of my dreams, I started wanting something else. It actually started because on random occasions there would be a load "crack" sound as I went over a bump, or sometimes just when I pulled away. This started really annoying me.

I took the car to the garage and they could find nothing wrong. Under my direction they replaced all four shocks, and nothing changed. They did the same with all four springs, and a number of bushes, but nothing helped. It was really starting to try my patience. The car would drive beautifully for a few days and then randomly this loud crack/bang would happen. Sometimes it turned into more of a rattling bang, and would sound like something loose underneath the car. I started to hate driving my poor Daimler....

At this point I had spent a fortune on the car, so I really should have persisted, but I instead decided to buy something different.

In November 2010 I viewed and purchased this Jaguar Super V8. It felt incredibly modern next to the Daimler, and was packed with gadgets like a touchscreen navigation, radar cruise control, and split air conditioning. I was smitten as soon as my buttocks hit the drivers seat for the test drive. I even traded in my beautiful Daimler for a mere £2,000, and was horrified when the dealer sold it within a couple of weeks for £5,500...







Although I was blinded by desire and could not see it, I had actually bought a bit of a pig. The wheels were all kerbed to death, seriously corroded and shod in tired and heavily worn Pirelli tyres. The bodywork was scuffed everywhere, and was suffering badly with Galvanic corrosion, and the rear bumper had signs of a minor rear shunt.

But the worst discovery was that the 4-pot callipers were seized. I noticed on the drive home that the brakes would judder dangerously under pretty light braking.

Because I had bought the car from a private dealership, it would have been covered by a 3 month warranty by UK law... but 29 year old Chris was too stupid to know that, and since the dealer had made no mention of a warranty, other than their attempt to sell me their optional one (which must have been the extended warranty), I assumed I had no warranty. I therefore had the calipers replaced with genuine brand new ones; which if I remember correctly cost me about £1,500. It was an expensive first week of ownership. I also enjoyed a blowout one evening and ended up like this. Very undignified:



(By the way I did not own that beautiful house in the background, I just rented the 1st floor which had been turned into a flat by the owner)

In the months that followed I had corrosion repairs to the body carried out, a brand new set of Jaguar 18" "custom" alloy wheels fitted, repairs to electric parking brake, and lots of other minor stuff I have forgotten. At this point the car was in pretty much mint condition, and I took it to shows, over to Holland on a club trip, and had a thoroughly good summer in it.















...to be continued...

 

Driving sheds

In late 2011 something happened that changed my outlook to life a little..... I met a girl.

Don't get me wrong, I had girlfriends before this, but I never took any of them quite as seriously, so they never really had much of an effect on me, and most importantly had no effect on my cars. But when I met Lindsey I became all daft and sensible. I stopped caring about my Jags and decided to save to buy a house, and I wanted it done fast!

Being worth a lot of money, the Jaguar went up for sale at a very low asking price, and sold to a fellow forum member over Christmas. To this day that same chap still owns the car, and he has kept it in immaculate condition, so I at least sent it to a good new home.

By January we were sharing Lindsey's silver Ford Focus... I did not even own a car! This is the only known photo I have of Lindsey's old car.



By April 2012 we had saved enough for a house, and bought an old 18th century village cottage. We were so happy to have an interesting old home, but if I could go back and tell myself not to buy this old wreck, I would. The house took every penny of our money for months, and had bodged DIY problems in every room, as well as a tiny garden that was mostly tarmac. To this day we are still putting right the decades of abuse and neglect this house had endured in it's life. Everything that needs doing always costs twice what we think it will.







After a few months I grew tired of car sharing Lindsey's Ford Focus, and I bought myself a cheap little run around for £200. This Clio was my new car, and I have no idea how long I drove it but it felt like a lifetime.





Then one evening I was driving home from work, and at the top of our road the exhaust dropped so that it was scraping along the floor. I got out and checked what the noise was, before deciding to just carry on back to our driveway. At this point I decided I needed a new car or I would die of embarrassment.

Back then I had never owned, and never intended to own a Diesel. But because we were on a budget I decided an LPG converted car would be best. There were an awful lot of Mercedes S classes available for sale with such conversions, and we went to look at one and loved it. Because of the light blue colour (which I thought a bit girly) I decided this one could be for Lindsey. She loved this car, and having only ever owned a Toyota Yaris and Ford Focus before hand it was quite a step up. I can still remember how excited she was when she took it home to her folks house, and took her dad for a ride in it.





Then a few weeks later we bought me one too, and became a two-Merc household.









At this point I also changed jobs, as my employer at that time had been bought out, and because of changes they made I started to absolutely hate every minute of being there. I had been at the same employer since I was 18 years old, for 14 years of my life. It was quite a step to leave for somewhere new. I struggled to find something that paid the same money, but I eventually something slightly less well paid but that I liked; the catch was that I had a 60 minute commute each way.

Out of the blue, we were also offered, and purchased this lovely Toyota Supra 3.0 manual for a mere £250. The MOT had expired and the owner just wanted rid of it.



I had welding done, an exhaust fixed, a few suspension parts repaired, and got it a fresh MOT. But in November 2012 we were struggling for money and I ebayed it for around what it owed me. I regret selling this car every time I remember it.

...to be continued...

 

Returning to the pack

By June 2013 I was doing stellar miles in the Mercedes, and it was a nasty shock to realise it had non-working air conditioning. The interior smelt rotten, and the bodywork was a little bashed about, so I dearly needed to spend some money on it. But there was a problem somewhere on the car even the local garage could not fathom; it would randomly conk out when running on LPG. Sometimes it did it while in an awkard situation, like turning a corner, and the power steering would then die too. This led to some scary manoeuvres!

I sold the Mercedes in summer 2013 for £2,200, and finally got back into the driving seat of a Jaguar. I purchased this Long wheel base 2008 model Jaguar Sovereign 2.7 diesel X358 for around £10,000, with around 32,000 miles on the clock. It was lovely having a car in such amazing condition, but also nice to be back in a Jag.



We took the car to Brugge in autumn 2013 with the local Jaguar Enthusiasts club.









This car was absolutely stunning, and turned heads everywhere. But to my surprise, after driving the Mercedes S430 it seemed a bit "basic". The ride in an X350 or X358 is rather harsh next to the German rivals, and when i swapped between Lindsey's Mercedes S500 and my Jaguar I found myself preferring the Mercedes.

To this day, it puzzles me why they felt the need to make the ride quality in the Jaguar X358 so hard, and it amuses me that some owners can sense it and some can't. I have owned one X350, and two X358's now, and so I know I did not just have a bad car. The adaptive suspension in an X350/X358 is a major let down in these cars.

I have heard the phrase "things are never as good as you remember them" and it was certainly the case with my X358. I had remembered my X350 Super V8 with great fondness, but my new car just did not have the same magic, and I became resentful that I had spent a whopping £10,000 for something that felt quite old.

So my stint back in a Jag did not last long this time, and by March 2014 I had changed it for a £3,000 Mercedes S320CDi, a 2003 model with 160,000 miles! We also swapped Lindsey's light Blue Mercedes S500 for another S320CDi.

Lindsey's S320CDi was pretty immaculate, so we really just kept it nice. But mine had a lot of damage, and needed quite a bit of work. Over a two year period I did a lot of things like:

Dent removal (the tape shows where all the dents are):



Replacing a horrid aftermarket Grille with a brand new one (I also got rid of this awful private plate it came with):





Swapped the phone armrest for a cupholder one:



Repaired the heated seats:



Stripped and cleaned the entire interior, having the steering wheel re-trimmed, and worn leather on the drivers seat replaced at the same time:







New gear knob:



Home made Jaguar style Lambswool mats!





Respray to sills, bumpers and a couple of other areas that did not look their best:











Hand painted the steering wheel buttons to look like walnut wood:



Had the wheels re-furbished:



Then fitted an Android head unit, reversing camera, and USB charging and data points in the armrest cupboard:









By February 2016 the car was looking like new inside and out:







The car was looking amazing, and only a complete idiot would sell a car that had cost so much to get to this stage, and looked so nice... but if you are starting to see a pattern, you can probably guess what I did.

...to be continued...

 

Return to the Jaguar

In spring 2016, after a few years owning a robust tank made by the Germans over at Mercedes, I finally made another return to Jaguars; this time for much longer.

There was a very short stint in an X-Type SE, with a manual gearbox. I purchased this while I was having work done on the interior of my Mercedes, and I have to confess it was not really my cup of tea. The equipment levels in the X type are fantastic, and the build quality appears to be very good too. But I am not at all a fan of manual gearboxes, and I found the X-type very crashy and fidgety, and like driving a very luxurious Ford Focus. But I can certainly see the appeal, as they are very well made, and beautifully finished.



But this was only meant as a temporary run around, and I promptly sold it on Ebay after the Mercedes was finished.

The real return to Jaguars was in Spring 2016, with this 2007 X358, a 2.7 Diesel Sovereign model, a long wheel base with lots of extras. It had the long wheel base feature pack, rear screens, cooled seats, and 20" wheels. I had already prepared myself for the slightly firm ride quality and old fashioned equipment levels, but promised myself it would be worth it for the stylish interior and exterior.









At the same time we also purchased a 2009 model Jaguar XF for Lindsey. She had always wanted an Audi, and we went out looking for a decent A4 or A6. But when Lindsey drove those she was not impressed; probably as she was comparing it to the Mercedes S class she was used to driving.

But as a wildcard idea I got her to test drive a Jaguar XF at our local car dealership. She fell in love with it straight away, and not long afterwards we found the perfect car for her. It was in an electric blue colour, with a nice grey interior.

So we quickly went from this:



To this:



Around this time we also purchased a small plot of land behind our own garden, with a view to making it bigger. All the trees went down, and it was turfed with grass. This gave us a decent sized lawn, and we also got rid of all the concrete and made a neater gravel driveway to the side of the house.

The year of 2016 was a very tiring year, and I felt like I spent it all working outside on the garden. Of course we had contractors in to do the heavy stuff, but we also did a lot ourselves to save money.















In May we took the Jag to wales on a holiday to visit family, and boy did the car look good against the backdrop of those Welsh castles! We hired a small chalet and had the best weather we could ever have hoped for. Some of the locals thought it was a brand new Jaguar because of the "16" in my number plate, and the welsh seem very keen on Jaguars as I got lots of compliments... or should I say the Jag did!





In June that year both the Jags were used in a friends wedding.





This black Jaguar X358 really did become my pride and joy, and in Autumn 2016 I took it out with some fellow enthusiasts where I had the ECU re-mapped. It made no difference to the fuel economy which I was a little disappointed about, but it did shave a full one second off my 0 - 60mph times, which I verified with testing using an Android App before and after the work.



We visited Gaydon motor museum the same month with the Jaguar enthusiasts club.



I added LED foglights, and altered the car's wiring so that they came on as Daylight running lights when the dipped beams were off.



In 2017 I worked with a few other forum members to develop what is now known as "Jagdroid". I have to confess what I did was very small, and a lot of my ideas did not work.... but I enjoyed being being part of it. Ben Wilcox who did all the advanced work has done a fantastic job making this a decent upgrade. The system uses an upgraded high resolution display, a capacitive touch overlay, and an android operating system with GPS.











This car was absolutely fantastic, and kept me happy right through 2016, 2017, and 2018. We even got married ourselves in it when Lindsey and I became husband and wife in July 2017. The Jaguar XF was Lindsey's pride and joy too.

But then on the 14th July 2018 our lives were changed forever when our first son, who we named Aston, was born. Yes I do already know that I look like a dangerous lunatic Psychopath... I promise I'm not...



Because of all the stuff we had to take everywhere (The pram took most of the XF boot up on its own) Lindsey wanted something a bit bigger. So after trying a lot of the different 4x4 models out, we decided on a Range Rover Sport. This seemed to have the same sort of feel as a Jaguar, and quality interior. We had the 2.7tdi with the HSE trim level. I absolutely loved the Range Rover, but Lindsey did not really take to it; she just liked the practicality.





...to be continued, and I promise the next part finally has an X308 in it - Thank you for keeping with me!

 

"The" Daimler

At the end of September 2018, my friend Alec gave me a nudge that he had seen someone selling a Daimler Super V8 that was in need of a little attention. I spoke to the owner and was sent these photographs as a taster.





















Sadly it had been damaged at the rear, and I could see damage to the rear quarter, and rear bumper. But to my surprise the rest of the car looked pretty tidy; wheels looked good, interior good, and I could not see much evidence of corrosion in the photographs either (though the photos were very dark). I decided if I could spend a couple of thousand ££s tidying up the main damage, it could become a nice car that I could fettle over the years to slowly make perfect.

I spoke to the owner on the phone, and he was a retired gentlemen who had bought the car in this damaged condition, with the intention to repair it. He explained it was his dream Jaguar, and he hated to have to sell it, but due to some personal issues was having to move away and had no where to keep it. Two things I was disappointed to hear were that the damage had been recorded on the insurance (so this is a CAT D, non-structural damage, which takes around 20% off the value) and the private plate was going to be taken off from the car, but otherwise everything he said sounded good, and he said other than the rear damage the car was in pretty good condition.

He seemed like a lovely man, and I confess I am one of those people who can become drawn in when I like someone. I really, really, really wanted to give his Daimler a new home.

So I arranged to go and take a look at it.

 

Being a tough negotiator

We had a visit to a car dealership lined up for Friday 28th September 2018, so that we could look at a Range Rover I thought looked good for Lindsey (and we ended up buying). The Daimler was in Salisbury, and the Range Rover was in Basingstoke; just an hour away from each other, so it seemed crazy not to look at both together. A friend came with us to take the Daimler home for me (assuming I bought it).

Sadly when I looked at the Daimler it was in a much worse state than I had hoped. The rear bumper needed replacing, there was overspray everywhere, and lots of very poor quality DIY spray work. The sills looked like they were made of plaster, and the arches were all bubbling with rust. This car was going to need some serious work. The interior was filthy, and the drivers seat was badly worn.

But I was already smitten, and despite the sensible part of me saying it would be more cost effective to buy a ready restored one, I was negotiating a deal a short while later... oh dear... I paid far too much for this car, and I should never bought it. But despite that, I don't regret buying it at all, and I look back at all of this as a funny story to go with the car.

After I had done the deal, we stopped around the corner to fill the thirsty Daimler with fuel for the journey home. 'It feels a bit floaty' our friend Billy said to me, as though it was a bad thing. I simply replied, 'Billy, I am so glad to hear you say that, because, that is exactly what I was hoping'. Goodbye lumpy bumpy ride quality of the Jaguar X358... and hello to the floaty Rolls Royce ride of an old Daimler!

The following morning I was greeted by the sight of my wife's Range Rover, my daily driver Jaguar X358 and the new Daimler Super V8:



Such a good feeling...

 

What have I done!?

On Saturday 29th September 2018, I came out to assess what I had bought in more detail. At first glance the car looked lovely in the British September sunshine.

For those who are not familiar with the Jaguar supercharged 4.0 V8 engine, it packs 370bhp, and should propel the car from 0-60mph in around 5.3 seconds. This is astonishing for such a large (and old) car.

The Daimler versions (like their Vanden Plas cousins in overseas countries) are the most luxurious, and are fitted with soft grain leather, and additional wood trim pieces. They are also fitted with most of the additional extras that were available on the X308 at the time.









But things were not as healthy as they looked at a glance... I'll walk everyone through what I had bought.

The bodywork and accident damage





The chap I purchased the car from, Peter, told me that it had been damaged like this when he bought it, and that he had intended to restore it. But he had not got around to it, and was now moving away with no place to store the car. So this means that the damage must have been like this for some time. This explains the rust around the edges of the damage. The rear bumper chrome was also held on with duct tape on the passenger side.



When I went to look at the car, I took a family friend who knows a bit about car body repairs with me. He advised that a new rear bumper was needed as the existing one was badly cracked. He said the wing damage might push out, but that the edge around the rear light would be difficult to get right. Therefore it might also need a new rear wing.

Oddly the wing also had signs of a previous repair!



One of the most bizarre things, was that both the front and rear bumpers have had mastic around them where they meet the body, and the mastic has been painted too.

Not sure if you can see it here?...



The rear passenger (right side) arch near the damage shows signs of DIY repairs and that dreaded "Car cancer" bubbling through...





More signs of DIY paintwork in between the two passenger side (right side) doors.



There is also an old DIY repair at the front passenger (right side) arch. This used to be a weak-point on XJ40 models and the sill used to bow out from the rust beneath, I have a feeling this is mostly filler on this car....



Some strange insignia below the indicator repeaters. I thought these looked rather nice in the photographs I had been sent. But up close they did not look quite so professional. However I think I'll see if I can add my own motive here in the future; based on this same design.



The front bumper has signs of a re-spray in some places, although it looks like it might just have been patched to cover scuffs.







Rust at the front of the drivers (left side) front wheel arch:



...and more rust, DIY repairs, and bulging body filler at the back of the same arch... just like the other side...



Drivers side rear arch.





Then just to round the car off, the rear drivers side of the rear bumper has this DIY repair and paint. So I definitely think a new bumper will be easiest.



The top half of the car is pretty good. No rust around the fuel cap, in fact it looks spotless; despite evidence of DIY repairs and dull paint. The same around all the windows - it looks pretty good.







The only other things to mention is this extremely worrying dull patch where there has obviously been another DIY repair:



The radiator grille badge had been badly painted gold...



Not really that important given the rest of the car... but the exhaust tips were covered in overspray, and filthy black!





I am pretty sure this car was headed for the scrap yard had I not bought it, only an idiot like me would have entertained the idea of spending twice what the car was worth to repair it.

But I am that idiot... and as I mentioned before I was smitten. So my intention was to have all of this damage repaired.

 

What we know of the Daimler's history

I studied the folder of receipts and invoices that came with the Daimler, and managed to piece together some of the cars history... this is what I came up with.

The car was purchased brand new in Birmingham, by a Mr Harding. I am not definite, but I think he kept the car for 6 years.

The car then travelled to south Wales, where is was purchased by a Mr Barlow. He seemed to carry on the main dealer history and appears to have taken the car to the dealer for all sorts of things. There seems no way to be able to tell, but I think he then sold the car around 2013... but its hard to tell. I have written to Mr Barlow, and I am hoping that (if he is still alive?) he might tell me something about when he sold the car and what happened. He last serviced the car at a main dealer in 2009, yet I have receipts with his name and address dating from 2013.

There then seems to be another 3rd mystery owner, there is no trace of them in the history and they must have owned the car for 4/5 years. There is no sign of the car being serviced in that time and the car barely seems to have moved. Less that 20K miles was added in those 4 or 5 years.

The 4th owner was Peter, who I bought the car from. He was disabled and retired. I did not see a dog when I viewed the car, but I am sure he mentioned that he had taken his dog in the car a couple of times. He said something about wanting an estate car as it would be more practical, and I suggested an X-type (as he loves Jags). He said he had not long bought the car and had intended to restore it. He was told by the previous owner, that another car hit the rear side, and it was written off by the insurance company. I had the car HPI checked out of curiosity and it is recorded as a non-structural (cosmetic only) write off. I was surprised such minor damage wrote the car off, until I saw the rest of the car and realised the value would have been fairly small; even without the accident damage, due to the state of the rest of the car.

Peter helped prevent this car going to the scrap yard quite considerably, as he had front lower suspension arms replaced, a new headlamp motor and anti-roll bar bushes - which were needed to put it through the MOT. As a result I at least had a car I could drive to get quotes etc.

Then I am owner number 5!

 

Wheels and tyres

This is where things are looking up; all four corners have the correct Pirelli P6000, and all road legal (just). They are all also in pretty good nick, although I will know for sure after a good clean.

Notice the tiny bits of duct tape on each wheel centre, which I peeled off expecting each wheel centre to fall out... but they did not. I have no idea what that duct tape was for?







I forgot to photograph the 4th wheel - but they are all much of a muchness!

The spare looks pretty alright too:



One of the wheel centres is a "Jaguar growler" version instead of the "Daimler D".

 

Engine

The engine appeared to be running very well, and the car accelerated great. Engine looked very strange with the gold lettering, and other gold painted bits. I think one of the old owners must have been slightly eccentric!







The suspension strut top covers (For the CATS plugs) had been painted silver with decorative duct tape.



Worse still... one of them had been replaced with something else and duct taped into place for good measure... lurvley! The Daimler was doing an impression of the tin man.



Under bonnet tool kit is missing... sob....



Bonnet lining pretty good.



One think that is annoying is that "Chirp" a lot of these X308 models have when started from cold, particularly in cold weather. This is caused by a mis-aligned drive belt tensioner from memory. This car has that problem, which is something for me to sort in the future.

 

Jaguars are a dogs best friend

I would never want to offend a previous owner, but I think we can safely say he loved his dog. I was going to need Henry the vacuum cleaner to be extra hungry for all this!







The dog hair was absolutely everywhere!

 

Death by duct tape

The front sills were fairly nice, just a few little marks on the stainless logos.



But the rear ones were covered in... yes more duct tape!





This was not going to be easy to clean off.