Hi all, Graeme from New Zealand. Have just joined today, as I have a 1970 XJ6 Manual w. overdrive which hasn't been on the road for 15 years. My target is to get it roadworthy/restored this year.At least that will stop my wife referring to 'Agatha' as a garden ornament.

This will be quite a journey, and I'm going to be asking for lots of advice. First up is if anyone iin NZ has a suitable wheel and tyre. Both Agatha's left front and spare are completely flat and I want any appropriately sized tyre (doesn't have to be road legal) and wheel so I can take the pressure off the fact she's leaning heavily to the left, of course.

Cheers
Graeme.

 

Hi, welcome too. why not take the spare and get it repaired locally, or if the tire is not repairable, maybe find a used tire to replace it? Might be easier than trying to find another wheel. A manual transmission XJ is a rare model, congratulations.

 

Hello, Graeme,
It's good to see you've made your way here!
Welcome to our play pen from ElinorB.
(';')

 

Your tires will be no good anyway... so this is a good time to start the purchase process...

 

But,

If you get new tyres now and they are fitted to a car which is going to sit in the one place for most of the year, you will only get flat spots and possible damage to the side walls.

At this stage you only want something to stop one end from drooping and a rig that is 'rolling stock' so that you can move it around the workshop space with relative ease.

The local tyre shop may have old rubber from a recent job which is 15 inch rim. Roadworthy doesn't matter until you actually get to the stage of taking the Cat on the road.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

Good suggestion I think. Any tyre decent tyre service should have no trouble setting aside a few worn out but relatively young 205/70 15s which are standard courier truck/van size. They would see a lot go through.

 

I run light commercial tyres on mine(rear so far), and had no problems.
1/2 the price of car tyres too.

 

Hi o1xjr,

Commercial grade booties would suggest harder compound and therefore harsher ride characteristics perhaps?

Rears may not feel too bad, but fronts are where the 'feel' is.

I would be interested to know the outcome.

The Jaguar engineers did a lot of work marrying the suspension with the rubber back in the day.

Harder compounds would also wear harder on suspension components over the long term.

Cheaper now, not so later??

Cheers,

Nigel

 

Slightly unrelated Graeme. You are going to need lots of bits and bobs. For the smaller essential bits like gaskets that you need new, I would suggest RenoJagVW http://www.rennojag.co.nz/ There is also a great guy in Taupo that does Jag parts. For second hand, I found that Ray at JagSpares in Upper Hutt was great. Not sure if he is still in business, as he was retiring and selling off his left over stock. Good Luck :-)

 

Thanks everyone, will stick some old rubber on an existing wheel. I think the spare wheel is clapped out like the tyres though. Another thing for replacement in the future.

And thanks Richard_gib for the info re sources of parts. I suspect this project may keep them in business for a while. But that's to be expected I think. Will be awesome when Agatha rejoins the road-going fleet.

 

Out if interest, does Agatha need to be re-vinned or is the rego on hold (live plates)?? Re-vinning will be a fair expense and it is very invasive to poor Aggie. For example they will want to see new brake disks, pads and maybe even calipers. They will remove all seats and lift the carpets looking for rust (suggest you look under the rear seat anyway, mine had a small swimming pool under hers when I had mine). If the plates are just on hold, it will be an easier process to get Aggie back on the road :-)

 

Hi Richard, sounds like the system has changed a bit since 1989. Back then you just got your Warrant of Fitness from a local bodge garage and paid your rego and away you went.

 

yea it has. I am not sure if it applies to all cars or only imported ones. I would suggest to Graeme that if the plates are dead, ring VTNZ and discuss with them before he does anything. Could be a very costly experience, or it could be a simple joyous affair.

 

Thankfully the rego is just on hold. One of the things I always check. I brought a Jensen Healey into NZ at the beginning of last year from the UK. Nice straight car in pretty good cond. Compliance took quite some time and $12,000. People had told me it was a pretty invasive check, but I thought they might mean a very vigourous WoF check, or even more like a Certificate of Fitness. But wow, had the car stripped down to the metal in areas to fix issues etc. So Agatha escapes the indignity of that. However as is so often the case, I look at her and go "well the engine needs a rebuild, and I need to replace the fuel tanks and exhaust, so maybe I should take the seats out at the same time, and if I'm doing that, maybe all the chrome off too.....". I just know I'll end up with her stripped right down. I don't think Agatha approves of stripping.

 

Re-vinning is for both imported cars and those where the rego has expired. Aggie has her rego on hold till Feb 2017 (just re-did it a couple of weeks back). Hasn't had a WoF since 2000 though.

 

Great :-) Everyone has their own personal opinions and preferences, so here's mine. If Agatha was mine, I would fix the basics, get her going well enough, and in good enough shape, then get her road legal as soon as possible. Then you can drive her, fall even deeper in love with her, and then get the other stuff done. I have seen sooooo many 'project' cars getting forgotten, sold off or just never finished because of the passion wearing out, or the 'I'm never going to get this finished' feeling creeps in. If you are able to drive her, your passion will be with you for ever, and you will be even more inspired to restore her to her glory. I wasn't able to restore mine, and I had to let her go, and I don't want to see any of these wonderful girls get forgotten about or unused. Good luck, and keep us posted on your and Agatha's progress :-)

 

That is exactly where I am. I very rarely have a car or bike in my care that doesn't have current rego.
Do what you want ,when you want to it without the fun police getting involved. Makes owning old vehicles so much more enjoyable.
I have seen so many project cars go to waste because of lack of time, money or interest. Even the worst drivable classic is of more value to me than a project with no end in sight.

 

I forgot to ask, have you looked for a spare in the boot / trunk?

 

Ah, yes. The "While I'm at it..."
That kept my car laid up for an extra 6 months beyond the original plan!
(';')

 

Too true.

Especially in cases where the owner has seriously underestimated the money and time he'll need to spend, and/or the car ended up needing more work than anticipated.

Or......

The owner disassembling far too much at one time and ending up with a seemingly insurmountable task of getting it all back together.

You need to plan ahead and stick to the plan....and to the budget . If a driver quality, partial restoration is what you have in mind...and what you can afford... then stick with the plan. Don't tear everything apart as though you're doing a 'rotisserie restoration'.

I have a project car in the works right now. To prevent the project from stalling out, even when I'm short on time, I work on the car several times a week....even if only for 30-45 minutes at a time.

There are the major aspects to a project....and then you have the seemingly countless smaller tasks. Those smaller tasks are great for keeping the project (and your interest) moving along. It might be as simple as degreasing some parts or re-taping a section of wiring loom....but bit-by-bit they all add to the desired end result.

I might not have time today to install my refinished dashboard....but I have to time to repaint and reinstall the washer bottle bracket. That type of thing.

Most importantly, these easy-to-finish tasks provide a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment ....which is needed to keep enthusiasm up.

Cheers
DD