I’ve been really enjoying my 1994 XJ81 (XJ40 body style) Jaguar XJ12 of late, but it still needs a few odds and ends. Mainly paint work as it appears to have once received a blow over and the clear has started to fail. Something that’s very common in Texas where the sun will burn any cheap quality paint job. I wanted to figure out if it was worth fixing the paint and bodywork or start with a new canvas so I scoured the Craigslist, an online classifieds site in the US, I thought I would look around and see what other XJ12s are selling for.

There weren’t that many in the US expanded my search to Canada. There were no XJ81 XJ12’a there either, but I did find a good looking 1990 Series 3 XJ12. The Series 3 XJ12 is somewhat a special car because it was only sold for a very short while in the USA (maybe 1979 and 1980), in pre-HE form.

I owned one for a short period of time, it was a grewsome parts car / rat graveyard. I robbed the fuel injection parts for my 75 XJ12C that was converted to run 100% on propane and which I wanted to convert back. That was probably the only series 3 XJ12 that I’ve ever seen.

For any who don’t know the story about the XJ12 Series 3, they were introduced in 1979 and continued in production to 1992, alongside the XJ40 model that was introduced in 1987, because there was still a demand or the V12 Jaguar and the XJ40 was purposely designed by Jaguar to not accept a V configuration engine. The company at the time of design was owned by British Leyland and the management wanted to use the Rover V8. The Jaguar engineers were having none of that and it was not until 1993, under Ford ownership that Jaguar was able to redesign the XJ40 platform to accept the V12, which by then was punched out to 6 liters and mated to a GM 4l80E 4 speed transmission.

I kept finding myself looking at this car so I decided to reach out to the owner and ask about it. He seemed like the typical Craigslist seller who was tired of timewasters and just asked me to come and look at it. I’ve been in his position many times and knew that if I was going to explain to him that I lived in another country, and I was going to ask him to do some work, like take pictures and answer questions. I should be serious about it. So I got serious.
We went back and forth for a couple of months as I was somewhat hamstrung by the Covid restrictions, but I kept messaging him every couple of weeks letting him know where my head was at. Finally, the restrictions lifted and as it happened, I had an upcoming trip to Seattle to visit a customer so I started to look at what it would take to import a car. I now own this car but I can’t say that I know for sure that I have the process down. More of that will come later. First thing is first. Get to Canada.

The process was somewhat nerve wracking, you had to be fully vaccinated and have a Covid test no more than 72 hours before arriving, and stick all that information in a very clunky app.
Seattle is about a 2-hour drive from the border, obviously I could not rent a car so I had to find a bus that would go up there. I gave myself plenty of time when I booked the ticket as I was due to land at 5PM and the last bus leaves at 7:30 to Blaine. My idea was to walk across the border with a suitcase and a backpack…. Yes, walk across the order.

Of course I got to the airport and the flight was delayed, they could not organize a cabin crew member so they were waiting for another to show up. If I missed this bus, it would have been a disaster. I had booked the hotel in Canada and if I missed the bus, I would have nowhere to sleep and my 72-hour Covid test would time out. Fortunately, I was able to get to the bus 5 minutes before the bus left and made it to the border station at about 11:45PM. The border guys looked at me funny but let me pass to the Canadian side and when I got there, I had about 15-minute chat with the Canadian border patrol officer who was about as nice as can be. He let through after I showed him all the paperwork and I caught an Uber to the hotel and picked up the car in the morning.

It's metallic blue with blue leather interior and in overall pretty nice shape, with very minor rust starting to show at the end caps of the rear sills.













|https://thumbsnap.com/9NDVg4HK

|https://thumbsnap.com/nUWWQWja



I'm still not sure how easily I will be able to get it across the border. I will find out tomorrow. My goal is to drive it to Tacoma Washington and find a transporter to pick it up and take it to Dallas before Friday which is when I leave. I don't want to drive it the whole 1800 miles to Texas because I've only done 60KM and it's already conked out twice on me, but that's pretty good going for a Jag. I think it was old / low fuel so i filled up both tanks shortly after taking these pictures and added some Marvel mystery oil to the engine and the fuel system to help lubricate and clean the internals (it mysteriously does this).

I'll be updating shortly with a video and more pictures, once (if) I get across the border and back to stateside, and will provide details on my impression of the car, now that I own it.

Here's a quick video blog of the journey so far:

 

I love stories like this. You not only have a beautiful and unusual car but a great story to go with it.

 

very desirable specimen if in running condition. Otherwise it looks good cosmetically. If it is a 1990 it is badged "V12", not "XJ-12". Those cars have their own pedigree and are serialized.

I know other Canadian cars are brought to USA and they can be registered, unless you live in California, where they will give you a lot of hassles.

Just buy it and drive it to the USA to any other state, and register it. Make sure it has a clean Title. ( no levys, no liens. no deffects).

Good luck!

 

Thanks guys, It's bought and now in the US. I made it on the 200 odd mile trip from Surrey BC to Tacoma WA yesterday evening. Aside from the fact that every gauge on the cluster is about as honest with information they give as Arthur Daily, everything went reasonably well.

I got through the border easily enough and paid customs. The customs officer I guess didn’t believe what I paid for my car so he decided to tax me for 2.5x the amount, citing a car that sold in Germany for that much. I did not argue with him, and It’s not a big deal as the taxes were only 2-3% so it still came to a few hundred dollars, and I was in and out in about 30 minutes which was more important to me.

The car behaved itself well, only stumbling once which I suspect was because it was running low on fuel. Luckily, I hit the tank switch and was able to continue my way. The temp gauge then completely stopped working and stared reading zero. That had me concerned as that can happen when there’s no coolant in the system. But after a while, I was not too bothered given that I wasn’t seeing any steam from the engine.

I got to the hotel which is the Holiday Inn at Tacoma mall, which is in a well sketchy area, then booted my PC up and posted the transport to get it shipped to Dallas/Ft Worth. it got picked up about an hour ago and will be home by about this time next week.

Washington is a beautiful state. I did stop along the way at a lake along the way and take some pictures.













Here's a quick video that describes the import process between the US and Canada and my impression of the car and how it compares to my XJ81

 

the gauges are fine, they are proven reliable though not eternal. The ones in my 1984 all work fine till this day.
Being a V12 I have no clue where the coolant temp sensor is or are. But hey, if it drove accross the border, you got your money's worth.

just get another temp gauge from David at www.everydayxj.com

 

Thanks, it's not just the temp sensor, it's also the fuel gauge sender which reads full. I guess before I do anything, i need to unplug and clean all the connections. I had to do that to my 75 XJ12C when I first bought it for everything to work. I knew there wasn't a problem because the engine ran fine until it almost ran out of gas. Fortunately the switchover works.

I remember Dave from about 15 years ago when I first started tinkering with these cars. I'm glad he's still around.

 

If The Series 3 has a instrument voltage stabiliser like the earlier cars, I would suspect this is the problem, seeing both fuel & temp gauges are playing up.

Lovely story and the car looks like a real peach!

 

Congratulations, great looking SIII and a good adventure to go with it. I like the color a lot. The engine bay looks quite tidy. Did the issue of the kph speedometer come up at the border? I helped a family member import my car from Canada, albeit without traveling there, and it retains the original kph speedo.

 

No issue about the KPH speedo. Just some mental calculations for me as I was going down the road. I also own a Euro spec Mercedes Benz 560SEC that reads in KPH

 

Congratulations on a beautiful car! Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed every word.

 

Thanks all, as I'm shaking down my newly purchased XJ12, I have the following that need to be addressed.

1) Slight miss at idle once the engine warms - Not noticeable when going down the road. I can hear the injectors by putting a long screwdriver to each injectors but they could be dirty. I have an injector cleaning setup and the hoses need replacing so this is something that I'll expect to be doing before too long.
2) A/C not working - System holds a charge but there is no power to the compressor clutch. I can jump the compressor and verify that it works. Both A/C fuses are good
3) Fresh air door for center vents is closed and does not open
4) blower motor sometimes works, sometimes doesn't
5) Fuel gauge and temp gauge are super erratic

I'm most interested in the HVAC right now as the lives in Texas. It makes it hard to enjoy the car right now in the Texas heat. I'll upload a video shortly.

 

most likely the A/C Amplifier is bad. There are two fan blowers, one each side controlled by a large relay which could be going bad.


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A very nice, original Vancouver car (the MCL badge on the trunk lid is proof); the colour is extremely rare for the late V12 VDP cars (and note that this is not an "XJ12", but a "V12 Vanden Plas" which Jaguar built only for Canada. In 1990 fewer than 70 were built. The final cars, the 1992 models, were straight, fully optioned Daimler Double Sixes but badged as Jaguar V12 Vanden Plas, and exactly 100 individually numbered cars were built.

If the interior of this silve blue car looks to you not like a VDP interior, you are partially correct. The 1988 through 1991 V12 VDP cars were taken from the Sovereign V12 line and thus have the Sovereign seats. But the other VDP trim items are in place: the leather armrests, heavily burled walnut, inset gauges etc are still there, as well as other specifically Canadian-market items - the bonnet-mounted washer jets, the coolant preheater, the mudflaps...
This car has had the coachlines replaced (not properly: much too long) but it is very handsome indeed, and again, very rare in this colour combination.
Because there were no options for these cars, they were simply block ordered and the person responsible for ordering at Jaguar Canada apparently had a colour fixation. The overwhelming majority of these 1988 to 1991 cars were ordered in the very unexciting combination of grey paint (various tones: Regent, Savoy, Tungsten - which technically is blue but looks mostly like grey) and Savile Grey leather. Ugh. Note also that it is Savile with one L, as in Savile Row, not Seville...that would just be too exciting.
Lovely cars, these, and I have owned many.

 

Thank you for the insight. It was fun visiting that part of the world and getting out of the heat.

 

The first V12 VDP I sold went to Texas...it was a 1987 model (and thus had the full VDP interior)... the colour was Tungsten over Savile Grey...the new owner came up from Dallas and drove it home. A beautiful, but boring car, boring only because of the colour combination. Colour preference is, of course, a personal thing. Of the grey tones, Tungsten is, to my eye, the most attractive because of the blue undertones but with the grey interior it still didn't set the adrenaline going...

PM me if I can answer any questions about the V12 VDP cars.

 

There is no voltage stabilizer for the instruments on these cars. The problem is very likely the ground connection for the fuel and temperature gauges...the bad news is that the ground connection is on the metal panel that the wood dash board is mounted to.

 

and here's the video

 

If the ground is the problem, you can access those ground points by removing and disconnecting the speedo and tach, then using a mirror and flashlight through the large gauge holes, you can see the ground points. located under the smaller gauges. They are eye terminals bolted to the metal by a nut and star washer.
These points can also be seen if the underscuttle knees panel is removed to look under the wiring.

However it would seem to me that if the grounding wire is the problem, that all the other gauges would be affected too?

 

The only gauge that seems to work well is the voltmeter. But I will work on the sender sides as they are most exposed.

 

lack of use freezes the needles in situ. Take the car for a drive and tap the glass of each gauge, you might see them start working again.