As I'm now introducing myself, along with my car that has yet to be named, it's only fair that I attach a picture of myself with said unnamed car. It's a bergundy 1972 XJ6 with a tan leather interior in marvelous condition. The clear is peeling on the outside, but it looks to be the result of a previous bad repaint. The interior is probably a 7/10 while the body is a 8/10. Mechanically, the car is a 8/10 (very sound, and in proper working condition albeit several oil leaks--it's a Jaguar after all).

As for the car's problems, well, it's a Jaguar plagued with Lucas electronics, but you all know that already. It seems that my car is the king of darkness. While I could list off all the electronic things that don't work inside the car, to save time I'll start with what works: dome lights, windshield wipers, and all gauges with their corresponding lights. Well, actually the dome lights work when you don't want them to, but I've since discovered it was a result of the LF door light switch often being bent with the door shut leading to an intermittent contact.

The only thing that lights up in the car are the dome lights and the lights for all the rocker switches. The instrument lights are all dark, but given my MB experience, I'm going to look into the rheostat for those. Shouldn't the rocker switch lights be tied in with this as well?

The blower motor does not activate, and all that comes into the car is hot air through the floor vents, regardless of what is selected with the various levers. Are the actuator doors controlled manually or by vacuum?

Also, while the steering wheel telescopes marvelously, I can't make it stop. I thought the tightening ring was stripped but finally it tightened down (it used to just keep spinning) but the steering wheel still telescopes with the slightest pressure in or out.

I did pay a visit to a rather complete 1970 XJ6 in the junkyard today and picked off some interior bits that I can refurbish for mine such as the under dash "trays" (poor condition, but mine are non-existent so hopefully I can use these as templates to create new ones) as well as some random minor interior trim pieces. This being said, I'm interested to know what parts I should grab to hopefully remedy some of the problems plaguing my new (old) Jaguar. I've fallen in love with this car and am already looking forward to next weekend when I shall begin the long and tedious process of stripping the car for a repaint.

More pictures will follow very soon so feel free to follow the car's progress. In the meantime, I appreciate any advice or suggestions I can use to get this car into tip-top shape. The car really is a beauty, the headliner, seats, and carpet are in marvelous shape while the door panels should only require "light" re-freshening to bring them up to shape. They seem to be plagued by the typical droopy handles and liner falling off inside the handles/map pockets. I've already lined up a company to refinish all the wood. And so it begins!!!

Best Regards,

David

 

I apologize, but evidently I can't attach pics on this forum. Sorry about that!

-David

 

Oh yeah, and this has been a major pain, but there is no power making it to the window switches. I have to put a wire from the battery directly to the switches to activate the window motors.

Thanks again for any advice or insight you can provide.

Best Regards,

David

 

David, welcome to the group.

David and I are already friends from the Mercedes Benz circles and we went together to pick up this Jaguar and drive it home. Hopefully, we'll get some pictures alongside my XJ12C's.
As my probation is over, I'm posting a picture of the car on his behalf.

It should be a fun project.

 

Handsome car! I'm doing a parallel "running restoration" on a '74. We'll swap notes along the way, I'm sure.

 

Great, we are going to see TWO restoration threads.

Looking forward to following you guys.

For info, we have some useful stuff in the FAQ at the top including a great link to electrical guides for your cars.

We also have a file hosting setup from where you can download all sorts of free goodies.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/g...r-index-50609/

Hope this helps you along.

 

Great looking car! Was this the XJ6 that was recently for sale off Craigslist in Mt Vernon? I was taking a hard look at that but since I just picked up an 87 Xj6, I thought better of it.

Congrats!

 

That it is.

Best Regards,

David

 

I've got to start the same process on my 87 BMW 535is. I'm curious. How are you planning to accomplish that on the XJ6? I've read about using abrasives and/or chemicals to remove the paint. I'd like to stay away from chemicals, so I was leaning towards abrasives applied with an air tool. One of my basic questions is how to prevent rust once you've got the car down to bare metal? There will definitely be significant elapsed time between getting the car clean of paint and to the paint shop.

Thanks for any input.

Mark

 

Nice one. Good luck with the build, I'm in the process of doing the same.

 

Mark,

I'll sand using a friend's 60 gal. compressor and air sander.

I'm not planning on going down to bare metal on mine. I figure that the factory primer probably has better adhesion than I'll be able to accomplish with my tools. It's inevitable that in some spots I'll go through the primer and into the metal, but I'll either prime it shortly after sanding or lightly re-sand it before priming if it's been very long. I'll probably spend a full weekend sanding then prime/paint the following weekend. I'll do the primer and paint in the same day with an hour or two between the two so the primer can settle.

Pugaree: Your color looks to be the same as mine! I'll bet it's pretty after being polished. Mine has clear coat peeling everywhere so it looks pretty bad.

Best Regards,

David

 

Here are two pics taken this evening of me with the newly painted car. There are a few spots that need some wet sanding or possibly even respraying, but overall, it looks great! Note that the LF of the hood is pretty far forward from the rest of the car. In front of the windshield it looks even, so I'm not sure exactly what's going on with that. It's clear the car has hit something very low, but it doesn't look serious enough to have hindered the hood's fitment.

Best Regards,

David

 

You may have to move the LH front wing forward a bit, if the hood doesn't butt up nicely. These things were never made very precisely. There is lots of body lead in that bodyshell; I've seen the lead loader guys preparing Series 3 shells in the 80s in Birmingham.