Took the front wheels off yesterday, was going to take a look at the sticky front wheels and the heavy steering. My brake disks are lovely and new but the pads are 3/4 gone, not too alarming but as the disk spin really tightly and the pipes looks old and rusty- the calipers need refurbing.

Whilst I had the wheel off I thought check the suspension over before moving to the steering- The back side of my tyres are catching on the inner-wheel-arch cover (foot well bulkhead side of the wheels). Something else I did notice is that the disks comes very very close to the clamping bolts on the upper wishbone, we are talking paper thin clearance when the wheel is turned in- is that normal? the wheel was unsupported at the time so hanging lower than road travel height so I am probably starting my learning curve with these cares. I left my phone there last night so dont have the pictures yet.

As for the steering- with both wheels off the ground; if you turn the steering left to right outside of the car using the road wheels (not the steering wheel)- the steering still feels very heavy and stiff. I have never worked on steering of any car before so this an evening in reading workshop manuals. I did have a poke about but thanks to an oil leak on the sump I have thick gloss black streak down the underside of the car and the rack and sub frame are caked in crud. Everything else seems solid. Anyone else experienced this stiffness with their steering?

Moving to the rear- the rear disks are pitted beyond redemption, whether I keep them inboard or convert to outboard- they need to be changed, and as I have to refurb the front brakes I may as well do the rear, hand brake is broken too so makes sense sorting this out. Bushes on the radial arms seem weathered and quite a lot of surface rust too, so makes sense to drop the cage out. With everything removed I can tackle the surface rust on the underside before putting everything back, but there is surface rust in the engine bay, under the head lights, rear valence, lower rear quarter panels- in all the places you would expect to find it bubbling away.

You see its the surface rust that concerns me. I live by the sea- everything rusts hear and these cars dont rust too well do they....... I have also spent a lot of time these past few days on my back looking up at this car and I cant help but notice that someone has been at with the BOG! body filler, and from I have encountered so far is that whoever it was didnt do a very good job on surface prep and cleaning. I will post pictures and you will all agree the car is straight- its beautiful then you see the ripples, bulges and air bubbles in the filler, there are flat spots in the paint, I know the scuttle has filler in it...... I could have this car back on the road by the end of the month all the above mechanical faults fixed and fine. its the body that needs the attention now before I have a problem, and also if its all done- I can use the car without worry or issue. Windscreen seals have some kind of epoxy on them so its had a wet interior at some point

I will post pictures of what I have found so far and what looks worrying so will keep this thread open with updates, but I only get one garage day a week now so I dont think this car will see the road again before Summer 2024. Once I have got rid of the X Type and the XJ I will have more time to give towards this.

I think its the right thing to do, and to be honest- I think a lot us buy these cars so we can pull them apart and rebuild them

 

 

Sounds like a plan!
looking forward to reading updates on your progress. Good luck!

 

Before you do the engine, please do a leak down test or if it’s not running do a compression test.
What you are looking for is even compression on all 12 cylinders. If you have that there is nothing to gain by rebuilding the engine. Except further delay before you can enjoy it.
I bought 50 junk Jaguar V12’s from rusty cars, engine swaps & wrecked or abandoned cars. Except for Two that were visibly damaged 48 were barely worn in. None had any visible bore wear ( because of the very short stroke.). No bearings were worn out. ( Great oiling system ) all were good for many decades. If the vacuum lines and fuel lines were periodically replaced.

 

Thought I would upload the photos. At least let you see what I saw and why I have decided to take it off the road and do the work now.


Left Front Wheel Arch- Scuffing from tyre

Front Brake Disk is very close to upper suspension wishbone

New Disks but old pads

Surface Rust!!!!

More Surface Rust!!!!

I know there is a lot of filler in this car

Signs of cosmetic repairs to the scuttle

and then the rear...


The Left Rear Quarter Panels look a little Shabby

Maybe a good clean up and touch up?

Does it look bad to you?

Shall we take a look at the other side?
A closer look?

The paint looked a bit bubbly, so I gave it a sand

Seems someone else has given it a sand before me....

Yes they liked sanding

and from the inside looking down my garage floor looks like this.

Here is a picture of the steering rack-

this is about as far as I got with my exploration until I came to the conclusion that if I was to tackle each job separately now, I would only have to un-do or take apart the same areas, when I start the scheduled winter overhaul.

The plan is to have it back on the road for August 2024, so realistically its going to be more like May 2025, Maybe I should buy another XJS to drive round in whilst this is being done...??????

 

That is a great deal of body repair. Very good plan to tackle it, but I think you should plan to empty the shell to do it most effectively. At the end you really will know your car! But while doable (I did mine) there are lots of components that look pretty grotty. It would be less satisfying, but probably no more expensive, to think maybe about buing another car?

 

Depends on where you are. I’ve bought non running XJS’s for a few hundred dollars up here in the rust belt. Cars carefully owned but not running anymore.
There are a lot more nice bodies in The southern states especially the South west.
I guarantee you will spend a lot more on repairing rust damage than buying a good body. Plus you now have two cars to select parts from. Put the best parts on the car and the rest on the shelf as spares.
It’s how to keep costs down. And get the car back on the road quickly.

 

Lacework!
I remember those from the few years I lived where streets were salted.
In the college body shop used to call repairs like this either a Pig of Plastique, or a Shoat of Bondo. (We were all Farm Kids)
(';')