Hi friends, after being patient for over 3 months and waiting for the MOT and garage box to be ready, the day finally arrived! Today I picked up my Pre-HE XJS convertible built by Arden / Lynx. The weather was great so I put the top down and drove the XJ-S back to Gouda. Loved every second of it, a lot of thumbs up from random people as well. Managed to burn through €100 on gas in a couple of hours, interesting days we live in.

After arriving home and getting some lunch we went for a drive again, but this time the XJS wouldn't start. Started worrying immediately of course, but after giving it some extra gas it started to run. Strange. I also noticed that the breaks made a scraping sound, probably has something to do with the handbrake snapping loose. So that's the first thing to tackle tomorrow, any suggestions are more than welcome.

The car itself is in good condition. The paint is nice (although not original) and the interior is pretty good as well. As seen on the pictures there are some parts I would like to change:
- The metal strip on the bonnet and all the Arden-emblems as well;
- Planning to replace the bonnet ornament with a flat logo;
- Getting rid of that hideous snow-plow;
- Also replacing the chrome spoke wheels with Lattice-wheels;
- In the long run getting it fully resprayed, probably Artic blue (even though it doesn't match the year)

Temperature is steady, a bit below N. Most things seem to work quite well, with some small exeptions. In terms of maintenance I want to do everything I can myself. The Mrs. bought me the official XJS Workshop Manual as well which has loads of info was well.
I want to replace all the cooling hoses, flush the system and replace the coolant. Since I am not that experienced I am not looking too much forward to it, but I found some great threads on this forum and a good tutorial on YouTube from 'Living With a Classic'. And of course I know I can count on the helpful members of this forum!

Since I haven't done such extensive maintenance before I will be asking a lot of questions on this forum. What would be the best way to do so; start a new thread with each subject or just keep updating this one? Any preferences?

And, of course, the pictures from today's pick-up:

 

Good luck, the car looks lovely.
If by the "snow plough" you mean that spoiler under the front bumper, DO NOT remove it. It is a Jaguar OEM factory item, together with the flat tray behind it (get down and look it should be there) and they are vital to the high speed stability of the XJS, which I can assure you, is absolutely stupendous.
The great Phil Hill, American F1 champion and superb driver in all sorts of events (as they all did in those days) tested the XJS at Sebring, and was told by the factory about the XJS's superb high speed handling, and thought to himself that it was 3/4 wishful thinking and 1/4 B.S. Then he took the car out and found he could go up and down the banking at 150 MPH rock steady with one hand on the wheel. That spoiler, therefore, should stay!
As to the car, I would make a list and decide to go through each system at a time, eg, cooling, brakes, suspension rubbers, ignition and plugs, fuel, and so on. With a methodical approach, patience and the guys on here who have done it all, you will end up with a terrific car.

 

Hi Greg, thank you very much! I never knew the bumper was an OEM factory item, also since I have never seen it on any XJS before. I did see the smaller black bumpers on other XJS's, I do prefer those a lot more. With the one I have there's just too much 'body' in that area in my opinion, especially because it's white. I will have a look for the more subtle black ones, especially because they're so effective appareantly.
Thanks as well for the tips about the methodical approach, my thoughts exactly. All step by step, it's going to be an interesting journey!

 

Hi Dwayne,

Great that you've got the car home! Well done!

I notice that you've now referred to it as an Arden / Lynx Convertible? Those are quite different companies. I thought you'd established it was an Arden conversion. not a Lynx conversion? I'd also read that Arden only made 6 conversions starting in 1985. But I also read that they bought a new XJ-S for the customer then converted it, which is clearly not what happened with your pre-HE car?

It's your car, so obviously your choice what you do, but I'd be keeping it as it was converted (by Arden?) with the chrome bonnet strip and emblems etc. It's worth so much more in the converted-spec state, than if you start stripping bits off it.

I really would start by contacting Arden and finding out exactly the background, when they did it, what was the exact spec, any photos etc, before you start doing anything.

I'm also just about to start stripping the cooling and injection system on my pre-HE and I'll be starting a thread here on that. So will be interested in your similar work.

Cheers

Paul

 

TDD
Here are a couple od pics of the spoiler and undertray on the car, on OEM black it is farless obvious!

 

Well, because of all the Arden-logo's I was sure it was an Arden, but as soon as I opened the center console and saw the Lynx Company information emblem as seen in the picture below. So now I am confused, I will contact them this week, as well as Arden. Just to make sure.

Good to hear about your upcoming thread on cooling and injecting systems, I definitely will use it for guidance!

 

Thanks for the pictures Greg, I see what you mean! It definitely looks better in black, more subtle. Thinking about respraying instead of removing now!

 

Interesting!

So it could be an Arden conversion and they used Lynx hood parts? Or a Lynx conversion with some added Arden badges?

I've seen photos of 4 Arden conversions (of 6?) and they all have a bodykit which is different to your car. And, as mentioned, I had read that they converted new cars. And remember that Arden only started their XJ-S conversion in 1985 with HE models, whereas Lynx started their conversion in 1979 with pre-HE cars.

I would start, not with Arden, but try and get in contact with Chris Keith Lucas at CKL Developments ( www.ckl.co.uk ). Chris was at Guy Black's Lynx engineering and may still have access to the Lynx build records? If he sees some photos, he may even remember the car?

Good luck

Paul

 

My thoughts exactly! I'm curious which one got there first, a Lynx conversion with Arden badges sounds makes more sense especially since they worked earlier on with pre-HE cars. Thanks for the tip about Chris, I will get in touch with him right away and will keep you posted!

Cheers,
Dwayne