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The car is a '87, unfortunately the paint is pretty much dead. The clear is gone from about the mid way point and up. When it's wet I can run my hand on it and my hand is colored.
On another note, I just realized I didn't post a picture but Dad kept the hard top on the shed and it is in great shape unlike the soft top. So shortly after be dropped the car off I put the hard top back on. I have also kept the car mostly covered with a tarp over the years. I keep a few containers with moisture absorbent inside and after the monsoon season I open the door and run a fan throughout the car to make sure it's dry. There is a water leak at some point on the windshield, but the tarp cover has kept it pretty dry inside.
That paint looks pretty good for it's age, I bet a good wet sand will do wonders for it. Chemical Guys makes some really great products that I bet will make that look great again.
87? Yep it’s GM’s thermal plastic. It doesn’t have a clear coat finish on it. Light color sanding and buff may sorta bring it back. Depending on how presentable it looks I’d be tempted to spray a clear coat over it.
This is the sides of that earlier photo. It looks OK up close but the top is as you can see shot. Here I did exactly as your suggestion. And while the sides are presentable. Nothing helped the top.
A cheap harbor freight spray gun and a decent compressor. It might be OK. If you don’t feel up to painting, it’s likely not worth the risk to have a body shop do it for you. Then you can put some of the new ceramic wax over it to make it a little better.
So as I said in my first post, Dad and I would spend the weekends driving around Arizona. He would pick me up on his one weekend a month and we would drive the entire time, stopping at whatever restaurant we saw when we needed food and whatever hotel came up first for the night. I don't remember everywhere we went on those weekends but I do remember when these pictures were taken.
On the other side of the road where the pictures were taken, a large area of trees had started changing colors and from a distance the oranges and yellows were so vibrant against the dark greens that it looked like the mountain was on fire. Obviously I didn't capture the colors on the cheap camera I had at the time.On another trip we were in the mountains driving through some real heavy rain looking for a safe place to pull over. We only saw the pull offs as we passed them. Dad had the soft top on at the time and there was an issue with the latch so I had to hold it closed so we didn't get rained on.
Those memories are why I am working on fixing this car instead of buying a new one or one in better shape. I know this car will never be worth what I have to put into it, but one day I can take my kids (one at a time) on a trip through the mountains.
So I am figuring out that I am not so good at keeping track of my progress. I work on the car or a part of the car a little here and there usually while doing other things. This has caused me to forget to make a progress update.
Since the last post, I have been working on cleaning the fuel tank and replacing the rubber lines. I have the tank removed now and will post about all of that soon.
In the meantime, I need help identifying this part (picture below)
The longer line has a plastic barbed fitting on one end that is reduced in size, that fitting was in the very short rubber piece that is kind of bell-shaped at the top of the picture, and then it was connected to a smaller metal line that appears to go to the front of the car.
This seems like it is part of the vapor recovery system.
Does that then go to the Rochester valve?
That barbed fitting was a straight-through piece, is there any issue with me just putting the new hose on the metal and not using a barbed fitting to the bell-shaped piece before finally attaching it to the metal line?
You said you are replacing the RUBBER lines. I hope you are replacing them with proper fuel lines. Rubber isn’t legal or safe for any fuel.
It’s much worse with Fuel injection.
Don’t worry, even the Jaguar factory got it wrong for several years. Until Porsche ( I think it was Porsche but it might have been BMW)
turned them onto high pressure fuel lines.
I have seen Lucas fuel lines that were sold to Jaguar as suitable but not capable of dealing with the pressures in the EFI system.
They still show up periodically as new with proper numbers etc.
Here is where American high pressure fuel lines are actually better because they are rated to use 60 psi and Jaguar only puts out 30 psi.
I will admit that when I took my bundle of hoses to the hydraulic shop to get new ones made I failed to mention they needed to be fuel injection rated and then had to buy again. Luckily I made this mistake before starting to put everything back together and it only cost me about $30 for the set I couldn't use.
I apologize that I wasn’t on time. Yet I’m glad you caught it. Well done!
Oh no, no need to apologize, this was a few months ago. I thought I had done the proper research between the forums and the book so I went to the shop made my purchase and just had a feeling I had missed something. I rechecked the information and checked the rating on the hoses and found my fault.
I'm sure this will not be the last time I make an error like that while fixing the car, either way, it is a lesson learned.
I’ve been working on Jaguars 50+ years now. And I still makes mistakes or catch something I did wrong.
That’s part of why I love them. They are constantly teaching me things. At 76 I need to stay mentally active so I’m stretching myself constantly.
Thank you. Sir William Lyons.
On hoses of any kind. Fuel, oil, A/C, water. I just call the hose guy.
He’s always had whatever I want or need However i want to run it. They look so professional
They typically work on construction Farm, production, factory etc. ( at least that’s. Where I get my referrals from.
Prices wind up cheaper than me buying hoses and fittings and trying to do as neat a job.
I first stumbled onto that service moving that big ugly heavy inefficient York compressor into the trash and replacing it on the side rather than block cool air into the valley of death.
Not typically. I’m not concerned about originality. I want things that look and work nicely.
I have things loosely in place And show him where I want things to run. ( I hide them as much as possible to show off that beautiful engine). Typically they go to the inner fender or firewall.
I ask if he can run it here ( pointing ) or if he can think of something neater. I’m not stuck on replacing rubber. Often the solution is steel or aluminum tubing. If flexibility is needed, existing short hoses can save a lot of money. ( that really works on radiator, oil cooler hose).
Since these guys do this every day for a living, they are a lot better at solving problems than I am. Remember I’m a certified card carrying cheapskate so I always get value for the money I pay.
I finally identified the part I mentioned in my previous post as being part of the vapor recovery system, although I still don't fully understand its function. I removed the front driver-side wheel to inspect the small compartment and clean it out. I connected a vacuum pump to a line that I disconnected from the Rochester valve and confirmed the presence of vacuum at the line in the corner of the boot. Since I didn't see any reason not to do so, I decided to directly install the new hose onto the metal line, eliminating the bell-shaped rubber piece and the barbed fitting.
08-19-2023, 11:00 AM
