Yeah, you're right, the side profile looks terrible. It looks like it's been kicked up the **** by an enormous steel toed boot and the back end is overtaking the front.

 

Speaking of side windows. I don't much like the large rear side windows behind the doors of the early coupes. They don't roll down, and despite their large size, they really do not contribute anything to visibility when trying to check surrounding traffic while driving the car. In a word, they are useless. Studying them, the angle of their trailing edge sits a little too upright for my taste, relying on the vinyl covered side vent panels to create a false sense of rakishness.

I have also never cared for the the frame around the door window of the pre-facelift cars. I especially dislike the fact that what should be a proper, functioning vent window is nothing more than a stationary piece of triangular glass, which actually deflects fresh air away from entering the smallish door window. This makes the cabin air quite stuffy and unpleasant when driving with the windows down & the A/C off. For that reason, I consider this to be yet another useless piece of glass. The frame itself also adds unnecessary visual "clutter" which detracts from an otherwise fairly clean design.



Since I have an '89 convertible for a donor car, I am considering mounting it's "frameless" doors on my coupe, and grafting in the convertible's motorized rear side windows, to replace those largish ones I so dislike on my coupe. I would then fashion a new side vent panel covered in anything other than 70s style vinyl roof material, reinforce the roof structure, and replace the oddly shaped fuel door with the frenched-in, more competition oriented, and infinitely cooler looking convertible fuel cap assembly (maybe one on each side, for the sake of symmetry, and the ability to fuel the car from either side), to complete a look which is unique, functional, and is in keeping with my design theme of using off-the-shelf parts that financially strapped Jaguar themselves might have pulled from their parts bins to create a semi-competition version of the XJS.





What I have alluded to, but, have not yet said outright, is that this would create a true hardtop XJS, which, when the windows are rolled down, will have neither glass, nor, door frames spoiling the design, or the flow of fresh air to the cabin. Hmmm...come to think of it, it wouldn't be too hard to complement that by making the rear window easily removable, or, possibly retractable.

I'll work up, and post, an illustration to this thread in order to help everyone visualize what I'm talking about.

 

Great description!

 

I'm pretty sure that Window is a different shape than the coupe window

 

It's absolutely a different shape than the coupe window, and that's the whole point. I don't like the shape of the coupe window.

 

The rear side windows aren't completely useless, they allow the passengers scrunched up in the back to peer fearfully out at the passing world.

 

For me, the rear seat is also useless, and is being replaced with something far more useful to me; the lockable storage box from my 89 convertible, so nobody will be looking out those windows in my car.

Here are some photos of when I test fit the unit a while back:

 

As promised, here's an illustration I roughed out to show what a hardtop XJS might look like, using the doors and side glass from a convertible, compared to a standard pre-facelift coupe.

I'm not quite sure that I like it as much as I thought I would. It's certainly a different look. However, the difference is so subtle, that I'm not sure it would be worth all the fabrication involved in the project. Then again, it might be cool to do it "just because I can".

Comments, opinions?

The image gets much larger when you click on it.

 

That is subtle. Reminds me of the BMW Hofmeister kink. If I found my ideal XJS and it had been modified in this way, I wouldn't be put off.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hofm...w=1684&bih=943

 

Yeah, that's the natural shape of the quarter windows on the 89 - 96 convertibles.

 

I think it would be a ton of work but it would look good. Imagine how good it would look with both windows down. There is a big difference between hardtop and two door post. In 1960's and 70s muscle cars it made huge differences in price and desirability.
I like the idea of removing the back seat as well. I bought the convertible because I liked the idea of a 2 seater. I believe it has a sportier look.

 

I showed the photo to my son a while ago, and he didn't like it at all. Although we share a love for the XJS (he uses my red 88 as a daily driver), I take his opinions with a grain of salt, because he's 18, and hasn't really developed a true sense of taste yet. lol

I will say that his sense of taste is considerably better than other 18 year olds, in that he prefers the sound of vinyl records and reel-to-reel recordings to any other media. He has a few thousand dollars of his own money invested in nearly 200 vinyl albums (mostly classic rock from the 60s & 70s including some very rare and expensive Led Zeppelin test pressings and live bootlegs, which are highly coveted by collectors), and he spent 4 months actively seeking out "just the right" 60s console stereo to play them on.