Hello Chaps,
I thought I'd better make this thread sooner rather than later as I'm getting carried away with myself removing bits.

OK So the story so far is I've bought a 2002 XJ8 to renovate. I'm choosing to do this because I have a deeply rooted affection for the X308 cars, nothing else I drive compares in my opinion. I have driven brand new AMG Mercedes, latest BMW, Audi and even newer Jaguars but none of them had that "spark" the X308 has. Every journey in my old XJ felt special whether it was a long trip or a quick spin to the shops. When my old one "expired" I tried to live with another brand but it wasn't working, and I needed a 308 back in my life.

It was important to me to find the right car, I specifically wanted a 2002 car as they were the last build year. I wanted as high spec as I could get and I wanted the mechanicals to be good. I viewed a few cars and I was looking at XJR's if I'm totally honest, having been bitten by the ZF box failure on my old car. The issue I was finding with UK XJRs was that they fell into two categories: 1) Cars that were cheap but had been driven hard and not looked after. Typically had low quality paint repairs, bad interiors, questionable modifications and little or no service history. Or 2) Cars that had been looked after, seldom driven and maintained irrespective of cost. The end result was the same; I couldn't afford either. Buying type 1 would cost as much as type 2 to put right and buying type 2 I would have no money anyway.

Quite by accident I found the car I eventually bought, it was advertised on eBay as a classified ad. It only appeared in my "XJR" search because he mentioned it had XJR grills fitted. It was the colour that got me, I'd never seen one in this shade before, it really caught my eye. I gave it a quick look, but dismissed it because it was a 3.2 and I'd been running a 4.0 for the last 7 years. But it kept creeping into my thoughts and I kept looking again, the price dropped every few days and eventually I caved and asked some questions.

From asking my questions it was beginning to become apparent this may be what I was after. The price was right, the spec was right and the colour was right, it was the engine I had reservations about. But in the end I decided to go over to see the car, which was 100 miles away. I took my Dad along just in case I did bring it home, and I was right to. We arrived and I got the opportunity to get a quick walk around the car before the seller noticed our arrival. Using my famous "Terminator Eye for Detail" I'd quickly identified some issues with the body. I can't stress enough how important it is for you to view a car in the metal instead of just going off photos. Whilst the car looked great in the pictures, the reality was it was peppered with parking dings, there were some light scratches on the panels and the wheels had been painted a shade of grey by someone with rattle cans and no talent. However when I got underneath and worked through the comprehensive service history I began to see the potential.

The car has been well looked after mechanically speaking and there isn't much in the way of rust other than some "usual" corrosion behind the front shock absorbers, the sills and sill ends are solid and I hit them with a small hammer to test. There are receipts for every single service and MOT it's ever had along with tyres, fluids and parts. I took a test drive and found the 3.2 was not too much different to drive than the standard 4.0 car. So I struck a deal and brought it home, content to have a 308 again.

The idea is to "future proof" the car by making sure I address the issues that affect the 308 cars. I intend on having this car for a very long time, possibly until I am dead so I need to get it right now. I will be having the car professionally undersealed and protected as well as having the transmission fluid and filter changed. Whilst he's in there I'll have the modified transgo valve put in for piece of mind, it's already here fresh from New Jersey. I'll be dismantling my old XJ and building up a stash of useful spares as well as trying to sell some to fund the project. I've had my body man look at the car and he will be able to "paintless dent repair" the dings and will give the whole car a heavy machine polish and paint rectification to bring out the shine hidden under years of poor washing techniques.

Within 24 hours of getting it home I cleaned out the wheel arch lips which hold a lot of muck as you can see in the pictures. It's important to keep on top of these. I removed the wheels and cleaned under there with a hose, soap and light brush. They are now ready for underseal.

The roof liner had sagged in the past and had been repaired with a peppering of cut down fir trees, which I hated. I've taken the entire interior (not the dash though) out to clean properly and make sure I get all the dirt. The carpets are ok but will be factory fresh again once I've got at them with the carpet cleaning machine I'm borrowing. The seats are really dirty and need a good few hours spending on them to get right, I've got a few spare evenings next week. I also found the remains of an old Nokia phone kit, which I pulled out the car. I've got the car phone from my first XJ8 which I might fit to this, because I can. LOL.

Stay tuned for more progress as I go. (If you've read this far! )
Stu.

 

Good luck, hope it all turns out well. I know what you mean by these cars, they're addicting. Got a 98' XJR with 236K and a 00' XJ8 with 33K miles. Both run and drive great. You're on the right path with the transmission. Only thing I would do after you have the filter replaced is do a drain and fill once a week for the next couple/three weeks to flush it all out properly. I know it's expensive, but if you're gonna keep it.... It'll be worth it in the long run. How many miles/kilometers does it have?
One other thing... I got my carphone reinstalled just for grins and giggles too. People give you the weirdest looks from that. : )

 

The car is just shy of 132,000 miles, I will do a secondary fluid change but it won't be within the same week. I've bought this car to keep nice and use for longer journeys, I have a little Ford Fiesta for my short journeys and "dirty work". This Jag will be properly pampered, one of the things I am going to get for it once I've finished is a high quality outdoor car cover.

Anyway I was writing that first part after finishing a late shift at work, I got tired so I'll add some more now.

The seats are in reasonable condition for their age and are coloured Oatmeal, however they really are very dirty. I've not had the chance to really get into cleaning them yet, but will be doing next week. I've got a large range of products on hand to bring them back to their best. I've added a photo of a test cleaning on the drivers seat to show just how dirty they are. I will be removing the seats from the car to ensure a full clean, along with the centre tunnel. I've already removed the door panels and rear shelf along with the rear seat bench, it's amazing how much dirt you can find hidden away. It's also why I don't allow any eating in my cars.

I've removed all of the wood trim from the car, and I'll be replacing it with a burr walnut set from my old XJ8. The reason for this is the original grey stained birdseye maple has faded and looks odd against the parts that have escaped the sun. I'm also going to change the steering wheel for the one from my old car as it matches the wood. However my old wheel is trimmed in Sable leather, but I've already found a company that will re-trim my wheel in black leather for a very reasonable price. I'll be having the handbrake handle done at the same time so they match.

Another thing I will be doing whilst I have it all in bits is replacing the J-Gate lights along with the J-Gate panel which has a crack in it. I've done this before but if you want to do this use the excellent guide in the stickys done by my good friend on the forum and in life Ian. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...30/#post531164

One last thing I will mention is the wheels, which are not stock X308 items. They are 18 inch "Flute" wheels from the XK range. They look good on the car in my opinion and give it a unique look. However as previously mentioned someone has tried to paint them themselves and the result is not good. The shade of grey they chose makes the wheels look permanently dirty and it is all orange peeled. Plus it's a very thin coat so if a moth bumps into them paint will flake off. I will be getting them professionally reconditioned in a bright finish, a nice liquid silver. Plus I'll be fitting the correct style centre badges, the naff ones fitted in the picture are already off and gone.

Addicted2Boost I've added a photo of the phone from my old car, I don't know if its the same as yours. I like it though, and it's a period accessory that works!

 

I'm on these inconvenient late shifts this week, which irritate me for a number of reasons. They start at 16:30 and finish at 00:45 and you spend most of your day simply waiting to go to work. I normally swap them but I've not had any luck this time.

However I find a couple of hours in the day to mess about with the cars, and today I repaired the harness for the stereo. As mentioned in one of my other posts I had found the remains of an old Nokia mobile phone in car harness. It was connected to the wiring on the plug that goes into the back of the stereo, and some of the wires had been cut. Luckily I've got a lot of spare lengths of Jaguar wire and was able to find some of the right colours to return it to standard. I soldered replacement lengths of wire into the gaps the Nokia kit had created and covered them with shrink wrap which is 100% better than the insulation tape the installer had used on the car kit.

This weekend will be interesting as I'll be dismantling my old XJ8 which is past it's best. I'll be keeping some parts for myself but if anyone is after anything specific please get in touch as I'm going to be selling some parts too.

I haven't got any photos of the car loom repair I'm afraid, I quite often get carried away and forget!

 

That phone is different from mine, but yours is probably nicer. Mine being a 98' has a more aged look than yours. However, it is still funny when I show it to people.

Jaguar has only made a handful of different wheels that actually look worthy in my opinion. I have a set of 99' VP wheels on mine while the 18 Pentas are sent off for repairs.

 

I haven't done much with the car the last couple of weeks, I've been on all sorts of odd shifts at work which have messed up my body clock. I'd love to have a job with consistent working hours!

Last weekend I had 4 days off so spent the time stripping my old XJ8 down and sorting out what to keep and what to sell. I finally found some time yesterday to go through all the boxes and sort it all out.

I decided to remove the centre tunnel on my 3.2 as I wanted to get the heater panel put and remove the J Gate to replace the bulbs, easy and cheap job. The heater panel is actually plugged into a socket attached to the side of the gear selector mechanism, which is why you see so many on eBay with cut wires. Anyway once I got the tunnel out, I was disgusted by the mess under there. I'm not a smoker, but a previous owner was and he obviously had trouble finding the ash tray. I'm not even sure how all that ash got under there, but it's clean now!

I've got the rest of the interior out now, so I'm going to start laying the lines for my audio. Basically I'm upgrading to the premium system as I've got the majority of parts to do so. Just need a couple of extra bits.

 

Well, subscribed and following with interest.

I love your wheels, they will look fantastic once refurbished.
I think they are the 8J / 9J staggered set, right?

 

Thanks Eric, as you say they will look good once refurbished. It's a shame someone has tried to do their own paint job on the wheels, it really looks poor when you see them up close. However the refurbishment will be one of the last jobs I do, for their own protection.

On the XK which the wheels are originally off they would indeed be 8J & 9J but on this car they're 9J all the way round.

 

I'm slowly working my way through cleaning the interior surfaces in no particular order. So far I've cleaned the rear seat base, the centre tunnel, the arm rest and the glove box.

The rear seats were really dirty, and it's clear someone in the past has had a big dog riding in the back. Not only am I constantly coming across clumps of fur, I also found claw marks on the seat. To clean the seats I've been using a combination of gliptone gentle cleaner, a hand held steam cleaner and elbow grease. The steam cleaner is a great bit of kit as it dislodges all the dirt in the creases with the minimal of water but maximum force. So first I give a quick blast of steam, apply the gliptone using a soft scrubbing brush to get into the creases and grain then blast it off with the steamer. You can visibly see the black filth flowing off the surfaces, so you know it works. Afterwards I apply a feeder to help preserve it. The results speak for themselves, I've put some before and after shots of the arm rest, I totally dismantled it to clean the cup holders out too, a lot of muck in them.

The glove box didn't really need as an intensive as the other surfaces, but I was changing the lock so I cleaned up afterwards. The reason for changing the lock was because this car only came with one key, but I had a full set of keys on my old XJ. So when I dismantled the car I kept all the locks and ignition to fit to this one and will get the keys programmed to this car. Changing the lock was really easy but you need to be careful when removing the lock barrel from the handle because the tabs holding it look like they could break easily.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to try and get the front seats out to clean them and whilst they're out I'm going to attack the carpet and exposed surfaces, I want the interior as clean as I can get it. The driver's seatbelt is particularly dirty, but I'll have that like new soon enough. I'll also be looking to send the steering wheel away soon to be recovered in fresh leather.

 

Got a bit done on the car today, I was quite pleased with the result.

When I looked at the car, I made sure to check everything worked. Two things didn't; The Auto Headlights and the warning light for the "lights on". This didn't alarm me as I knew they would be simple fixes, plus I used them to knock money off the price.

When I mentioned the auto lights function to my mate Sean, straight away he said it would be a loose wire on the indicator/lights stalk. It had been an issue on his car, also a 2002 MY. Today I took the stalk out, and he was quite correct it was a broken wire. An easy fix really because I removed the damaged unit and fitted the one off my old 99 XJ. Now I have auto lights functioning.

The warning light was a little bit more involved than the stalk replacement though. At the rear of the cluster there are a number replaceable wedge bulbs, but not for the full range of lights. Some of the warning lights are LED, like the ones above the message centre and the lights for temperature and fuel warning. But the ones for the main beam and lights on are wedge bulbs too, and they looked to be a bit smaller than the ones in the accessible ones.
I had to open up the back of the gauges to get the circuit board out, but my heavy hands broke two of the very fine connectors that go around the perimeter of the rear circuit board. Luckily I have 2 spare clusters and I cannibalised one of these for a bulb and for two of the connectors. I de-soldered them from the donor board and fitted them to the serviceable one. So now the instrument cluster is fully functional again too. Excellent.

In the photos the loose wire was the grey one I'm pointing towards, the "hidden" wedge bulb has a Q-tip pointing towards it, the third photo is showing you the connector I had to replace and the fourth is just to show you an overview the rear circuit board.

 

Looks like all is coming out great for you. I will have to give the leather cleaner you used on mine

 

Here's a link to Gliptone's US site if you want to buy the cleaner: Gliptone

Progress is slow but that's down to a combination of lack of the poor weather coinciding with my days off and not being able to use my garage because my Triumph lives in there and I'm not leaving her sat out in the rain. But the Jag is going in to have it's body and paint addressed in October, so ideally I need to have all the interior dealt with by then.
The final thing will be a bloody good and deep engine service, along with transmission fluid renewal and updated valve fitting.

 

I did some more cleaning of the interior on Monday, I cleaned the centre tunnel and rear seat upright. I'm so glad I'm taking the time to do this, as it's not only making the seats look great, it's cleaning up after a careless previous owner. It's become apparent to me that one of the PO's has had a large dog in the car as I've found masses of fur under the rear seats & centre tunnel. It's also clear that a few cups of coffee or tea have been spilt in the car also. I've found stains under the rear seats, inside the front arm rest, inside the tunnel and I've even found stains inside the steering wheel cowls.
Once I get the front seats out to clean, I'm giving the carpet a good seeing to. There is a local company what cleans carpets in houses with a special steam machine, I'm going to have them come to my house and do my living room and I'll ask them to do the XJ's carpets too. Once I've cleaned something, it gets wrapped up for protection. The seats and tunnel are in old curtains and smaller parts are in boxes wrapped in grease proof paper.

 

Now this is a great revival thread. Looking forward to seeing more and I'm inspired! Beautiful Jag you have!

 

Thanks 4Litre, I hope you find some things I post useful and I'm glad I've inspired you.

 

I've been busy doing work on the car lately, I've been cleaning odds & ends and I've been sourcing parts I required.

I wanted to upgrade the car to Premium Sound but needed to source the correct A Pillar Trims, Parcel Shelf, Amplifier, sub and the Premium ICE loom. After weeks of searching I've finally got everything I need in the correct trim colour too. I managed to lay my hands on the correct loom from a scrapper as well as the pillar trims and shelf. I removed the base loom and fed the premium loom along the correct factory route which wasn't hard, but dodging rain showers made it a long job. After popping the sub in place and temporarily placing the speakers in the car I preformed a test. I was pleased that it all worked straight away and it was an instant difference to the base system. I'll cover my speakers and such later on, I'm just pleased to finally have Premium sound which appears to be a rare option in the UK.

I managed to get some time to remove the front seats and give them a good cleaning up, the filth embedded in them was shocking. However I'm not 100% happy with my driver's seat so I've decided to look for a decent replacement. It would seem that one (or more) of the previous owners of my car was "quite a big individual" to put it politely and the seat has suffered. Not only is the bolster fairly worn, but also the cradle the seat controls sits in is shattered and the creases have cracked open in places. The passenger seat is much better though, so that can stay unless I find a decent pair. Ideally I'd like to find a sport trim passenger seat from a LHD car which theoretically will have less wear than a RHD driver's seat, but realistically I'm looking for a good condition one be it LH or RH drive. I've added some photos of the seats being cleaned up.

Lastly yesterday I had a paintless dent repair guy come round to remove the dings on the car. I had a dint on the bonnet right on a headlight cowl, a big dint and a crease in the front wing and many dings all around the car. I'd never used one of these guys before and after taking a look and quoting me £80 ($103) to do the job, I left him to it. After 30 minutes he announced he'd finished and I went out not expecting miracles, but instead I was left totally speechless. There isn't a trace of a dent, ding or crease anywhere on the car. I was amazed well and truly!

I'm off this week so I'm hoping to get some other little snags sorted and I can put my interior back together, minus the door panels. It's going into have some body & paint work done, repairs to the areas behind the front shock absorbers which have minor corrosion from lack of maintenance and a full cut, buff & polish. After this I'll be getting the underneath cleaned and giving it a good coating of rust proofing. Then lastly I'll be giving the engine and transmission the whole 9 yards.

 

One beautiful Jag, enjoy it!

 

Very good you were lucky to get a good paintless dent guy, especially for that price.

 

Thanks Mark, I've never used one and I was expecting the price to be in the hundreds somewhere, but when he said £80 I was sure I'd misheard him.

Since Sunday I've been chipping away at the car, it's important to remember it's not a race. This is something I have to remind myself of occasionally as I find myself subconsciously racing the sun, the dark nights are drawing in here and by 1800 it's too dark to get anything done.

The dark has been useful for one job I suppose, I've been working through the dash illumination and finding out which bulbs need replacing. I've got a fully illuminated centre console now, including the J Gate one the gearbox. I'm only missing one bulb which is for the boot open button, I've got one at my parent's house where most of my spares are stashed.

I took a few minute to remove the mirror glasses to check and clean inside the mirror housing, and was disappointed to discover that the driver's one had been repaired and held on with with some sort of compound. I had to take the motor unit out to clean it off, then got the mirror bracket off my 99 mirrors and made it good again. I couldn't just swap the motor units round as they are different between the 99 and my 02 car. I gave everything a liberal coat of WD40 before refitting the glass. The glass will have to come off again next week when I have the mirror backs painted.

Today I'm getting my headliner from my parent's house where I've had it safely stored. It's off my 99 car but it came out of my 01 car before that! I had it re trimmed in similar material to the Jaguar original, it's the same colour but it is stuck on with special heat resistant glue. Once that's in place, I can fit all the trim back in properly.

Finally this week I've been getting the car ready to go into the paint shop, so I've been removing bits here and there to make it quicker and easier for my body guy to work. The car has taken on a bit of a ghoulish look owing to the bezels and trim being missing from the headlights. The car goes in on the 17th, so I'm getting excited now I look forward to the end result!!

 

I have been busy getting parts back into the car and getting the various systems operational again. I've really put some hours in, but that's because I'm now racing the weather. I think I just about made it in time because today is the first autumnal day we've had! Wind, Rain, Leaves and cold no good for working on a car on your drive.

Anyway I got the car to the body shop yesterday morning and my guy began with the light bit of welding that needed doing on the front chassis legs. The area behind the front shockers is a mud trap and is worth a regular clean. I was very lucky to only have a light bit of rust here, but I've seen cases where the legs have basically disappeared. I left him to it and when I get it back it will have all the small issues I wanted addressed and will be glowing after a full cut, buff & polish.

Working putting the interior back in properly and getting everything working was quite enjoyable. The only parts missing now are the door panels which I'll put on after the car comes back from paint, I left them off in case they want to remove the outer door handles for any reason. Driving the car down to the shop was nice, despite not having a complete steering wheel and the grip missing from my handbrake. This is because I'm sending them off to get recovered in new leather, so I've got a spare wheel fitted and a bare handbrake.

I've just given the factory mats a good hot wash and scrub, it was astonishing how much much was embedded in them. I'm going to try and get another set to be honest as my drivers mat has split where the heel pad is.

Next on my list of things to address is the wheels, which as I've previously mentioned have been painted badly by the PO. After this I'm going to spend a day in a CSI suit with the car on a ramp under sealing the whole thing and then finally I'm going to invest in a custom stainless steel exhaust system. Nothing antisocial, but enough to release some sound from the V8.

S.