Hey everyone, I'm a young guy (20s) and I've always been curious about "that crazy old car" my uncle had stored in his garage under a cover ever since I was a kid. To give the history as I understand it, my uncle purchased this XKE coup used in the late 70s, it was green and a mid/late 60s model. He bought a bunch of parts and worked on restoring it (it ran at the time of purchase, but had been stored outside for several years already at that time and definitely needed some cosmetic work and maintenance on the electrical system). My uncle had it re-painted at the time and from my cursory glances over the years, the car body itself is in good shape with regard to rust (never had a chance to take a detailed look at the undercarriage though). My uncle also still has a bunch of random replacement parts, cosmetic and mechanical, stored inside the jaguar that were purchased in the early 80s.

Anyway, my uncle went off to do some adult things like move to the big city, have a family, and time and money went to everything but the Jag. The car wound up being stored in my grandparents garage completely unused for about 25 years. After 25 or so years, it was taken by truck to my uncle's garage, where it has still sat undriven to this very day.

When it was taken out of my grandparents' garage, it was discovered that the handbrake had been set (or the mechanism broke somehow) and the (rear?) wheels were locked. Also not sure if the car had any fluids drained prior to its lengthy storage.

The various garages were by no means climate controlled or anything fancy like that, but they were closed structures with doors, walls and roofs, so needless to say, the car has at least been protected from rain, snow, road salt, etc.

There are a ton of unknowns here, but I was kinda wondering, if you happened upon an XKE that had been stored for 30+ years, completely undriven, and which was not heavily rusted, where would you even start to begin evaluating what would need to be done to get it to start up? What other elements might you look at to evaluate the condition of the car?

Although I don't have much of an auto repair background, now that I'm an adult myself, I'd like to see what I can do to encourage my uncle to investigate the condition of the car and see what would need to be done to get it into a basic driveable state.

For fun, here is a picture of the car circa 2012. I'm advised there is no longer a bicycle resting on top of it.

 

Duke,
This is not a simple thing to do if you're not a mechanically inclined guy. It's probably going to need a lot of attention to be a safe drivable car again. After sitting for so long a million tings could be bad, but the only wayn to know is to start taking things apart and rebuilding them to get it to run. If you are going to try please get someone that is a car guy to help you.... It can be dangerous and if you don't know what you're doing you can damage the car. It is worth a lot of money even in it's present condition so be careful with it. If you really want to try here are a few things you need to do that come to mind:
1. Check if the motor turns over by removing the spark plugs, then using a large wrench on the front of the crank damper try to spin it. If it turns over, you can continue but if it wont, then get professional help it's beyond an amateur's ability I believe.


2. Brake- why are they locked up? If they are rusted, then a rebuild of the brake system is needed and maybe new rotors, redo the caliper seals and master cylinder seals.


3. drain the fuel system and clean the carbs before trying to start it up.


4. get a new battery and test the electrical systems with the new battery carefully! You don't want to melt the wiring if something has bee eating on the wire insulation, so a visual inspection first is important.


5. Get new spark plugs, open the distributor cap and look at the condition of the contact points, rotor and cap - if they are corroded, replace them all.




6. Drain the engine oil and coolant and replace it with a new and get a new oil filter and thermostat too.


7. Rubber deteriorates, replace the hoses and thermostat.


8. If you have good fuel, spark and air, the motor should run so now try to start the motor. That's a big step forward and if it runs, don't run it for long unless the cooling system is back together - I tested mine without the rad just to get it to start up, then I shut it down after a few seconds.


9. After motor, fuel, ignition, cooling and brakes, are in order then you'll most likely need new tires before you tried to move it under power more than down the driveway and back. Old tires are dangerous so don't even try to drive on them.


10. Last comes the instrumentation - checking for proper function on the gauges.


11. Check the exhaust system


12. then the cosmetic stuff an be thought about.


Good luck with it.

 

Hey John, thanks for the advice! Definitely don't want to destroy the car in any way, just thinking of things to examine and assess at a distance so I/my Uncle can be at least a little bit knowledgeable about the condition before hiring someone else to look at it. I suspect, due to the cost of having the car looked at and any work done, that the car will probably stay in the garage indefinitely, maybe another several years. What a bittersweet family heirloom

 

What a shame that such a beautiful car has been relegated to a storage shelf for junk. It will take a lot of time and money just to get the car in running condition by someone who knows what they are doing. And I mean many thousands of dollars.


The car is valuable as is and you probably be better off getting your uncle or the owner to sell it on an auction site like eBay or Bring a Trailer.


Andy

 

Hi please call me if your uncle will like to sell I will buy as is and give you a finders fee for you self if we come to a deal (410)491-6027 ask for John thanks

 

Sounds like my dad's Jaguar. I think my dad stopped driving it in the 80s and it sat in our garage until 2003 then we got it running and driving again and started replacing the bad rubber and then we moved and its sat since, we just pulled it back out again and we're really going through the motor this time.