Hi there


So as I have being taking more photos of the car, I have been spotting more panel gaps and for me once I spot these things it drives me mad, it has to be perfect. You could argue on a car costing over 100k it should be perfect but it does seem from the Jaguar forums F-Type panel gap, alignment is not their strong point with many customers taking cars back to dealerships to get corrected. As I did not spot this at collecting and when I informed the dealer via email a few days after to which I got zero response I decided to not pursue the matter as it was something I could resolve myself.

My biggest issue was the fact the bonnet was sitting high on the left side, so high in fact that a good 4-5" was protruding from the bumper, not as bad as it sounds but once I had spotted it, it was standing out to me like a sore thumb:




I have marked the image with arrows to clearly point it out, a good 5-6mm high on left side and not flush with bumper which drivers side is. So under the bonnet there is six rubber height adjusters I had a play with these and the best I could do was to actually rise the drivers side to match which just seemed a bit of a cheating way to do it and really the bonnet should be level/flush with bumper with an equal panel gap all the way along, this gap was equal just the bonnet was sitting high on left.
So I looked at the hinges and noticed they have stops which are bolts and I was able to screw the left side down some which helped considerably but it was still out. So I went the more risky route and undid the three main hinge bolts and tried to lower the hinge a couple of mm, this took at a lot of attempts as the assembly moves in all directions, I'd ideally recommend two people for this, but in the end I located the hinge 2mm lower, which then resulted in being two low due to leverage ratio, but I then screwed the hinge stop out a couple of turns and we are now at this:




In person it looks perfect, but now I look at photo and the left still looks maybe ever such a touch bit to high, but I can easily remedy that with just rubber stops, though it could just be the photo as now in person it looks perfect level, flush and straight, checked also every other panel gap and alignment around the bonnet as you adjust one can effect others, all I had to do was adjust front bumper out edge to left side bonnet which is easy as just two 10mm bolts. But now I look at the car and cannot see fault in person, whereas before it was starting to annoy me some.


Then a few days ago I posted this photo of the rear:




Of course as soon as I upload the photo I spot the boot is sitting high on the left, clearly whoever checked this car from factory had wonky eyes or the bubble in their spirit level was not calibrated.
So using the two rubber stops in the tailgate I got it level but only by adjusting the right side up which for me was not good enough. So I removed all the boot trim to gain access to the locking mechanism as it was obvious the lock needed to pull the tailgate down just a touch more. I undid the locking mechanism and moved it down a couple of mm, then re-tightened, re-adjusted the height adjusters and its now at this:




Which is now perfect level and in line with the rear quarters which is where it should be.


As a major complaint on the various forums is doors being a poor fit and even rubbing, I gave the doors a good check, but those are perfect.


Crazy that in this day and age you have to do this on any car, but the Mustang also had the same issue problem was there they were not quite as easy to fix on some, though the bonnet fix on Mustang was same as boot fix on Jaguar and just needed the catch height adjusting.



Anyway as I've still not posted a picture, here is the power plant:




Not much to look out, just a big silver square, looks like quite a compact supercharger unit.

 

Well done that man!
Great work sorting out the dodgy panel fit, like you misaligned panels drive me nuts.

 

Some very minor tweaking today using the two front rubber height adjusters, very happy now in person looks perfect and even the photos seem to back that up too.










Also found a set of the same wheels but in the satin grey for a good price, tempted to grab those, put them in storage until Winter is over and throw a set of PS4S on those.

 

Great job sorting that out. Good thing I am not working on the assembly line because I thought it looked pretty tight to begin with in the initial pictures...lol. I agree though, $100K+ cars shouldn't need adjusting especially with modern tooling and assembly processes.

 

congrats

 

Looks good
Will need you to come and service mine

 

That car just oozes sex and rage. It's gorgeous.

 

Great eye and great adjustment!
I just never would have even seen such a small detail but after you pointed it out it was obvious!
.
.
.

 

Hi there


So as you know I was unsure on gloss black wheels, simply not my style, though admittedly when clean they did look rather nice on the car, but for me a grey/silver looked even nicer and I think suited the lighter blue colour, I think a red, dark blue and even silver would really work well with gloss black but on this shade of blue and with all the carbon fibre I was just disliking it, plus they show up dirt being glossy, great wheels for a garage queen, not so much for a daily user.

As such just picked these up, 4 brand new genuine SVR forged wheels in the grey:







I could of re-painted the black wheels, but I would of lost the SVR logos and as such I did not want to paint an original item and lose some of the authenticity of the car by doing so. As such buying another set was only the other option.
Now I was going to transfer my current tyres and TPMS over to these wheels, but I have made the decision instead to simply sell the current set of wheels, so wheels, tyres, TPMS and bolts and fit all brand to the new wheels and take this opportunity to get some PS4S tyres on the car.

Now my question, stock the car runs Pirelli Pzero PZ4 265/35/20 and 305/30/20 99Y tyres front and year.
My issue is on the rear the PS4S is a 103Y rated tyre, this is to do with loading, now my understanding of tyres is this relates to the tyre wall strength to handle the weight on that axle, I am sure the better compound of the Michelin will result in no adverse effects and even if so the car currently runs 37psi all round cold, so in theory to compensate I could maybe run 37psi front and 35psi rear. I am sure I need to have zero worries and the tyres will probably be in another league anyway, I shall also ask Michelin if they do a 99Y load rated tyre in that size.

I've also got some XFR-S rear caliper plates to cover the pad area which fit very nice, so those will go on and then calipers get a fresh painting, still un-decided on colour but thinking red, yellow or similar blue to the car.

 

Why would you look for a tire with a lower load rating? The 99 is rated at 1709lbs and the 103 at 1929 lbs. That is a far superior tire. More tire wall strength, less tread chatter.

 

Gibbo, your work has inspired me to have a look at fixing the uneven bonnet gap on the front of my F which has bugged me for months now, and it worked, the gap is now nicely even!
The gap on the LHS where the front of the bonnet (hood) meets the bumper, just to the inside of the headlight, was always about 2 mm bigger than the nice tight gap on the RHS.
So just now I undid the two top bolts holding the LHS headlight, the two bolts on the top/outside of the bumper near the fender, and three LHS bolts of the six bolts across the top of the bumper, under the bonnet.
The whole plan was to push the LHS of the bumper in towards the car about 2 mm to close up the bonnet gap on the LHS.
I wasn't sure the LHS of the bumper would move in and stay in that far but it pushed in easily and worked a treat.
In hindsight I possibly didn't need to undo the headlight bolts and push the headlight in just a little bit but I did so anyway as the fit of the bumper across the bottom of the headlight before any adjustment looked very tight.
So thanks once again Gibbo for the inspiration!

 

I think you miss-read my question.

Jaguar fit 99 load tyres on front and rear axle using Pzero tyres, not the best.

I want to fit Michelin PS4S as a better tyre, particular in wet, but that means I can only get 103 load for rear, so higher and I was merely checking if this is OK to do.

I have since spoken to a Jaguar SVR tech who helped with design of SVR and he has informed me a higher loaded tyre is fine, just never go lower than the factory 99Y, so 103Y is fine.

 

 

+1.

 

Congrats and enjoy the beast. Color looks great, love the stitching on the seats.

 

Nice work on the adjustment, the car and the new wheels look amazing! Nice to know there are people as OCD as me 😄😄

 

That Cat will scat on the track. Let us know your impression after you get it out at Silverstone!

 

Michelin Cup 2 265/35/20 XL and 305/30/20 XL on the rears. No question about it. AWD holds the road in the rain amazing, and track performance is next level. Only issue is cold - don't drive in sub 40 degree weather with these performance tires.

 

Have same problems booking in to dealer to sort out

 

Hi there


Not a lot to report, but I spotted one of the carbon vents seem to not be flush, upon closer inspection the retaining clip was missing and the plastic tabs broken. I reported this and at first Jaguar were not so interested, so I went back to the dealer I purchased from and said look it was like this at collection because the photos you sent me it can be seen:




Drivers side vent is sitting a touch high, very hard to see, but once I knew it was there, needed resolving.


Drove to Landrover Chester today, who fitted a new vent, put my plate on also.







Happy that is fixed, retail price is £815 +VAT per vent, crazy, obviously they do not cost Jaguar that, but it is to prevent in short people buying the parts to make a regular F-type look like an SVR.