Hello!
Long story short. I inherited my dad's old Jaguar Mark 8 a couple of years ago. He bought it back in 1976 and did some work on it an kept it going for 10-12 years, but in the late 80's he didn't have time for it anymore and sat in our garage up until now. I decided to restore it and have just started this process. However, when I started reaserching and getting to know the car model a bit I realized that our car doesn't have the rear wheel spats that is part of the MK8 signature and I thought that was just because they where missing. But when I started lokking more closely I saw that the rear wheel wells have a different shape on our car than on all other MK8's I've found pictures of. This got me puzzled. Have someone at some point removed the spats and made a whole new arch, or did any MK8 come without these spats? My dad is 85 and can't remember anything, he just said that tha car was like that when he bought it. I really puzzled beacuse I don't get why someone would weld in a new arch back in the 70's? I started thinking their might be something fishy with the registration of the car, but the VIN is correct, it is a MK8. So what happened? And more importantly, what shall I do about it? My goal was to restore the car back to it's original form and function, but now I'm no longer sure what to do.... Anyone?

 

All Mark VIIIs and the Mark IX, had spats as did the previous Mark VII
It looks like somebody didn't like the spats so has put in new metal, OR they just rusted away together with the wheel well, so a bodge was done. I suspect if you remove the paint you'll find a weld line round where the spat used to fit, or maybe just a line of pop-rivets and filler over them !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar...tfordshire.jpg
The wheel arch has to be much larger than that with the spat because the spat has to be removed to get the rear wheel off.

 

The Mark VIII came with a spat that was more open on the bottom, exposing the wheel hub. The spat on my Mark VII extends into the rear door opening which is reassuring as it won't fall off as long as the door is closed. Someone filled the forward edge of the wheel opening as well. The work looks pretty good in the pictures, the interior looks to be in good shape. Maybe was going for the "Coombs" look that was popular with the Mark 2s. The car looks like a great candidate for restoration or refurbishing.

 

Thanks for the answers. This confirms my suspicion. I will sand some of the paint off to see what kind of repairs have been done.

 

Don't focus on the wheel spat. OK its been modified but you can live with that.
I would be more concerned with the areas covered by what appears to be some sort of tape around the bottom of the doors. I suspect the tapes are covering rust.
The interior looks pretty good in the photographs. I would be doing everything I could to save/preserve the leather on the seats.
There are many products available to get flexibility back into the leather and to re-finish the seats. I can't recommend any as I am not based in Europe but you should be able to google locally sourced products.
Cars with an original interior like this are just not available in Australia. The sun and heat really takes their toll
Bill Mac
MK1
MK2
S3XJ6
X300
15 previous Jags include 2 MK7 and one MK8

 

Hey Bill!

Thank you for your comment. I'll take it into consideration. I'm leaning back and forth regarding whether to keep it as it is, or try to fix it back to the original with spats... Main consern for now is to get it running again.
I'm also set on keeping the original leather and get it refurbished.

Kim

 

Kim
And don't go anywhere near the wood with sandpaper. If you need to refurbish any wood the original finish can be removed with acetone or methyl ethyl keytone (MEK) (NOT MEKP WHICH IS AN ACCELERANT USED IN FIBREGLASS) .and a new lacquer or varnish finish applied.
I am reasonably confident that the original finish was nitrocellulose lacquer as it was used on MK7s and MK1s.
Cheers
Bill Mac