I currently have 4 Jags and know my way well on Series II, III and X350. Mark X and 420G always fascinated me since I was a little kid growing up in Europe. Now, one came up locally - looks complete but definitely a project. Engine runs, so I am told, but definitely needs complete interior refurbishment. I will be looking at it closely tomorrow.

Since I know nothing about the Mark X the question is ... what should I look for? It does have the 3 carburetor setup on a 3.8litre engine and looks complete.

Thanx!

 

My opinion only
If you must have a MK 10 or a 420-G they are very rare cars.
They dont exactly fall into your lap every week.
They are occasionally found in great condition and sell for a reasonable sum.
Anywhere from 10 to 20K if you can get one of the best, if you really want to pay a lot I have seen them creeping up into the mid to high $30 K range. I would hesitate to spend that much.

I paid $5200.00 for mine in 2010 after searching for literally YEARS to find one that was really good. It ran OK but not really well. After buying it I spent another 6 K on getting things right. Including $1200 initially on the engine, then there was brakes, front end things engine etc. About $6 k and I haven't spend a nickle on paint or interior yet, so it can get to be a lot.
So I have about 11 K in a car appraised for $17000 US but I am very fortunate.
Frankly, with these cars unless you are in love with a specific car maybe with rare options, have deep pockets or are completely insane don't do it! Much more mental fitness is involved in buying a good one to start.

That said I would avoid buying a car that needs too much work, they cost as much as an E-Type to restore but are valued at less than one quarter that of an average E-Type Coupe.

If I was at least incredibly rich I would gladly buy every Zenith I could find and spend $100K on each one just so I could sell them all for $25K and see them saved. I am that kind of Jaguar evangelical! LOL

If you decide to go with this car you describe... and a perverse joy arises in me when I think of you doing this... then parts can be had.
The interior wood is the most impossible to find and/or restore and expensive when you do. Prepare to spend up to $10K to restore the wood, a lot less if you hand it to a finisher and do all the installing yourself. Its cheaper to try to find decent wood parts. I do have a complete set of wood though in need of restoration. I also have two good gas tanks and an assorted inventory.
"CarNut" on this forum is a MK 10 420 G specialist of sorts in Lancashire England. He has two 420 G's and if you need I can put you in touch with him unless you can find him here. Warning though it gets horribly expensive importing parts from England, I have done it but you have to do what you have to do.
Lots of difficult to find parts out there (or not) but we can do anything needed, when its done for love.
It is always well worth it! As I said I have a generous supply of things myself.

OK so now to answer your question. You are in Texas so rust may not be an issue, or it may be a big issue depending on where the car has been through its life and where it has been kept. Look for rust on the front cross member and body rust is going to happen in critical places so have a good look. Holes in the floors are a bad sign but repairable. The engine is a standard Jaguar engine and parts are around for anything at all to do with engine. Same with the rear end, the rear drive is the same as the E-Type with longer drive shafts so lots of parts there too.
If its been sitting a while the carbs will likely leak. If sitting a while make sure to tap the carbs float bowls to ensure the float doesn't stick. If so fuel will pour over the hot engine and that takes care of that. All this is standard stuff that is tedious but fixable. Just smell and look around the carbs for signs. Oh, and the car WILL leak in many places. Like everywhere there is a seal.

The transmission is another story, you should hope that the transmission is in good shape or at least good enough to repair if it needs it. To simplify the explanation, reverse gear is found at the very bottom of the shift pattern. Later models have the standard P-R-N-D-L but early cars have P-N-D-L-R. Got that? This tranny is a rare one and I have found it hard to find parts for. SO if it doesn't work you may have to upgrade to a modern one or a newer one. Only a problem if you re a stickler for that original shift pattern.
My parking gear is non functional so I just use the parking brake all the time because... "parts unknown"

There is a switch on the dash that says simply "hold" or "in Out" I htink. Its to the left of the steering wheel on the dash. This is a downshift switch or to hold the transmission in second gear for passing on the highway or its useful for low to medium speed hill climbing. (You cant manually shift into 2nd gear) If this switch works its like striking gold as far as driving the car in practical situations. If it doesn't work its just another thing to deal with, relatively minor though. The car can be a pain to drive without that switch though. Mine inexplicable doesn't work sometimes and the next week it works fine. So if its out I avoid low- mid speed hills. Thats really a hil with a 30 MPH speed, you will need that switch.

Your biggest enemy is rust and wiring. In the center of the dash there is a panel with all the small gauges on it, as well as the key and starter button. There are two thumb screws that you should unscrew (don't lose them you will have to buy a set from e if you do, LOL) The whole piece folds down from the top and lays flat like a tray. Genius for fixing gauges etc, when you have that tray down have a look at the condition of the wiring behind the dash. If it is brittle and fraying everywhere it could be a fire hazard. The cost of totally rewiring a MK 10 is gong to exceed 6 K easily depending on where you take it the job can be way more, so that is to be taken into consideration.

So the two biggest and most expensive things to deal with are rust and wiring. Don't fool with the wiring and just patch things as you go, its the one thing that no one sees and we can't show off like a paint job, but its the one thing that will burn your car to the ground if its not good. At this point if its original, that wiring is more than a half century old. If you can do these things yourself you are way ahead.

Assuming the engine runs OK and the rust is manageable and the wiring is workable, the transmission is a distant third concern but you can ultimately work around it. All it takes is money.

I get happy when I hear of another MK 10 being put right and driven again so this is great news for me at least.

Keep us posted.

Cheers man!

DG
PS
I know I've forgotten something :-)

 

A very succinct and upbeat summary of the Mark 10, (and its successor 420G). I have to say it is nice to see these cars getting attention again after all the years since production ended. These cars were definitely NOT big sellers and Jaguar, at the time, were very disappointed at the sales totals achieved. However, they are good cars and with so much mechanical commonality with other models getting parts is relatively straightforward, except for (1) body panels and (2) interior trim items


For body panels there is a very well established maker of Jaguar panels here in the UK called Martin Robey. In the early 80s when I was rebuilding a Mark 2, and living in Rugby, I actually met Mr Robey as his business was just taking off then. Now, he's actually able to sell you a complete E-type body shell, and the bonnet too !! However, E-types are economic to rebuild and many were made. Mark 10s were a sales flop, and not many survive. So this means it is not really economic to produce panels for cars like the Mark 10. However, Martin Robey do have some panels for Mark 10s in their catalogue. As regards JustV12's point about electrics, I would support this 100%. On my Mark 2 rebuild, all wiring looms were removed and inspected, repaired where necessary, and then rebound with tape. One loom was found to be damaged due to welding work having been done near the loom.

 

I have checked the car out and even though it looked fairly good in pictures it looked awful up close. There was rust in places where I never see rust. The car had been exposed to the elements and the interior was full or rat feces. Of course, the interior was rather non existent. The car had ran within the last two months but the starter was "bad" so could not hear it run. The engine bay was complete and had the aftermarket A/C unit which was cool to see.

I passed it on but I am more determined now to get one. I would rather spend the money up front and get a decent one than deal with a project from hell because that is exactly how this was going to end up.

 

Very sad, but it sounds like you made the right decision.
You can get a good runner in decent shape for such a pittance.
I see about ten per year offered for sale. Not many at ll to be sure but, patience will turn up a good one. I will not tell you how long it took me because youll get depressed, but I started looking before the advent of E Bay. LOL

Cheers

 

What is a "pittance"? Need to figure out where I should be in terms of how much to spend.

I think there about 6 currently. 2 are close to $20K far away from me, 2 in the $7-8K but look very, very tired and a couple that may yield some parts.

That's depressing... do you have pictures of yours somewhere??

 

Well yes there are pics!
I Have had trouble uploading pics here (cant figure out this stuff) but if you go to the : Ontario Jaguar Owners Association Online website, you will see a picture on the header of me in front of my MK 10. Next to a new "F-Type" then if you go to:

Duane Grady - My Jaguar Life

you will see another picture of it in the header of my home page, right between two XK 120's. One is a white 1954 DHC< and the other is a Concours winning Fixed head in dark blue. So there.

DG

 

Very nice!

 

Thanks, I think you can get a good running driver for even under 10K in US dollars if you look and wait. The internet has made things so much easier, but a good one is the better deal as always.