...I found a really nice 1965 MK X 70k miles V6. Garaged most of her life. Spent her days in the South West of the US. Currently runs and is driven regularly.

Is there anything I should be wary of?

Had an older XJ12L and there were rust issues around the gas tank fillers and the door sills, but thats all I know of that era.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated 😁

 

A few months ago I picked up a Mark VII that had spent most of it's life in the deserts of Nevada. You'll likely find that there is no rust but all the soft bits such as window seals, windshield seals, door seals, rubber suspension boots, etc are no longer doing their job.

At the end of the day I think it's easier to replace all those bits than cut out rust and weld in new metal.

 

My Mk10 lived most of it's life garaged in Las Vegas. Just a few square inches of superficial rust behind the starboard front wheel. The sun got at it anyway, I guess, so it was repainted. The original seats were replaced at some point, I'm told, and the replacements need replacing.

Was "V6" a typo? Mine came with a V8, so I can imagine a V6. As you might have read, I made a further swap to a Zonic 120; i.e., an electric motor.

I've been blown away by the attention my car gets, even before I reveal it's been converted. I've come home exhausted from car shows, where I can't sit down for more than a few minutes, swamped with comments and questions. I even got a trophy at a big show last weekend.

 

The V6 wasn't a typo. It has the 4.2 XK I6 engine not the 3.2. The same as the E-Type I6 from the sam era. I had no idea the MK X came in a V8 in '65, nice to know.

I agree they are stunning in there looks.

 

I must not understand the "V6" term in this context. The 4.2 is the sixth version of the XK engine?

My '66 also had the 4.2 originally, but it became so troublesome that the original owner requested a new engine. Her shop installed a small-block Chevy - not her intent. I got rid of it immediately. My intent was always a smooth, quiet electric motor.

No Jaguar Mk10 came with a V8 originally, but I'm told it was not uncommon for owners to become frustrated with the XK, or more likely the mechanics who were woefully unqualified to maintain them.

 

LOL V6 ... DOH.... you get used to using certain terms and forget what you actually mean ... I even typed I6 in my response 🤦‍♂️

Of course its not a "V6" its an Inline 6 .... 🤓

 

If it is a current runner/driver as you indicate and at a reasonable price you can afford, then go for it.
Cars like this are rare and don't let your previous experience with a rusty XJ12 colour your thinking

 

The wiring may well be suspect if it hasn't already been replaced. There isn't a great deal of it on 50s cars, but it could total the car if you get a fire caused by a short circuit

 

It has been a dry country car so I doubt if the wiring will have deteriorated to an alarming degree.
In my 60 years of driving and repairing umpteen old Jags in temperate climates I have not had any major wiring loom problems although I have replaced numbers of wires exiting looms by butt spicing in new wires particularly associated with generators, ignition etc.
I have also had to re-wrap old cotton covered looms with PVC tape, but the wires themselves have been OK.
Perhaps the extremely cold country as In Britain produces a form of deterioration that I am not aware of.

 

Its the insulation on the old wires that deteriorates, hot or cold, wet or dry, its a form of plastic that just ages faster or slower, but eventually no matter what. Its generally OK so long as it remains undisturbed, but in the process of doing repairs, the wires get flexed, making cracks in the old insulation. Sometimes a loom gets pulled on hard when a mechanic is trying to fish it through the dash and firewall, making large chunks of insulation separate. Then a compounding dangerous mistake mechanics make is after they've made a repair, they either zip-tie the wiring loom back up in a way that it wasn't run before, putting those cracks between adjacent wires in close proximity (or to a nearby ground), or they don't secure them back at all and the wires flex a bunch more, making more cracks, just bouncing down the road. Gotta be careful with old wiring. Try to minimize how much you twist and flex and pull on it while performing repairs to the car. Take photos of how it was run and secured in place from the factory before you remove it, buy new clips if necessary to secure it firmly, and put it back exactly the way it was. And as Bill says, inspect the heck out of it while you have access, splice in replacement sections if necessary and re-wrap the looms nice and tight so that if there are any unseen cracks, they are less likely to short to anything.

Besides just deterioration, there's sometimes rodent damage to old wiring. If there's any evidence that mice have been in the car, you want to check the wiring looms to see if the mice have chewed on any of it. Probably mice are responsible for way more electrical fires than lazy/amateur mechanics.

The only way to be 100% is to buy a new loom, but that gets prohibitively expensive on anything other than the most popular classic cars where China or another far-eastern country makes affordable repops. If you have to pay someone to take your old loom apart and copy it, your restoration cost is going to be way more than the finished car is worth. I suggest to be as careful as you can with your existing wiring but also purchase a 2.5lb or even better, a 5lb Halotron Fire Extinguisher to carry in your classic car (yes expensive, but much cheaper than cleaning up the mess an ordinary dry chemical extinguisher would make, if you put it out quick, its often more work to clean up the mess than to repair the fire damage) and install a quick cutoff switch on the battery terminal. That's what I do. Good luck, buy insurance and try to just enjoy without worrying too much about it.

 

So here she is:

Now I just have to figure out how to get her here.

Isn't she pretty? 😍