Thought I should say a quick hello! I've been posting in the modern S-Type forums for a while but I have only recently picked up a classic S-Type. She is a bit rough and needs a fair bit of work but is on the road and usable.

The underside welding has all been done, but there is a fair bit of repair work needed on the wings and doors. Largely as a result of previous repairs that have not held up well.



The interior is not bad, just very tired and neglected:



Anyway, very glad to be here!

 

Apart from the rear suspension, most mechanical parts are common with the Mark 2. Rust is usually the biggest problem with these cars. The interior doesn't look all that bad, but there is an awful lot to restore ! I did a Mark 2 and it took me 7 years.

 

Hi Wearlej and wellcome aboard, it doesn't look too bad generally, the problem is that unless there has been a full bare metal respray you will never fully stop the repairs failing in time.

This applies to the repairs to the welding also, great care must be taken to cut out the rust traps, and seal them fully otherwise it will come back in time, it's hard enough to keep it at bay with bare metal rebuild, as the monocoque chassis's have built in rust traps !!

The interior looks like it would clean up well, some attention obviously needed to some of the wood, but with the pictures it looks in fair condition.

 

Thanks

At this stage I'm going to have to concentrate on just tidying her up as much as possible and fixing what small faults I can. I don't have access to a garage myself, and on top of that my bodywork skills are basically non existent!

I'm OK on the mechanical side but Ive never got my head around the bodywork.

I've got four spare doors for her that are in pretty good shape physically but need to be painted to match.

 

I think it looks very nice as is, good patina. The interior looks great. Series 2 XJ-6 wing mirrors.

 

Not sure about the S11 wing mirror as my ‘66 has the same style and I have had the car for 34 years.

 

Aye, thanks all. I'm reasonably content with her the way she is, I do want to tidy her up a bit but I certainly have no plans to get her to concours condition. I plan to drive her a lot. I've already done about 600 miles in her. I've had a major service done and swapped from positive to negative earth with an alternator.

Apart from sorting out the mechanical work on her it will mainly be refitting missing parts (of which there appears to be lots!) and just undoing years of neglect. The main body issues are things like this:



It can be seen where previously a repair section has been welded in, but either not very well, or so long ago it has deteriorated. The other wing is much the same.

As can be seen I have no qualms about driving her in the wet!

 

It looks like the wing repair was not great ! Have a look inside the wing to see if they just welded it over the top or did they cut it and butt weld properly. Looks like it was not cleaned properly or not treated after the repair.

There are some water traps in front of the A post which should be dealt with, but looks like they were not. The wings will need quite a bit of work to stop the rust reoccurring more and more rapidly.

 

I'm not sure about the mirrors either, but those types of squared elongated mirrors were not used by Jaguar in 1966. They came with the Lucas "Motorcycle" Wing mirrors.