were S type built in1969? I met someone who says he has a 1969 RHD. I asked for a photo of the car and it is a S type. I have always read that the S type was built until 1968 but had never heard of a 1969 before.

 

The last ‘S’-type assembled in South Africa was chassis number B1B59478BW despatched 7-Apr-67 to Jaguar SA
as part of a batch of six. Date of sale unknown. B for Blackheath, Cape Town

 

You need the chassis number to know for sure, its possible/probable that it was built in 1968 but not registered until 1969 as it was the old model and hence would have been a bit harder to sell.

 

As Homer says it is possibly a late S Type that was not sold or registered for the road until 1969 as the last S Types ran off the production line in late 1968. A car registered in the UK in 1969 was most probably built in 1968. Mine is a February 1968 registered car which was built in September 1967.
Totally different make but I recently came across an MGR V8 which was registered in 1997 but production ended in 1995. This car was apparently held in storage in Cyprus for two years as it was cheaper to hold the car there as a replacement should it have been needed as MG at the time was offering a two year full guarantee on their new cars.

 

Right at the very end of production, a new water temperature gauge with zone markings replaced the calibrated type and cars destined for Canada were fitted with a 110-volt cylinder-block heater as standard. To meet new regulations in West Germany, S-types for that country were fitted with ‘pilot headlamps’, which had a sidelight incorporated in the headlight bowl; on these cars, the standard sidelamps were not connected. However, few cars were built with these final changes and S-type production came to an end over the summer of 1968 to make way for the new XJ6 range. The last 3.8-litre car was built in June – and the last S-type of all was a 3.4-litre built in August.

Credit Taylor

 

all that info. is what I figured too. Most likely 1969 is the registration year and not the build year.

Asking the owner for the VIN is something I don't do so proving build year will be impossible. The man insists it is a 1969, difficult to get through people like that.​​​​​​​​​​

 

It could have been registered and thus titled as a 1969. The concept of model years was much looser then, especially outside of US cars with their annual model year changes.

 

Apart from knowing the VIN or similar body information there is one giveaway on the approximate year of manufacture and that is in the window glass.

Look for the XXX TRIPLEX on the window glass particularly on the side windows which are typically original glass.

There should be a word TOUGHENED associated with the XXX Triplex. It is in small letters.

There will be a dot under one of the letters. That dot is the code to the year/date of manufacture of the glass.

If the dot is under the T that indicates a 1
Under the O indicates 2
U indicates 3
And so on until you get to the end where the dot is just after but clear of the D which indicates 0 (zero)
Obviously you need to know the decade when the car was made however as an example a Mk2 or S type with a dot under the H indicates 1965.

This is not a perfect system but does allow you to get a reasonable idea of the date of manufacture.

Cheers

 

Interesting information my September 1967 built S Type but registered as a February 1968 car has the DOT under the "N" which would confirm a 1967 built car.

 

According to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (JDHT) website, the last S-type was a RHD 3.4 produced in July 1968. The last LHD 3.4 and all 3.8 were made in June 1968. In the last year or so production had reduced to a trickle, presumably as customers waited for the XJ6. A delay of 6 months or so between production and registration doesn't seem unlikely especially for an export vehicle.

The UK registration authority, the DVLA, regard Heritage Trust records as gospel, more reliable than their own. When I asked them about transferring my Mk2 to 'historic' class, they insisted that I obtain a certificate from JDHT to prove its date of production even though their own documents showed it to be registered in 1963, satisfying their 40 year requirement. I suppose it's possible that someone with great foresight, or a time traveller, might register a car twenty years before it came off the production line?

 

this is the car in question

 

Love that color.

 

Is that the original colour? At first I thought I was looking at a photo pf my car, it's the same colour.

 

same color as my '65, Royal Plum

 

not sure if Royal Plum is the right name.

 

My car is painted in an XJ40 colour, 1990 Crimson. The only similar colour originally offered was Opalescent Maroon.

 

That colour is fantastic. My car is in the middle (while not quite as far as the middle!) of a full restoration. The car came to me having been poorly repainted in signal red. This is like the original colour I've found in various places after stripping the shell. Its classy and I plan to repaint mine in this colour.. I love it.

 

The Jaguar paint code is CFF.