Hi everyone! I wanted to ask for some help. This is a car I spotted as I drove along the highway in Ontario and it made me slam on the brakes and check it out.

Of course it had a for sale sign on it I called on the car and the 'representative' said the owner had $20k CDN into it. It looks great on the outside and the interior looks pretty good (didn't take a close look). They may have the front window chrome trim and the rear fender skirts were in the back seats.

They said it runs well but that it needs a body mounted bracket repaired for the rear suspension and there are a few small holes in the floor area (I think he said).

It comes with a spare motor, transmission and wheels. He said it's a 1968 model with the correct 3.4L motor and it's a RHD manual with O/D (electric?).

I am pretty handy as I am always working on one of my VW Karmann Ghias. But, this would be new territory for me and it's scary. The car is beautiful though.

So, the bad news is I don't know much about classic Jaguars, but the good news is my wife loves that car too.

What should I check closely when I get to see the car again and what kind of money should he expect for this car?

I wish I took more photos, but I didn't know how obsessed I would become.

Thanks for your help.

 

Check oil pressure when up to temperature, it should hold well about 40 lbs.

Check for even door gaps if they are tight at the top and open lower down, it can be a sign that the car has sagged from rust at some point, check the inside of front wheel arches for repairs, check for body filler at lower part of A post and B-C post, check front cross member, front chassis legs and crows feet for rust.

Lift the carpet and check for rust in the floor especially by the pedals and the same area on the passenger side, and also under the rear seat, also check for rust around the rear spring boxes and panhard rod fixing point.

Also ask about history file to see what work has been done, so you can check if any repairs have been carried out properly.

Lots of fresh underseal would tell me they are covering something up so be careful.

Re Price a basket case could fetch £3 - 4K and a really good clean car over £30K, these are fantastic cars, but if you don't know what to look for they can harbor a lot of expensive repairs, restoration work needs to have some photographic documentation to show what and more importantly how the repairs were carried out especially when it comes to the bodywork and welding.

It is very easy to buy what looks like a £15K car needing some minor work and find you have a £3K basket case under some new paint and poor repairs, these definitely fall into "better the devil you know" keep us informed and ask any further questions.

good luck

Jon

 

 

It's an Ontario car and the pan hard rod area needs work, look for extensive rust in that area as well as the spring pockets.
If you are able, remove the back seat and look for rust bubbles right where the spring pockets run underneath _ the rear seat just lifts out.

The fender skirts missing are also an indication of rust in the body.
Bring a magnet along.

 

It's got the black roof on it like the Morse car. I've often wondered about that roof, was it a factory option or something people did aftermarket...

 

As its on a British Number plate I would say that's its been imported probably fairly recently from the UK. If its been over here for most its life then its probably either been restored (or lashed up) at some point in its life or it will need restoring now.

The roof shouldn't be black, as someone else mentioned this has probably been done to emulate Inspector Morse's car (although that one of course had a vinyl roof rather than painted).

Looks ok in the pictures but the rear arch areas where the spats would go look like they may be sculptures in filler, it could just be the photo though.

The interior will probably be good because its ambla (plastic) rather than leather.

Over here depending upon its condition underneath it would probably go for between 5-10k GBP. With the current exchange rate 20K CAD would be around 11k GBP so it may be ok on price taking into account shipping and rarety factor where you are.

My advice though as everyone else would be very careful about the body, the rust everywhere and repairs are expensive, I would check from front to rear:

Front crossmember under radiator including crowsfeet which join it to corner of front wings.
Front wing nose cone (around lights) and also sidelight pods on to of wings.
Inner wing closing panel (this is at the rear of the front wing and has a vertical seam from top to bottom, the bit nearest the wing is prone to rotting.
All four jacking points.
Inner and outer sills (they tend to rot under the car rather than inside.
Front floor pans
Under the rear seat, any serious rust under (i.e. if you can stick your fingers of hand through) here don't walk away run!
Base of all four doors (inner and outer).
Rear spring hanger boxes and panard rod mounting.
Boot floor especially rear wheel well under spare wheel.
Bottom of bootlid (inner and outer).

Best of luck, if your not sure take as many pictures of it as you can underneath and we will try and advise you how good/bad it is.

 

I hadn't even noticed it wasn't vinyl in these pictures! Not sure about just painting it, looks a bit wrong.

My question still stands though, was the vinyl roof a factory option?

 

Just had a look on the UK Tax and MOT data base, it hasn't been taxed since at least 1984 and was previously white. As its on the DVLA database it must have been exported reasonably recently (i.e last 15 years or so).

 

I don't believe so although I stand to be corrected, vinyl roofs were more from the 1970's, certain the one on Morses car isn't original, I remember reading about the car years ago and they mentioned this in the article.

 

 

The more I read, the more afraid I become lol. The owner apparently passed away after driving the car only twice, but it wasn't the fault of the car. I would imagine that the elderly gentleman imported it and was restoring it. My concern is that the paint and body and all the trim looks pretty good. But the representative mentioned the rusted out panhard mount. I would think that during a restoration one would take care of the structural first. Maybe someone was taking the old man for a ride?!

I hope to see the car again soon.

Thanks for the help!

Hans

 

The black roof might not be correct, but I do like the colour combination. I'm going to do my best to get more information on when the car was brought into Canada.

 

The black roof, over a contrasting colour ( or a black vinyl roof) was never a factory option.

These cars were pretty well notorious for rusting and in particular the mountings for the rear springs and the panhard rod. Inspecting below the rear seat cushion is essential to avoid buying an expensive heap of bits.

The springs attach to the axles at the end not the middle, and the springs project forward from there and fit into inverted U-shaped spring hangers. A middle mount bolts the spring up to the hanger with intermediate rubber blocks and the front of the spring has a rubber pad that bears onto a bearing plate. The panhard rod is a rod connecting the axle sideways to a mounting on the RH side of the underbody, and prevents sideways movement. Once the body mounting rusts out, the panhard rod can break away, and the axle becomes free to move and cause havoc to the handling.

Near this area are the rear jacking points that also rust away and then eat into the sill.

The good news, (yes there is some !!), is that a lot of panels are available from Martin Robey of Nuneaton, in the UK, and in particular the panels that tend to rust out. The company ship worldwide, and may have a US agent.

 

inspect it and if good, buy it. Looks straight, the boot and hood lines or fit seem fine. Underneath is the question.

 

I'm guessing the panhard rod mount/area is rusted out because the seller said 'where the suspension attaches to the frame' is a problem. The weather hasn't been great here in Ontario, so I haven't had a chance to see the car again. Next time I'm up in the area I will coordinate with the seller to put the car up on the hoist and inspect and take pics under the car.

I also found this car as a subject of another forum member years back. He got the car on a trade and said it was a basket case. In the sense, there was no motor in the car but all the bits were in, well, baskets. I'm guessing he put the matching numbers engine back into the car and got it running. He stated that the car was 'pretty solid'. But the inspection will tell.

I'll post more when I get a chance.

Thanks all,
Hans

 

The suspension attaches in 3 places (5 actual points)

The rear leaf springs sit upside down to what you may think is normal, one end sits in the spring boxes and the other bolts to the axle, then there are two Torque arms which bolts to the body at one end and the axle at the other.

The Panhard rod is adjustable and attaches at an angle to the axle and also to the body, this is adjusted to position the axle sideways on the body to ensure the axle is central. The Panhard rod is generally the most likely suspect for the rot as muck tends to sit on top of it ! The spring boxes are also prone to rust, this can be evident under the rear seat, but you may also see the metal blowing out at the rear of the chassis rail where the spring box is (rust expands many times thicker than the original steel so will bulge out when it gets inbetween the metal channels), the box is formed by one channel sitting inside another, and water can get in between the two and go mad, it is not always apparent easily, but check this area carefully too as this is quite a lot of work to change, straight forward enough but not for a DIY repair unless you are ok with metal fabrication.

 

Well, sad news. When I made arrangements to make another visit to see the car it had been sold.

I want to thank everyone for their input and, hopefully, there will be another chance to put all the advice received to good use in another car.

Cheers!

Hans

 

They don’t seem to be hard to find when you start looking. Some decent ones on eBay right now. It is generally cheaper to buy one that has already been restored than to restore a basket case. Just depends on what you are looking for. They are very cool cars and if your spouse is onboard, even better!

 

Theres also my nice driver on the forum classifieds:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/p...2-3-8l-201007/

For some reason it was incorrectly flagged as SOLD.