I am looking to purchase a 1962 mark 2
that has been sitting for over 20 years inside a garage
I have a few questions,
there seems to be all the parts, the engine starts but when you put it in drive it has a rod knock so engine needs rebuild for sure
they are asking 8000 obo for the car
doesn't seem to be any rust and the wire wheels are in great shape and body looks good, it will will need a paint job
is the car worth what they are asking
also what should I look out for as far as frame and floors go, can you buy parts for this car or should I run away. thanks jimbo

 

Jaguar's are not cheap restorations. Some things to know is to refurbish the wood you could spend $3000-$5500, a professional rebuild of the 6 could go around $10K to 15k, so unless you already have some good inexpensive shops or do a lot yourself it sometimes is better to spend around $25-$30K for a decently restored car if you are lucky. It is true a concourse quality will go for over 45K-55K+


You can get all the parts for the most part via Jag wrecking yards, and specialty Jag parts places so that is not a big deal. They are great cars both restored or modified but not cheap cars. They are slowing increasing in value but they are not cars you would get rich on but you are likely not go loose much money on.


Here is a decent one on Ebay 1967 Jaguar Mark 2 MK II Burl Walnut | eBay


It is asking $35K but maybe you can offer a lower price and take it?

 

$8k is too much for a car that has been sitting for 20 years. Just because it was what it was at one time, doesn't mean it is what it was. It will cost big money to restore.

have you checked the exhaust system and under the car? could be needing a new exhaust and rot starts at the 4 jacking points, a very expensive repair. Also the claws feet which hold the front bumper rots too, not available new, only used. The brakes will need to be rebuilt, another chunk of money.

Remove all the floor mats and pads and make a good inspection of the floor and the same at the trunk. Rust likes to hide there.

Otherwise, good luck.

most parts are available but nothing is cheap, so unless you're looking to spend and spend, walk away.

And why a Mark 2 ? The S type made from 1963 to 1968 is a better car, less cramped and with the Independent Rear Suspension of the E-Type, but most people do not like the rear third of the body, they prefer the "shortness" of the MK2 rear third.

 

Do your homework and price better and currently running examples. Even eight grand is a good chunk of change in the older Jaguar world. Lots of very nice modern examples out there. Still if that 's what you want look twice (at least) before you commit. Good Luck.

 

When I rebuilt a Mark 2 in the 80s there was still lots of stuff around, now not so much although all mechanical stuff is mostly available. It is body panels that are hard to get now. A firm here in the UK, Martin Robey produce some panels, being those most subject to rust.

If you have a nice big and warm garage, and are an experienced DIYer on cars, then there is a lot you can do yourself. These are simple cars, no complex and pesky electronics, just plain old wires and switches ! The interiors are expensive in material, (leather seat covers), but again, I did most of my interior myself incl varnishing the woodwork, (26 separate peices, BTW).

I have to say wacking-out $8000 for a car that's been off the road for 20 years and no records of previous work, seems a bit much to me. You'll need a lot of money to bring it back to life, even if you can do a lot of work yourself.

Having said al that I managed to complete my rebuild and I had never worked on cars, only motorbikes. Big learning curve, though, and I did have experts around me.

 

Good advice, which should have heeded 3 years ago!

I paid $9,500 for a car I should have avoided. The usual "rose tinted glasses" were on when I first viewed it. Structurally sound but plenty of rust in the doors, front fender bottoms, rear hind quarters and the spare wheel well, which I discovered soon after. So you need to factor in the worst case scenario.

As others have advised, spend more on a going concern, like say one for $25 K with $100,000 worth of receipts in the glove box!

 

The comments made are all exactly right and I have often taken this approach myself.
However there may be another dynamic at play.
If money is really short, and you just want to get in the game, the lower the first price the easier it is to obtain "significant other" approval. The necessary subsequent expenditures can be the more easily disguised!
Just saying!

There is a classic list of the seven steps of most major projects

Phase 1: Uncritical acceptance


Phase 2: Euphoria

Phase 3: Dawning realization


Phase 4: Panic.

Phase 5: Search for the guilty.

Phase 6: Punishment of the innocent.

Phase 7:Credit to the non-involved


BESM

 

I neither could afford or wanted a good running example.

I wanted to do the restoration myself. I knew I had a bit of a basket case, but it was still worse than I thought. But I don't regret one minute.

If you have to pay others to do the work, then get a good running example and pretty completely rust free. (if you have to pay for others to deal with the rust you will be spending a lot of money, and it will probably end up four times what you first thought to do it right)

If you can turn your hand to anything, can weld and fabricate then just make sure you know exactly what you are up against, when you know exactly what the issues are then add at least another 50% of problems you will find when you are fixing the problems that you know about.

If you do it all yourself, expect to pay out at least £20K - £25K if you need to do the interior and respray, that will be in parts and machining etc. alone as long as you do most of the body prep yourself for the respray.

To date I am in for £7K and have the body in primer, the engine rebuilt, axles rebuilt, wiring half done. I am looking at a further £5K for the interior, £2K on chrome work, £4K on spraying, then I have new wheels (£1K) and sundry finishing bits (Prob £2K) and I have done everything myself except the machine work on the engine which cost £3.5K.

So hopefully that will give you some idea.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

TilleyJon, hello.

I have two emissions pipes removed from my 1984 XJ-6 fuel injection, one is the diverter valve pipe which goes to a check valve, and the other is an Air Rail which connects to six fittings at the center of the cylinder head.

I removed them to clean and paint them cause they were looking ugly.

I found lots of rust inside the diverter valve pipe, { part number C.44059 in the illustration }, and lots of carbon accumulation in the air rail nipples, { part number C.36930 }, so I inserted a drill bit to remove the carbon at the nipples. But there is still a crust of that black carbon stuff and at the top pipe there must be a lot of it also, and I cannot get to it because the ends are sealed.

So I need your expert advice: What can I use to inmerse these pipes so that the rust and carbon are dissolved and the parts come out super clean? The exterior is no issue, they are going to be painted. It's the insides of those two parts.

A friend mechanic told me to use muriatic acid, the stuff used to clean swimming pools, but he said it is very destructive as well plus it is dangerous, so I don't want to mess with that acid.

Any tip appreciated from anyone. I might just order a new diverter pipe, ($14.00), but the air rail is over $200.00 and I am not spending that kind of money.

 

Muriatic (hydrochloric) acid will and does work, if there is any aluminum involved in you parts, then muriatic acid is out.
You can go into your hardware store or a janitors supply and pick up some industrial toilet bowl cleaner that removes rust, it's basically a watered down version of that same acid.

I've used the acid with great success cleaning badly rusted steel parts, it eats the rust away leaving the sound steel _ comes out this matt grey colour.

The trick is to fully immerse your part over night depending on how weak your acid is.
When you remove it, you must immediately rinse it with lots of water and then dowse it with WD40 to keep any acid residue from oxidizing your job.

When the part is immured in the acid there will be fumes, make sure your down wind.
Make sure and do this far away from anything, the fumes will eat away anything near by and make things rusty, and or corroded.
It even turns chrome black.
Don't use it on concrete or pavement, it eats that too.
A gravel ally is best.

Another thing is to take it to a machine shop, they have these hot dip tanks that should work on that stuff too.

 

JeffR1,

thanks for the detailed reply. I'm not comfortable with using the acid. I read in an engineering site that paint stripper works too? also known as "aircraft stripper".

 

I use paint stripper "Circa 1850" to clean varnish off of aluminum (carburetors) and it works well for that.
It does attack carbon to some degree, but it's not 100%.
If you can find some with Methylene Chloride....

It won't do anything for rust though.

There's Muriatic acid too, I used that stuff to get stains out of wood.

 

JeffR1
I did the Air Rail today using paint stripper and it cleaned it well, it's already painted. fortunately the stripper is water soluble and I applied water under pressure after the rail sat full with paint stripper for 2 hours. The stuff that came out was all carbon, and all nipples dispensed the water at the same rate, so assumedly it is clean inside now.

The other pipe, a curved 5/8" diameter pipe, is heavily crusted with rust inside only, so I decided to order a new one since it is not expensive.

Thanks for your help.

 

Sorry, a bit slow in replying, sounds like you have it sorted, I would have suggested you take the parts to a local machine shop, they usually have an acid bath for blocks heads etc. They would have chucked it in the bath for you for a small fee, and you wouldn't have to touch the stuff.

 

no problem TilleyJon, JeffR1 answered my question. Problem is I don't have a machine shop nearby with such facilitiy.