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As a professional civil engineer, I've been tinkering with restoring cars for many years as a hobby. Past experiences are on a 1970 Triumph GT6, a 1998 BMW Z3 and I recently decided to have a go on a 1999 Jaguar XK8 in Bahrain. Started this project in March 2018 with a car which had sat in storage for two and half years. I got it going, on the road as a daily driver, and now am looking to get the car back to Concourse condition.
Bit of a story how I got the car. I sold my Porsche as it was too reliable and boring just sat in the garage. It's annoying when everything works and there's nothing to do. Word got round in Bahrain that I was looking for a fixer-upper and a VIP let me look around his garage. I always fancied a Jag, but never had one, and the VIP had two Jaguar - a 1995 XJS and a 1999 CK8 convertible. I chose the latter and the VIP virtually gave it to me on the condition that I restore it to original.
Few strange things I've noted about car ownership in the Arabian Gulf. Labour is very cheap so it's unusual for people to do car work themselves, as it's cheap to get a garage to work on it. Workshop quality varies tremendously so finding the right garage for your job means you go to many different places. To work at home, tools are hard to come by, especially as you cannot hire tools.
Driving my XK8 convertible with the top down is best during the winter, as the summer temps are regularly 45degC (113degF) and that's shade temp. Conversely if you have car AC problems, there's a garage on every corner who can help you.
Follow this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xk8-xkr-x100-17/ to the XK8/XKR forum for help, advice and information. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues.
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1999 XK8 4.0L Convertible in Bahrain
