Hello, how are you? My name is Thomas, my wife and I just recently moved to Guam in July during this year. She's always wanted a convertible and Jaguar's were not what we were in the market for, but we fell in love with it after the first test drive. We purchased a 2005 Xk8 from an old time business man named Mr. Gregg, he owns a few restaurants on the island. You guys know thew story about the old lady who drove her car once a week to church on the weekends; the church located across the street from her house? Well, he had a similar story about golfing and glibly convinced us that when he purchased the XK8 it was a golf cart with 1200 miles on the odometer. He didn't drive it very much and that was the reason he put it up for sale. We feel very lucky, as we were not expecting to purchase a car with 15,000 miles on a $5,000 budget.

Although it had low miles, the Island weather is very harsh on the cars here so it needs a lot of attention. I'm not very skillful with my hands, but I still try to do the work myself. Sometimes I don't feel confident enough and have no choice but to hire assistance, however on this tiny island that is 30 miles long and 6 miles wide it's very hard to find parts and service centers. It was recommended to share some pictures, so I will post a few. I just want to warn you in advance that I have no talent for taking pictures and I'm ashamed to say so. Please feel free to comment on my angles, I'm aware of my inability to photograph and I'm open to suggestions.

When we got the car the clear coat had a little damage. I'm not sure what this is called, but the paint all over the car looked like this:

Above is what the paint looked like before. Bellow is after polishing with a battery powered drill that would die after 20 minutes of use and take 4 hours to recharge. Notice the soft top condition?


After polishing with a 4" buffing pad and medium-heavy compound for a couple of weeks the car looks a lot better, but the soft top was in a terrible condition and a small leak made replacement a necessity.

I didn't feel confident enough to install it myself and hired a local upholstery shop. It is such a large part of the car and I was certain I would make a mistake and ruin the newly purchased canvas.

In the picture above you can see the man who installed the new top in front of his shop.

My wife is very happy with the car and I intend to keep restoring the worn parts for as long as we own it. I've focused enough on the cosmetic pieces for now and will touch up the black trim after doing some mechanical repairs. All of the bushings have dry rotted and I purchased polyurethane bushings to install soon. The reason I'm making this post is because I found another mechanical issue with a strange oil leak in the rear and binding brakes, and then the moderator kindly requested me to write in the new members area after I made my first post requesting advise. I'm very grateful for all of the replies and if there is anything I can do to assist in return, please let me know.

Welcome aboard Thomas .......nice work!