I have just joined the forum.
I am a British architect living in New Zealand and have just fulfilled a dream, buying a 1985 Jaguar XJ6 series 3. I ended up buying the car for a low price after searching for a’perfect’ one. In the end I decided instead to buy a decent ‘sound’ car and spend the next couple of years getting it into really good useable condition.
Buying unseen, I collected her from Christchurch and drove her back to Auckland covering 1400km. The car had only driven 300km in the previous 10 years!
so far I have had her wax rust proofed, fixed window switches, replaced carpets from Autodec (fantastic price, fit and quality) and had leather refurbished from Fibrenew. The work was amazing and they are now refurbishing my steering wheel, back tomorrow!
next job lower dash replacement as the veneer is flaking and adding a stereo, then valve clearances, then body and respray.
I am in love, the car will be my daily driver and I am already getting huge joy and pride from driving her.
great to be part of this forum and I look forward to sharing and learning from your collective knowledge.

 

Hi Graham,
Ah when cars were cars and computers were barely invented! (I had a Series 2 a long time ago).

I recently purchased some burr or burl walnut veneer on Trademe, but just enough to make a trophy base. The person in Waikato regularly sells there, although might be struggling to get enough for a Dashboard.
The Series 1~3 XJ did cheapen the dashboards, which look like packing case plywood to me, and only the higher spec'd ones had burr walnut. If you are thinking of something else like Birdseye Maple, that's great, though only burr walnut could be considered "original" in that age group. I may be just a nutter, but the first thing I look for in any car for sale is whether the dash is burr walnut!

Thanks for the tip on where to get leather done these days (not that I need it, yet). With my Series 2 in London in 1979, I managed to drive down to Connolly Leather to pick up some matching dye. Ahh those were the days...
Cheers, Chris

 

Welcome to the forums Grahama,

(The usual place to post an introduction is in New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum. Only a few members will see it here.)

Good for you. I'm a great believer in putting large distances on my Jaguars but would have had some trepidation giving one that much exercise after barely being used for 10 years!

I can see you have already found your way to the XJ6 & XJ12 Series I, II & III forum so there's no need for a link to it from me. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues.

Please read the guidance for new members ( https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/n...ned-up-241802/ ) which answers many of the most frequent questions about getting started.

Enjoy the forums.

Graham