I have been looking for a V12 Daimler for quite a long time, these are very rare in my country. Even if you find one, it will likely be very abused both technically and cosmetically. We have lots of snow in winter and tonns of salty solution are poured onto the roads to melt this snow instead of removing it. That's why if any car like a classic Jaguar is driven in winter time in Russia it will be badly rusted. So my target was to get a car that hadn't been driven much in winter. And in the end of 2014 I found one. Overall the car is quite good. Most of the paint is from the factory, the interior is good as well (in need of a good cleaning and some seat elements need to dyed). The engine and tranny are both good.
But there is still much work. First of all, the rear left wheel arch is badly rusted. Seems like the car had an accident someday and the repair was not done properly . The water had ingressed and the metal rotted from the inside. The rest of the body has no rust at all. Luckily, the shop I use has the donor car, so we cut the needed element from the donor and welded it into my car. You can see this work on the pictures, not painted yet. To be continued...

 

While I was driving the car in the traffic jams I decided to entertain myself by connecting my OBD adaptor with the Torque app. What I noticed was the engine temperature at about 105 degrees Celsius, which was too high considering the cold weather. Also the cooling fan was working almost all the time, which was also the evidence of something being wrong. At the same time, at higher speeds, the temperature was around 90 degrees Celsius, which was fine. Everything was pointing on the clogged radiators. Knowing the importance of keeping the mighty V12 cool, I decided it was a good time to remove the radiators and clean everything up. My thoughts were correct and the radiators were indeed very dirty. You can see the pics of "before" and "after". Now my kitty is ready for the hot summer.

 

Wow, no kidding.... I've seen radiators clogged up on the inside, but not so much on the outside.

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Hello Alexander,

You have done well with the radiator cleaning! Cooling system maintenance is the most important part of keeping the X305 V12 running for a long time to come. Great that you found one still in mostly good condition there. Please keep us updated on your progress.

 

Hi Richard,


Yes, it's indeed important. Hope the coolant temperature will be OK after this procedure. Haven't driven the car much because it's now in the shop again for complete suspension overhaul. Can't wait to get it on the road will all new bushings/ball joints/road springs/dampers and so on. Also the steering rack will be rebuilt as it's leaking. I'll definitely provide the update as soon as the repairs will be over.


p.s. Thanks everybody for interest! The threads regarding X305 seem to have not that much response


Regards,
Alexander

 

Nice car! You are doing a very good job. I have restored a couple of cars. My advice is to be sure and drive it as much as possible between upgrades. If you are using the car you won't want it off the road for long and the repairs won't get stalled.

Have fun and keep taking pictures along the way,

Best of luck

Brad

 

Thank you for the advice. I'd be happy to drive the car, but in my case the suspension repair is a must, the 20-years old factory rubbers and other parts cause rattles, the steering wheel effort is too heavy and overall the ride quality is not like expected. I hope I'll soon be able to discover how this car was supposed to drive when it had left the factory...

 

You will be very pleased with the overall performance when you get it back. It is a smooth ride with a decent passing gear. Check your wheel bearings. Keep us posted.

 

The subframe is out of the car. It will be powdercoated, together with suspension wishbones. I was expecting to find out some rust where the subframe is mounted to the body, but luckily the was not any rust.
Another problem is a massive oil leak through the sump gaskets. It was nice to find out that the engine looks clean with the sump removed in order to change the gaskets.


Does anybody know of any quality aftermarket engine mounts? Those from Jaguar look a bit pricey at 200 GBP each plus shipping.

 

The wisbones and front subframe are powdercoated and ready to be installed (all new rubber parts are in place)


The bottom of the car is being coated with rust protection material right now



The new engine sump gaskets are in place, I hope there will not be any more oil leaks

 

Very nice, job well done. Going to be a sweet ride when you get it finished.

 

Thank you for the kind words. But the repair journey is not yet close to its finish. Although the overall paint condition is not too bad, I decided that after all mechanical repairs the car deserves a new paintwork.
Also the exhaust looks crappy. Does anybody have any experience with aftermarket exhaust for these cars? I am not looking to get something louder than stock (maybe just a little bit more growl), the main idea is to get some beautiful stainless pipes instead of rusty mild steel stock ones. The ideal option would be to get the equal length headers, but I am not sure there is enough space for them.

 

The suspension pieces are back together. Yesterday was the alignment job and the first test drive. But something seems to be wrong with the new front springs, the car now sits extremely low, even worse than with the old stock springs. Seems like these new springs are the wrong ones, rated for 6 cylinder car.

 

That's some nice looking work Alexander. But it might be near impossible to find new V12 springs. You might have to reuse the old ones. They are responsible for the ride height. Perhaps they are still springy enough, despite their age. With all the other components renewed, any difference might be unnoticeable.

 

Yes, that's a shame these springs are not available anywhere. Today we are going to temporarily reinstall the old ones, until we manage to find the new ones somehow somewhere. This will hopefully enlarge the ride height a bit, but this will not help very much because the old springs are too compressed due to their age.

 

Well, the car finally sits on the new springs and drives great. Last weekend I decided to test fit the 19 inch Atlas wheels from my XK8 (the XK got the new 20 inch Sepangs). It was pure curiosity as I was skeptical about how these 19 inch rims would fit the X300, but it worked out great in my taste. What's also important is that the ride quality has not suffered, the car drives even better now. The steering became more responsive and accurate, but there is no much harshness added. The next step is to refinish the headliner panel in Alcantara.

 

Love reading these story's keep up the good work