hey everyone
i'm an english guy who lives in so-cal , temporarily back in england and have bought a 2000 xj8 to get me around whilst i'm here

i have a freind who has a jaguar breakers yard , and yesterday i got an xjr meash grille of him .
i need to get another freind to spray the surround to match my car and that will be done next week , but in the meantime i'm thinking of fitting the mesh to my chrome grille just to see how it looks .

is it just a case of unscrewing the old inserts and screwing in the mesh ones ?
or do i need to remove the surround first ?

i'm thinking its an easy job , but its too col;d outside to mess around experimenting !!!

any help appreciated

 

 

been out and had a look ..
it looks like the chrome surround needs to come off to remove the plastic slatted inserts ,
then it is bolted back on , with the mesh screwed in later .

dont have a torx that will fit , so its a job for another day

 

That is a nice looking car!

 

thanks stimpy !!
what a difference a week makes






i'm happy with the way it looks now (theres a blemish on the bonnet and the front needs lowering , but i can live with that ) there's a few un-jaguar-like noises from the front i now need to sort , but its only going to be used for a month so dont want to go too far !!
note: there is a thin layer of ice on the bonnet , what i meant by small blemish is the darker 2" bit inline with the steering wheel !!!

 

Nice looking transformation Ian. What wheels and size did you change to?

 

i changed the grill to an xjr mesh item , and the wheels to 8x18" "milan"
made by bbs for jaguar on the xjr with brembo brakes option i believe .
tyres should be 255/40/18 pirelli all round , but the wheels came with only 2 good tyres and i desperately wanted the wheels on so i have 245/40/18 on the front .

 

Hi Ian, this mate of yours who has the Jaguar Breakers yard, where is he based? Is it North West or elsewhere in Britain? It would be a handy place to know, as there aren't any round here really. That XJ of yours looks better with those wheels, than the previous items.

 

its in radcliffe manchester .
his` name is ben
www.jagbreakers.org

 

I just love it when someone changes a dowdy old alley cat to lovely puddy tat. Keep em flying English guy.

 

Nice one Ian

I am so jealous of your black window surrounds..... That to me was the most important part of the XJR look in the UK, but here in shineyland USA, they all have chrome trim :-(

Now that you have 1 set of mesh grilles, you really need to get the second set to replace the spar underneath the front bumper, ie....

 

SARC, I like how your car looks, spesh as its the same colour as mine! I very nearly bought a XJR exactly the same as yours, even the wheels, but my XJ Sovereign (VP) was a better buy in the end. Being the Sovereign mine too is dressed up in chrome, but I wanted the chrome because I love it! I'm still looking to fit US spec marker lights to mine, just to make it stand out a bit Lets face it, I'm a magpie!

Ian, thanks for the address of your mates yard, I'll look him up for some bits fairly soon. Ta!

 

auch aye !!!
i thought about changing the window trims for "sport" items , but not worth the trouble !!
doesnt look too bad due to the colour (sea frost)
whereabout in california are you ?
i live in orange county .

 

I'm in San Jose

Not much of a Jaguar scene here I'm afraid, but at least I have a very good Jaguar mechanic only 5 miles away from me

 

We have friends in San Jose, next time I'm there we should meet up and you can show me the difference between a normal 4.0 and the XJR! :P

 

Hey SARC, i'm located in San Jose, CA too. Does your Jaguar mechanic do transmission work? I plan on getting my car repaired in a couple weeks and i'm still searching for a reputable Jaguar mechanic in the area.

 

btw it's a '98 XJ8

 

@Stu --> feel free to drop in if you're over here mate, but please remember, it doesn't snow, rain, flood and freeze continually in California, so you may feel a bit of of place :-)

@perez --> I PMed you the contact details for my Jag mechanic. I highly recommend him. I've used him since I moved to the US for all the tricky stuff on my XJR and XJS. Give him a call to discuss your issues.

 

Ha Ha! You may regret saying that when I turn up with a crazy look in my eyes because I haven't had a cup of Tetleys Tea for a few days! Only messin, though kind of you to extend an invite. You're right SJ doesn't have such crazy weather, but I'm enjoying the current situation with the snow here! My XJ seems to be the only vehicle that is able to move properly in the snow. That and the fact I seem to be the only person who can drive in snow too! On my route to work there are at least 12 abandoned vehicles, stuck in snow or stuffed into stationary objects.

 

Tetleys tea is available here, don't panic!

I had the XJR in Lake Tahoe over the New Year where it was snowing heavily. I had snow chains on the rear (snow wires actually) and it was fantastic. The LSD makes a big difference and with the Trac Control I was able to get up some scary inclines with ease. Lots of people (driving 4x4s) commented they were surprised to see a Jag in the snow at all, but it was a great companion for the trip. It did get a bit dirty though !