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I did this to my old X308, sad times. We're extracting the engine which is bombproof, and I'm stripping as many parts as I can. Some will be put for sale, some are to go on my new X308 project and some will be kept in my stash for spares.
This was a good car and a good friend to me, it's sad to have to do this. I was going to fit another gearbox in the car but in the end it was chronic rust that sealed the deal.
Replaced headlining, on one of my two XJR. Just love curving that board to get it out, and all the decaying foam falls and sticks. Did take the seats out that makes it easier to clean.
Damn Stu, why couldn't you be on this side of the pond! I'd kill for a drivers door actuator that wasn't ridiculously expensive on the used market lol. Hate to see it go, but glad to see she's being recycled in the proper way instead of just crushed all at once or left to rot in a field somewhere.
Well.. I did 2 things to my Jag today. One was a good thing, the other was a bad thing...
The good thing was putting on a real carbon fiber rear license plate surround. Very good quality, and it even came with cups and caps to hide the screw heads. $17 on eBay vs the official Jaguar OEM cf cover at around $110. Adds a little bit of a sporty touch to the rear end of the car, without looking too flashy (especially against anthracite paint.) Certainly looks better than the typical dealer plate surround that came with the car
The bad thing involved one of my mirrors.. As I was backing out, one side came too close to the opening for the garage door. I caught it right before it was about to hit, but then stupidly I let off the brake, pressed down on the gas pedal and the mirror took a hit
I'm pretty sure I know why I did it.. At work, I spend 10 hours a day driving a Hyster 50 forklift in a factory. Our particular Hysters are equipped with a Monotrol setup. For those that don't know what that is, it is a gas pedal that is "divided" into 2 halves. Pressing down on the left side of the pedal is forwards, and pressing down on the right side makes you go backwards. You also use 2 feet.. One covering over the brake, the other for pressing the gas pedal. I drive that forklift a lot more than I drive my car, and I think I instinctively pushed down on the left side of the pedal to go forwards, instead of using the shift knob. What a dumb move.
Luckily there was almost no damage done. The mirror assembly was pushed forwards, and the painted cap popped off. I pushed the mirror assembly back to its original position, and popped the cap back on. The cap has a minor scuff now, but it's barely even noticeable. I certainly learned my lesson, and won't make the same mistake again.
I will repair the old girl, the panel damage does not bother me, I can repair the rear quarter panel, and fit a pair of second hand doors, it is the suspension damage I am more concerned about.
Hopefully it has not damaged the mounting points, as that will be more challenging to put right.
Not today but over the rest of the weekend I finished stripping what I wanted from my XJ and sent the rest to the scrappers. I was shocked at how rusty the car had become, it was dangerous! When I took it off the road it was mid winter with salty roads, then it lay in the damp corner of a yard at the mechanics which itself is in a seaside town, perfect breeding conditions for rust.
I've been having a few days off from working on Jags, stripping a whole XJ8 down including the engine in a weekend is hard graft, but will be back in business on my blue one on Saturday.
Farewell Felix, although as I said I kept the engine so the beast may breathe again
Andrew: I hate reading about events like this, it is becoming more and more common in our country. What is worse is the Police don't seem to want to know. I hope you get it fixed.
Currently in a debate with myself. I recently posted about ordering replacement shocks and so forth. The shocks, and new jack, both arrived last night. I went with standard shocks instead of replacement CATS (mainly it's the mounts and not the shocks that are acting up I think, but with 150k on the clock, I figure might as well go all in). The shocks include the rear mounts, which means I have everything for the rear end to replace. The fronts had new mounts ordered as well.
The new front mounts won't be delivered until sometime tomorrow, to home. However I have access to a garage at a friend's house tomorrow after work to do my work. So with the jack, and stands, and my hand tools, I have no problem tackling the job. Here's the dilemma:
I will be replacing CATS shocks with standard, which means the diameter of the new shock is smaller than what is being replaced. The rears are all new everything, not worried. The fronts though.. do I replace the front shocks while I have the nice smooth floor of a garage, and everything, even though I'm feeding them into an upper mount that is too large to fit properly (and maybe wrap some tape in the meantime), for the 20 miles it takes to get home and then swap the upper mounts out in my driveway? Or, do I wait, and just do the fronts all at home without having the interim mount difference?
It's not like it adds that much more time to replace the full shock in the front even on the driveway so there shouldn't be that much reason to wait. Well, unless you factor in that it's in the driveway, it'll be likely midnight by that point, I'll have light from a halogen worklight at best. Whereas having a lit garage with a concrete floor would make the shock part cake to do and then the mounts are a quick thing when I get home, so... GAH!
Damn Stu, why couldn't you be on this side of the pond! I'd kill for a drivers door actuator that wasn't ridiculously expensive on the used market lol. Hate to see it go, but glad to see she's being recycled in the proper way instead of just crushed all at once or left to rot in a field somewhere.
Damn bro, you could've told me before. I got the passengers door actuator, door handle and cable, and the microswitch for $20. Could've gotten you the drivers door for $20. But the car is now in the junkyard away from here.
Replaced carrier bearing on my extended wheel base SVP
Not a super hard job but getting exhaust, parking brake, and all the jurid bolts out was a pain. Popped old one off with a mallet and found a pipe just big enough to pound new one on and put all back together.
Took 5 hours but that includes a lot of time playing with exhaust system, cleaning and greasing up parking brake and replacing O2 sensors and a few other things.
Replaced the front shocks and upper mounts, will be doing the rears soon to match. Realized the passenger side sway bar link was crumbled at the bottom. Annoying since I just replaced the pair last year. Can't remember what ones I went with, but I'll go through my invoices and avoid that brand again.
Stood looking at the XJR, and got more and more depressed!
Some a$$ wipe in a Transit hit it and done a runner!
At times like this...happened to me last year after getting my '00 308 out of the body shop for the rust and headliner repair...and having the body all buffed out and shining like a new penny.
Pulled into a big box store (the orange one...) and parked 2 counties away in the empty part of the lot...2 spaces away from a work truck (electrical contractor, iirc), and went in. Came out, truck gone, top of the nearside panel had the mirror image dent of a 2" piece of electrical conduit. No note on the windshield, nothing. Went back in to see if the security cams caught anything...bonehead driver of the truck obviously knew what happened...and where the cams were so pulled out so the license tag was hidden (PA only has plates on the rear of vehicles). Back to the body shop for another couple hundred repair (luckily, still had the paint that had been mixed for the new wheel arch and rear screen rust repairs...).
Some people are just jerks. Sorry to see, but I'm sure it can be put to right. But it still irks you, no?
At the weekend topped up the air con - still not icy cold but much improved (but then it is a 16 year old compressor I guess :-)), cleaned the front passenger ABS sensor which was giving intermittent ABS errors (always seems to be the front passenger one) and as my kids are off school for the summer holidays have left the X-Type at home resting and for last few days been loving a very chilled out commute to and from work - no children causing chaos in the car, and the XJ so many notches above the X-Type for a relaxing commute.
Replaced the rear shocks and upper mounts last night. Not sure what the rattling was originally (as I had replaced the upper mounts 6 months ago), since everything appeared to still be in order, but I noticed the bump stops had been rubbing, and I don't generally travel with a half ton of trunk cargo, so I'm wondering if the shocks themselves were giving up, and somehow that was causing the rattle, and not supporting enough during some bumpy parts.
We ran into a major issue with the lower bolts, however. It goes to show how anti-seize compound helps in things, since we didn't, and now less than half a year later, the bolts were so locked into the bushings, that we had to completely cut the shock, and all the way through the bushing itself just to pry it open enough to break it loose. We rectified it after putting the new shocks, we cleaned all the bolts and used compound to replace. It took our 3 hour job and turned it into a 5 hour one. But the good news, is that after being put back together, the rear end is rattle-free once more. I do have to mount the sway bar back on - When the rattle started, I saw the rear links had basically disintegrated and then I decided since I didn't have new ones to replace and didn't want the bar to interfere with anything, I would just remove it. Forgot to take it to the garage with me, but that's an easy enough one to put back on.
The silence though, so much nicer on my drives to work
