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An XJ6 has been on my bucket list for many years and a few months ago I started a search in earnest for a Series 3.
Following DD and other's mantra of 'buy the best one you can find/afford', I bought this car in Nevada from the original owner - 58K miles. It has been in the high desert of Nevada since purchased and I looked it over for rust and couldn't find any. Windshield and rear glass - no rust. Ran and shifted nice. Other than a faulty window switch, everything worked. No gas smell in the boot (she said she kept it inside and the tank full) Tires are shot, dash is cracked and the AC temp drop isn't good (but heater worked, and the owner said she'd been topping up the R12 every couple of years to keep the ac cold - fingers crossed it isn't the amplifier)
Has a dark blue interior. The leather is a little dry but should come back pretty well. It has pulled some of the stitching from the center of the seat bottom, and I'm hoping that can be resewn. Will search for other's experiences reconditioning the Jag leather seats.
Drove to Nevada to look at the car with the intention of driving it back home. My wife put the kibosh on that idea and suggested that I have it shipped to the house. When I considered the money on gas and hotel rooms to get it home, it would cost me about $100 -$150 more than driving it myself. I hate it when she's right. I'm looking for a car transport company so if anyone has any experience in this area, please chime in.
I'm not a big fan of the Kent alloy wheels on the Series 3 cars. Ideally, I'd like a set of Dayton wire wheels, but a set of earlier chrome wheels/caps would be nice too. If anybody has a line on wire or chrome wheels, please let me know (already in contact with Steve in MA who has a set listed in the classifieds)
I had XJR wheels on my last Jag and really liked the look. The XJ6 ride is so nice, however, I wonder how the taller wheel and 50 series tire would diminish the ride quality. Again - if anyone has some experience here, please post.
Read a lot of posts on this forum to get knowledgeable as I could on the XJ6 - I really appreciate the time everyone took to post their knowledge and experience - it helped immensely.
Congratulations! White and blue is a good colour combination. The window switch is easily removed and cleaned, so that is a very minor issue. But given that the car sports a license plate frame from a Chrysler dealer (that mismatch always screams "used car") -are you sure that the person you bought it from is the original owner? It may make no difference except that the verbal history of the car and its care my be less reliable. Dry leather and cracked wood (heat and sun damage) do not support the claim that the car was kept garaged. Hmmmm....I do not mean to sound negative - just being realistic. In fact my first Jag was a 1982 white/biscuit XJ6 in a condition almost identical to yours. I had a lot of fun attending to every part of the car -a rolling restoration over 8 years. I loved it.
instead of wire wheels, have you considered the "pepperpot" alloy? These were correct Series III wheels, much lighter that any wire wheel (which Jaguar specifically warned against).
I had the same misgivings when I saw the license plate frame, but the owner produced the original window sticker and the sales order in her name from a Jaguar dealer in northern Nevada - about $31K out the door in 1985. Having lived in the desert for many years, my expectations for wood and leather condition was pretty low. It almost seems like if the interior is perfect, then the car is rusty. If it isn't rusty, then there's evidence of sun damage. No rust, no sun damage and low miles is the trifecta of purchasing an old car - and two out of three ain't bad. I much prefer seeing if I can get the leather back into acceptable condition and replace/refinsh the dash over doing metal replacement and paintwork. Like you, I'm shooting for the 'rolling restoration' approach. Fingers crossed.
Pepperpots look nice on the XJ6 and I like them a whole lot better than the Kent wheels. But around here, they are pretty hard to come by. A search of Jag wheels on car-parts.com only showed one set out of several hundred available wheels. There's an XJ6 for sale in Tucson that had been imported to the US from Germany that had Euro bumpers, big headlights and pepperpots, and I wondered if European/Canadian cars came standard with them, while most US cars came with Kents. Will be checking some of the Jag salvage yards next week and will add pepperpots to my inquiries. Thanks for the suggestion.
Sounds like my car when I first got it. The seat cushion of the fron seats is easily removed and disassembled with comon hand tools. You can then take the cover to be stiched up or you can do it yourself. If you need new padding etc they are available. Once again, it is easy to do and get good results. As for conditioning the leather, download a free copy of Jag-Care. A fantastic book that covers everything you need to do to properly maintain your Jaguar. It has excellent information on seat rejuvenation.
Woodwork is not too hard either. You can either go the route of having your wood refinished or just buy new. I went with a brand new burled walnut dash. Absolute museum quality. It cost me about $350 and I put it in myself. You can see my YouTube video of the process. Just search for "Jaguar XJ6 dashboard removal" by Jeff C.
If your new car is running dependably you can enjoy the car while you work on the interior. Good luck.
Correction: the correct name of the book is "Jagcare III" and was written by Dr. Gregory Andrachuk in 2002. I believe it is available to download in pdf format in the sticky links above. Dr A is the absolute expert on series 3 cars. The book is must-read for every enthusiast. I have it on my tablet and re-read it every year while on vacation. Every time I learn something new.
A great choice. Although white is not my favorite, id one lives in a hot clime, it is a good choice. And shined up, looks great. And, even if a bit dusty, still passable, wereas the darer colors look lousy when dusty, but when clean and shiny.
Why the Chrysler dealer plate frame? Who knows, in view of the documents. I'd not concern myself. Mine came with a Jaguar dealer's frame from Vallejo??? Aftermarket units with leapers fixed that.
Wifey had it right. Shot tires enough reason to ship it !!!
My similar car is shod with XJS sourced lattice wheels. XJS owner, Scott Horner donated them. Pristine as is his house and car. His car nw sports wheels to suit his taste.
Enjoy the rolling restore project. So satisfying....
And yes, as Dr. Andrachuk, master of Jag lore, opines fixing the recalcitrant window switch is not hard.
Carl
There is information in Jagcare III also about an easy method of repadding the driver's seat (which is invariably sagging). A detail about the OEM wheels: for both Canada and the US the XJ6 and XJ6 Vanden Plas was fitted with the Kent wheels; but for Canada there were two other models available: the (XJ6) Sovereign from 1984 onward - and this was fitted with the "pepperpot" wheels, and the V12 Vanden Plas- this model was fitted either with the Kent wheels or, as a no-cost option, the pepperpots - which I prefer on cars of most colours. Oddly, on a white Series III I think the Kents look better.
As a point of information, all XJ cars, Series I, II, and III built for Canada and the US were fitted at the factory with narrow-band whitewalls until the introduction of the (awful) Pirelli P5 tires in 1982. The white car is a 1982 model and the black one (below) is one of the last 1992 cars.
I emailed David at EverydayXJ on the way home from buying the car - no steelies or wire wheels in his inventory at the moment. Will ask him for pepperpots next. He was fretting about the most recent hurricane going through the Carolinas - hope he stayed high and dry.
I'll have to say the Kent wheels look much better with the whitewalls - perhaps I should keep them and start looking for whitewall tires instead. Food for thought.
I found the JagcareIII doc this morning on the web and enjoyed a quick perusal while eating breakfast on the patio - lots of very useful information. Can't wait to dig into it with the Jag, but first things first. Hit a bad pothole pulling into a roadside stop in the family sedan on the way to Nevada and it broke the bottom of the front strut - new struts and a control arm are today's order of business.
Decided to use Montway to ship the car from Reno to Phoenix. They're a broker for car carriers. My son-in-law did transportation logistics for a large car dealer and suggested i'd have more leverage dealing with a broker than the actual carrier. $450 quoted to ship the car about 750 miles, 5 day pick-up window and transit time less than 5 days.. A+ BBB rating. (I spent about an hour reading the BBB complaints for Montway. Most all were either about the time to get the car or billing disputes. They ship about 500 cars a week and I didn't see any complaints about damage. I'm not in any hurry to get the car, so I think they'll be a good choice)
Thanks all for the warm welcome to the board and all the very helpful suggestions.
.... Dry leather and cracked wood (heat and sun damage) do not support the claim that the car was kept garaged.
My theory is that everyone says their car was always garaged but what they really mean is it was kept in a garage at night but they drove it to work and left it parked in the blazing sun all day 5 days a week for years. Garaged at night means no starlight fading.
My theory is that everyone says their car was always garaged but what they really mean is it was kept in a garage at night but they drove it to work and left it parked in the blazing sun all day 5 days a week for years. Garaged at night means no starlight fading.
funny and very true...a bit like a seller's use of the word "mint". But my cars really are always garaged when not actually being driven and never out in the rain.....I know, I know....but we all have our minor quirks, don't we?
The car arrived from Reno a couple of weeks ago. It'd been sitting at an upward angle of maybe 15 degrees, and when it was unloaded it peed about a cup of oil coming off of the transport. Really had me spooked - I thought 'what have I done buying this car?'
I drove it down the street a mile or so and then pulled it into the garage, where it sat for a couple of days - no leaks. Started it and ran it up to temperature and shut it off- came back a day or so later and there was oil under the front and rear seals. Nothing horrible though, but I'd still like to get it to slow down a little.
I bought a set of wire wheels and ordered tires. While I was waiting for the wheels and tires to arrive, I fixed a leak in the cam cover gasket and put a new speedometer transducer in it to get the speedometer and cruise control working again.
Took the first long drive in it today. Here it is sitting in the driveway with the Daytons and new Uniroyal white wall tires
I clay barred the paint, and to be honest I was a little disappointed in the paintwork. There were lots of little chips and dings I didn't see on the car when I looked at it in Reno, including some pimples on the trunk (boot) lit where someone had slammed it on a package that was too big. The paint itself is in pretty good shape, so I took it to a paintless dent removal shop and got an estimate to get the dings taken out. He charges $75 for the first inch size of the dent, but the rate goes down substantially after that. He estimated he'd do the whole car for $400. Since I can't even buy the materials to refinish just the deck lid for $400, I'm going to have his do it when money permits.
After the clay bar treatment, it looked to me like there was a slight color mismatch for the driver's front fender. I showed it to a friend of mine that's a painter and bodyman, and he confirmed the one fender had been repainted. He said most insurance companies won't pay for a custom match, nor will they pay for a blend into the adjacent panel, both of which are needed to have a match good enough to always trick the eye. So I imagine this car had a minor collision where the front fender was replaced under insurance. It is a pretty subtle mis-match, so I'm going to live with it and enjoy driving it. When I fix the dent in the dog-leg of the rear fender and have to blend that in, I'll do the match on the fender too.
I've driven this Jag about 50 miles now, and all I can say is what a treat it is to roll down the street in it. I've been having my kidneys beat out of me in pickup trucks for the last twenty years, and this Jag is absolutely smooth and the ride is marvelous.
Next jobs are the AC and idle quality.
A neighbor has been buying R12 wherever he can find it since they started equipping cars with R134 and has collected quite a bit of it. Said he'd get me a couple cans to charge the AC. The seller said the AC worked fine but she had to have it charged every few years to keep it working (but she's also the one that told me the car didn't have any body damage, so we'll see) Fingers crossed it isn't a bad amplifier or servo (but instructions for replacing them bookmarked on this site just in case)
Cleaned out the throttle body and verified the blade is .002" from the body and the idle improved but it isn't perfect. Checked everywhere for any false air downstream of the AFM but couldn't find any. I'm thinking the next step is to pull the injectors and send them off to be cleaned and flow matched might be the next reasonable thing to do. Suggestions for alternate things to look at are welcome.
Oh, and it turns out that the Chrysler Plymouth dealer in Reno was also the Jaguar dealer, well, at least for this car. Reno Chrysler Plymouth sold this Jag with 43 miles on it to the woman I bought the car from. Hence the license plate frame with a Chrysler dealers name on it.
Congrats on a fine looking car. White is a great color for an XJ6, even an X300 like mine! I know that we all would like to be able to run a perfect car, but I think that it is too stressful. I took my XJS to work and a coworker, a little lady that was almost 9 months pregnant, brushed up against the left rear side bumper extension, when parking. It just scuffed the rubber a bit and mostly buffed out. Yes, it did tick me off a bit but I guess she had trouble moving around in the car to check around her. After I buffed out most of the damage I told her to just forget about it. That's what I'm trying to do.
Last edited by Rivguy; 10-14-2018 at 08:36 PM.
Reason: unclear statement.
Phil, beautiful car. Love the period correct white walls! One thing about the wire wheels, they really show off the back axel that boasts no brake calipers. Had someone ask me once why it doesn't have rear brakes.
Rivguy, you are a true gentleman for letting the pregnant lady scrape slide. Yes you have a scrape but you know you did the right thing. You might try the tire dressing that makes tires shiny black. I use it on my bumpers and they look brand new.
I struggle a lot with hobby cars as an object of perfection versus just owning it and enjoying the car. In the past, I've found a lot more enjoyment in 'restoring/perfecting' than I have in just driving a car project. I have wasted a lot of time ruminating about someone else's careless acts when I try to actually use the car as transportation.
I'm really trying to enjoy the Jag without getting all **** about the condition of it. In my opinion, they're beautiful cars and a joy to drive, but you can't afford to sink a bunch of money in one and expect to get it back when you sell it (one car always seems to be the funding source for the next, and I try to be self sufficient in my automobile addiction/hobby, so selling it is an almost certain eventuality)
I've rationalized that cleaning up the paint work in the near future with some PDR for $400 is probably OK, and another $400 in materials sometime in the future to match and blend the fender is ok too (probably when I have a bunch of clear for another project anyway, and just have to buy base). But it is a slippery slope.
I am of the school of thought; Get the thing running safely (brakes, suspension bushings, steering, tires, alignment, etc), and thenDRIVE THE WHEELS OFF!
I don't drive any of my vehicles like they're made of glass!
I can't afford a Garage Queen so they're all Drivers.
Stuff happens to Drivers! Sometimes Serious stuff happens to drivers. Then I fix it and Drive them more!
There's just too much anxiety involved worrying about getting a scratch (I would be a bit ticked if someone actually HIT it though), it takes all the fun out of driving the car!
But that's just me.
(';')
That's a good attitude Lnr! I remember reading an article where the owner of a valuable vintage car was asked if he drove it much. He replied Yes. When asked, "What about if "something" happens to it?" He replied, "I restored it once, I can do it again!"
09-15-2018, 08:41 PM
Back in the Jaguar Fold
