Thinking of buying a Jaguar conversion. Its a 1973 Jaguar XJ6 with a Chevy 350/350R conversion, a LS1 he says. Which is good because most of my mechanical experience is with those.

What should I be looking for and how much should I offer? Are there any big red flags I should worry about from a conversion like this?
He says he has the AC Parts, but how hard will it be to get it working in the Jaguar. Only known issue he listed is it needs a working fuel gauge, which shouldnt be difficult right? Ill attach some pictures.

I'm not set up to do major mechanical repairs or deal with major issues and would be buying the car hoping that most of the major work is done. I'm also hoping there are no major electrical issues as that is not my strong point.

 

lol, Skip this one if you're not a mechanic. This gives new meaning to the common refain "Some converters are done better than others" I wish I hadn't see this becasue it gives converts a bad look.
Household plumbing fittings were used on this one, no telling the other surprises that can be found elsewhere. Another red flag, that's not an LS1.

Quite a few other low quality local parts store items can be observed.

 

So it looks that bad? I honestly didnt know what I was looking for that was janky, but thats my concern. Im getting to old to deal with "Janky" these days. Kind of sad because I love the Jag look, but I dont want a car where loads of problems pop up all the time.

 

Sorry meant to say "LT1"

 

Its not an lt1 either unless its an old school first gen lt-1 but doubt that too.. i agree, steer clear!

 

Icsamerica is the expert here for conversion projects. The car has a wild paint job, the interior looks good. For our curiosity, what is he asking?

 

He is asking 7k

 

The seats do look nice in the pictures though and interiors cost a-lot of money for these cars so... 7k isnt that far off.... More like 4k IF it's a solid rust free body with no major repiars. AND you love the paint AND the seats are nice AND re are no other disasters. None of this is likely though and the car still needs thousands to make it right.

Here is what I would do if I was forced. The seats and interior look nice enough, I'd install and AJ16 or 90's LT1 with a auto or manual and paint the car black. Buy the car for 4K, spend 5K for engine and paint job, 2-3k for incidentals, You'd have a nice ride for 12k as mostly DIY a project that would keep you busy for a year or two.

That's the only way this works UNLESS you love the paint and just have to have it.
I'm making 2 big assumtions here... (1) the chassis is rust free and (2) the interior is as nice as it appears.

 

BTW, another poster asked about a conversion just last week. Scroll down, it is entitled "New to Vintage ownership need edvice". That posting had a lot of the answers you seek.

7k is not a bad price. I would guess he is loosing a bundle on it. Wonder how much bondo is under that nice paint.

 

Agree, there might be an LT1 part there somewhere. Lt1's are injected, not carb'd The ignition is off the nose of the cam. The odd path of the radiator hose does not look Lt1.

The air cleaner is inadequate. Major understatement.


That stripe and lettering would have to go...

And, if any emmsion tests are needed it would not pass most. IN CA it is exempt, or is it. Huge issue to resolve before money changes hands.

Carl..
ed hose is not lt1 located.

 

Besides all the foregoing, the first thing that screamed at me was the accursed Chevy HEI distributor cap.

Unless it's been modified to prevent the coil coming loose without warning and leaving the car Dead in the middle of the freeway somewhere, that's exactly what will happen; you'll be left dead in the middle of the freeway, perhaps in the middle of the night, or worse yet, out in the sticks somewhere. (I carry a spare cap for this reason)

I wouldn't give $7k for it, but I'm not fond of such garish paint jobs.
(';')

 

In case folks were curious, I went and looked at it. So the good was it runs pretty great and is super torque-y. No major mechanical issues found at all despite the kinda janky radiator hose pipes (Which are actually metal, not plastic house plumbing pipes). No leaks at all that I could find and I crawled under to look even. No rust at all that I could see, which being that this is an Arizona car, where I live, thats not surprising. Interior was very nice, missing the ac/heater controls but he did have all the parts as far as i could tell. The biggest probably was 2 things. The clearance on the rear wheels I could tell was hitting the rear fenderwells and Im pretty sure if you had 2 folks in the back it would definitely be hitting a lot more. The last major issue was it has what I like to call a 6 foot paint job, looks fine in the picture but it was a rolled on job, and the cowl he put on had a lot of cracking where it was bonded to the hood. There was also some kinda silly details that I would take off with a few of the emblems etc. I asked if he would consider lowering the price but he seemed pretty firm in the 6k-7k ballpark. There were minor things that needed to be done still, no fuel gauge, some of the wiring to the controls was a bit suspect or unfinished but everything functioned.

As for the conversion itself, it is an all custom job and was not done with a kit, but it had crazy beefy motor mounts for sure. I should have taken a picture to show you folks, but based on my limited mechanical knowledge (Shade Tree mechanic) it looked solid and well done on that part, had a beefy trans cooler installed as well. 3.73 gearing etc. To be honest, mechanically, I was pretty happy, all around, but body work wise it would have to be completely redone, while there was no bondo or anything from actual damage, where he filled the holes from the side reflectors etc was extremely noticeable etc, and like I said, the cowl would have to be completely redone. At the end of the day he was an extremely nice older fella though and he clearly had a lot of love for it so I didnt want to insult him by offering 4k.

 

If the owner told you it had 3.73 differential gears, I would be suspect. To my knowledge that is not a ratio offered for the Salisbury. That is a common ratio for the Dana 44 ring/pinion and oddly enough, they will fit in the Jag IRS, BUT the mounting bolt size is larger on the Jag.

Remember, he is selling it for a reason.

Dave

 

Custom built 1973 XJ6 with SBC 350 and TH350 Trans, 3.73 gears is what he said.

 

Rolled on yellow + garih stripe, enough, No sir.

but, I understand the owner's pride in his work and the car...

Carl

 

Seriously Owen, I'm not being overly critical of the gentleman's car, but just offering bits of information that might help make more sense of the car. Believe me, I have fallen in love with a car, before I've even seen it, and continued on to buy it only to look at it more closely in my garage and regret the decision. I'm a firm believer in the saying "the more you know...….".

Dave

 

Oof. Boy that color just took the Jaguar right out of her didn't it? Sorry, not my taste. Like the interior. Conversion looks meh/ low end. Why all the hanging wires from the dash and the gaping hole in the center console? Is the interior leather or vinyl?

If I were still doing conversions, I'd inspect the parcel shelf from the bottom for rust as well as the usual places. Personally, I can't get past the color and don't have the skills of Doug Dwyer to respray. Not worth more that $2-3K imo. Too much work to do on it to make it right as conversions go

 

This sport is not for the faint of heart or shallow pockets. That said, I like the $4k price suggestion. It will offset your discoveries when you bring it home.

 

Love the seats. Not a fan of the center stack, the yellow gauges (unless you're going to eventually do all of them in that color, and even then they don't look great with that particular color of wood on the dash), and as others have mentioned there are some things about the motor install that give me pause.

What this looks like to me is someone who wanted a conversion desperately, and who had a great idea, but not the resources to see it to fruition. That's not a fatal error if everything ends up working, but having no installed HVAC controls for me is a huge no-no. If HVAC is not important to you, go ahead, but one of the things we're all running into now, regardless of make/model, is HVAC control systems in all cars from about 1965-1995 are a weird combination of servos, vacuum diaphragms and hoses that eventually rot, but especially lose integrity due to the simple cycling of heat inside the car in the summer and cold in the winter. And none of those parts are being made by the manufacturers anymore. It's sort of like how everyone is starting to figure out that the first generation of GPS navigation from around 1995-2010 are starting to become outdated and non-updateable and as such are turning into black-screen bricks when they malfunction; HVAC integrity is the GPS navigation of the previous generation of cars. This is a concern for even the most pampered, garage-kept cars but obviously this car has seen far more tugging and pulling on its interior bits.

Biggest concern I would have as a future owner is its value is going to be pegged at whatever it's worth now, forever. That car isn't going to appreciate unless someone spends a lot of money getting it somewhat back to spec. Or at least closer than it is now.

Jess

 

Major areas to look at are rust around window rubbers front and rear. Gently lift up and have a look, especially in the corners. Front well wells also , often triggered by the foregoing. There should be diagonal braces over the engine , triangulating the guards with the centre of the firewall (perhaps the pic is just a point in time before they went back in?)

Restoring the original airconditioning system in the classic non trivial task for the inexperienced. Lots of good info in here but dont let anyone downplay the effort to make it work. The other area I would have a good look at is the rear suspension and brakes. Leaks or weeping are not good news as it often leads to the need to drop the rear sub frame and then a lot of while you are there work ensues. Costly if you are paying for it, maybe an enjoyable project if you are mechanically inclined and not in a rush.

That coolant hose would worry me. It betrays an attitude to the work that would put me off. That is not a difficult connection and there are so many products to make a tidy connection it seems a lot of effort has gone into doing it poorly. That would worry me for the rest of the car, but thats just me.