I changed my 5” outer headlights to 7” today
 

Nice, it looks normal now. 7" the only way to go. That is how the car was designed to look.

No debate! That's how it was supposed to look!

Be careful... it's a slippery slope.... next you will.want to put a vdp dash in, then the rear headrests, next comes the stainless sill plates, then the chrome speaker rings... it spirals out of control... lol
unless of course you already have a vdp, then it's a different list.... headlight wipers, etc... ;)

My move to 7's is sidelined. Most of what is needed is on my bench. but, sans the chrome finishers!! A biggie. I have a spare set of 51/4's and did a grind effort. Mt going well.

PTH. I kinda like the symmetry of all lamps equal across the front. Some folks say DOT mandated. I see it as a move to meet the trend of the times. ;

And, Danny, your car is a beauty with either,

Carl.

First of all, I am a garage voyeur and you have a really nice garage. And your car is spectacular. Now to the topic at hand, the 7" headlight conversion looks great. Americans have been conditioned to accept the 5.25" with an aluminum filler ring. Like having your sock twisted in your shoe, not right but if you ignore it long enough you forget about it. Stupid government regulations but glad they finally abandoned that rule.

Andrew at Jaguar Specialities has a very nice kit to convert to the 7". All you have to get locally is the 7" bulbs of your choice. The kit contains 7" plastic buckets, all the bits and pieces, and most importantly absolutely beautiful 7" trim rings. They even have the screen inserts for cars that have a fresh air intake there. I'm talking perfect, flawless rings. He told me the story that he came across a factory that said they could reproduce them so he gave them a set of original English rings for them to use as a pattern. Then waited and waited. Finally they had some samples for him to inspect; he said he couldn't tell the new reproductions from the originals. Great guy to deal with, great product and beautiful results. I highly recommend.

Jeff

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7accd01571.jpg
That's how I did mine too. Came out pretty good, I thought.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...f5af12f02e.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...09629c48ca.jpg
Did somebody mention a swap to a VDP car? Meet mine. With 7" headlights of course!!!

Dale- fine looking car there. How long ago was the 7" headlight conversion done???

The reason I ask is this car was converted with last version of the 7" headlight ring that Jaguar produced. That ring was made for cars in Europe that had headlight wipers. If you look closely at Dale's pic, at the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock spots you will see to big protrusions in the chrome. Those are the mechanical stops for the wipers. Jaguar actually produced about 5 or 6 different versions of the 7" headlight ring, but this type was the only one available from probably 10 years ago until production stopped 5 or so years ago.

Here is a closeup of our ring, a repro of the design without the wiper stops. You wouldn't know it had I not pointed it out, but there you have it. For our cars here in the US, we have no wipers so of course no need for wiper stops. (This isn't a great shot since it was done looking up at the car on the lift and gives the impression of a large gap at the top- that's not really there....)

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...b671b59dd9.jpg

And if you're really an XJ6 Series 1-2-3 expert you'll see something odd about this car. This is my 75 XJ6C that has Series 2 fenders, a Series 1 hood and grill, and Series 1 front bumper. And the turn signal is actually made from a rare Series 2 part that originally covered the European turn signal fender opening for US models (behind our big rubber bumpers)

Andrew,
If I remember correctly, I got them about 6 years ago from you at Jaguar Specialties.

This protrusions on the chrome finisher are not related to the Series III wiper system.these finishers with the protrusions were introduced at the very end of the Series III production in 1992 but at that point there were very few cars produced. I have been unable to determine the purpose of the protrusions (they have nothing to do with the wipe range of the wiper, nor the park position of the wipe). It remains a mystery. For the record, I have owned 8 of the 1992 cars and none had these nubbed finishers (and all had the wiper system) but I recall that the one-off Sovereign V12 built for the wife of a Jaguar executive in late 1992 had these nubbed finishers. The production of the Jaguar V12 ended in December 1991; all the cars. - save that "one-off" Sovereign V12 - were Daimler DoubleSixes - including the V12 Vanden Plas cars for Canada which were badged as Jaguars (but listed in the factory build records as Daimlers).
And why, at the very end of production, this change would be made is a mystery. A much more likely scenario is that the supply of the "normal" finishers was exhausted (this happened with other Series III parts in 1992) and a search was made for a substitute...but where did it come from?

The Jaguar lore is one of the things I love about out cars. You can bet that from now on I'll be looking at 7" finishers to see if they have the nubs and asking the owner about them.

As a matter of record, here are photos of my 1992 V12 Vanden Plas. This is car #92 of the last 100 built. I also owned car #100/100 but I do not have a photo of the front end (which was identical to this one - but nowhere near this car in condition. #100 came to me from Montreal - simpl;y filled with rust because of salt use on the streets. #92/100 in contrast was a Victoria car all its life and those familiar with this part of British Columbia know that we do not have "winter" as most people understand it. Snow? what is that? Salt on the roads? why?...so, you will note that even on this very late car the original headlamp surrounds are as the Series II and III surrounds always were - smooth, with no protrusions at 3 and 9 (this car is now in Beijing in a collection):


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...9c67adb15c.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...496830cf39.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...0a01512bf3.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...e680ee2bd4.jpg