Hey I been looking around this forum for a month now but finally decided to sign up. But I just bout a green 1986 XJ6 less than a month ago for $750 from my dad's mechanic. Mind you this is my first car and I'm 18 so I never really noticed Jaguars like that until I got the offer on this car.

But I'm asking what you would recommend to make an XJ6 like new? When I first bought the car it was faded green and I bought some turtle wax polishing compound to remove oxidation and bring the color back and Nu Finish wax to bring the shine back. It has a few rust spots but from my reading its common for Jags to have rust after a while. The power steering hose popped two weeks ago but I fixed that on Friday as well as replacing the back bottom seat and driver bottom seat, right tail light lens, arm rest cover, and the horn.

The milage is at 110,000 on the meter but for some reason it doesn't add anymore numbers like its broken or something and I need to buy a hood ornament. But besides all that I don't know what to replace engine wise?

The car drives and handles like a beauty and its a beautiful car so I plan on driving it for some years with no problems and hopefully without replacing the engine so any advise on what I should do next would be wonderful! I'm working on replacing the wood dash and fixing the interior lights but thats gonna happen in due time. Thank you for reading this essay btw.

 

Just do a tune up. Typical stuff distributor cap, rotor, plugs, plug wires, oil & filter, fuel filter. Along with belts & hoses.
Jack up the car & support it of course one wheel at a time. Check for tire rod & ball joint wear & take a took at the pads & rotors, just to make sure they are not to worn.

If it runs & drives fine. Just do small maintenance & enjoy driving it & SAVE YOUR MONEY. Do not start replacing things until absolutely necessary(vanity wise). Because you will replace that leaper, then notice that the the grill looks old/scratched & does not look good with the leaper, then you buy the grill, then you notice the metal on the bumper, then the black on the bumpers, etc

This is known as shipwrights disease. Almost all "old daily drivers" fall into this category & it is EASY to get sucked into.
see explanation here.
http://1967tr4a.blogspot.com/2008/01...e-stage-1.html

 

Thank you for the response! I need a tune of most definatly I forgot to mention that the Jag stalls whenever its idle at a stop sign or when I put it in reverse out of the garage without adding any gas to the pedal. So i don't know what that could be but it seems to not do it as much when I add a little gas but i believe a tune up would fix that. Other than that it drives just fine thanks for the advice because I did make a list of a bunch of small stuff after another so that is helpful.

 

I agree with what espresso says. However since you are looking to bring it back to at least better condition, I would say in regards to the appearance make a of the big noticeable stuff. For instance the dash. Im assuming since you said you want to replace it, it's varnish is cracking. But to save money dont replace the dash, its real wood so sand off the old varnish (be careful the wood veneer is thin so dont sand more than is needed) and just re varnish it or treat it with an oil.

Being 18 I assume you are on somewhat of a budget. Im 18 and Im in that boat as well. So do the big stuff, then later in life (if you plan on keeping it) when you can afford to spend more money, you can get really thorough.

Oh by the way I am having the same problem as you with the stalling. Havent solved it yet, but I just knock it into neutral when it wants to stall.

 

After hours of research on the car, I recently bought an 86 XJ6 with 58,000 miles. So I understand your situation. My car was in good shape but needed a few things to make it a daily driver because it had not been driven in 10 years. New belts, hoses, spark plugs/wires all fluids, and a general check up of normal mechanicals are the first things that I updated. Now I am just driving it as much as I can to determine if anything else needs to be done. I hit all the grease fittings (12 or so of them) and found one to be broken off, which I replaced.
Less critical items like fuel sending units, front turn signal, ac compressor, etc are things that I plan to acquire over time. If you wait and be patient, there are deals to be had. I restored a 68 Chevelle with the same mindset and traded a lot of my old parts for better ones. Most of them were cost neutral once I sold the old parts.

 

sanding off the old varnish doesn't sound like a bad idea. i'll have to look into it. Jaguars are definatly a luxury car because you need a lot of money to maintain it. The power steering hose popped again a week later, but I finally got a brand new one instead of a used one taken from a old 86 Jag in a local car junk yard. The speedo meter doesn't move and the wind shield wipers decides not to move after i moved the lever it stopped half way and was stuck there.

I do plan on keeping the car instead of selling it for my dream car the 1966-69 Mustang but I kind of got attached to this Jaguar so I feel like I have to make it near perfect and RELIABLE. I've been searching the internet to find a lot of stories of Jags being the opposite.

 

Most of the "unreliable" things can be easily fixed by a DIY mechanic. Just cleaning all grounds, fuses, and electrical connectors will take care of 75% of the "reliabilty" problems.

Replacing parts that have worn out after 25 years of use is another matter.

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Bond258103

These certainly are a DIY car, trouble is there can be an awful lot of DIY work to do !

Be encouraged that most stuff is well within the capabiities of a home mechanic who has a good general collection of tools. Only caveat to that is the front springs. They are very powerful, and should only be removed using the correct Jaguar tool. Never go under a Jaguar unless you have raised it onto good strong ramps or blocks, the car weighs nearly 2 tons. You will need a good high lift jack for to raise it, but never trust the jack to hold it up.

My first recommendation is to buy the workshop manual, an 1" thick dark green book still available on the internet, and if you can find the parts manual as well that is even better. These two publications are mines of information.

When dismantling, take digital photos of layouts and where wires go, and so on. If you find shims and washers taking the brakes and suspension apart, put these back where they came from, as Jaguar arranged for virtually everything to be adjustable on these cars, unlike today. This is because the accuracy of the part fittings was not so good then, so skilled fitters assembled the sub-assemblies so they matched the specification