Gentlemen,

Thank you for accepting my membership.

I'm in Brazil and I have recently bought a 1974 XJ12L. It's an Euro version, silver gray with blue interior, and with 50.000 km. It's been poorly resprayed, but the interior seems to be original.

It's pretty nice, though it needs some attention: Jaguar XJ 12L 1974 . Pastore Car Collection (pastorecc.com.br)

It was a childhood dream, that I delayed fulfilling because of all the horror stories I always heard about Jaguar mechanics.

To me it's one of the most beautiful cars ever designed, And I did own some pretty fancy cars in my life!

To get to the point, my car has a power sunroof that is not shown in the service manual. And I could not find anywhere online another series 2 with such a sunroof.

BUT 20 XJ12s (and 110 XJ6s) were sold by the official dealer in Brazil in the 1970s, and among the very few survivors, there are 2 other XJ12Ls with the same sunroof.

The 3 cars have this same switch, which is the same Lucas switch used to move the convertible top on the Corniches.

There is NO chance these sunroofs were installed in Brazil, we only had that technology in the 1990s. And there is NO chance that these Lucas switches were available here.

And it can't be a coincidence, like all three owners had the same idea. The sunroofs were likely installed when these cars were still together, that means, when new.

Do you guys have any explanations? Have you ever seen this before?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Rafael.

 

I'm not an authority on the matter but I am not aware of Jaguar installing any sunroofs on any model during that era. A sunroof may have well been listed as a "factory option" but I'm 99% sure that Jaguar sent such cars to an off-site installer for the sunroof installation. Afterwards the car would be returned to Jaguar for completion and then sent off thru normal distribution channels.

It's plausible that the dealer or distributor in Brazil arranged to have sunroofs installed before the cars ever travelled across the ocean. This might've been done in agreement/connection with Jaguar or entirely apart from Jaguar.

Import/export cars of the era often had "Port installed" equipment. As soon as the cars come off the ship (or while waiting to be loaded onto the ship) a contracted installer is tasked with adding equipment. Air conditioning, sunroofs, pin stripes.....whatever.

Let's hear what others have to say.

Cheers
DD

 

I agree with Doug's suggestions on the probable outsourcing of the sunroof system to outside contractors.
Jaguar had a history of special modifications for pre ordered cars.
And there were many "dealer options" available.

 

Hello,
My 1976 Series 2 has an ADDED sunroof that hasn't worked that I know of since it was installed, Long before I got the car in 2013. In fact, the seller specifically and emphatically told me, DON'T OPEN THE SUNROOF! and, as I don't like sunroofs anyway, I haven't tried.

My switch is different than yours, being mounted on the inside of the roof, thus:




That round plug covers a hole for an emergency crank, which surprisingly, I got with the car!


This is what the installation looks like from outside. Not bad work actually, no dimples or anything.
(';')

 

The XJR and the three Series 3 VDP’s are the only cars we’ve owned with sun roofs and they get used all of the time - as long as it’s not raining or snowing - even in the winter. What would be even nicer would be if they were glass panels rather than steel but that’s a small nit to pick.

 

Gentlemen,

In was able to make the sunroof work, the motor was frozen, and now I can see this tag with the name of the manufacturer.

So it was installed in the UK when the car was new, before being shipped to Brazil.

Thank you all for your input and Happy Holidays.