Series III - rear glass / headlining board part source
 

Hey all,

So my rear window has shattered (still in place in frame thanks to the recent tint job) but still completely spiderwebbed from corner to corner.

I have had great difficulty in sourcing the actual glass piece for replacement. All local window and glass shops say their providers do not have any such pieces. The parts car from which I was acquiring my parts recently just got sent to the crusher (despite having pristine glass all the way around!) so it's been a bad car luck week for me.

Has anyone had any luck finding nationally distributed glass source for these cars or am I doomed to trying to find a parts/salvage car with clean rear glass sometime soon?

I was also curious about getting opinion regarding the headlining board - since this happened, I thought I might as well tackle the headlining issue my car has had knowing that board removal is possible through the door frame but easier through the back window and since I don't have a back window right now... what better time?

In addition to the usual sagging of the material, my board has VERY severely warped (I'm talking 3-4" U shaped downward bend directly behind the sunroof apeture as well as more slight deformation around the edges).
I need an entirely new board - the only source I've been able to find for those is somewhat expensive for the part but RIDICULOUSLY priced once you account for conversion rates as well as shipping and customs costs (the only supplier I could find was Myrtle Ltd Daimler Jaguar XJ6/12, XJ40, VDP, Sovereign Replacement Headlining Board with Sunroof Apperture [Daimler Jaguar XJ6/12, XJ40, VDP] - £166.67 : Myrtle Productions, fine wood car interiors and luxury steering wheels )

their 166 GBP price is 266 USD - i expected around 200 for a new board but with the customs and shipping price it ends up being over 400 for the board which is WAY too much.

Again, finding a source for glass is FAR more important than finding a new board source but for the sake of convenience I thought it might be best to attempt to tackle them simultaneously.

Thoughts/suggestions would be much appreciated.

Found a beautiful piece of glass from david over at everydayxj, shipping it to Texas (since none of the local junkyards wanted to let me pull the glass from their cars).

I've also gone through the process of finding a reputable local shop willing to install glass I bring to them (including a new set of seals) and warranty their work. I'm trusting they will do high qualit glass installation work but I'm worried about their lack of specialty with jag body work, specifically all those nice, flexible little chrome pieces around the rear window.

Soliciting advice: ought I remove the chrome stylings around the rear window prior to taking it to the shop for installation?

If that would be a good idea, how do I go about doing that without doing damage and how do I re-affix them? I am not skilled at body work and have never removed any of the chrome pieces on the vehicle before. Thanks!

i cut the stainless window trim out so not to bend it and then gave it a good clean

I have the same headlining board dilemma. Does anyone make/sell this in USA?
Daniel

daniel,
the best option i've found is to go to a junkyard and pull one - there's one in dallas i'm going to go salvage next week - i've been assured it's at least straighter than mine - I pull it - $40. I'll probably just take the rearview mirror, the cant trails and the clips for the board as well while I'm digging upwards.

ebay occasionally has some in the US but even those are 200-400$ which is still really stiff once you add shipping for such an oblong package and consider that doesn't include material or anything for resurfacing.

local headliner shop will resurface with material install and remove old board for $200 total and he has quite a few years of experience with old jags being a UK native - what luck in Waco, Texas of all places.

hooter:
so you just used a utility knife or straight razorblade to pry/slice the trim from the rubber seal? I guess part of confusion stems from not even really knowing how the trim is attached leading to the obvious problem of not knowing how to remove and also not knowing how to refit.

How do you get it back on once it's off?

I cut my back window[and front] out with a filleting knife so the glass and trim came out as a whole, then cut out the stainless trim and cleaned off the rubber gunk on the trim with coarse steel wool and a bucket of soapy water, of course new rubbers were needed for refit
Richard

huge thanks to david boger at everdayxj who got me a back window shipped all the way from NC to TX in 3 days with no damage at a very reasonable price compared to other online retailers. had a new set of rubber surrounds ordered from Welsch and had a local shop (advance auto glass) install it for 60$ and guarantee the work even though I brought all the parts.

They also tinted the rear very dark and it looks great now.

It may be possible to repair the headlining using glass fibre and resin, then re-cover.
Use 3M high temp adhesive to stick the material on to the headlining.
For the cost of some glass fibre and resin it's got to be worth a go.