I have begun to think everyone who keeps/works on/restores "Elderly" cars needs help; maybe sometimes even Intervention.

The problem is the space to put the thing, or even a small lift. Husband tried to make a halvsies deal with a neighbor who has an Enormous shop building, who mentioned he would like to have a lift too, but nothing has come of it and I don't really expect anything will.
(';')

 

Just both suspension assemblies, doors and wings left. May just cut the backs of the doors to allow access to the door hinges and leave the wings as they have some rust on.

Also separated the transmission from the engine. Stripped the pipes and cables off the transmission and removed the lower plate and oil filter. Is it worth salvaging the valve body or anything else from the transmission?

Next thing is to start cutting various sections out of the body....fire up the plasma cutter!!

 

Well the decimation has begun.
Every nut and bolt has been stripped finally!
Engine, transmission, four doors and both front and rear suspension were a relative breeze to remove.

Time to start cutting....

Firstly a "before" pic





Doesn't look too bad....







Where's the petrol tank gone??? (removed first!! Actually in good condition)







Ah, that's where I left my tea, just behind the sill??







Flintstones mod!










I thought there was an engine somewhere in there....









Looking for the other petrol tank.





I removed the rear wings and arches complete with a section of the inner arch. So that may make it easier and a better fit.


Sad to see the old girl being reduced to bits but they will got to a good cause.

Any requests for parts or panels? I will put an ad in the appropriate place on the forum but if anyone wants bits cut out now is a good time to say.

 

Wow, this is a huge task to tackle solo. Are you planning to strip to bare metal and treat wit some type of rustproofing? How about sound damping material?

 

No, this is the donor car for my XJC. The XJC is far rustier!!!! THe reason I'm cutting various bits out of the car is that some of the sections are unobtainabke (e.g. front scuttle, chassis below rear windows etc) and will avoid a lot of untidy fabrication.

Plans are to completely strip the XJC to bare metal, undo the bodges, weld in lots of new panels and some recovered panels if good enough, priming with epoxy as I go along. Hopefully there won't be much rust left by the time I've finished. I've tried all sorts of treatments including POR-15 (best on surfaces which can't be cleaned down to completely clean metal, 2K epoxy primer best on clean or sand blasted metal , I haven't found a rust converter or remover which I completely trust but I'm currently experimenting with citric acid or de-oxit.

Then prime inside and out with epoxy primer, fill, sand, prime again, fill sand, prime, paint. Depending on my facilities at the end stage I would like to do the final paint myself but may sub it out after I've done the priming and preparation.

For the sound proofing I am going to follow the original Jag methodology but substitute modern materials.

For the seams I'm planning to prime with epoxy or POR-15, seam seal with a polyurethane sealant and prime and paint on top then Dinitrol or similar. Most of the areas will be accessible either by design or where I will have to cut out sections.

I'm also planning to restore both front and rear suspensions.

I intend to completely restore the XJC to better than new and then gradually bring the external trim and interior up. So far I've got 5 grills (one that's in mint unused condition, 2 1/2 sets of bumpers. All the required body panels (except the floor pans, which I will buy). seats from a series 3 (which I will vandalise to re-cover the XJC seats, I've got the original XJC seats, and the state of the leather on the donor was so bad that I scrapped them. I plan to make them electric and heated as well!)

The engine from this (2-3000 miles since a complete rebuild at VSE) will go in after fettling. The wooden dash will be restored and lacquered. Re-trim headlining, weld new metal to replace aftermarket sunroof, re-vinyl roof.

I'm still deciding on the final colour, but jaguar Lemans blue is favourite at the moment (the original colour is blue) but I think the metallic blue will show off the curves better.

It will be a huge project, but it's the car I've always wanted!! It will be slower (especially as I can't work for long periods due to health problems) than a professional restoration but hopefully to as good or better standard with all the knowledge and experience I'm gaining.

If I had £20-30k to spend I'd buy a fully restored car but even then I'd want the proof that it had been done properly. I sometimes see "restored" cars with rust and paint problems coming through a couple of years after.

My friend says he's never seen a car picked so clean!! It'll probably fold up when we load the remains on the loader!!

Things I would like to do is find a 5 speed manual conversion kit at a cheap price and a limited slip diff, maybe I'll buy an 3.6 xjs manual and strip the bits from that.

At the moment the plan is to strip and store the parts from this (got two garages full already!) and then complete the semi-restorations on my Saabs.

 

End to the painful pictures!






The final remains of the shell, well and truly gutted. I added a "sunroof" as well!














Some of the panels salvaged, at least some good will come out of it.


At least that's the end of the pictures for those of us with a nervous disposition.
Next stage is to put the bits into storage until I'm ready to start the long road to restoring the XJC.

 

Look at it this way:
You've saved everything you can, it's not being crushed and/or shredded.

You like a good hamburger or sausage pizza? An animal had to die for that to happen. And the world continues to go around.
(';')