Hello Friends,

A friend of mine has a ser1 xj6 long wheel base that is rather too far gone with the rear window and boot totally rusted out along with various dents etc that make the car too far gone for economic repair. Considering i can get a very decent series 2 xj6 shell from work for nicks ive been toying with the idea of bolting the series 1 front end on and swapping the front doors, boot etc along with bumpers and interior. Allot of work i know but the car owes him nothing and with a bit of work would be a decent car.

As far as i can tell the only real difference in the body its self is the cowl vent system in the fire wall and the dash, which should just be a matter of cutting and welding bits in and out. Does anyone know how much of the firewall is different and if there are any other differences between the shells that ive missed that would make this hard / impossible. Presumably the blower fans and ducting would need to be fitted to the fire wall but this does look too hard with a decent mig and a few days.

long wheel base series 1's are particularly rare so i would regard this as worth it at the end of the day.

Thanks,

Jay

 

Apart from the front end, there is a hidden major change, which is the Series 2 cars have a single-skin front bulkhead. It is all described in Paul Skilleter's excellent (and encyclopaedic) book on the Jaguar saloons published in 1980 by Haynes. This change was necessary to facilitate the change of heating and ventilation system from water-valve control to hot/cold air blending, plus a better air con system.

Essentially it is easier to make a Series 2 look like a Series 1 than the other way around, so you need much more than just the Series 2 shell, as the heater unit of a Series 1 won't fit into the Series 2. And as we all know, Jaguar start building a car with the heater at the start of the production line, and then build the car around it !!

 

:-) very good

 

Thanks boys,

By bulkhead I assume you are referring to what we call a fire wall, differences in common terminology can be a confusing but i suppose as the car is english its us down south who are butchering it!

Anyway, how hard do we reckon it would be to transplant the series 1 firewall / bulkhead into the car to make the system usable. if the basic layout / dimensions of the first skin are the same between series 1 and two it should just be a matter of unpicking the fan cowl / plenum under the windscreen and offering it up to the series 2 fire wall along with the outside air intake etc, does this sound reasonable. If the firewall of the series 1 has completely different dimensions / angle / size etc to the series 2 then this task may be impossible but if the footwells are the same with only the upper dash part being different i cant see it being a huge amount of work, although im a well known glutton for punishment.

The whole car is complete, registered and drivable and i was going to weld up the rust for him until someone stoved the rear quarter in and basically sealed the deal for the car. All the parts are there so its just a matter of cutting and welding.

Although i also own a series 1 ive never been far enough into it to see the heater ducting and fan plenum in person. I have got that far in plenty of series 2 / 3 cars, recently i rebuilt series 3 that had had a under dash fire so im well accustom to the series 2 / 3 heater set up.

If anyone has some pics of the bare series 1 under dash area ide love to see it.

Thanks,

Jay

 

I have seen, up close and personal, a Series II XJ6 Coupe conversion to a Series I. The interior had complete wooden trim on the door sills.
It was very nice looking.
Myself, I would change a Series II American export to a European version but to make a Series I conversion is really a lot of work....
If anything, I would recommend scraping the stock factory air system and install a Vintage Air kit.
You can set up the the air system to use a smart phone for the control panel.
That will eliminate any knobs.

http://www.vintageair.com

 

Here is the conversion. It also had a 4-speed overdrive manual transmission.
I was a Western National car show judge, in the last century.

 

That maybe a lot of work, but god does it look good! My two favorites in one car.

 

They could have deleted the side marker lights.....

 

Here are photos from my fun job in fixing a leaking heater matrix... had to pull it out and get it repaired as they are NLA (no longer available).

Let me know if you need any other views?