Hi everyone,

So I am shopping around and see a jag that I would like to take up as a project. It is being sold as a 1970 Jaguar XJ6. Since it is a 350 conversion I cant just look at the engine. So, upon looking at it, the front grill has a jaguar head, a huge "V" and written out "twelve". Now, I am just assuming that they swapped out grills at some point, but also the back of the car only indicates a XJ, no 6 or 12 back there. The VIN is j701l54293bw. IDK, if that helps anyone here, but any pointers to give me as to what this may actually be?

 

Do you have some pictures? Is it 4 door or 2 door?

The VIN you supplied isn't a valid VIN for any model of Series 1's. Look for the VIN number on the right side of the body under the hood, by the battery or on the driver side towards the front of the windscreen.

Look at the following link. It has all of the VIN information for these cars. If you scroll down, you'll see the decoders for Series 1, 2, and 3 XJ6's of all models.

VIN Decoding @ Jaguar Forums

 

Thank you for all your help! I will look for the VIN and decode it with that page. It is a 4 door. This is the only pic I took when I took a look at it.https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0&usp=gmail#my-drive

 

Your link doesn't open an image on Google Drive ........

Graham

 

I'm going to say that you're looking at a Series 1 XJ6 SWB. As you may know, most of XJ6's are called L's. That stand for long wheel base. Towards the beginning of the XJ6's years, they had 3 models: a short wheel base (referred to as XJ6 or XJ6 SWB), a long wheel base (referred to as XJ6L or XJ6 LWB), and a coupe (referred to as XJ6C or XJ6 Coupe). I'd say the grille is refitted from an XJ12 or something like that.

So it's probably an XJ6 (SWB). Nonetheless, you don't see a ton of them as they only made them for the Series 1 production run. It'd still be cool to see a photo. Please post one on here and I'll confirm for you!

 

Series 1 v12 grills are rare. Odd...it found its way to your car. the 1L in the vin suggest it was originally a XJ6

Is there an emissions plate / sticker on the hood?

Is the rear limited slip. V12's got limited slip.

 

Yes, icsamerica has some valid points. According to the Series 1 XJ6 VIN reference sheet, it started at 1L.50001. So I'll agree with him in saying it is a LHD XJ6 (SWB however) with a 4.2 XK inline 6 engine originally. The only reason I don't say it's a LWB is because those began with 2E instead of 1L.

 

Thank you everyone! So we can all agree its an XJ6, which is cool with me. The odd thing is that I got the title. It is the same VIN as I put in my original post. I checked the under the drivers windscreen for the VIN plate. Nothing. Checked the sides of the engine bay. Nothing. Checked the inside of all 4 doors. Nothing. Thoughts? Suggestions? Honestly, it doesnt really matter as far as I am concerned it is Im just really curious now what is going on. :-)

 

How do I tell if it is a limited slip? Couldnt find an emission slip, either.

 

If you lift the hood, you'll see two tubes bolted into a triangle with the point at the centre-rear of the engine bay. These strengthen for whole front of the car. You should find a number stamped on the horizontal metal near the central mounting point. At least that is my memory of my Series 3 car.

 

1970 is before the VIN system was adopted by Jaguar. Prior to that, vehicles were identified by Chassis Number.

The number you have on your vehicle ( J701L54293BW ) breaks down as follows:

J = Jaguar
70 = Model Year 1970
1L54293 = Chassis Number
BW = Borg Warner Automatic Transmission

This is an extract from JDHT (Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust) chassis number records for the period.



In column 5 you will see the Chassis Number 1L54293 relates to a Series 1 4.2 Litre SWB (Short Wheel Base) LHD (Left Hand Drive).

In row 4 you will see 1970 vehicles began with Chassis Number 1L53223 and 1971 vehicles began with 1L58447. Annual production of this specification for 1970 was [58447 - 53223 = 5225 vehicles]. This indicates your vehicle will have been produced around March of 1970.

Graham