I'll just give a link to PhotoBucket and see if there are any comments.
http://s1262.photobucket.com/albums/...S%20V12%20RHS/

http://s1262.photobucket.com/albums/...S%20V12%20LHS/

http://s1262.photobucket.com/albums/...r%20XJS%20V12/

 

link no work.

 

Link does not work.

 

Links work now, that's a lot of work, I'm not surprised that wine was involved!

 

Absolutely superb job, and incredibly brave to tackle it, too. The shell I cut up and scrapped was not nearly as bad as that, and it was quite beyond my bodywork skills. Real congratulations. Real quality execution, too.

One small point, Miss North America (or Miss France) never turned up when I was in my garage!

Greg

 

Wow, great job.

A hell of a lot of hard work.

Fancy a camping holiday in France? Discount rates offered to itinerant welders carrying XJ40 sill and wing sets.

 

Very impressive to tackle that amount of restoration and a superb result.

With all the rot on the sills and floors, it's amazing it hadn't folded in half!

Graham

 

@R44

Amazing job. It makes me extremely glad I have a US dry state car as I have enough things to do on it without having to replace half the body !!

How long has it taken so far ? Any ideas of the no. of hours ?

 

Impressive!

 

Thanks for the encouraging comments. I haven't tracked the hours, it went in the garage February 2011 but work has not been constant. I quickly got on with the left side and never intended to do the right at the same time. Eventually I had to admit that I would never do it if I didn't do the whole job in one go. As it turned out the right was even worse than the left. There were things I never guessed would be so bad like the radiator cross member which simply didn't exist any more! Now I can store it in the garage and the fact that I practically immersed it in WaxOyl I'm hoping it will go on for years now.
I do have a problem though, the engine was fine when it went in but I burned the loom where it goes over the wheel arch to the ECU and now it doesn't run properly. If I haven't got it figured out in a week or so I'll post separately.

 

Sorry to say you will have to bite the bullet and stitch in 100% new wires as required to reliably fix this, IMO. Just in case someone as accomplished as you is not sure how, this is what I would do:

Pull the rear quarter trim (with the rear speaker in it) and rear seat, remove the plug from the ECU, and carefully feed/pull the thick ECU loom (you will see it coming downfrom the wheel arch top) into the rear of the car just until you can see the bad bit. It goes though a big grommet on the wheelarch top, so you may need to ease it through that bit carefully with an arm up the wheelarch from the rear (any stockman will know how to do this!!).

You may be lucky and just need to re-insulate a few wires, but all in all it is a doable job, even if you have to stitch in new wires for some. I tell you there is always another hurdle, I now have a suspected slight head gasket leak!

Greg

 

Thanks Greg, done all that! I'll post it separately if it's not fixed in a week. I had melted the PIP signal co-ax and the Orange/White which drives A2,A4,A6 but internally connects to all the other A injectors too. See the pics, I also had all the power transistors out of the ECU and they test fine. I've currently got the injectors out and they all work too! I tested every wire from the ECU to the front for continuity and earthling, all OK. I'm going low tech now and replacing the plugs and leads. A good friend told me it will be the last thing I look at but she declined to tell me what the last thing is or I would look at it first.
Good luck with your suspected slight head gasket leak, I don't even want to think about that. Cheers, Mark.

 

Oh yes, I love the stockman similarity. At least they don't have to deal with sharp bits of MIG wire sticking through the intestinal, or other, wall.

 

Talking of sharp bits, just after I had finished fitting the front wheelarch baffles, having been going perfectly the car started going badly, showing all symptoms of a failed TPS. Anyway changed the TPS, no change. Then I got to thinking, 'what have I done recently?' So I looked at my old chassis and saw where the ECU loom crossed the (UK) driver's side footwell. About where the baffle screws went through it. Unscrewed a baffle screw and all was well! Ground it down and reinserted it. Job done.

So maybe, just maybe, if where you repair it does not do it, have you put a screw in somewhere else?

Greg

 

Damn, this was one rusty bucket! I thought I had to dig the deepest with my '82, but you sure take the prize. How much did you pay for this car, or they paid you?

P.S. You girlfriend is hot...

 

Greg, that's interesting thanks. Of course I did a lot of welding in both footwells, well I did a lot of welding everywhere really! I haven't done any on the roof yet, I must check there ..... anyway I'll investigate that area too.
Mish_Mish, yes it was bad, it had spent much of it's life in Yorkshire where it never stops raining. I've had it since 30 March 2004 and paid about £4000 (40 refuels in the UK), I ran it for a few years blissfully unaware of the decomposition that was going on. I've been lucky getting loads of Jaguar panels at quite reasonable prices on eBay, I only bought a few from retailers such as the outer and inner sills and floor pans.
Regarding your last comment, I'll let her know :-)

 

We bought our '82 in 2001, for $1500, which was about 55 fill ups, back then
A year ago, I was lucky enough to buy rear half of southern car, with doors, front axle and bunch of little things for about $500, otherwise my old Yeller would have gone to junkyard. My wife (not as hot as your GF), told me that if I do not fix it this year (last year that was), I'd have to junk it
So our XJS is my learning to weld toy, since it is about worthless on US market, I can practice, mess it up, come back and redo things and not worry about it. My skill is of course is nothing like yours, but I am trying. I have post here with my progress, will post some new pics there in a minute, so you could see it on first page.
P.S. My '62 MK2, is another story, she is in restoration shop being done properly...

 

She purrs once more.



After checking all the wiring , the transistors in the ECU, all the sensors, all the injectors and only getting 9 cylinders working I went for the basics. 12 new plugs and leads and she's sweet.

 

Out for a wash and some more shiny bits to be fitted.

 

All I can say is outstanding workmanship!! car looks wonderful