Hello, very new to the forum. I just wanted a bit of advice really before I jump head first into a the minefield of jaguar.
I have been looking at a quite rusty, chipped paint, rotten interior 85 xjs for some time. It has a chevy sb and th350 that run well, it stops too. Has ac.

However, I am new to jags and the dual rear shocks, inboard rear brakes are quirky and i can see taking a lot longer to change. The body has rust spots in nearly every panel and I was hoping to sand down and weld up, maybe change out panels. I dont know where to get panels from or any of the interior pieces either.

This car would be a 15 miles a day daily, and slowly restored to a standard clean look.
Any advice as the chance to buy is about to slip away.

 

pass. theres plenty of cheap jags out there without a ton of rust.

 

^^ What M90 said !


You can buy a decent driver quality XJS for wayyyyyyy less than buying a shoddy car and repairing the rust, re-trimming the interior, etc

Cheers
DD

 

its cheaper to buy one that doesnt run and isnt rusty, than to buy one thats falling to pieces but runs good.

 

if you wanna buy a beater XJS to have when your not DD'ing your nice XJS, then thats fine. but dont ever try to restore a ruined jag.

 

I do appreciate the opinions. I like the idea of the Jag style and cheap reliable chevy power. The car is going for less than 2k. However, I have seen good condition cared for xjs examples with low miles for 2.5k so, i suppose If i purchased one of these, I could swap power plant later on.

This is all based on how affordable chevy parts are, and my knowledge of them. Having a large jag engine to me is a bit scary if i want reliable every day. Am i just listening to the stereotype?

 

There's certainly some truth to the horror stories.

An older Jag CAN be reliable but it takes some effort to make one that way and keep it that way. These are not "drive it and forget it" cars. Adding to the inherent quirks is the fact that most have been outright neglected, leaving a new owner with a "fix it" list that has been growing for years.

Cheers
DD

 

well...... engine components for Jags arent very expensive. the downside is you can only really get them online.

theyre not uber reliable cars because of the Lucas. wiring is the biggest issue. the only thing your going to achieve by having a V8 XJS is that youll have eliminated any faults in the EFI system. that still leaves all the chassis wiring to go wrong.

 

XJ-Ss with any rust are really not worth saving.

XJ-Ss with bad interiors are really not worth saving.

XJ-Ss with Chevy swaps are really not worth saving.

This car has all 3.

The rust thing especially dooms it to the scrapyard. There are no panels to swap in, you'd have to find a donor car...and at that point, just buy the donor and run that. Brakes are cheap and the fact that they are present and work is not a selling point at all. To get a bad interior just to the "presentable" level will cost more than the car will ever be worth. This car sounds like it would have only been salvageable as a parts car, but then someone went and put that motor in there, blowing that out of the water.

I am still waiting for someone to prove to me how dropping a couple grand on swapping GM junk into a Jag, de-valuing the car by about 50%, all while retaining all the troublesome bits around the engine is saving anyone any money. "Trouble-free"? Add up all the hours you have into keeping that awesome V12 running and you'll still have less than the amount of "trouble" you put into swapping in a GM engine. This does not apply to M90, of course.

If you want a Corvette, buy a Corvette. At least you'll have less rust problems.

D

P.S. One day I'm going to pull the V12 out of my parts car and swap it into a Corvette.

 

Back in the day, when many of these cars were much younger and still in good condition, lots of owners found themselves with a dead engine (overheating damage, usually) and were faced with $5-7k for engine repair or $10-12k for a full overhaul.


So....it was throw away a nice Jag, spend $5-12K on a car worth $6k, or spend $2500 on a quickie Chevy swap and enjoy the car again.

That was the rationale of most Chevy swaps years ago. Most of the swaps were rudimentary and used plain jane old style carb'd engines

Nowadays some spend wayyyyy more than that on a really nicely engineered and executed swap with a modern Chev V8. More power, better economy.

You're quite correct that replacing the engine doesn't address any of the other reliability/repair issues on these cars.

Cheers
DD

 

Well it seems the voice of reason has whispered in my ear. There really is so much to do to get it reasonable. It doesnt make any sense . Anyone know of a nice jag for sale in south florida?

 

lol, i really dont have that much work into mine. ive just cleaned the V like you suggested, and slapped some paint on there. the most time i had invested was spent troublshooting and getting nowhere, rather than repairing. and ive only got a couple hundred quid at most in replacement parts.


the only engines that i could possibly see worth swapping into an XJS are an L67 supercharged 3800 (less weight than a 350, far more economical, and more power), a turbo 3800 grand national engine (less weight and even MOAR POWER), a 6.0 out of a DB7, and of course the 6.0 out of an XJRS or late XJS.

theres no point in putting a less powerful, higher displacement, lower compression, less economical 350 in an XJS.

 

In all seriousness I want to take my spare engine and put it in some sort of hotrod Chevy. We know they don't look like much from the top, but what do you think of the V12 backed up by a 5-speed in a '36 Chevy fiberglass kit car, with the side hood panels removed? Need to fab some sort of cool looking 6-pipe header with lake pipes since that'll really be all you can see of the engine from the side anyway. That and a badass intake.

And then figure in the Jag IFS and IRS...oh, boy...I think I have my next project car...hell, even Jag seats bolt to a flat floor...

D

 

License plate: NOPOSSBC

NOTA350

ITCRNRS2

 

HA!

 

somebody beat you to it. 23' T bucket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9kWGPHhP-A

 

"Cool" with a capital A-W-E-S-O-M-E.


Just priced out street rod kits...I could get 7 more XJ-Ss for one kit I'd have to put together myself...

 

No but I know of one in North Texas that will be going up for sale soon.

 

I'll probably try to sell mine as soon as I get it back from the paint shop also.

 

What are the vital statistics on this Jag in North Texas - yours?