There's a 88 'vert an hour away for $500. I'm thinking the 200mi tires are worth that.

I'm just wondering if you all would strongly suggest that I buy it to strip parts and stash away for the future. Then I could tell HER that I'd be crazy not to, everyone agrees on JF! You know, to counter her "are you crazy?"

 

Absolutely. Just imagine what it would cost to replace a windshield if you caught a rock on the highway. You'd spend $500 easily on that and no telling how long it would take to find a windshield when you actually needed it. The fuses, switches, headliner board, etc... are worth their weight in gold. These cars aren't Toyota's or Chevy's. Any time you can spend a nickel to save a dollar is smart insurance.

 

Do you have a place to store the spare car?

The value of a parts car can diminish if it's left out rotting in the elements, and the 'are you crazy' factor is going to increase if she has to look at what she might consider a 'heap' every day.

Clearly, there is more than $500 worth of parts on the car, but the impracticality of having a non-running car taking up valuable space might alter the economics.

If that's not an issue, go for it.

 

I agree with Mac.

But....

How's the rest of the car? Much paint damage?

Depending how bad things are you might be able to bring it back to life....if the will was there. I've dealt with some engine fire jobs. Some were pretty easy, actually.

Cheers
DD

 

Hey Paul . . . some great advice here and not surprising it's divided. If like my own experience, Murphy's Law may dictate that what takes the longest to dismantle, or is clumsiest to store, you will never use. When we left the farm, years and years of accumulated Jag parts went out the door and I vowed I would never again collect parts and sub-assemblies . . . just build bigger sheds and collect whole cars! (LOL).

My advice mirrors that balance of opinion, but agrees firmly with the warning from Mac Allan . . . if you haven't got good lockup storage, either for the whole car or parts you strip, then forget it. Too many of the mechanicals are going to be in worse condition than your current car, and any out in the weather body parts soon will be worse too.

Cheers,

Ken

 

Hood is done for. Body straight good champagne paint. Interior very rough but all there. Top looks sound. All this from pics. Haven't been to see it yet.

Fire was brief, 10 mins he says and it was out. Engine and trans good pre fire. Car was being run but not driven at the time of the fire.

I think it's restorable, but full interior needed in addition to burn fix.

 

I didn't have room to keep my donor car forever so I decided to 'pick it clean' and dispose of the carcass. I removed everything I knew I had to have for the conversion ....plus tons of other stuff.

I can tell you that non-destructively dismantling a car can be very time consuming as you dig deeper and deeper.

Cheers
DD

 

If you are interested in this car to restore, you are asking for trouble big time! However if you want it for parts, you can pick up a non running, fire free car for under $1,000 in most places. I have bought and dismantled 15 of them and I can tell you this, nothing is so easy as it seems and there is no such thing as a cheap XJS. Too many people make this mistake then buy what they think is the deal of the century. I address this in my book(How to buy an XJS) which gives you the cost to replace and repair many items you can see and test when inspecting a car. Plus how to instructions.

LeRoy

 

I bought a XJS parts car. I stripped the parts I needed and sold the rest. But what I learned ripping in to the car was priceless. Before I stripped it I got all the electric working. That was priceless. The best Jaguar learning experience for me.

 

I bought my E-Type back from USAA for $75.00 It was a Crispy Critter! Sold hood, motor, transmission, and rear end. Probably netted $3000 as I remember, 1970ish. Told buyers to bring tools and do the stripping.

 

Whew???


Ten minutes of an under bonnet burn can do a lot of damage. And, the method of extinguishing it. Water!!!! Dry powder!!!!


But, more than likely fixable, at what cost, is the $$$


Carl

 

I am in the process of restoring a cheap XJS that had an under hood fire. If you intent is to restore the car then you had better have a good sized garage to work in and the willingness and ability to work on every system in the car. On my project I am going thru everything to assure that everything is in the best possible condition when I am done. You will find that you will need to replace every body mount, rubber component, belt, hose and a whole bunch of stuff that you hadn't planned on.
It takes a lot of time to put the necessary work into the project so your significant other may not be okay with being alone all of the time. My wife no longer minds the time I am spending as it means she will get her house back soon. I have the interior and exterior bolt on parts in the house. I have all of the glass in the spare bedroom for safety. That did not go over well.
Anyway, my advice is to be 100% committed to the project before purchasing the car. If you only intend to part the car out you still need to have a lot of space to work on the car and then store all of the parts.