While I love 'Cherry Blossom' almost more than Life itself, there are a couple of things that could be improved.

On my 1989 XJS the Knee Pad under the Dashboard is quite thin.

Which results in plenty of 'Leg Room' and makes it very easy to swivel your right foot onto the Brakes.

Not so on 'Cherry Blossom' Which is a 1990.

Where no doubt for reasons of Safety, this Knee Pad has been replaced by a Thickly Padded Under Tray.

Which very often hampers swiveling my Right Foot onto the Brakes, as its easy to catch it with the toe of your Shoe (I'm an average size 9)

So since I had to drop this Tray in order to get to some Wires, I experimented by removing it altogether.

Which results in Acres more Space and also making the Car feel much Safer to Drive, at it is so much easier to get to the Brake Pedal.

Though on the other side of the Coin, then I would imagine that Knee Pad would provide some much needed Protection in the event of a Crash.

Thoughts please Guys.



Loads more Leg Room on my 1989 XJS thanks to the Thinner Knee Pad.
Making it very easy to get to the Brakes without catching your foot.

Not so on my 1990 where the Thicker Under Tray Knee Pad gets right in the way.



This Thicker Under Tray Knee Pad on my 1990 always seems to get in the way of getting to the Brakes!

Just as an experiment I decided to remove it altogether (just one bolt and 2 clips)

This resulted in Acres of Space which makes it so much easier to get to the Brake Pedal and as such feels Safer to Drive.

Though no doubt in the event of a Crash, I would probably wish that I had left it in place.

Anyone else had a similar dilemma?



Loads more room to get to the Brakes in my 1990 with the Knee Pad Under Tray removed but should I put it back?

I'm also not a Big Fan of the 'Skinny Steering Wheel' on my 1990 and much prefer the 'Thicker Sports Wheel' of my 1989.

Unfortunately they are not interchangeable, as you would have to swap the whole Steering Column.

Which would then leave me with 'My Pet Hate' 'The Coat Hanger Wire' Type Indicator Stalks!

The Indicator Stalks on my 1990 are Chunky and have the right feel.

Nicer Problems to have...........

Well maybe not so much Home Made as a Tool I adapted to do the Job.

To say that they are Awesome! is a bit of an understatement and since I'm finding it hard to be humble, I won't even bother to try.

They are really that good!

Having ordered a pair of Ratchet Crimpers and not being an Electrician, I didn't take much notice of the 'Crimping Die'

Where I found out the Hard Way, that they would not be any good to use for Crimping Insulated Terminals.

As you can imagine I was gutted!

The reason being I wanted to do my Stereo installation with a more Professional piece of Kit.

So in the end I had to make do with my 'el Cheapo Crimpers' and though they sort of did the Job.

I would have like the end result to have looked a bit neater, although the Wires are out of sight and can't be seen.

But then I suddenly had an idea!

That I thought I would try, as some time ago I bought a pair of Wire Strippers.

These as you'll see from the Photo, have an Adjustable Screw to adjust the gap, so you only strip the Insulation.

So once I had used them to Strip the Wire and then slid an Insulated Terminal on.

I put the Wire with the Terminal under the Adjustable Screw of the Wire Strippers.

Then as I squeezed the Handles together, the Adjustable Screw in the Wire Strippers, made a very neat and tight round 'Crimp'

And as you can adjust the Screw beforehand, it means that you are able to Pre-Set the depth of the 'Crimp'

So it would work with the Blue-Yellow and Red ones and can be Crimped in Two places if required.

As the Strippers are Spring Loaded, I just used an elastic band to hold the handles together while taking the Photo.



A Standard pair of Wire Strippers with an Adjustment Screw.



After using the Strippers to Strip the Wire, I slid on an Insulated Terminal (in this case a joiner) and then used the Adjustment Screw to set the depth of 'Crimp'




The end result was a very pleasing tight round 'Crimp' that does what it says on the tin.
and so much better than I got with my 'el Cheapo Crimpers'

With Words like 'This Won't Take Me Long' Still ringing in my ears, I set about the job of Changing the Front Shock Absorber Bushes.

On my XJS V12 that I call 'Cherry Blossom'

But why would I want to do that on a Car that passed an MOT with Flying Colours.

Well just in case you hadn't guessed, they forgot to check them and I was so excited to get her back on the road.

That I was in denial that they might need doing after a lay up of only 17 years!

As after all She drove like a dream down the Two Lane Black Top but once back on an 'A Road'

She was bumping and grinding like a Wooden Ox Cart, on a Mountain Road.

But replacing the Front Shock Absorber Bushes is such an easy job, that there wasn't any reason for not doing it sooner.

Though when the problem started to raise its ugly head, I thought that it might go away, once the Suspension was moving again.

After such a long time.....

Although I was still in denial and of course kidding myself.



Behold the Crumbling Bush beneath the Washer.

So before I took the Old ones off I decided to 'make' some replacements of my own, as this is very easy to do.


With a Standard 'Hole Saw' and whatever type of 'Material' you decide to make them from, which in my Case was a Scrap Piece of Hard Rubber.




This Piece of Hard Rubber looked ideal for the Job and should make her Corner like a Go Kart.

Just one little problem the Rubber was too thick, so I had to cut them down to Size 16mm.

I just filled a Socket with Washers until it was 16mm deep, then stuffed the Bush in the Socket and using that as a guide, chopped a bit off the end.



Cutting my 'Home Made Bushes' down to 16mm




Using the Socket as a Guide, I was able to cut them Spot on to 16mm

After which I set up a little production line and made the whole lot in about an hour.



The Old ones had seen better days and were very clearly 'Shot Away'

If you thought that those were bad, then just look what I found underneath the Wing/Fender.



Underneath the Front Wing/Fender, the Shock Absorber Bushes were almost Non Existent.

Now all that I have got to do is remove the Old Ones and put my New Ones on.

It usually takes about an Hour for me to do both sides, so how hard can it be?

What do you mean THREE DAYS! You must be Joking

What could possibly go wrong!

To be Continued.......