Have 85 XJS with a Chevy 454 installed with the John's Kit. I want to restore but keep the motor. Body and interior rough. Any suggestions on where I should begin? Engine runs great, brake are good power steering ok. Need new stering wheel and complete interior. Any suggestions will be helpful. Thanks.

 

Begin by defining the scope, budget, and feasability of the project.

"Restore" means different things to different people. For some it would be a decent paint job and some new seat covers. For others it would mean total disassembly of the entire automobile, down to a bare body shell, where every part is rebuilt,repaired,refinished, or replaced.

I'm assuming you don't want to spend $100,000+ for a true restoration.

A complete interior re-trim using all-new Jaguar grade materials will be several thousand dollars.

A decent quality repaint will probably begin at about $5000 and go up from there....plus additional for dent and rust repairs.

Will you be doing any of the work yourself?

Cheers
DD

 

pretty much what doug says, depends on the quality of the work, and lotsa dollars!

 

- find a non-running XJS with pristine interior
- buy it cheap or offer to tow it off them free
- transfer the interior

 

This could be a real money pit. If you aren't doing the work yourself this sounds like $6-8K. You will never get that back on selling the car. If you can do the work yourself, you might be able to do something nice for $1000-$1200. Paint is the real chore here. Most folks don't have the equipment or skill to paint a whole car. If you can do the body work and get it in really nice primed condition, you could have some cheapo place like Maaco put on the topcoat and have it look pretty decent for not a ton of money.

 

One last thought, do the bodywork/paint before touching the interior. Then you won't care so much about the paintshop spraying something on new carpet,etc. Strip out as
much of the interior as you can prior to having it sprayed especially if you want them to spray the door jambs and such.

 

i.m pretty sure a $5000. dollar paint job is gonna be better than a $1000. paint, its back to, how good do you want the car to be when done?

 

Thanks for your input. Considering all you said.

 

some of the big auction cars have $15000-20,000. paint work, altho i dont need thay quality paint.

for instance my paint,just material, cost in 1994, close to $2000. materials, i'm sure today it would be around 3K! but after 20yrs its still perfect. no orange peel etc.

its simple you get what you pay for!!!! what you pay is your decision and yours alone.

 

I don't think that those cars exist anymore.

As he has a Chevy motor in it, it will never be a show winner (unless it's a custom and hot rod show). It is possible to get a pretty nice paint job for under $2k provided that the car is straight and rust free. In which case, you don't have to strip the body so your material charges will be around $500 if you use a budget line like Nason or Omni.