Nice score! I have chrome version on mine. Really agree they should have been standard wheels. Paranoid of "curbing" or denting one for the very reason you state..2yrs of searching!

 

Agree, model year designations are crazy! Here's one that no one seems to acknowledge, including JCNA.
Judging lumps 92 and 93 into "Facelift models". Excuse me, but Facelift models are 94-96. They all have the "facelift" of plastic front and rear bumpers, among other changes. 92 and 93 are old-school metal bumpers (read CHROME), not plastic. So, why does my car (late 92) get judged against 94-96 cars.
THEY LOOK DIFFERENT!
According to JCNA, Jaguar sold the 92/93's as Facelift for marketing reasons, particularly in the U.S. When it came time to expand the judging category in 1998, JCNA decided not enough 92-96 cars would be presented in a concourse because "they were too new" and not enough of them would be shown. Fast forward 25yrs and now we see XJS's thru '96 appearing in shows and still no change to designation. For those of us who own, or appreciate, the chrome bumper era, it seems wholly unfair. To put a fine point on the difference mechanically, my late 92 has inboard rear brakes. Find a facelift car with those? Not!

 

A little aluminum polish and a buffing wheel, Viola!

 

Brand new?! Where did you find these, and do they have any more?

 

it seems to me that an xjs is a way to get rid of disposable income.... i just got rid of £330 to Aldridge trimming for a leather re-trim kit for the rear 1/4 panels,,,,
magnolia with blue stitching,
whose ever going in the back to see them???????? there you go..

 

92/93 XJS,

I understand that you feel that it's unfair to get judged against a very late car but ALL XJS after VIN 179737 (March 1991) are "Facelift" cars. The facelift designation related to a very significant styling change to the exterior, the body panel construction, the headlights and rear lights, the interior, the revised instrument cluster, the introduction of the 4 litre engine etc etc.

The cars after VIN 188105, built from May 1993, are "Plastic-Bumper" or "Big-Bumper" cars with outboard disc brakes.

If one looks at the cars in their entirety, the cars from 92 are far closer in build and spec to the very late cars than they are to a pre-facelift 1990 car. It would be more unfair to compare a 1992 car to a 1990 car in concours judging imo. Perhaps the JCNA should have different categories for early facelift cars and late facelift cars?

Cheers

Paul

 

Yes, they were brand spanking new with their original Jaguar packaging! I really felt bad opening them up but they are being installed on our 22k mile XJS.

Paul's Jag in Florida had this set and let me tell you they cost me a pretty penny. Apparently, they store super rare items in their addict and we had to talk price before they went up there to dig them up :-) This was the last New Old Stock set they had.

Here are some pics as delivered:

 

Not today, but recently. Jaguar winter home became ready for 1st winter, now i can relax with that issue. Car is in warm and dry. Did some lighting installation, with motion sensor and installed one wall plug for electric heater and possible battery charger etc etc use. (wires hanging on the wall are before final installation)
DIY doors need some light decorative covering for interior surface, i may lay new floor covering at some point to get it nice and tidy.


Also received original Jaguar/Alpine cassette player from repair. Will install it at some point, anyone have pinout for AJ8300M unit?? This is having Alpine 20-pin connector , it was already hacked by nasty jumpers and stupid slave connections... lost my track at some point during summer when i install temporary unit with ISO connectors. Just need to be sure about correct wiring when Alpine goes back as its wiring differs from newer units.
Here is pic about awful wirings from previous owner... removed loads of unnecessary jumpers and connections but at some point i started to think this must be rebuild when original unit goes back.

 

I'm not quite clear where the unfairness comes in. As a once-upon-a-time JCNA Judge I judged the cars the same whether they were face lift or pre-face lift.

Is it because the XJS field becomes too large and therefore reduces the chances of your car (and your efforts) being recognized? If so, I get that.

Cheers
DD

 

This week has had really beautiful fall weather -- clear skies (nice change after all the wild fires) and warm temps (80F/27F). I was looking forward to taking the convertible out for a nice drive Sunday to enjoy it all. Checking the weather this morning I was annoyed to see that tomorrow the temp was projected to drop almost 30 degrees with some showers, and the extended forecast is for temps in the 50's. Winter is coming.

I looked out the window and longed to go for a pleasure drive, but I'm buried with work and behind on some deadlines...

...so I grabbed the keys and headed to the hills for some twisting roads and bit of joy. Life is short and I can work on Saturday.

Cheers

 

Do yourself (and us) a favour and have those rims ceramic coated with some super long life stuff. Very rare indeed! Must be kept in top condition so I can buy them in 5-10 yrs lol.

 

Today I replaced generator. My 'charge' light was slow to turn off after car starts and my new battery died (didn't crank and needed charging ) few times, so I figured it was time to replace generator. Ordered remanufactured one from rockauto and was somewhat happy to see lucas stamp on it. While removing it (which was a pain) I especially liked manual instructions 'maneuver generator out of the engine compartment' - that was hell, could not 'maneuver' it anywhere until I removed air pump.
When I took old one out (bosch) I found that capacitor and pulley didn't fit on replacement. It took two trips to hardware store and some fiddling to make it all work. Now 'charging' light turns off..... same slow way :-) Not sure why. I will have to drive car for a little to see if new generator makes any difference.

Funny part is that after test drive (to local brewery) - the car wouldn't start to go home. This time solenoid was clicking but starter didn't engage. What are the odds, starter died... Had to push-start the car to get home, haven't done that since my college days :-)

Glad I filled that growler! Cheers!



Had to do extension for capacitor wire.


Used piece of water pipe to 'thicken' bolt and center pulley(old generator had bigger diameter ), and bunch of washers(not in the picture) to install between body and fan so that fan could spin.


What is that white connector for? It was just hanging there...

 

I renewed Magneti Marelli M80R starter motor for my Jaguar XJS. As I know starter motor works good. But I decided anyway change brushes, grease, check bushes, make a normal view (while motor outside the car).

1) Disassembly (I filmed the disassembly process so that I would not miss a single detail when I assemble it) :

2) Assembly :

Of course, better to buy modern starter. But I decided to rebuild Magneti Marelli M80R starter motor.

 

Last week my car took to overheating after some cooling system work, my infrared thermometer told the tale as stuck thermostats so I had her towed to a buddies place and tested her once more, sure as the world. Stuck thermostats, 210 behind the flange, with a much lower temperature that evades my memory at the hose. So I removed my two week old Carquest thermostats and replaced them with Stant 45398's with bleed holes added at 1/16" and 12 o'clock, as well as replacing both temperature sensors with Beck Arnley units due to my inability to trust the Carquest products. Also installed a flush tee at the heater core inlet to assure proper bleeding of the system. None of this would be bad if not for the fact that it was 32 degrees today in my neck of the woods. All seems well now, started her up, let her idle for a good long time, and found the gauge reaching just below the N and staying there, perfect. The things we go through for these cars lol.

 

sent my jag back to the uk.

 

I bought new(quite old) distributor on ebay. Over few days I took it apart, cleaned, removed rust from ignition advancement mechanism, gave it hot tab with dawn, washed it in WD40, lubricated, .... Today after drilling new hole in the shaft (the hole for the gear wasn't in right place!) I managed to install it and even start the car.... only to find out that damn thing even though has the same part number - has arrow pointing the other way. That thing is designed to rotate tin the opposite direction!!! It was quite an eye opener... I was wondering why vacuum unit feels in different place.... The advancement mechanism obviously was retarding instead. What a day - what a life lesson LOL!!! I learned a lot of useful tricks in the process.

 

Today I made one out of two, installed, set to -18 degrees@2000rpm - the car was never so throttle happy! :-)

 

Been fixing water leaks into cabin. Windshield resealed. Old sealant was dried to powder, but after some time spent groove between seal-body finally found clean and ready for fresh sealant. No rust there. Air intake well, bottom area cleaned from light surface rust just in time before bigger problems. Modified lowest part of the well, because drainage holes are ~1cm higher than lowest point...letting water standing there. Used professional aviation sealant after paint, just filled lowest part to drainage holes level.
Rear screen area needs more work. Currently screen is off, there was small rusted area on LH corner under seal. Rest of the frame is good.
Due to leaky rear screen there was rust on rear parcel shelf, both ends were rusty because water been standing there under insulation. LH corner became ok after sandblasting but RH corner needs some welding to do.
Area under rear seat is checked too, RH side was getting water and there was couple of surface rust areas too, which are now sandblasted and found ok for repainting.

 

Fuel tank, collector tank, battery tray and boot lid removed. Started to cut out ~2"x 2" piece from rear parcel shelf RH corner. (ref my post above) Small air grinder is just perfect for this job.

No other big issues here. Noted "the rivet" under the tank, luckily i see only paint damage done.

 

Not today, but this month at least (it's a gradual process with a ton of paperwork):
Bought Her Ladyship her first garage. Cost only about US$30,000, and came with a free 336 m2 (3,616 sq.ft.) traditional farmhouse on 877 m2 (9,550 sq. ft.) of land. Or was the house the thing I paid for, and the garage came free? Anyway, it's been empty for about 15 years so will need some renovations - that'll be interesting.

Lady Mary's country house.

Oh, and this is the house that came with it:

In the snow. Duh. Garage and storehouse to the left, house in the middle right.


Main room with massive beams and a hook for the open hearth.