The OP is in New Zealand, where there are very few.

 

Thanks Stuart. I didn't realize that. That puts a different light on things. If it were me, if finding a replacement is not practical, I wouldn't want a car with that kind of extensive damage after repaired. Its the owner's decision.

 

Well I decided to keep her after all, the wife that is, she's pretty awesome woman, talented driver who has spent plenty of time on the handlebars on tarmac and gravel motorsport. She's the only girl I have ever met who can back a trailer better than most men.The accident was not her fault, Denial, anger and acceptance, the three stages of grieving, I have moved onto acceptance now.

 

Other vehicle pulled across the road to enter a drive way, right in the path of the XKR, he didn't even see my car until it hit him.It happened very fast with less than. a second to react.The ABS knocked off a little speed and tried to turn out of it but just to close to avoid.

 

You gave me some great advice and help when I bought my XKR last year, The 5L XKR were way above my budget last year, at least the ones in very nice condition and colour options. They have dropped a bit now and are getting much closer to my replacement budget on this car. It need to be a 2008 ish XKR because I will not buy one with a fender mounted aerial and I am not so keen on the 2009 facelift model. So yes there is one for sale in NZ right now that meets my spec, the 2007 XKR portfolio , black on black, so not really a buyers market.

I might yet step up to a 5 litre model or later model 4.2 , will take some time to consider it. Just got to get my head round the facelift bumper.

Its a personal thing but for me the 07/08 Xkr front end is absolutely styled perfectly. Its clean and elegant, understated but threatening.The way it was meant to be from the drawing board.

If Ian Callum thought the fang looking thing on the front bumper was a good idea surely he would have done it first time round not added it on later just so it could be marketed as a face lift model.

Actually today I spied a late model 5 lt Xkr parked in my area, have not seen another on the road for many months so pulled over and had a walk round it. The interior does look a lot more modern than the 4.2, but that silver fang on front bumper really detracts the eye from the beautiful lines of car.

 

My '07 had the wing mounted aerial and I just unplugged it and used a hidden FM aerial. Other people have done something similar but removed the aerial and had the hole filled. The interiors changed a little for the 2008 MY and the Portfolios were an even bigger step up but I wouldn't totally discount the 07's.

I didn't like the front end of the 5 litre cars either but the hamster cheeks on the front bumper aren't as noticeable in black and you get used to the looks after a while. Spraying the fangs body colour would hide them if you don't like them.

Everything is just a little bit better and is a good step up from the 4.2's. The 2012 onward look better but are even rarer and more expensive!

 

Just noticed you are getting 650 hp, thats amazing for the sake of a pulley, tune and freeing up the exhaust flow .Well I guess thats maybe a 5k spend for an extra 100 hp, love to hear your car go past, must be impressive.

Have you ever spent much time behind the wheel on a 5 .0 XK ?. given they are only 20 odd less hp than a 4.2XKR I wonder how they compare in driving experience to a 4.2 XKR.

 

It actually isn't a huge amount louder than stock. It has the XKR-S mid section fitted but that didn't make as much difference to the sound as I expected. My '07 XKR was actually louder because I put free flow cats on it when one of the originals failed and I also ran around for 6 months or so with no cats which was stupidly loud.

I would be interested to try one but that is the only XK I haven't driven actually. I test drove a 4.2 XK first and found that too soft. My '04 XJ8 actually felt like it had a harder ride! That convinced me to hold out for an XKR and I ended up with the '07.

Having made the mistake of buying the XJ8 and not an XJR I wasn't going to make the same mistake again so only considered the 5 litre XKR when I moved on from the 4.2.

 

So really mixed emotions about this, just been advised Insurance company has written car off, turns out the problem is there is not many XKR 08 parts available in NZ, most have to be imported and the cost of parts alone was well over 22K. Not sure what labour/paint costs etc would be but picking there would be no change out of 10k for that side of things. They said the chassis needed a slight tweak but it was very minor and could easily be straightened.

I imagine this panel parts issue will become a problem for everyone eventually as most collision repairs are the front end according to a workshop I talked with recently so there will not be an endless supply of XKR front ends at the wreckers.

So now I'm off shopping for a new X150.

 

Sorry about your baby, It is painful I know. Take the insurance payoff and purchase another car, hopefully another XK. Than buy the old car back for salvage from the insurance company. Prior to doing that get an estimate from a great body shop, and independent that can work on aluminum. Find out which shop your Jag dealer uses and go to them without the dealer, you just dropped the price by 15%. Now have their best body guy take a real good look at it, just remember there are always some hidden damage that cannot be seen till you take it apart. They can give you an estimate on repair if it is repairable or worth repairing. If they say they can fix it, with a straight frame without cutting or welding the frame I would go for it. Next find 'used' body parts, there are lots of those in salvage yards and importing them is not like buying new parts. Good luck. I posted some pics of my accident last year, similar damage.

Ouch, was a bad fall day after this mishap.

Digging deep under the skin, more damage than obvious.

Replaced the chrome grill with 'R' version black

 

I will buy another XK or XKR for sure, already on the hunt. I will see if I can buy the broken car back, if nothing else it would be handy for parts. Searching for front fenders and a hood has drawn a blank, probably the USA would be the place to find them but I don't know where to start with that search, google has been no help at all. And I'm not sure but think the fenders are glued on to inner guards, not sure how easy it is to remove them for replacement. But if I can source the parts I would be happy to make it a long term project to get her back on the road.

I have talked to the panel shop that did the repair asesement, they are Jag trained and authorised repair shop for aluminium cars and have been very helpful to us in the past. Fortunately we own a building right next to them where we store our spare cars and have it set up with hoist and mechanical workshop. So its a doable thing to have them do some work as time and parts allow. Could just roll it out our building and into theirs as required.

 

Some people are just born lucky!

 

Try pacificmotors.com. There may be others in the UK, like Jagbits.

 

It was just blind luck mate, at the time we bought the workshop to store cars and stuff we paid no attention to the fact one of the top Jag repair aluminium body shops was next door, in fact we didn't own any Jags at that time and had no intention of ever buying one.

 

Thank you, I will check em out.

 

I would move on myself but if you search for bonnet you will find some hits in the UK. There are a few on EBAY:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-XK...8/172128818424

They don't say they will ship to NZ but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

You could also try here:

https://www.jagbreakers.net/

 

Yeah I'm thinking that moving on is sensible now that I have priced up some parts thanks to the helpful links from yourself and others.

Easily would hit 15k for the parts required and I can see the total repair cost getting up to 25k +.

A year from now I might be kicking myself if I didn't have a XKR back end or an engine in storage so will see if buying back the wreck is worthwhile.

 

Here is a beaker in California: https://www.jaguarheaven.com/. There is another one in CA; but the name escapes me at the moment. Good luck in whatever decision you make.