When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Adventures with our 2001 carnival red convertible XKR
Hi!
This thread documents our adventures with our 2001 carnival red convertible XKR.
To us, the first-gen XKRs embody the very spirit of the vintage racing Jags we had campaigned years before: solid race-bred engines producing bags of power matched with competent & well-balanced suspensions, all wrapped in a particularly inspired example of Jaguar’s trademark curvalicious and stunningly beautiful body design.
We were looking both high, at concours-quality turn-key beauties smothered in documentation detailing of years of loving care and attention, and low, at ground-up rehab projects satisfying my love of tinkering with and restoring classic Jaguars.
Heeding advice that we would always regret not experiencing the supercharged model, we narrowed our focus to the R version in either BRG or carnival red.
After months of searching across the nation, we found exactly what we were looking for just over the pass in California: a beautiful running 1st gen XKR convert with a rustfree! carnival red body.
This example was low, very low.
The gentleman selling it was brutally honest about its condition and had refused to sell it to anyone who didn’t know exactly what they were getting into.
Requiring attention almost everywhere, its five cents on the dollar price reflecting the significant neglect it had suffered under a previous owner both strongly appealed to my frugal side and provided a clear measure of challenge ahead.
After convincing him of my mechanical and Jaguar bona-fides and seeing the amazing quality of his work on his XK8 and stable of American rods he had built/restored/hand customized, we struck a deal; if he could get it past the stringent California emissions, we would buy it from him.
It took a month or so of changing the fuel pumps, dialing in the fuel trims and sorting lots of fiddly bits out before it passed CA emissions.
We closed the deal and drove it back over the pass to its new home in Reno.
We were looking both high, at concours-quality turn-key beauties smothered in documentation detailing of years of loving care and attention, and low, at ground-up rehab projects satisfying my love of tinkering with and restoring classic Jaguars.
Heeding advice that we would always regret not experiencing the supercharged model, we narrowed our focus to the R version in either BRG or carnival red.
After months of searching across the nation, we found exactly what we were looking for just over the pass in California: a beautiful running 1st gen XKR convert with a rustfree! carnival red body.
This example was low, very low.
The gentleman selling it was brutally honest about its condition and had refused to sell it to anyone who didn’t know exactly what they were getting into.
Requiring attention almost everywhere, its five cents on the dollar price reflecting the significant neglect it had suffered under a previous owner both strongly appealed to my frugal side and provided a clear measure of challenge ahead.
After convincing him of my mechanical and Jaguar bona-fides and seeing the amazing quality of his work on his XK8 and stable of American rods he had built/restored/hand customized, we struck a deal; if he could get it past the stringent California emissions, we would buy it from him.
It took a month or so of changing the fuel pumps, dialing in the fuel trims and sorting lots of fiddly bits out before it passed CA emissions.
We closed the deal and drove it back over the pass to its new home in Reno.
The repair punch list is quite long, reflecting the wise adage that “There’s nothing more expensive than a cheap Jaguar.”
Exterior – The convertible top is showing its age and will need to replaced at some point. The clearcoat is coming off large areas of the right fender/wing and the boot lid. The neglectful previous owner thought it would be a good idea to paint the bonnet louvers, spoiler and 3rd brake light cover silver. It will eventually need a complete repaint, but for now I’m touching up the affected panels.
Interior – It had sat exposed to the weather for some time. The seats are trashed, trim bits are missing, the powered mirrors & passenger seat aren't.
Engine – The engine is in an unknown state. The seller fixed a severe oil leak from the driver’s side valve cover gasket, but a lesser leak on the passenger side needs to be addressed and I need to check if the timing chain guides have been upgraded
Suspension - At 140K miles, things are loose. It initially sounded like it had a severe front suspension issue, exhibiting a loud knock going over sharp bumps, but replacing the missing bolts securing the fan assembly to the radiator fixed that.
On the positive side, both the engine & transmission feel and sound tight, with no worrying noises or hesitations. The body is solid and rust free. The top, windows, AC, security and almost all the electronics (aside from the pass seat & mirrors) appear to be working normally.
Finally, I find it a beautiful vehicle, which strongly motivates me to work on it and get it back in shape.
Hey, do you have any pictures of the seat bases? I know the backs arent the same, but I have a used set of covers off mine that can be salvaged with dye, time and a willing guy to nice it up; and the price would be $0+actual shipping if you want them.
Our daughter stopped out for a visit earlier in the summer and we had fun taking the XKR up into the mountains on the Cal-Neva border.
The beautiful curved and arched Rainbow Bridge on old Interstate 40 at the top of Donner Pass. Bypassed years ago by the high-speed/high-volume I-80, I-40 is notable now for its spectacular mountain scenery, twisty corners, and low traffic volume. After plodding up this climb a number of times in my heavy underpowered VW camper, the powerful XKR was truly in its element and simply wonderful carving up these curvy mountain roads at speed; late braking into the turns, settling the suspension for a smooth, stable, late apex corner and powering out of the sweepers near the limit of adhesion. Too twisty to go very fast, there was no drama, no surprises, just miles and miles of sheer, laugh-out-loud, driving joy in the crisp, clear, high-altitude sunshine.
The abandoned Union Pacific train tunnels up on the top of Donner Pass are fun to explore and deliciously cool on a hot summer day. One can also find ancient native american petroglyphs carved into the nearby rock slabs and we wore the husky out throwing snowballs for her on the rapidly melting snowfields. We had lunch sitting with our legs dangling off a 200ft cliff, chatting with the rock climbers making their way up a nearby granite face. The wind blocker makes a great drying rack for shoes soaked by streams and snow runoff. Even the husky found the back of an XKR cramped, but she'd much rather be afield with us than sitting home bored out of her skull.
A professional cartographer, our daughter loves finding and exploring civil infrastructure, particularly from the iron age, so we spent some time tracking down a number of the old truss bridges in the area. The little single-lane iron truss bridge over the Truckee River in back was replaced by the newer, bigger, 2-lane bridge in the foreground, so we were able to spend a lot of time climbing around the old iron structure. With the XKR's low clearance, this was as close as we could get before we had to start walking.
We also looked closely at some magnificent modern works as well.
[someone else writes...] "Looking up at the largest concrete cathedral arch bridge in the world was a moving religious experience. Our drive across the bridge deck was unremarkable, so we made our approach, through the small community of Pleasant Valley, in the shadow of the bridge, just a few miles south of Reno. An unmarked trail passes under the monumental span, and follows Galena Creek a short distance upstream. By definition, a cathedral arch bridge has no vertical columns connecting the arch and the overlying deck. Completed in the summer of 2012, after 10 years of planning, lawsuits, and construction, the Galena Creek Bridge has a 689-foot wide arch span towering 295 feet high. The elegance and minimalism of the open-span design mirrors the contour and starkness of the surrounding desert hillsides. From beneath, the world's greatest concrete cathedral arch was a glorious vision, and a fitting place to worship structural engineers, architects, and human achievement." http://www.yelp.com/biz/galena-creek...ew-washoe-city
Last edited by sanchius; 08-26-2019 at 09:31 AM.
Reason: correct a few typos
Last summer I was two blocks from home when my XKR quietly shut itself off and refused to restart.
We towed it home and started debugging it. Cranks fine, but no fuel pressure at the rail, no fuel pressure at the fuel filter.
When I bridged the fuel pump two relays, I could hear the in-tank pumps run, but still no fuel pressure anywhere.
Strange...
It had recent fuel pumps & filter, but I ordered a new set to have as backups.
But life intervened, we have some fun backup cars and I hate dealing with fuel tanks, so I let the XKR sit in the garage until the holidays.
Not wanting to wait anymore, we used the PO's nice top access hole to pull the unit on top of the tank and quickly saw that the PO hadn't tightened the fuel pump exit hose sufficiently and the hose had simply popped off the top of one of the fuel pumps. No wonder I could hear them running, but there was no pressure.
It was quickly remedied and now we're back on the road running through the various system duty cycles to change the P1000 code to P1111 in order to get an emissions test.
The Husky in a hurry to get to the park last night.
Nice husky - hope he doesn't scratch the upholstery. My dogs aren't allowed in my Jag.
As a car alarm, forum moderator, sklimii's Thor will take some beating. He previously posted this pic below.
This interior is in such a shape that Tuna won't damage it.
Now that I have the XKR back on the road, I knocked off a couple long standing projects today.
First, I replaced the existing sedate dash wood (upper) with a richer and more dynamic set (lower) that my kid grabbed from an XK8 at the Denver pull-n-pay last fall.
I did all the pieces, this is just a the left three segments.
Then, I installed the trailer hitch that I had bought last year so we can use our big bike rack.
Installation took a couple hours, it was a straight forward install with no big surprises.
Since it was very warm this afternoon, we loaded up the bikes and took Tunes the husky for a good run on the bikes along the Truckee River bike path.
Afterwards, we followed it up with some snacks and yummy ales at one of the microbreweries along the river.
How far are you from Lake Tahoe? We have not visited the area since February 1986 but I will never forget the skiing at Heavenly Valley. A total of nine feet of snow fell during the five days we were there. Our rental vehicle was a new Chevy full-sized K-Blazer so we had no problems getting around. By far the best skiing of my life. Ah, memories....
How far are you from Lake Tahoe? We have not visited the area since February 1986 but I will never forget the skiing at Heavenly Valley. A total of nine feet of snow fell during the five days we were there. Our rental vehicle was a new Chevy full-sized K-Blazer so we had no problems getting around. By far the best skiing of my life. Ah, memories....
Lake Tahoe is very close, about 45 minutes away, and we go there often, both winter and summer.
This is at Mt Rose, a nearby ski-resort up on the pass between Reno and Tahoe.
There is lots of great downhill and back-country skiing near by and last year was a MASSIVE snow year here.
However, Tahoe is getting so over-developed that we've been gravitating more and more to the less discovered gems in the Sierra back-country.
And I must admit to being a bit burned-out on downhill resort skiing.
As a kid, I lived in a Montana ski town and skied every day and then we raised our kids in Colorado, with the numerous & huge ski slopes there.
So we find ourselves almost exclusively solo snow-shoeing and cross/back-country skiing anymore, thus avoiding all the crowds, traffic, and high prices.
One piece of advice I gave our kids was that as they chose their careers, try to settle in a beautiful vacation destination so that it's as if you live your whole life already on vacation.
That philosophy has worked out very well for us through the years. Plus, then we'll get to visit the kids and their families in cool places once we decide to retire.
Exploring the abandoned Union-Pacific train tunnels above Donner Lake. Mt Rose pictured above is in the mountain range in the background.
Thanks for sharing the photos. I love Lake Tahoe but I only go there when there's no snow. Good to see you 're using your car as a vehicle to have good times with. I've let myself get buried in the project car purgatory but I'm making my way back.
With clear skys, bright sun, and temperatures in the 60's, it's been great convertible weather here, so we loaded up the husky and the bikes on the new hitch and went for some outings.
Yesterday was eagle & hawk watching while biking along a deserted road following the Carson River on the California/Nevada border
Today was visiting the nearby Court of Antiquity petroglyph site, which is full of 5000 year old native american rock art.
There we saw falling man...
and the squid...
and the long corn stalk with (my favorite) the tiny scorpion.
The husky had a great time, especially when she flushed a deer from the bushes on the hike in.
Afterwards, we grabbed a pizza and took it to our favorite nearby microbrewery for a yummy pint & pizza pie
Got a little dusty today going down some Nevada back roads to run Tuna on part of the Tahoe-Pyramid Lake bike trail.
This XKR is sheer joy to drive, well-behaved on the dirt roads, hooks up with bags of power on the highway and just a comfortable cruiser overall.
Fortunately the weather has been very mild lately, which makes it easy to keep the top down and get out for these kinds of runs.
Tunes picked up a bad sticker in her front leg on a recent desert outing that she couldn't stop licking.
So, unless we are out doing things together, she's hating life stuck in the dreaded cone of shame until the wound heals.
I have had a persistent oil leak on the intake side that I've decided to track down to put a stop to the oil spots in the garage, the hot oil smells that get pulled into the cabin, and that faint oil smoke plume wafting out of the bonnet vent after spirited driving. I also wanted to check if the dangerous OEM plastic-bodied chain tensioners had been updated.
The good PO had changed out the valve cover gasket on the other side and the car came with another full VCG set ready to use. Removal was easy following the instructions here, except for the rearmost/lowest bolt, which took a lot of maneuvering and loosening the body brace on that side to extract. The old VCG was hard and inflexible, but still quite intact.
It was good to see that there is a metal-bodied chain tensioner in place.
Sure enough, one of the lower VC bolts was broken off flush with the head and needed to be extracted. Hopefully this is the cause of the leak. I was lucky that it was the bolt right above the alternator, which is the most accessible bolt by far. Usually it's one of the more rearward bolts with no straight access, which then requires getting out the angle drive, making some stubby drill bits, and, potentially, tilting the engine. This should be very easy.
Step 1, Irrigate the broken bolt with penetrating oil for a few days. I use a homebrew recipe of Acetone and ATF: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/make-...oil-1739690558. One can also heat the bolt, but I leave that as a last resort.
Step 2: Slowly drill a small hole as close to the center of the broken bolt as possible. There's no rush, take your time, be gentle, use cooling oil (syringe) and, above all, avoid breaking the little drill bit off in the bolt.
Step 3: Widen the hole a bit without touching any aluminum and use a small hammer to gently tap a reverse threaded broken bolt extractor into the hole in the bolt. Gently spin the broken bolt out counter clockwise.
Again, go slow and minimize any side forces on the extractor as breaking off the brittle hardened extractor in the bolt will be a nightmare. If that happens, it means brewing up a special acid solution that will melt the steel without hurting the aluminum. I once broke a hardened thread tap off in the head of my old XJ6 Daimler and my Colorado machinist racing buddy and Jag guru extraordinaire, Bob Grossman, successfully used the acid melt trick. He said it was "20% nitric and 80% hydrochloric. There are various ratios, the nitric passivates the aluminum and the HCl dissolves the steel." If I recall correctly, it took several days to a week to work.
Step 4: Gocha, ya little bugger. Once the broken bolt is out, fashion a new one from your collection of spares, install the new VCG and celebrate your cleverness accordingly.
06-25-2019, 10:16 AM
Adventures with our 2001 carnival red convertible XKR
