I have a chance to buy a 1997 XK8 coupe from my brother at a give-away price. It has 60,000 miles and is in great shape. I am thinking of customizing it - of which taking it to a convertible is an attractive proposition. Foolhardy? Any feedback?

 

Think it might break in two the first pot hole you hit !

 

Terrible idea. There are far fewer coupes than convertibles and the cost to convert it would be prohibitive. Not only that when you are finished you would end up with something that isn't as nice as the factory convertibles are. Trade it/Sell it for a convertible and let someone looking for a coupe have yours.

 

Personally, I prefer the Coupe aesthetically, but that is beside the point, I do understand the draw of owning a convertible. Looks aside, I can't see going to the expense and aggravation to modify one to a Convertible when they are already very much available, and quite reasonable (early years). I guess if you just have to have a really hard, money losing, long term project, and recognize it as such..................
My 2 cents,
Brian

 

You could probably buy a second jag as a convertible for far less money than the project.

Why not work on converting it to a stick instead? Now you would have something that Jag didn't do. There was someone else working on that as I recall.

 

It's much cheaper to get a convertible... well unless you do the job yourself. You could sell the coupe for a bit of a "profit" and then buy the convertible. By profit I mean charge a little more for the coupe, buy the same convertible which would be a bit cheaper or you could even upgrade a couple years/less miles/km.

Or if you're just after improving/doing something different to, you could just put in a Ford drivetrain like this guy did and have a super Jaguar...

 

I don't think you'll find a single member who will tell you it's a good idea to TRY to convert a coupe to a vert. I say "try" because that's the kind of project that many people will eventually give up on. It may seem feasible on the surface, but the scope of what you are talking about is enormous. Just compare the trunks of the two cars. You'd have to relocate the hinge points, and that alone could take days or weeks of effort unless you have a full team of people working for you like Chip Foose.

Secondly, the coupes are much rarer than the convertibles. You'd be taking a very rare and unusual automobile and turning it into something that is about 8 times as common. And even then it would have less value than than a "real" convertible because no buyer is going to want to buy a hacked up coupe unless you give them a big discount over the price of a factory convertible. If you really want a convertible, just buy this at the great discount then trade it for a vert.

If you're looking for a cool project for the coupe, convert it to an Aston Martin: http://www.kitcars.com/Classifieds/A...ified_id=20292

 

Yes - don't do it .... for all the reasons mentioned on previous posts.

Reverend - I almost choked on my morning coffee .... ! They call that the 'Ash-Mart' kit. Man - I have to run home now and check to make sure that my car is not a 'Jag-Ash' conversion ...... dad gum it!

Bob

 

The ASH-MART kit rocks! If I was planning to chop shop an XKR coupe, that would be my choice...but then again, I think Aston-Martins look awesome (I'd like to own one...someday).

Time to take my "1 of 30" XKR-100 coupe and make it into a "1 of who-knows-how-many" kit car!!! LOL

On the topic here in the thread - DON'T DO IT...it's far more pain to convert a couple to a convertable than it will ever be worth...just sell it and use that money to buy a convertable if you really want one...my thoughts...

 

As a fellow Portlander, please don't do it!!! Refrain for all the very good reasons listed AND it just would be wrong. Maybe I'll start a Jag Rescue Project--give me your brother's number.

 

I detect in your tone that you do not like the Aston Martin conversion! I think it's cool! If I was a 23 year old with $15K to spend on a car, I'd buy a slightly beat up XK8 and the kit and build myself an incredible pu**y magnet!

 

I'll pass on the AM kit...i don't think it even looks like one. anyway, deleting from my mind...

 

All

Thanks for the feedback. Trust me .. I have now dropped the idea of a conversion. I had no idea the coupe was so rare. As a bit of color, my father bought the car new in Portland in '97. I tried to convince him at the time that the convertible was the way to go. But, Idaho winters convinced him otherwise. But, I still want to do something special to the car. Maybe a standard transmission is enough. Thanks again

 

Here's my aston XK8 "Ash Mart" project. Everything you guys talked about a year ago, I've dealt with.. I'd come across a super-cheap convertible XK8 that I almost bought to "Coupe" it.. Glad I didn't. I have a 6spd but I cringe on what it'd take to mate it to the 4.0 AJ8... And, I've had a few "rescue" attempts to keep it an XK8 too.. Ronnie

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-lumper-63806/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/n...-w-pics-62465/

 

+1.
looks like an overinflated AM to me, kind of bulging at the seams.

 

It does look bulging, I agree... The wheels definitely have to have spacers!....

 

Good call. On that pic above it was the foglight area which stood out to me at first; however on second look, I think you're right, it's more that the front wheel doesn't really seem to fill out the wheelwell enough.

 

[quote=Reverend Sam;225816]I detect in your tone that you do not like the Aston Martin conversion! I think it's cool! If I was a 23 year old with $15K to spend on a car, I'd buy a slightly beat up XK8 and the kit and build myself an incredible pu**y magnet![/quote

 

Most amusing; reminds me of my son when he was a small boy of 7 or 8. We were in eastern Europe for 6 or 8 months and his school taught British English. When he read a story about barn yard animals, he would not say that word because it was bad.

Mark

 

As quoted by Fedoraja1
As quoted by Rev Sam
I thought I would start a firestorm, with over 10 years of production world wide, more than 29,000 coupes,( a little over 60,000 convertibles) it's far from rare. The retail value of the convertibles will be higher. This has been proven consecutively since Jaguar has been making their sports cars. more convertibles where produced of XKE's than coupes. The convertibles still bring a higher retail value, as with XK's 120,140,150, and XJS's

I do like the looks of the coupe, but there is something about a convertible with the top down and cruising the curves and hiills of the countryside.