Unfortunatedly my xk8 convertible from 1998 due to a collision whas declared economicly total loss. As a have another xk8 i plan to keep the damaged one for spare parts. However i am not a mechanic so i am looking for information about how to dissamble the car.
is there anyone who can provide me with this information.?

 

Depending on in what end you want to begin... Lets say you begin with the interior then there is plenty of information on the youtube on how to do things.. remove seats, backseats, doorpanels, diferent interior trims etc.. The same goes for almost anything else on the car.

Keeping it on wheels as long as possible can bee a good idea if you need to move it around.

I once had a XJ Super Daimler that i "atomized" that way.. i dissasemblied it until it was just standing on four wheels with a drivetrain that could be started and then sold it do a guy that needed the engine to a project.

Else, the best is to get the workshop manual for your car.

 

Ugh - sorry for your loss. Your question leads me to believe that you aren't necessarily comfortable working on cars. If you were, you would already be familiar with where to find parts and service guides which have all the info you need to strip a car. Hint hint - get the manuals! Forgive me if this is a wrong assumption, as it colors everything else I'm going to say.

Taking apart a car requires tools. Lots of tools. Floor jacks, jack stands, engine hoist, straps, spanners, sockets, pliers, cutters, screwdrivers, special interior panel and fastener removal tools, tools for separating harness connectors, tools for capturing, containing and disposing of fluids, dollies and carts for moving them around - the list goes on. Many of these tools can be rented, but their availability will pace your deconstruction.

A car will never take up less space than when fully assembled. Unless it's crushed, but we're trying to avoid that. Taking a car apart takes a lot of space for the disassembly (fully open doors, space to move around the front and back, room to move an engine hoist in front of the car, away from the car with a heavy drive train hanging from it, a place to set said drive train down for further work, etc.) in addition to space to store all the parts you are saving. A good rule of thumb is that you will need 3x the floor space taken by the actual car for disassembly. That is in addition to space to store all the parts you are taking off. If you have the space, great - if you don't, this gets frustrating real fast. You don't have to take everything apart right away (think doors), but that does make parts heavier and larger to store.

You will want to photograph EVERYTHING you take a part - before and after - and it is Really Helpful to take photos of assemblies laid out on the floor in spatial order. Really helpful for things like wiring harnesses. You can never have too many photos. Organize them as you save them in appropriately named, searchable directories. I recommend giving each photo a pertinent name to help remember just what the heck is in the photo. I guarantee you will not remember how things go back together when/if the time comes. You will also need ways to keep related parts together - heavy duty ziplock bags, Sharpie markers, bins, totes, shelves - whatever it takes. Label everything. Be mindful of what you use for labels. Solvents will smear ink, strings break, paper gets torn off, adhesives fail. You should be able to find the markers that salvage yards use to label parts - they come in bright colors and tend to stay put. Don't throw away fasteners. Try to put them back where they belong except when where they belong will be in a part that you will discard later - like keep bolts with door hinges instead of sticking them back into the bodywork.

Never Ever cut a wiring harness. Ever. There is always a way to get the harness out whole. I mean - they went in there whole. Label connectors as best you can. Not all connectors are unique, but manufacturers do a pretty good job these days of not having identical connectors next to each other to avoid confusion, but there are a LOT of connectors in a car. Remember where harness mounts and zipties go. Try not to break harness mounts while removing them from panels - they are most likely plastic fir tree bits, so your interior fastener removal tools get a second life here. Same goes for hydraulic lines and hoses if you choose to save these.

Hopefully this isn't too daunting. It is a great opportunity to learn a lot about cars in general and these cars in particular and it will give you an appreciation for just what an automotive technician faces when working on a modern car and why it seems to cost so much. If you are alert to what you are doing while taking things apart, you will get some insight into how the engineers thought when designing the car. There will usually be a well placed hole or clever process to access parts that are interesting to understand - to me at least, but then I'm an engineer too.

 

i am amazed about your extensieve answer to my requisitoir and i thank you very much for the info and the time taking for your answer again and again i thank you very much!

 

I thank you very, very mucj for the extensive reply to my requisitoir. No doubt this has Costa you a lot of time. About your reply....I am not sure anymore if it is wise to dissamble the car viewing your comment about space needed to store parts etc.
regards from renemarcel

 

Its like everything on a car .just keep taking bolts out until the piece you want comes off...the front wings are bolted on as are the headlights doors seats trunk etc
A photo of the wreck would be useful.