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The object of these pages is to track the progress of an XJ12 that I bought on e-bay in September 2004. I am proposing to document the details of the renovation in my workshop.
This all started when a friend of mine, Angus brought round his V12 for me to have a look with an oil leak. After looking at the leak we took it for a run and from that point on I was smitten by V12's. As Angus said other cars just don't have enough cylinders. For very little money you can get one of these cars with incredible performance with power output exceeding 300 bhp. I then went on to e-bay and found a likely example, sitting at that time at less than £1000. The car was described as follows:
Graham Smith (policeman) writes on e-bay.....
I am selling on behalf of a friend of mine his series 3 XJ12 Jaguar Sovereign V12 5.3Ltr auto.
The car has been garaged since 1995 and has only seen the light of day to have the MOT done. It has covered 57,000 mile since new and is finished in stunning burgundy red with grey leather interior. The car has a few minor blemishes of which I can provide photos one rust spot and a few scratches on rear offside wheels arch and a rust spot under the offside front of the windscreen. The car was serviced by Jaguar up till 39958 miles and has recently had distributor, plugs, plug leads, fuel filter and injector rail assembly replaced. Top of the range refinements, electric mirrors including climate control which needs some minor work doing to it and many more. The car also has a private registration which will be included. When new this was the most luxurious car in its class and still remains very sought after. This car is sold with a reserve, happy bidding
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The full keepers details on the V5 are shown below, I assume that is the friend (Lawyer) he is referring to in the above prose.
BAKER GRAY ANDI was the winning bidder at £1,650. After receiving the car it turns out the car bodywork is about average condition for it's age, however the mechanicals are in first class condition despite the fuel delivery problems. I did not get a bargain as you will subsequently see, however I got what I paid for. Beneath the surface the usual XJ6/12 rust problems exist. For a car owned and driven on UK roads for the last 17 years this catalogue of rust is not unusual for one of these cars.. The car mechanically suffered from fuel contamination in the offside tank. In fact it was not running well at all when I picked it up. Graham Smith failed to tell me the fuel contamination problems were still unresolved. The car ran at no more than 30 MPH on some of the cylinders all the way from Newcastle to Edinburgh. I cleaned the fuel rail and put in a new filter which had a temporary but wondrous effect. When the car was running the performance was awesome. I took the car to Kinross and a borders car show in the autumn of 2004 blowing out the fuel filter periodically. Now that winter is here it is time to find out what I really bought...........
The problems centred around the nearside tank, which was very rusty internally, in fact when I empted the tank a shovel full of rust dust was recovered from the garage floor. I gave the fuel tank the Frost recommended treatment, except I decided to weld the bottom seam for strength. This was done after having the marine clean in the tank for 24hrs. Don't try this without getting rid of all petrol vapour otherwise you will blow yourself up! I am just about progressed far enough to return the tanks and test the fuel system again after about 3 months work.. I have become an expert in welding XJ body panels having just welded seven panels to date, with approximately four still to go. I have not shown the original rusty metal as it does not make very interesting pictures you can use your imagination. In fact at first glance the rust was not obvious you had to poke it with a screwdriver most of the time to make holes in them. I have shown the new metal as a guide to the extent of the rust. A future prospective owner might be interested in the work done on the car.
The following links show progress so far, the latest update is to the Front suspension
Still to do Mar 2005
* Refit front and rear suspension now completely renovated
* Paintwork on sills, rear mud guards, rear quarters and rear valance
* Bleed brakes
* MoT
Still to do 2005/6
Bodywork
* Front wings
* Front drivers door
* Air conditioning
Send me an e-mail by clicking here alastair_reynolds@blueyonder.co.uk