That was the last sentence of my last post, which was more than six months ago!
About a month after that post, I managed to find a great full time job, and that meant less time for working on the poor XJS. I also spent the latter half of last year replenishing my bank balance after spending time only working casual and part time hours, both of which meant not spending much money on the car.
I also bought another car for daily driver (I had been looking for a Volvo station wagon) duties that needed a fair bit of work, but the price was so low it was worth the effort. The Volvo had a leaking heater core, like every other 850, and someone let it get low on coolant, so the head gasket let go.
I did a top end rebuild, timing belt and accessories and some other bits and pieces. Cheap, now reliable car, with no major maintenance needed for a long time. And it's a T5, so it's not slow!
So, back to the XJS. I got back into working on the car late last year as funds finally freed up enough to start buying parts. The first thing I did was repair the door cards by laminating them with fibreglass cloth and polyester resin, the job turned out quite well and was easy enough.
The hardest part was making sure the kink at the front of the cards was set properly whilst the resin cured. I dodgeyed it up with a block and some tape to hold the breaks in line as the resin cured. I also stapled the cards to the workbench to hold them flat as they cured, then simply levered them up off the bench, then ground the staples down, flip over and glass other side. If I was to do it again, I'd only glass one side and coat the other side with resin. Both sides was overkill:
Then it was on to covering the door cards. Nothing too tricky here, except lining up and stitching the carpet inserts in. If you cut the foam back where the carpet will lay, you get the vinyl and carpet sitting at the same level once glued down:
The chrome trims were pretty straightforward too, poke a hole from behind and drop the clips through from the other side. That's not to say they are quick to make, the arm rests and pockets took a good four hours a side some time ago and each door trim has another four hours just in covering them and fitting all the bits and pieces. Finished product:
It was also time to do something about the steering column. There was nothing obviously wrong with it as an assembly, but I needed to replace the shaft boot at the firewall, as it had split badly. They are only a very short shaft on the XJS, so I decided to take it out and give it a good going over whilst it was out. Top and bottom bearings were in great condition, so they just got a good clean and regrease. All the nylon spacers, bushes and even the rubber bushes the bearings sit in at the ends of the shaft were in great condition, so the only cost here was some time, paint and these three parts.
Boot, nylon collar it rides on and spacer bush. For less than $20 AUD, for NOS parts, why wouldn't you replace them? The larger nylon piece fits inside boot, the smaller one to the left is a spacer that fits between the collar and lower UV joint at the base of the steering column:
The nylon collar pushes into the ID of the bush and the nylon collar rides on the shaft. A really neat and simple setup:
I soon discovered the reason the steering boot was split- the collar it runs on had corrosion built up between the shaft and itself, so the collar grabbed and spun in the boot, causing it to tear. A good clean up with sandpaper and some waterproof grease on the sliding surface and it'll be good for another 40 years hopefully! Interestingly, the steering shaft is also built by Saginaw, who is a GM subsidiary and also supplied the power steering pumps and a few other small items for the cars:
When I ordered the steering boot pieces, I also ordered two new finisher strip rubbers for the rear C pillar trim pieces.
I couldn't bear to try and use the old, dry, shrunken, crusty old ones and JDHT just happened to have these in stock, plus the LH corner piece that bolts in and finishes the bottom corner of the C pillar trim pieces. These rubber pieces have a single lip on the forward edge, and a lip both sides to the rear. This hides the join from vinyl pillar cover to trim, and the join from trim to body on the other side.
I fitted the rubbers by offering them up, cutting the top end to fit, then just worked my way down, poking small holes with a screwdriver into the existing rivet holes, which I had applied Duralac to some time ago. Fortunately, between this car and the parts car, I ended up with exactly 8 buttons to rivet on for the trim pieces to hold on to, the exact amount needed:
I have also cut a self adhesive rubber piece to sit under the lower corner trims, I didn't photograph it, but you can see it under the vinyl cover. Every XJS rusts out here- the corner piece rubs through the paint, or the paint is probably damaged when the factory assembles the car. I can tell you that Jaguar did NOT seal any of the trim rivet, or the corner piece holes on either of my cars when they were assembled, another excellent source of water and rust in the C pillar and wheelarch areas. I chose to peel the rubber back after it was installed and run a bead of urethane underneath and at the top corner:
Once the trim piece is snapped into place, it pulls the rubber down and in line:
I couldn't bring myself to use the rusty old nuts on the corner trim pieces, so I have ordered some stainless nuts and penny washers for them. If you ever need them, they are an odd size (of course they are, this is a Jaguar!), they're 8-36 machine thread size. Yes, 8-36. That's UNF, not the much more common 8-32 UNC.....so once those fasteners arrive, that will be something else off the list.
The front windscreen has also been fitted. I put it into the car a couple of weeks ago, but had no lock strip, so again, I ordered one from JDHT when I ordered some other small parts:
Here I am using "special tool" to fit the lock strip. It's just a 10mm ring spanner. 3/8" would work too. Simply lube the lock strip, run the spanner forward slowly whilst pushing the strip into place behind the spanner. It's a 5 minute job. I always leave the lock strip a few days to shrink after fitting before trimming to size:
Also need to find a source for the small rubber extrusion that fits on the edge of the stainless windscreen trim top and bottom. Haven't been able to find original stuff, may have to scrounge up a generic extrusion and make it work.
I'm currently lining up to give the face of the wheels a clear coat, they will get another scuff down with a fine Scotchbrite pad to try and replicate the early Kent wheel machined finish. Once the clear coat has cured for a couple of weeks, I'll buy some tyres for the car. I also need to chase up some wheel nuts, as the Kents use an old fashioned setup of being clamped on their face with a shouldered nut and washer.
I will also finish off the top of the steering column, and once the wheels and column are finished, I will have a car that should move and drive under it's own power! I have no idea when this car last had wheels on it, probably several years before I bought it, so maybe 10 years? It's exciting!
About a month after that post, I managed to find a great full time job, and that meant less time for working on the poor XJS. I also spent the latter half of last year replenishing my bank balance after spending time only working casual and part time hours, both of which meant not spending much money on the car.
I also bought another car for daily driver (I had been looking for a Volvo station wagon) duties that needed a fair bit of work, but the price was so low it was worth the effort. The Volvo had a leaking heater core, like every other 850, and someone let it get low on coolant, so the head gasket let go.
The hardest part was making sure the kink at the front of the cards was set properly whilst the resin cured. I dodgeyed it up with a block and some tape to hold the breaks in line as the resin cured. I also stapled the cards to the workbench to hold them flat as they cured, then simply levered them up off the bench, then ground the staples down, flip over and glass other side. If I was to do it again, I'd only glass one side and coat the other side with resin. Both sides was overkill:
Then it was on to covering the door cards. Nothing too tricky here, except lining up and stitching the carpet inserts in. If you cut the foam back where the carpet will lay, you get the vinyl and carpet sitting at the same level once glued down:
The chrome trims were pretty straightforward too, poke a hole from behind and drop the clips through from the other side. That's not to say they are quick to make, the arm rests and pockets took a good four hours a side some time ago and each door trim has another four hours just in covering them and fitting all the bits and pieces. Finished product:
It was also time to do something about the steering column. There was nothing obviously wrong with it as an assembly, but I needed to replace the shaft boot at the firewall, as it had split badly. They are only a very short shaft on the XJS, so I decided to take it out and give it a good going over whilst it was out. Top and bottom bearings were in great condition, so they just got a good clean and regrease. All the nylon spacers, bushes and even the rubber bushes the bearings sit in at the ends of the shaft were in great condition, so the only cost here was some time, paint and these three parts.
Boot, nylon collar it rides on and spacer bush. For less than $20 AUD, for NOS parts, why wouldn't you replace them? The larger nylon piece fits inside boot, the smaller one to the left is a spacer that fits between the collar and lower UV joint at the base of the steering column:
The nylon collar pushes into the ID of the bush and the nylon collar rides on the shaft. A really neat and simple setup:
I fitted the rubbers by offering them up, cutting the top end to fit, then just worked my way down, poking small holes with a screwdriver into the existing rivet holes, which I had applied Duralac to some time ago. Fortunately, between this car and the parts car, I ended up with exactly 8 buttons to rivet on for the trim pieces to hold on to, the exact amount needed:
The front windscreen has also been fitted. I put it into the car a couple of weeks ago, but had no lock strip, so again, I ordered one from JDHT when I ordered some other small parts:
Here I am using "special tool" to fit the lock strip. It's just a 10mm ring spanner. 3/8" would work too. Simply lube the lock strip, run the spanner forward slowly whilst pushing the strip into place behind the spanner. It's a 5 minute job. I always leave the lock strip a few days to shrink after fitting before trimming to size:
I'm currently lining up to give the face of the wheels a clear coat, they will get another scuff down with a fine Scotchbrite pad to try and replicate the early Kent wheel machined finish. Once the clear coat has cured for a couple of weeks, I'll buy some tyres for the car. I also need to chase up some wheel nuts, as the Kents use an old fashioned setup of being clamped on their face with a shouldered nut and washer.
I will also finish off the top of the steering column, and once the wheels and column are finished, I will have a car that should move and drive under it's own power! I have no idea when this car last had wheels on it, probably several years before I bought it, so maybe 10 years? It's exciting!
