www.jec.org.uk

those who remember me will know i am over 8 years into a restoration project of an 89 V12 Coupe , this was a basket case rust bucket , but i could always visualise the end results ,

this XJS is my vision of what this car should be , and is not necessarily for the purist , i have taken away and added details from earlier and latter cars as i see fit , most of these were very subtle , but important to me

now , you have all seen the ' rusty project ' pictures, now is the time for the nice freshly painted ones

six weeks ago she was in the bodyshop having her new coat of paint in a very fresh modern colour ( not for the purist ) , this was a fully stripped down body , but still drivable , as all of the drivetrain and suspension has already been dealt with

now for the pics

fresh from the bodyshop


and the rear end , this was literally five minutes after coming off the low loader from the bodyshop


BB

Vince

WELL DONE

I'm so pleased for you after all this time, its a credit to you that you have stuck to the task over the years - on the road for next season?

Many Congrats
TonyS

in the intervening weeks i have been in the workshop till 9pm every night , and all weekend ,
after some research , and within the ethos of my ' self-build ' i installed the front and rear screens myself , these were brand new with brand new rubbers , and some correct non setting screen sealant , very messy stuff.....
60% of the exterior chrome is new, and the rest polished up ' as-new ' , i have fitted brand new rear lights and headlights, and all indicators are also new ,

i have a lot of step by step pictures, that i can post at a later date, but lets get right into the ' nearly finished ' ones , lol
this is a new boot lid , with new plinth , along with new chrome and rubbers , in fact everything you see in this picture is new, i have added a high level rear screen brake light , ( not for the purist ), the four separate Genuine Jaguarsport exhaust tips ( £58 each , ouch ) are fitted to a full Jaguarsport stainless exhaust system front to back


BB

Thanks Tony

The doors took me a little longer , as i neglected to ask the bodyshop to black out the window surrounds , so two weeks ago my brother came round and did a Pro job on them along with some stand alone parts that needed blacking ,

then to build up the doors , the quarter-light windows were a PITA to install with the new brackets and rubbers, but i got there in the end, and they gave a lot of shape to the car, then it was the new window channel guides, the winders and all the door interior parts , a bit of jiggling on the hinges to get everything looking good and it was get them completed , the door handles on the outside are brand new , along with a new set of locks


BB

as for the interior , i have always been struck by the original Mulberry double stitched higher leather content interior , but finding matching parts has been a struggle, i managed to get brand new door cards , this helped a lot , and i also got a large quantity of Mulberry vinyl ( Ambla ) which i used to cover smaller parts to lift the interior ,
the seats and carpets are in fantastic condition and the centre console is also fantastic , i did however put new Walnut inside , in fact i am on my third set of wood , each set looking more at home as i went ,
a few weeks of faffing around with the switches and lamps and relays ensured that everything now works within the car ,

As i have a genuine Jaguar factory fitted sunroof , the roof lining is nothing like the interior to other Coups , in fact , there is no headlining biscuit card at all , the headlinging is simply glued into place and tensioned by the cant rails and rear quarter trims, there is also a custom fitted rear screen trim to hold the material in place, again , along with my self-bild ethos, i did it myself , and am very happy with the results,


the image below was a few minutes before cutting out the sunroof , just to see what i had messed up if it all went wrong, lol


BB

attention to detail is very important to me , its the small things............


the correct ' handbrake procedure ' sticker in the quarterlight , the rubber trim on the quarterlight frame to door body ,
( door handle pull not secured at this point ) interior door lock puller from a Pre-HE , i prefer the all chrome finish against the Mulberry , and a modern set of Vibe speakers to a Blaupunkt head unit and brand new treadplates , i also cover the A-post and B-post trims in genuine Jaguar leather , rather than the Ambla originally specified ( an old Jag in the breakers donated its seat panels with the aid of a stanley knife for the leather )

BB

one word, STUNNING, end of!!!

thanks guys

one last pic of the interior for now, not the best image, but it will do


BB

Excellent !!!

(makes mental note to tap BB up for a magazine article)

BB

Looks like you have done a great job…

Another Jaguar saved

Look forward to reading the article in the Magazine

Top job, Vince.

Well done. Very nice indeed.

Mike

a quick pic from the front tonight


the TWR front bumper cover will go on once i have reconnected the oil cooler which had been bypassed , the original cooler was ripped out by a speed bump

then its secure the bodykit , and fit the front and rear fog lights, do some more Waxoyling , and finish trimming out the boot in black , which is unusual in its self for a HE model ,

BB

thats it , the cats out the bag now........


lol

BB

Vince,
"stunning" is the word. Mighty difference to the day I saw the car in the garage a number of weeks ago.
Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh.
My garage is completed now, finished I have 64squ m's of floor space and the car is now under cover. So as promised your old XJ8 is being well looked after. I'll add some pics shortly.

An amazing achievment - congratulations on sticking with it. There must have been times when you thought that this time would never come.