www.jec.org.uk

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a photo shoot with Jaguar World Magazine for a cover piece for the 40th anniversary of the XJS.

With that in mind, I used it as an excuse to do lots of the ‘nice to have’ cosmetic work I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t been able to justify.

I’ve had an auto electrician fix a few niggles with fog lights, fix my heated seats and add a new cat 1 sigma alarm/immobiliser. I’m not sure I’ve added any value to the car with that, but it makes me feel better having it as the original Jaguar alarm isn’t much use.

I had a wheel refurb, I took a slight detour from the standard XJR-S colour, as much as originality is valuable, the flat silver colour was pretty dull in my book. So I went for the modern jaguar metallic silver colour. The pictures don’t do the deep gloss shine justice. The Polish chap that did my wheels spent four hours prepping them before painting, I was really impressed. He did two of my cars and worked solid from 8.30am to 6pm.


In primer



I’d had a spot of bad luck and had a windscreen chip crack that week too. Which was handy as the windscreen had gone milky around the outside So I contacted my insurance company who let me know it was a £75 excess to use autoglass. When I questioned that, they said I could use anyone for a £100 excess. I decided that was pretty reasonable and instead I hired a local expert who had been changing windscreens since before I was born and knew exactly where to go to remove the windscreen surrounds. It was worth £25 more for the added peace of mind. Other good news is there were no horror stories behind the windscreen, one tiny tiny bit of corrosion that I rubbed right back and kurusted and covered in windscreen sealant so its pretty well sorted.





I did a little spray work on the wiper arms, headlight surround and front grill. They were supposed to be in Satin Black, but had severely faded and had polished from years of wax over spill. I rubbed them all back and re-sprayed. I also replaced my missing JaguarSport badge from the front grill with an after-market replacement badge insert.




Then I moved to the interior (refitted the rear squabs that I remove to fit my baby seat!) and replaced two pieces of veneer, the trip computer surround and the ski slope.


Once all that was done, I gave it a full coat of HD wax ready for the photo shoot.



The shoot brought a spectacular array of XJSs including the championship winning Tom Wilkinshaw car, the spiritual big brother of mine! With the noise limits at Bruntingthorpe, they weren’t allowed to start it without special permission, so sadly I didn’t get to hear it roar!





Sadly, before the journalist and I got to drive the car around the test track, I broke down and it wouldn’t start. No spark what-so-ever! I was pushed to the road and awaited the RAC who sent a technician who confirmed our diagnosis of no spark. However, sadly, whilst diagnosing, he replaced the coil leads the wrong way around.



After I was taken home, I spent 3 dark nights playing around trying to fix it with a new ignition amp before realising the wiring was wrong. That tiny wiring mistake killed the coil and I’ve had to replace that too.

BUT! With a new amp and new coil, it feels like a new car at low RPM, it feels like I’ve found some missing horses! So clearly, ever since I’ve had the car, the ignition amp has been on it’s last legs!

From Jaguar, not cheap though!!

Thanks for reading!

Ryszard.

fantastic write up

and looks the dogs now.......

BB

Thanks BB!

Though I didn’t get to drive around the track, but one of the journalists took me around the track including a blast on the back straight in the very last ever XJS owned by Jaguar Heritage. It’s a very late spec facelift 6.0 Coupe in light blue, only around 7k on the clock. I couldn’t believe how many subtle difference there were on the interior, AC switch panel, vents in the rear of the arm rest, map lights on the sun visors. Jaguar spent an awful lot of money on the late facelift cars, very different to my early 92 facelift. Just seems strange as it was the end of the models life.

Still, I’m quite pleased to say I’ve been in the last ever XJS at 100mph totally legally

XJR-S,

Well done on all the fettling work and the photoshoot experience! Makes for some nice history for the car!

It's a shame that they didn't get to drive your car, although it sounds like the remediation has got the car running even better now.

The last 6.0 litre Coupe is a very nice car. I've driven it myself a few times. All those spec changes to the switchgear, A/C, stereo etc happened in April 1994 and when the AJ16 was introduced, and stayed like that until the end of production in 1996.

Really glad that you enjoyed the day, and the car looks great!

Paul

Great pics and looks like a good day out. I especially like your wheels - very nice job!
If you get a chance to see what Jaguar World are going to print then I'd recommend going through it carefully as their knowledge of the XJS, attention to detail and depth of research is pretty poor and they've printed "facts" that are completely wrong on several occasions recently.
I've got to the point where I treat anything in Jaguar World with great suspicion unless its written by Jim Patten or Paul Skilleter which is a great shame because learning about different cars is one of the reasons I subscribe but its no use learning things that are wrong!

David, absolutely, I'm not sure I will get the chance, but I've offered. Especially with the XJR-S as it's heritage is complicated and often misconstrued!

Yes I'm over the moon with the wheels, so glad I've had them done. I wanted to go for a full on tyre off and acid dip type restoration, but that's quite expensive. This way, I got all four wheels done for less than the cost of the ski-slope!

Paul, I'm jealous you've got to drive that car, I'd love to try a 4 speed V12 really, I think its what the car needs, especially with the sport button.

Ryszard.

now all you need to do is enter it into the XJS 40th celebration time line for the western show in late September

BB

absolutely, I will take a step back from the timeline with my identical car and let this one have the pride of place

On another note I did a photo shoot with my V12 40 some time back for Jaguar World, a cold wet December day at Croft in the North East, but still fun, and, I convinced Paul Walton XJ40 was a good car!!

absolutely, I will take a step back from the timeline with my identical car and let this one have the pride of place

On another note I did a photo shoot with my V12 40 some time back for Jaguar World, a cold wet December day at Croft in the North East, but still fun, and, I convinced Paul Walton XJ40 was a good car!!

It was Paul Walton running this shoot too! The V12 40 is an awesome car and might be a smarter move for me with a toddler, as this is my daily runner!

I'm not likely to make it to the event in Wales, it's a 450+ mile round trip. Unless I do it one way on a low loader (let's hope not!) I don't think I can justify the fuel to the boss!

...

It was Paul Walton running this shoot too! The V12 40 is an awesome car and might be a smarter move for me with a toddler, as this is my daily runner!
...

My boys (8 and 4 years) will have to endure the rear accommodation of my XJ-S V12 for the London to Brighton run and various other events this year. For entertainment, after the roar (and acceleration) of the V12 and fast scenery becomes same ol' I have invested in a tablet, 2 * blue-tooth transmitters, and 2 * blue-tooth headsets for movie, video, and music non-stop! Here's hoping that this strategy works!