Part 23 - Oh No! Yet Another XJS Requires Salvation

The Distinguished Gentlemans Ride - A two wheeled break from Jaguars

The rallying XJS had been sitting outside in the rain for about a year, and was beginning to look a bit sorry for herself.  Covid-era paintwork patch-ups were starting to rust, and as the door seals are 35 years old and are no longer watertight, damp was pervading the interior.  Something had to be done.

Davina's solution would, of course, be to sell the damn thing, but luckily another pathway presented itself.  You may recall that one of Davina's tennis buddies mentioned that her husband also had a (non-working) XJS that had been sent to a specialist restorer for a quotation to get the car back on the road.  That figure was deep into five figures; far more than the car's value.  The car was swiftly returned without the work being carried out and shortly thereafter a request reached me:  Could I come to assess the car to see if I could recommend a different course of action.

On a sunny Saturday morning, and not knowing what to expect, Max and I drove over with a boot full of a trolley jack, axle stands, tools, torches etc.  In the triple garage sat a forlorn 1989 Jaguar XJS Convertible HE in Arctic Blue Metallic (another pale blue V12 Jag!).  

On initial inspection the car looked in reasonable condition, but there were a few big issues:  A large note on the windscreen warned of a major water leak and one of the front jacking points had rusted to the point of non-existence.  The brakes were seized and the electrics were a bit random, but the engine started well enough (minus a few cylinders).

Next to that car was, to my mind, the potential of a lovely dry spot perfectly sized for a rallying XJS.  I proposed a trade:  In return for the storage of my XJS, I would be happy to carry out the work to get their convertible back on the road.  There was some preparatory work to be done to clear the space and to fix the sliding doors which had needed great persuasion to open, but a few weeks later, the project started.

I drew up a provisional list of parts required and set out a course of action.  All agreed with the owner, the first task was to clean away 36 years of dust, grime and burnt on grease from the engine and find the source of the water leaks.  This proved fairly straightforward as once the engine was up to temperature, coolant began spurting out from the water pump/cylinder block gasket.  Not so straightforward was going to be the removal of the 16 bolts holding the pump in place, the belts, pulleys, fan and all the associated rubber hoses in the coolant system (14 hoses in all).

In no time at all, the demon rust also reared its head:  Replacing the also leaking expansion tank revealed that a section of the inner wing had been crumbled to iron oxide, which sat in a tidy heap on the chassis rail below.  This is considered a structural element of the car, so somehow I will have to get the welder into this tight space alongside the engine.

It's an old Jag - Rust comes as standard.

Part of (the joy?) working on an old car is the detective work required to understand what previous owners and mechanics have done and why.  The air conditioning compressor was missing along with the condenser and other bits and pieces.  The burnt on grease on the engine was quite localised, so I suspect it was lubricant in the air conditioning system that found its way out over a period of time, and hence the aircon had been stripped out for some future repair.  Obviously the water leak had intervened and sidelined the car before the aircon could be restored.  The fate of the the aircon components is unknown!

A number of electrical wires under the bonnet appear to have been cut.  What they are for will no doubt reveal itself in due course when something (important) doesn't work!

There have obviously been repairs to the front floor pans - patches of steel and an aluminium plate riveted to the floor on the driver's side - I expect the worst when this is removed as my thumb has already gone through the passenger side floor.   I am also concerned about the rear differential - there is an awful lot of oil and muck to remove.

I started stripping the front of the engine:  Cooling fan...missing a nut and odd washers; power steering pump pulley adjuster...cut in half and sitting at a slightly odd angle; rubber hoses...all swollen; water pump...only 14 of the 16 bolts in place.  Obviously someone has been at this before!  The pump did come off without a struggle but revealed that it had been stuck on with black bathroom sealant; in fact so much sealant that it has oozed into the pump and blocked a bypass in the casting.  Not a solution for a long lasting repair!

Water Pump Removed - Much to clean

I set to with solvents and brushes and after an hour or so, it all started to look much better; however it was slow progress with the eco-friendly grease removers.  I decided to go "old school" and switched to petrol and rags...which cut through the grease like a hot knife through butter...much better.  There appeared to be no damage to the block or the pump, and the pump bearing felt fine...so why had it been removed in the first place?

Setting this thought aside, I inspected the coolant bypass pipe that sits immediately above the pump.  It was obviously a little corroded, but on closer inspection, I thought I could see a hairline crack in the pipe.  Possibly a previous owner/mechanic hadn't noticed this and therefore assumed the water was leaking from the pump, not the pipe above it, however this didn't really explain the swollen hoses.

As I pressed on I noticed that the radiator appeared to be a fairly new replacement.  Was the mechanic treating the symptoms of overheating instead of the cause?  I had noticed that the right hand bank of the engine appeared to be far dryer than the left hand bank.  Could there be a blockage?  The engine has two thermostats that should open more or less at the same moment to allow water to flow through the radiator once the engine has warmed up.  If one of these was stuck, that would be the cause of the overheating, and combined with the block bypass in the pump, maybe the system was over pressurised, leading to the swollen hoses?

I resolved to remove the thermostats and test them.  In the meantime, I needed to figure out what to do with a possibly fractured coolant bypass pipe.

The Coolant bypass pipe...and a pile of rust and scale removed from within.

A little more work with an oxy/butane brazing torch had the cracked pipe repaired and fit for use.  Primed and painted satin black, it looked like new.

I then moved on to the thermostats, and as I had suspected, the right hand one was so badly corroded that it probably did not open fully.  I only hope there is no resulting damage to the engine.

After removing the broken bits it was time to start re-assembling the cooling system.  New thermostats, a properly cleaned pump, new gaskets with every engineer's favourite lifesaving blue gasket seal, Hylomar.

XJS Convertible - Re-assembly commences.

A break to participate in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in May was great fun.  Run in over 1000 cities worldwide, I rode to Hitchin on my Ducati and from there 120 bikes trundled up to The Shuttleworth Collection and back to raise money for Movember.  Everyone, without exception, made an effort to look distinguished which raised a smile and a wave from the inhabitants of Hitchin...despite the noise and disruption to their Sunday morning!

I rode side by side with a chap on a 93 year old Brough Superior - the superbike of its day, and Lawrence of Arabia's two wheeled steed of choice - still going strong (and very fast!).

Spotting my yellow Ducati shouldn't be too hard

There is quite a way to go with the convertible, so my attention had to return to the other two XJS in my possession.  The rally XJS is entered for a two day rally in East Anglia and needs fettling after a few short events earlier in the year revealed some suspension issues (it's getting closer and closer to the ground).

The XJ-SC cabriolet benefited from a lot of welding whilst the weather held fine during the late Spring.  I will cover this in my first vlog, currently in production!

So, my dear readers, I may be transitioning from the written word to video.  Let me know what you think when you've seen the vlog.....no need to be polite; give me the unvarnished truth.

Curtis.