Jaguar XJ-SC V12 Restoration
Jaguar No.3 has joined the fleet: A 1987 XJ-SC V12
By strange coincidence it is also the third in a pale blue metallic. The poor girl was last serviced and put into storage in 1999. She emerged briefly 18 years later only to be abandoned once more. The mystery of why has yet to be revealed.
Another eBay refugee, she arrived chez nous on a trailer from Grimsby in the early days of January 2021. She was barely able to move under her own steam, but nevertheless, the V12 ran on most cylinders as she dragged herself onto the drive. We won't call her an MOT failure just yet, as she won't be going anywhere near a testing station for some time!
A Little Model History
The XJ-SC is a cabriolet version of the Jaguar XJS coupe. It's not quite a true convertible as much of the roof perimeter remains. To allow the Sun to shine in, there are two central removable roof panels, that can be stored in the boot, and a canvas folding rear window at the rear. As the roof perimeter is outside your eye-line when driving, to all intents and purposes, it feels like an open top car.
Produced in fairly small numbers in the mid to late 1980s, fewer than one thousand V12 engined RHD cars found owners in the UK. Thirty five or so years later, only around 100 UK registered examples remain. This makes the Jaguar XJ-SC V12 RHD a rare beast indeed.
One assumes that the rest met their demise when the cost of repair outweighed their value...which happened with alarming rapidity, given the persistent advance of rust in 1980s cars.
I have hankered after a Jaguar XJ-SC V12 for some years, ever since borrowing a friend's immaculately restored example for classic car tours one summer. The seamless power delivery of the 5.3 litre engine was intoxicating and combined with wind-in-the-hair summer motoring, the car is a very grand tourer.
Our XJ-SC
Our newly acquired example has a couple of unusual features that particularly appealed to me: Replacing the rear fold down canvas hood is the rare factory option of a fixed fibreglass top with a heated glass rear window. The removable targa panels in the centre of the roof still provide the wind in the hair.
It also came on a very smart set of italian Fondmetal lattice alloy wheels in superb condition. These two elements alone are worth half the purchase price!
From a brief inspection, the main problem is rust in all the usual areas: Front subframe, inner front wings, windscreen scuttle, front wings, front quarters, headlight surrounds, front sills, rear sills, rear wings, radius arm mountings, rear quarter panels, boot surround, rear bumper mounting points and boot floor.... and no doubt there will be more to be found, once some of the outer panels are removed.
Yes, this is most of the car, but happily the bonnet, boot lid and doors appear sound(ish), as well as the front radiator cross-member and central valance.
Unfortunately, whoever brought the car out of storage decided to clean it with a high pressure washer, which caused unnecessary damage to the roof canvas. Previously, a nearly perfect roof, it is now marginal whether it can be saved or will need to be recovered.
Before the car went into storage in 1999, it was covering around 4000 miles annually; and as the underside of the car is very clean, my guess is that it was reserved for use just in the summer months.
Amazingly, there is also a complete service history with the car, found in the storage compartments that replace the rear seats in the cabriolet. With just 3 previous owners and less than 50,000 miles on the clock; which appears genuine based on the paperwork and the generally very good condition of the interior; this car is worthy of the work that will be required to bring it back to a prime example.
Typically the weather in January has been awful and my search for a garage has been fruitless, so work on the car has been limited to a quick wash and to cover up some of the larger rusty holes with gaffer tape to limit the amount of rainwater ingress.
Please click here to follow this restoration story as it unfolds.
All the best,
Curtis.
Have you considered opening your own pale blue Jaguar museum?
ReplyDeleteIf you had asked me a few years ago what my least favourite car colour was, pale blue would have been near the top of the list. Nevertheless, familiarity leads to contentment; and now I see the Diamond Blue, the Arctic Blue and the whatever-the-other-colour-is-called Blue quite harmonious and distinctive in the current automotive world of black, white, grey and silver. My wife says that our drive looks like a used car lot...I'm not sure she'll like it any better if I refer to it as a museum!
Delete