Peter,
I assume spacers were needed to fit the fronts?
Rob
Hi Rob,
That’s indeed what I expected and I even ordered 2 pairs of spacers. It was a big surprise however they weren’t needed. Even worse: with the 20mm spacers the (unmodified) wheel arch lips ate into the rear tires full time.
Now, every year when I go for the local equivalent of MOT I swap back to the original Lattice wheels 
. As for the spacers: I may use the spacers for another XJ S2 project.
Cheers
Peter
Does you MOT gig you for having non-stock wheels???
Yes they do. Belgian civil servants are peculiar.
I also had a discussion with them about possibly converting an oldtimer car to EV, but they wrote me an email warning that one may only bring a modified car on the road if the original carmaker (Jaguar in this case) puts a seal of approval on your one-off modifications!!
I wrote to Jaguar just to see how that would turn out; obviously they didn’t reply as they surely have better things to do.
Different in the Netherlands: they listed a few relevant already existing norms that your modified vehicle should meet in order to get it on the road. Far cleverer than us, these Dutchies…
I would never have dreamed of pulling that off with my dear departed. Sleep on the couch? Naah, more like in the garage… Or in your Jeep on the driveway… meals> Kitchen access perhaps…
Carl
Man, everything looks new.
1 Like
Wow, that looks great!
Jeff H.
Thanks guys, it was only ever intended to be a straight swap, one engine out another in, but you know how these things go… everything was either refurbished, renewed or replaced for better…
1 Like
Impressive, Great work.
so next instalment with Harrys XJC… Jaguar XJ V12 Coupe restoration part 6. It’s time to reveal the new colour! - YouTube
Brief summary, original cost for repaint £10 - 15k now blown out of the water with the extra work needed, replacing a rear bearing rope seal £22K!!! Looks lovely though and if you can afford it then why not…
1 Like
My '74 X12L was Fern Grey, which does indeed look like an olive drab green. I repainted it in Jaguar Sage Green Metallic, a color from 1987, much better, and goes well with the Moss Green interior.
1 Like
I know it may be rude to ask, but I am wondering your engine condition after rebuild looks as good as Harry’s if not better, did you spend near his budget on engine work?
The new green paint looks slightly different to the Aston safety car as I saw on the Netflix F1 program. I thought he was going for that exact safety car green.
No way did I spend that!! Does it look better, well its a matter of opinion and one that the purists should not answer!
1 Like
Cool videos! That must be one of the most expensive XJ´s out there now…
Hi Rob,
The fern grey (green) XJ S2 has a nice top but it appears a rotten bottom. So I’ll be using the engine and rather rare manual + OD and LSD on my blue car. I have started the disassembly of both cars and so far it’s going well. The pedal boxes are out and are compatible; the tunnel covers are out and aren’t compatible, but I’ll assemble the manual one as a piggy-back onto the original auto version (with a big hole cut out in the middle).
1 Like
Hey Mike,
Thanks for your reaction. I will admit that my level of depth and quality of finish is below your project standard: that is impressive to look at. It’s nearly a pity to reassemble it onto a car!
Does this mean you have also converted an XJ S2 from auto to manual?
The challenges I’ve seen so far are related to the tunnel cover and the pedal box, and I’ll be fine on both matters I think.
What other challenges have you struggled with? I haven’t checked whether the under-body mounting points are an exact match: any welding required? Then things like speedometer and reverse lights are also still unexplored for me. And I may be overlooking some additional ones altogether…
Thanks in advance for some input.
best regards
Peter
Hi Peter, Mine was an SIII but yes its now a manual, see the build thread here XJ sovereign V12 Covid rescue - Page 1 - Jaguar - PistonHeads UK
Honestly I struggled with everything. I never did this before… the biggest issue was redoing the fuel injection rail and repairing the FI Harness… but they seem to be good…
I will have to get the speedo calibrated, but the reverse light works OK as its the same connection as in the auto.
Honestly I would not have been able to complete it myself and hence I was very lucky to find Tom Lenthall, the guy who did Harrys V12, he took all my boxes of bits and put them all together.
Regarding the finish it was just a matter of time, cleaning and spraying, removing and renewing… Honestly I am glad its all back as I now know that everything is as or better the when she came out of Browns lane…
1 Like
Harry’s Garage finally finished the fabulous restoration of his XJC.
Stunning looking car and really top notch professional work, albeit I would be more conservative with the colour choice…
He also posted the final costs:
Body: 35.000 £
Engine: 20.000 £
Suspension and other bits: 7.000 £
To a total, including the purchase of the car, of 67.000 £…
Considering that his XJC videos have 200k to 300k views and counting, one has actually 700k, I think it’s very good news for us and the value of our cars!
2 Likes