I Bought a Jag. An Old One. Jumping into British Car Ownership with Both Feet.

Typical electrical "fixes" from some previous owner resemble this:

As near as I can tell, that green wire is being held into the connector by gravity. No, I'm not kidding. I lifted up gently on the wire and it came off in my hand.

After fixing a few of these in the dash, I decided to try to figure out why the high beams weren't working.

Uh....

This whole driver's side electrical plug dealie on the fender had melted. Nothing was making any kind of connection, and live wires were just sort of dangling there. But how did the low beams still work on this side? Answer: the "master electrician" had skillfully jumped one headlight to the other via (ready?) a speaker wire jammed into the connector at the headlight, making sure to pinch the wire nicely in the headlight trim ring, and use one not one, not two, but three pieces of wire all connected with (yup) wire nuts.

The side marker light was done in much the same fashion. And the turn signal...didn't work at all.

After ripping out this mess, reterminating and re-wiring the entire driver's side of the car, all the lights that flash on the car flash when commanded to, and all the lights that aren't supposed to flash burn steadily upon command. Success!

So, I put the grille back on.

It's looking like a car again. Even better, it looks like a JAGUAR again!

"This whole driver's side electrical plug dealie on the fender had melted. Nothing was making any kind of connection, and live wires were just sort of dangling there. But how did the low beams still work on this side? Answer: the "master electrician" had skillfully jumped one headlight to the other via (ready?) a speaker wire jammed into the connector at the headlight, making sure to pinch the wire nicely in the headlight trim ring, and use one not one, not two, but three pieces of wire all connected with (yup) wire nuts."

^^^ People blame Lucas (Prince of Darkness) for British car's electrical issues, but I've found "modifications" like this are usually the culprit. They weren't perfectly made, by any stretch, but it sure doesn't help to have 40 years of "shade-tree electricians" in there messing with the wiring.

Great build by the way!

Thanks for the kudos and encouragement, from everyone. I need it some days.

The vacuum system was another disaster. This line connected one vacuum chamber on the driver's side to the one on the passenger side.

There were this many hose clamps.

Some times, when working on an old car, I get the impression that two mechanic bet each other that each could screw up a repair worse than the other. And then I bought the result of that wager.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Thanks for the kudos and encouragement, from everyone. I need it some days. The vacuum system was another disaster. This line connected one vacuum chamber on the driver's side to the one on the driver's side. There were this many hose clamps. Some times, when working on an old car, I get the impression that two mechanic bet each other that each could screw up a repair worse than the other. And then I bought the result of that wager.

Sad to say, I agree with others, most of the problems I've had with British rides were caused not at the factory but in the barn or under the shade tree!!

Rupert

Keep up the good work!

With most of the mechanical/electrical work done, the next step would be to address some of the more glaring cosmetic deficiencies of the Jag. While this car isn't meant to be a trailer-queen or an award-winner, it does need to have at least a bit of "togetherness" about itself.

The main issue with the Jag, in that regard, is this:

Running down each side of the car is an 8 inch strip of some weird purple-y blue color hastily sprayed over equally-hasty bodywork. No attempt was made to color match or blend- there's a noticeable tape-line there. And, now, the rust is poking through again.

Yuck.

Eww.

So, I taped off the driver's side and went to town with the usual suspects of grinding/ sanding tools.

And by dinnertime, some progress had been made.

I'd like to say that the plan is to cut all this out and weld in new panels. But since this is never going to be a concours-correct restoration, for right now the rust is simply going to be stabilized with some Eastwood magic black paint, the major holes patched, and a skim coat of long-strand filler spread over it. Then it'll get primed and painted with whatever I can come up with that decently matches the rest of the car.

I have seen on E-bay a headlight wiring kit, includes the plugs for the lights and relays for the high and low beam, all wired up. Some older cars didn't use relays for the headlight, and to much load went thru the ignition switch or other circuits. Some only had a relay for the high beam. Anyhow that kit would replace the bad wiring and make a easy repair.

In reply to TED_fiestaHP:

At some point I should do headlight relays; for now I'm just happy to not have both headlights being powered through one wire.

Got the driver's side painted with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator, and started grinding out the passenger side yesterday.

So, in between coats, I fiddled with some other stuff on the car. I fixed the horn, and replaced all the glass tube fuses with new. Amazingly, electrical stuff started to work again. For example, there's now a functional heater blower fan!

Haven't gotten anything else done on the car since the last post, just a funny anecdote to insert here:

A guy came over to my house for some Volvo 122 fenders I had for sale. In the course of our talking I took him around the property to show him some of my other projects, and we came to the Jag. He loved the car, and asked me a lot about it. As we discussed the eccentricities of Jaguars and British cars in general he inquired, in a somewhat hushed, hesitated intone,

"So...how much of the...electrical...stuff, ah, works?"

I replied that I'd spent considerable time rewiring, cleaning connections, and replacing fuses and connectors, and was happy to report that the electrical system was essentially 100% operable. He looked at me for a second, and then asked,

"Um...what do you do for a living?"

After a short pause, I answered, "I'm an engineer...why?"

"I figured.", he said. I cocked my head to the side slightly, and he went on, "Only an engineer would have an old Jaguar with all of the electrical stuff functioning."

He bought the fenders, too.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

As an engineer myself, let me raise my morning coffee and 'cheers' a fellow engineer and the following world domination (of doing relatively easy things that take quite a bit of perseverance)!

I raise my coffee mug to the engineers of the world (myself included). To us!

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

Go to Martin Robey's web site for all body panels for Jaguar..

Nice Deal !

RossD wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: As an engineer myself, let me raise my morning coffee and 'cheers' a fellow engineer and the following world domination (of doing relatively easy things that take quite a bit of perseverance)!

I don't know...as an engineer I am somewhat conflicted in that I have always considered us a breed of people who will spend many hours puzzling out how to shave a few seconds from a simple task.

So maybe powered by lazy?

NOHOME wrote:

RossD wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: As an engineer myself, let me raise my morning coffee and 'cheers' a fellow engineer and the following world domination (of doing relatively easy things that take quite a bit of perseverance)!

I don't know...as an engineer I am somewhat conflicted in that I have always considered us a breed of people who will spend many hours puzzling out how to shave a few seconds from a simple task. So maybe powered by lazy?

See, I try to optimize tasks, but I prefer to do it in a "trial and error" fashion. So, rather than taking time to figure out the optimal way to do something, I'll try it one way, and then try it a different way, and see which takes less time. One benefit of this is that it self-selects tasks that are most likely to benefit from long-term optimization. So if it's a task that's only to be done once, it won't be repeated, and time won't be spent to optimize it. But, my morning routine I have down to a hard and fast 41 minutes from alarm going off to the nose of my diesel Mercedes poking out the driveway.

So, the other night, I discovered the joys of long strand Bondo hair. Wow, this stuff is great. The driver's side of the Jag is done- all the little rust outs along the bottom of the door cleaned, rust-treated, and filled. Next step is to sand and skim-coat it, then prime and paint. Meanwhile, the passenger side is about 2 steps lagging.

So it goes.

Body work. The Never-Ending story.

The goal was to have this ready to go by the Spring Thaw car show - this Saturday. It's not looking like that will happen. Still have a few inevitable sand and fill steps to go, then primer and paint. Oh well. The weather's nice now, so we'll keep plugging along.

The Jag also needs some rear seat belts so we can put the kiddie seats in it.

As happens when one has 2 kids, a full-time job, and old farm house, and various other things going on (Like, it's spring time, so the wife needed help getting the garden in, and we had a 24 Hours of LeMons race in April) the Jag project got a bit behind schedule. But yesterday evening, I finally pulled the car out of the shop under it's own power.

I took it for a cruise around the neighborhood, hoodless, of course. The neighbors watched, probably unsurprised at this point by what the crazy car guy who lives in the antebellum house was doing. After verifying that brakes, clutch, engine, gearbox and steering all sort-of worked the way they ought to, I put the hood back on and gave her a quick shower.

The paint still needs some buffing- hopefully that will help blend it a bit better, as I didn't paint the entire body and it still looks a little splotchy up close and in direct light. And the interior needs a good scrubbing and some leather conditioner. Hopefully it will have tags on it by tonight so I can actually drive it. There is a cruise-in at the local Denny's tomorrow...

She's a beaut.

Well done, looks Great.

What are you plans for it next? Just drive and enjoy? or further mods?

In reply to Indy-Guy:

Or maybe it's sell it to RossD? lol

In reply to Indy-Guy:

No mods planned at the moment. I'm still waiting on a few odds and ends to arrive from XKS Unlimited to complete a tune-up. I'll probably replace the tires (sorry, "tyres") at some point, as they are old and look a little dry-rotted, and are the wrong size. Vrendesteins are practically made for this car.

The other main issue right now is the right hand gas (sorry, "petrol") tank is leaking and rusty, so it's running off of just the left tank. Which means a total fuel capacity of 7 gallons. Which likely means a range of about 100 miles at most. Since I'd like to drive it to work occasionally, a round trip of approximately 90 miles, and not have to fill up on the way there and home, fixing that other tank will really help with the enjoyment of the car.

Until then, I have a feeling a 2 gallon jerry can will reside in the trunk.

@RossD: if I get bored with the Jag, I'll let you know. Or, if you just feel like making an offer...

I've totally been waiting for this day to arrive. Congrats, VCH! I really dig this car.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

You have way more faith in me than I do. I still have that poor '67 Town and Country that's been sitting in my yard after the restoration lost momentum.

I'm really looking forward to having child seats in this Jag, so when the family needs to go somewhere we don't just default to the Suburban. Mrs. VCH's '68 Camaro has belts in the back, but it's a squeeze, and she doesn't let me drive it, anyway.

The Jaguar has been driven a total of 4.2 miles under my care (both the odometer and trip odometer actually work) and already it's failed in a way that I've never experienced before:

The clutch stuck applied.

I decided to take her out for a sort of "Maiden Voyage" on Saturday, a mile and a half down the road and back to see how she'd do. The big six started up quickly, like it seems to, and has good oil pressure. At 70C by the gauge, the electric fan comes on. All gauges seem to work, so off we go, "motoring" down the road as one does in an old Jag.

I shifted through all the gears, no issues, and in top gear, held my breath and flipped the lever to the right of the steering column, illuminating the huge "OVERDRIVE" indicator. A half second pause, and then a clunk, and the car's running in overdrive! A hill was coming up, so I flipped the lever down (no clutching here, this is Laycock's little gizmo) and the car came back into 4th gear and ascended the rise without fuss.

All was fine until I got home. The clutch pedal didn't seem to be returning fully up, so I sat in the car in neutral and worked it a few times, trying to perhaps free the mechanism. Then, I put it in gear, released the pedal, and...nothing. No movement. Several futile attempts at motion resulted in the same thing.

Puzzled, I shut the engine off. There was no smell of burned clutch, no weird noises. Why was the clutch not engaging?

A few hours later, I went out tot he car, fired up the engine, put it in gear, and the clutch released! The car moved about again. Odd....

Last night I swept out the garage, started up the Jag, and moved it inside. While popping the hood, it dawned on me what the trouble could be- the clutch is hydraulic, and the flexible rubber hose to the slave cylinder could be collapsing and restricting flow back to the master. A quick glance at the hose revealed it to be very old-looking, so this seems like a possibility. At any rate, it's cheap to replace.

Stay tuned...