In reply to frenchyd :
Sailing on the same ship. I'm in my mid sixties, and know what you mean. Is there any in between type racing, where you can "hot rod" what you got, but not go so far that you can't go back to stock?
In reply to frenchyd :
Sailing on the same ship. I'm in my mid sixties, and know what you mean. Is there any in between type racing, where you can "hot rod" what you got, but not go so far that you can't go back to stock?
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem : I started dreaming about this place in the the 1960’s during quieter moments in Vietnam. I bought the property over 35 years ago and started actual construction in 1998!
A normal house takes 2500-3000 manhours from start to finish. So far I have 31,000 hours in my place ( no, I didn’t put an extra 0 in) with hopefully only 3000 left before it’s finished
In reply to Dirtydog :
Track nights with SCCA is pretty much that way. Plus some car clubs will put on open events. Most don’t really want wheel to wheel racing. Just more like hot laps and passing normally requires a wave by.
Well that could be one way to get your Jones, and still have a fun streetable car, without major expense. Good deals always come along when you don't have the extra cash, believe me I know.
In reply to Dirtydog :
Streetable isn’t desired. Light and powerful is. The value of the car is only the ease it can be made to go fast, or the ability to make money so I can go fast sooner.
frenchyd said:In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :
A normal house takes 2500-3000 manhours from start to finish. So far I have 31,000 hours in my place ( no, I didn’t put an extra 0 in) with hopefully only 3000 left before it’s finished
You've mentioned the labor intensive home build in another thread. I'd love to hear some of the details of what has generated such a time consuming project. Of course given your attention to detail on the Black Jack Special I may have answered my own question. Do share if you can.
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem : instead of a traditional stick frame ( 2x4’sor2x6’s) it’s a timberframe . Actually a double timber frame.
In Europe the timbers show on the outside while here in America timbers show on the inside. I did both. The outside timbers are black walnut while the inside timbers are mostly white oak ( the master bedroom is all black walnut ) The dark wood makes it warm and cozy to sleep in . I even went with black walnut floors and ceilings. Furniture is Mahogany ( Stickly)
Anyway with the timbers on the outside timbers on the inside and S. I. P. s as insulation my walls wind up being 14 inches thick. Instead of stucco like you commonly see on European timber frames I used stone to infill between the timbers, Granite, Chilton, brick, and misc. The pattern I used is called London cobble. But there is no confusing it with the simulated stone you see on a lot of houses.
In a normal house you grab a nail gun and pull the trigger s few times and wood is connected.
With mortice and Tenion you have have to carve a hole in the timber called a mortice to receive the other timber with what is called a tenion. Like furniture is made. Accuracy is critical. If the mortice or tenion is off the timber might not align or the tenion not even go in the mortice.
To add to the problem timbers shrink and swell depending on the humidity . So you must make allowances for that remembering all the time all the other timbers and joints involved. While each bent ( timber frame section) is 4 feet from the next you are dealing with timbers and as I said wood moves, twists, shrinks, and swell. It doesn’t matter with thin 2x4’s but big timbers are bossy, a 12x12 timber 22 feet long will move however it wants to and it would just laugh at any nail or screw used to try to get it to behave. So you have to understand what it wants to do and allow it to do that but in a way that works with what you need.
Real timberframes have tapered pegs that are knocked in and out to adjust to weather conditions. My building inspector would not allow that so I buried lag bolts in my joints and covered them with pegs
Anyhow if all that wasn’t enough of a challenge, building round parts with square wood adds another real challenge, I’ve got a round tower and the front of my house done in the round. Oh and the corners of the roof are rolled which required me to steam bend the shakes to follow the curve
Boring stuff alert!! it’s 5500 sq ft 3 &1/2 stories with 105 windows ( 11 stained glass) R30 walls and R50 ceiling.
I did most of the work myself , permits, design, foundation, construction, plumbing wiring heating A/C landscape brick driveway ( 15,000) recycled paving brick originally laid in 1903 ) I did hire people to help where I absolutely needed help. For example I drove the crane or forklift and hired timber monkeys to climb the timbers and connect them . ( they called themselves timbermonkeys proud of the work they did)
no prior construction experience, I wanted things done my way and didn’t want to argue with experienced guys how they always did things. I first made sure things were safe and they understood what to do and how to do it.
I hired at various times a theater lighting director, a math teacher, a minister, and a drunk.
They all worked hard and had fun plus they were well paid.
In reply to frenchyd :
WOW! Sounds impressive....would love to see a dedicated thread even its just pics. I bet it's unique and beautiful.
Frenchyd, I lost track of this thread. It had sounded like you were looking for a XJS that was not so nice, so it could be gutted and chopped with a clear conscience. Mine is cleaner than most, but not what I would restore. It needs a lot of parts that wouldn't be used in a race car and the price includes a V12. It will sell to somebody someday. Not in my way and don't really need the money. I thought I'd offer it to an aficionado.
Sorry,
In reply to Motage :
Thank you, I’m going to get the XJS running and polished up and sell in the spring. Until then I wouldn’t dare bring another home for fear of SWMBO .
A few questions, where are you located? What year is it? 75- 80 are lighter and easier to get fast. How much rust does it have? Not hyper critical but effects how much work it will take. You say it’s missing pieces. That’s fine, except some tend to be needed and or are expensive. Interior pieces have no importance to me except the Tach. Gotta use a 12 cylinder tach on a 12 cylinder
you can get this for probably $3500 and I'm sure one of our local SA crew would look at it for you. There are 3 others in the Austin area in about the same condition for a similar price.
https://sanantonio.craigslist.org/cto/d/1990-jaguar-xjs-v12-4k-obo/6459902253.html
Cheap cars down here.
In reply to bmw88rider :
I paid $500 for a completely rust free Southern California car nice interior. Semi decent paint that will buff out.
I don’t want this one because it’s too nice. I’ll prep it and sell it in the spring. The money will go into the war chest for racing parts.
I want to go racing. The interior will be stripped, sound deadening and undercoating will be burned off trim and most chrome go in the trash. The roof will come off in order to have complete access to the rollcage. Then welded back on. Fenders doors hood and trunk lid will be removed to become a pattern for replacements that are massively lighter.
The suspension will be removed and modified to make it quickly adjustable. Plus changed to meet the needs of the race track.
Ah heck you don’t want a step by step! It’s a race car!!!!!! I want to go racing
In reply to bmw88rider :
Oh purdy
Frenchyd, my XJS is an '86. It's missing some engine sensors, wiper motor, headliner and a/c compressor. I will keep most of the interior. The radiator core has been ruined by the previous owner. I'm in the NW Detroit suburbs. If you send me your email address, I'll send some pics of the car. It has very little visible rust, but the driver front fender is loose at the very bottom, because of rust. Otherwise the body is decent.
Good day Frenchyd. Still looking around for an XJS on the cheap. Tough sledding thus far. How's your hunt going? Any final thoughts on going a different route?
In reply to Dirtydog :
Watch Southern California Craigslist, autotrader, and the two insurance sites. Always plenty of cars. It may take a while to find one to your interest at a budget you’d pay but with that market there is always cars.
Now if you want a nice one that needs nothing you’ll have to pay a lot more than I would. A lot lot lot more. But a project that someone lost interest in and doesn’t run? That’s getting in my wheelhouse.
If your goal is racing then you want a 1980 and older. They have the important, good, non HE heads And from 1978. on still had the Turbo 400 transmission rather than the early Borg Warner. The reason that’s important is the locating pins are exactly aligned with a Chevy bel housing so when you buy your T56 transmission all you need to do is make an adapter. You don’t need to start from scratch to align the engine and trans mission which you do on the Borg Warner.
The trouble is between the XKE, XJ12 sedan, and XJS there were only about 20,000 made. Not a lot over. 9 year period. One year less than 1000 were made.
The HE engine there were probably more than 500,000 made from 1981-1996.
America got more than 1/2 and California got more than 1/2 of those. So California is the place to look
In reply to frenchyd :
Actually, been on the hunt for a car that you may be interested in. I was originally looking for an XJ6, but couldn't find one that was worth the money they were asking. Ended up buying a turbo Volvo as a fun second car. Maybe some day learn to autocross it.
In reply to Dirtydog :
Empty out your car. Make sure it’s in good condition. Fill your tires to proper pressure and go to an event.
The rest is just getting better at doing it. Which you will get better as you race. Eventually you’ll buy your own helmet instead of borrowing others.
Have fun meet new friends
Got ya. Helmets are no problem, have them from my motorcycle days. Trouble is, locating a newbies track near me. Have an idea how to do it, but would prefer to be taught the correct way to approach it. As an aside, I rode motorcycles since I was 13. Thought i could ride. Went to school for it, to become an instructor. Most of it was natural, but I was able to learn and relearn the proper way. Enlightening, and instructive. Carried a lot of it over to my automobile driving as well.
In reply to Dirtydog :
check with the Porsche club BMW club SCCA etc for the next event
Show up and ask for an instructor.
Have fun.
On the other hand I raced one solo event and beat Sir Stirling Moss driving the factory Aston Martin DBR1 with no practice and never having driven in one before. I’ll bet a zillion bucks I could never do that again.
Thank you. I see that the Porsche club is having a class in Bethpage, NY. About an hour or so from here. It's on St. Paddy's day of all things.
That must have been quite the day beating one of the Lords of racing. Too bad you weren't playing the lottery for the daily double.
In reply to Dirtydog :
Oh he beat me for the week, in fact he finished first overall while I came in second.
He did sort of give me an indirect compliment. He said in his acceptance” when the amateurs race like pros. The pros have to drive like professionals.
He was referring to an earlier start where myself and Steve Kline out-jumped him on the start and he wound up Chasing Steve for the whole race. ( my little car just didn’t have the power they did).
In the last race he pulled directly in front of Steve at the last corner. since I was right behind Steve I moved up and Steve was blocked. Later Steve blew his rear end and DNF’d. My one 1st place all the second places ( Steve blew two engines a transmission and a rear end) and the two third places earned my 2nd overall.
Seems like you have a really nice history. I can understand why the juices are flowing to get back into it.
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