Its very nearly 20 years since I bought my first ever Jaguar, albeit a Daimler badged version of the original 'Series One' XJ6. Since then I've never been without one, and at times have had two at once. I've had some great times with them but also some very low times. I thought it was time I passed on some of my experiences to others. To any youngsters out there tempted to buy their first large cat on a shoestring budget, I would say read on and digest very carefully.....
In the spring of 1983 I decided that my Ford Corsair 1700 (albeit with a 2000E lump transplanted in) was no longer exciting enough for me and I decided that I needed something with a little bit more style for the coming summer months. I was attracted to both the Rover P5B Coupe and also to the Daimler badged version of the Series One XJ6. Road test reports seemed to suggest that the Daimler would be the better buy, - Both looked horrifically expensive to run, but the Daimler looked as if it was faster and better behaved on the road and parts more readily available. In addition they seemed to be more cheaply available and not even very expensive to insure. Trouble was I was only nineteen, impatient and not exactly a high earner. Many readers will probably recall the heady days of youth when anything seems possible, - no matter what the killjoys might say, nothing so inconvenient as the material facts would deter me from having the car I wanted.
Armed only with about £500 stashed in my childhood building society account I started scouring the local papers, Auto Trader etc for a suitable motor. The first one I went to see was not a Daimler but a British Racing Green XJ6, 1973 model. I can't remember the vendors' story but it was indeed more or less ready for a short trip - to the dump. It smoked terribly, the timing chains sounded ready to jump their cogs, both front wing tops had rusted through around the front lights and the rear arches were just a memory. The shocking thing was that the owner thought the car was well above average condition and wanted £800 for it! As they say in the tabloids your reporter made his excuses and left.
Undismayed a few days later I was on the trail of another car, K-reg this time but a Daimler, which was what I would really prefer. Although only a short drive to see this one it was still long enough to slip into that lovely fantasy mode wherein you conjure up a picture of a lovingly maintained example with nary a blemish..... Reality of course made an unwelcome return on arrival at the owners address where a stomach turning sight greeted me.
If you're ever in Slough, take care not to make a wrong turning onto the trading estate, for this is where the famous Mars chocolate factory resides - it is painted a sickly combination of pinky cream and brown, intended no doubt to bring to mind the colours revealed when you bite into one of their bars. For a while I worked nearby and as I drove past every day there was always a constant stream of sugar lorries and dairy lorries unloading into hoppers and always a sickly caramel odour hanging over the place. Well this car was a combination of those hues - dark chocolate brown with pinky/cream down the sides, - it was a horrid thing to do to a car.
Of course the owner was so proud of the combination that he'd repeated the effect all over the interior trim , with what for all I knew could have been household enamel - it stunk and made you want to heave. Not only that it showed a remarkable reluctance to change (automatic) gears, the exhaust was a masterpiece of gun gum and chicken wire and the power steering had been mysteriously disconnected in some way which was disconcerting and seemed to suggest foul play, come to think of it so did the owners general appearance, - he looked like a particularly lank and greasy version of Elvis and worked as a janitor at the local girls school.
The only good side I seem to remember was that he only wanted around £400 for it, but I had some weird vision that I was in danger of buying something which quite likely to be confiscated as police evidence for some nasty crime. I literally couldn't 'stomach' to take it on and so once again excuses were made and your reporter made a clean getaway.
Looking back now its remarkable to recall the terrible condition cars used to be kept in and survive on the roads. Obviously people were less well off then and the MOT was a lot less strict, but you often saw cars with mangled bumpers and panels and rust holes in wings and sills etc. and at the time it merely seemed that that was the kind of Daimler I was going to end up with.
Anyway a week or so after this fruitless expedition I was out on the hunt
again, with a lead from the Ilford Recorder, or something like. This time it appeared to be a
trader selling from his home, fronted by a sexy sounding woman accomplice to answer phone calls,
but the car was definitely a step up from the previous ones I had seen. Again it was a Daimler,
this time a 73 model in Regency Red and with a Webasto sunroof and tan (is it called biscuit?)
interior. This car I was rather taken with. On the (short) test run the seller went fairly
gently, but the car accelerated and stopped well and seemed to run fine and rode very smoothly.
Although the car had obviously been resprayed, with a few blemishes the overall effect was very well polished although the chrome was beginning to show its age and had apparently been paid a visit by the abrasive polishing agent from hell. What clinched the deal was the fact that the seller showed me two nearly new tyres which he would fit to replace the tired looking front set for an extra £20. So a deal was struck on the spot and a deposit left. I arranged insurance cover and picked the car up the next weekend, paying as I recall £560. The registration was PGP 370L. I've noticed a club member has a very similar plate, perhaps PGP362L and I once in the mid eighties saw PGP 371L somewhere I think in London's Square Mile. Unfortunately
I don't recall the colour (may have been beige or goldish) or when exactly I saw it..
The next hurdle was presenting this 'fait accomplis' to my parents, with whom I still lived. My mother was no problem as she has always been possessed of an unflappable nature and an at times overoptimistic faith in her offsprings' common sense. Father was a different matter. By his own account the single handed founder of the 'common sense school' he took a dim view of my activities generally at this stage and this latest flight of fancy was liable to turn a more or less non-speaking relationship into one of silent despair. In writing this one of my regrets is that I can't remember the cunning ruse by which my new purchase was introduced to the family but I vaguely recall there was a period of 'parking it round the corner and keeping schtumm' which was soon foiled by the overpowering urge to tinker with it in the evenings after work.
I also wish I could recall my fathers words on stumbling (literally)
on my purchase one evening but let's just say that I learned another technique for getting
three expletives into a single sentence on the spot.
Formalities over then, the car became one of the family over the next couple
of weeks, and in a way it was wonderful. Given the excuse that I was not even out of my teens,
hopefully I can be forgiven the fact that after a journey, I would often sit in the car
another five to ten minutes and just play with stuff, like a kid, - polishing the dash or
jiggling the tape deck to try to get it to disgorge tapes, or attempting one more time to
master the ventilation controls, you know the kind of thing. But the point was that I loved
the car, I loved the way it looked, I loved the way it sat so squat on the road, and I loved
just cruising around in it, - you didn't have to go fast, - you just waffled around and let
the engine waft you around in near silence, one arm resting on the centre console and
(not to be encouraged) one or two fingers resting on the wheel, letting the autobox take care of the gears. In some small way this seemed to compensate for the fact that I couldn't really afford to run the thing. A friend who happened to be with me when I pulled in for fuel one day (Actually that seemed to happen every day) noted the large amounts of liquid being drained from the pump and christened the car "Guzzler". The name stuck.
So that I suppose was the honeymoon period, and of course it had to end. One of the first disappointments was to realise that although the front tyres had indeed been changed, they weren't nearly as new as the ones I'd been shown in the boot by the seller, and indeed the second disappointment followed close at heel as I realised that the rear wheels bore an uncanny resemblance to a pair I'd recently seen on the front!! Oh well, you live and learn I said to myself in a manner which was so happy go lucky that I began to see what my father had been on about all these years.
I gradually began to become acquainted with all the maladies that afflict
these cars as they age. Firstly I noticed it got through a fair bit of coolant. Being poor,
rather than ignorant of the need for antifreeze I replaced the lost coolant with water. I
noticed also that the kickdown was inoperative. I noted that the fuel consumption was not
good, I tinkered with the twin SU's but realised that they were in a good state of tune and
from then on left them alone. The auto-enrichment device (AED) which I have seen jokingly
described as the "Auto Enrichment Disaster" was working as well as they ever do
(What I nowadays refer to AEDSU/W - AED Status Unusual - Working) , due to my lack of
experience with them I didn't realise how lucky I was in this respect, but at any rate I
decided I would just have to get used to the fuel consumption. Apart from the previously
noted problems with the tape player I also had difficulty getting the heating system working,
- acquainting myself with the several vacuum servos and controls complete with ready-to-snap
plastic connections. As far as the Webasto sunroof went I was ambivalent, - on a sunny day
it was great to be able to let the sun in, but on the majority of British weather type days
it was a constant source of wind noise. On balance, given that the vinyl was faded and
beginning to fray I would rather have not had this particular feature.
However the 'ante' in the disappointment stakes was upped one lovely summery
Friday evening as I pulled into the main road of our town and prodded the throttle a bit.
A dull but somehow expensive sounding thump emanated from the gearbox followed by a metallic
tinkling and hey, no transmission!
I skulked home, rather annoyed but in some strange way relieved that the misfortune and woe which my father implied would be visited upon me had been revealed in such an obvious, straightforward manner. I more or less thought to myself -"There's the bad news, we'll just get over this and all will be fine" - Oh boy , little did I know.
I enlisted the help of a good friend who had a Triumph 2000 with a towbar to tow me home, we used to live at the top of a steep hill and with the Daimler behind it was a first gear job nearly all the way home. I remember him grumbling about this some months later when his clutch needed replacing.
The car took up residence in the family garage to the sound of various 'knowing' mutterings from father. Obviously the gearbox must come out. Various mishaps were to be expected and in due course they came. The exhaust downpipes were on the way out and removing them finished them off. Disconnecting the dipstick pipe resulted in the entire boss coming off the autobox sump and disconnecting the kickdown connection revealed that the wire had never been soldered or crimped into the spade connector - so the kickdown could never have worked from new. With the gearbox removed it became clear that the Torque converter had shattered. Main dealer prices for a new one were ludicrous but after phoning around I eventually located a place in North London who could supply a good second-hand one for £20. I also needed a new flex-plate as my one was cracking and they could supply one of those too for about £10 as I recall.
So another friend of mine was pressed into service and transported me over
there in the sidecar of his '54 Triumph Thunderbird. We looked like understudies for the
'Last of the Summer Wine'. The purchase was made and the replacement flywheel and torque
converter replaced. Problems then ensued with the fitting of the gearbox. I tried and tried,
with the help of an ever-dwindling pool of willing friends to get the thing to mount on the
converter, but to no avail. Thoroughly disheartened by this stage I removed the torque
converter and then with the gearbox sitting on the garage floor realised that the splines were
different to those on the autobox input shaft. Back again to the spares shop and (after
another hair raising experience round the North Circular road in the motorcycle and sidecar) back
under the car. This time the gearbox slid into place like a dream - Only those who have
battled into the early hours covered in oil and road dirt in a similar predicament can know
the satisfaction, the absurd pleasure that derives from finally getting two large mechanical
units securely bolted together. A definite cup of tea and kit-kat moment.
Reassembly of the remaining parts followed, including new front downpipes, brazing the dipstick spigot back onto the sump pan and making good the solder connection of kickdown wire to terminal spade. That weekend my brother gave me a lift to the local autospares shop and I shelled out around £16 for not one but two 5 litre cans of auto box fluid. I more or less wept as I worked out this was approximately two days pay, or to put it another way, my entire disposable income for the week. The good side was that once filled up the car was ready to go. The XK engine is a remarkable beast in that it always seems so willing to fire up even after a fair period laid up and it was a great feeling to select 'Drive' and have the car creep forward under its own steam again.
Having got the car back together it seemed that it ran really quietly now, and I realised that before the converter had been making a fairly obvious metallic noise , not unlike what I imagine a washing machine on nut-and-bolt duty would sound, albeit one washing them in hydraulic fluid.
From now on the car was back in service and proved amazingly reliable. There were problems of course, - the water lost proved to be a leaking water pump (soon replaced) and also a pinhole in the radiator (put off for unsound financial reasons). Other than that it was all systems go and back to enjoying the near silent wafting mode of transport available, and with the weather good, rolling back the webasto sunroof, lowering the electric windows and listening to the patter of the Avons over the road surface. I was impressed by the quality of the ride and for the size of the car the handling too was excellent.
On into the winter months the heating was still not quite up to scratch,
but bearable. However the five mile trip into work was averaging about 12 m.p.g.. I realised
I would just have to grin and bear the expense. As I was constantly broke this also meant
there was never much petrol actually in the tanks. As many other readers would agree the
tendency is to use one tank most of the time, in my case that meant one more or less empty
and the other less than quarter full at any time. Having the two tanks meant that I could
become an expert reader of the gauge, - with fuel in one tank I ran on the other until the
car stopped. I then knew exactly how far I could push it into the red. This practice led to what has become an immortal comment amongst my group of old school friends;
Andy : "Good God, look at the fuel gauge- we couldn't have any less fuel"
Me : "We haven't!"
However there were compensations. On a weekend a few of us might cruise up to the West End to see a band, we always felt like kings wafting up to town in the Daimler.
On longer faster trips though, a few things became apparent, - The rear hub
swivel bearings were worn, resulting in the famous rear-end steer and I realised that the car
was not quite as long-legged as I felt it should be. I've always thought that the
earlier auto models are under geared for motorway use, probably simply because they were designed in the infancy of our motorway network. Oil consumption was also a bit high and the water leak was unlikely to go away of its own accord, so regular topping up was going to be a necessity.
After about a year of ownership I decided I was going abroad for a while
and arranged to store the car in Suffolk. On the day of the trip I pulled the bonnet release
to check fluids for its final trip for the time being and to my utter frustration and dismay
the bonnet jammed shut. One last pull on the release only succeeded in breaking the cable.
Being unaware at the time that there are holes provided under the wheelarch to manually free
the catches I decided that I would risk it and "take it easy" on the 80 mile trip.
I managed about 50 miles, - into the famous Constable country near Dedham Flat, before the
water gauge started its inexorable climb into the red. I pulled over and waited for 15 minutes
before restarting. The engine was cooler but still hot. Willing old thing that it was, it got
me only a few more miles before it was back in the red. I limped off the A12 and into a garage.
The guys there didn't really want to know, - they obviously didn't know about the release
holes either and tried levering the bonnet which only chipped the paint a bit.
Again I limped a few more miles as the engine got hotter and the power tailed
off until I knew that if I continued I would seize it completely. I then called out my brother in law
who lived near my destination who came out to help. The instructions included the line
"Bring a large crowbar and about two gallons of water". I don't recall the reply
too well. This may be because it was stunned silence. So help arrived and in another of those
despairing moments which occurred too frequently in my association with these cars I applied
crowbar to edge of bonnet and wrenched it open like an expensive sardine can. Water was
gingerly added to the engine, slowly enough not to worsen matters even more by cracking
the still red-hot internals. It now became apparent that in addition to the radiator hole the
bypass hose from the water pump had split, allowing a much greater water loss than expected.
Once cooled the poor old girl spluttered back into life one more time and once again I
marvelled at the resilience of these engines. There was now a pronounced misfire but I was
grateful that it ran at all and the poor thing still managed to cruise the remaining miles
at a steady 50.
With that then the car was put into open air storage for the few months I would be away. As you may have guessed that was to be "Guzzler"s last journey.
After three months abroad I returned home. Still skint and with nowhere near
enough money to recommision the Daimler I got my trusty Corsair back from its borrowed garage
and back on the road for about £50. I still occasionally got the chance to get over to Suffolk
and when I did so, always went to visit 'Guzzler'.
Guzzler in what became his final resting place,
Surrounded by some rather strange characters. August 1984.
The loony on the left is old schoolmate John Wynn, owner of the Triumph Thunderbird/sidecar
combo used on Torque Converter/Flywheel collection duties the previous summer.
The saner chap on the left is Brother-in-Law Dave (Pip) Westrup, 4th emergency service personified
and owner of large crowbar.
The chap 2nd from right with the strange headgear, Martin Morgan lent me £80 towards insuring 'Guzzler'
By this time I had paid him back!
Some months later I decided to try and enrol in a degree
course for the next autumn. This of course meant trying to save some money to tide me over the
three year course and Daimler repairs were out of the question. Every now and again I would get
the opportunity to go and see the car, but being out in the open (albeit in a sheltered spot)
the car of course deteriorated fairly speedily. It was a sad way to see things go but I had no
choice, all I was able to do was to marvel at the engine (which still started every time on a borrowed
battery and ran on 4 and a half cylinders) and move it a few feet to free up transmission and
brakes. However there was not much one could do about the increasing rot in the sills, valances
and door bottoms, or about the mess that various squatter rodents were making of the
appetising (once to me, now to them) interior.
Guzzler R.I.P. Spring 1986.
Note 'Slave' Wheels fitted to save the 'Extra £20' Avons
Guzzler Exhumed Spring 1986.
Note temporary 'Jack Handle' Aerial substitute and bonnet 'modifications'
My college life began, and by dint of working part time and in the holidays
financially things were not so dire as I had feared. So it was that in August 1987 (the summer holiday
between my 2nd and 3rd college year) I was returning from a party in Bournemouth when I stopped off at
Fleet services and bought an Auto Trader magazine.
Temptation comes knocking
In it was advertised a 1973 Daimler
Sovereign, manual/overdrive with towbar for an attractive sum. I had always fancied the idea
of the manual model and I felt sure that the overdrive should make it an ideal motorway car.
With the hindsight of my previous experiences and a slightly older head on my shoulders I
agonised for a couple of days before finally deciding to go and check the car out, "It'll
probably be a wreck so I will be able to just walk away".
Oh no, tempted again.
It didn't look this clean back in 1987.
So there I was again, on a financial tightrope, contemplating financial
suicide one more time and looking at a Turquoise Daimler with a contrasting pinky/red interior
which I now know to be 'Terracotta'. The owner had got the car as a "sweetener" in
a deal with someone who had bought his dissembled MG T-series for cash plus the Daimler.
He handed me the keys and told me to do what I wanted with it. I asked if that included a test
drive and he said "Sure, you can't bugger off with it and take your Corsair too, can
you?".
Just a little wiser in the world of Jaguars by now I first lifted the bonnet
and checked fluids. Water was not to be seen in the engine. The owner expressed surprise but
produced a milk bottle of water, and when added it brought the water up to visibility level.
With a cursory inspection completed I took it for a run. The engine pulled strongly enough
and once up to speed the overdrive gave, as expected, a nice loping gait, albeit with a bit of
tappet noise evident. Moreover the roof was not sullied with a Webasto sunroof, so windnoise was well
down on the levels of the previous car, but not absent - some was still apparent around the front door
to screen pillar area. Unsurprisingly we had status AEDSU/NW - AED status Usual - Not Working.
The steering pulled slightly to the right, but somehow the car felt as though it could carry
on loping along for a good while yet. I returned to the owners place and continued the
inspection. The car was basically down at heel but still just about viable. Wise now to
suspension matters I concluded that the rear swivels were shot, just like Guzzlers had been, but that everything else was worn but sound. Brakes, steering, engine likewise. Bodily it had had a cheap and nasty set of oversills fitted and one front wing replaced.
The wing that had not been replaced was going around the headlight as was
to be expected on a car of this age.
I returned home and again agonised for a day before deciding what the hell and phoning the seller. He refused to haggle, saying that it was a fair price already and I found it difficult to argue, in the end I managed only to let me have off £10 in respect of the fuel needed to get it home. He fairly replied "I'm not going to haggle over ten quid!" and so a deal was struck. I went the next day with my brother to pick it up. I handed over the cash and this time was much more nervous about the trip home, - age and a bit more experience of life were already beginning to temper my outlook especially where big expensive cars were concerned. This trip home round the M25 was uneventful except for when a car two in front of mine suddenly lost an entire wheel at about 75 mph. The car in front (a Volvo estate) swerved suddenly round the unexpected obstruction of the loose wheel, and I, mindful of my painfully acquired "if it can go wrong in a Jag it will" attitude was luckily fully concentrating on the job in hand and so managed to avoid the swerving Volvo and a few yards further on the stricken three-wheeled casualty.
Once home the awkward introduction of the new family member was no easier
than the previous time. I think the paternal quote was something like "You really are an
idiot!". Since I was no longer at home much and mainly living at my college town I decided
I could ignore that statement, however.
One of the persuading factors in getting the car had been the prospect of an
upcoming visit to some friends in Germany. The 800 mile round trip looked to be a more
attractive proposition in a comfortable Daimler than my long suffering Corsair.
With this journey in mind I subjected the car to a more searching and hopefully more
insightful examination and started to tackle the most urgent jobs. The car now gained its name
'Gregory' as in the actor Gregory Peck due to the registration plates starting with 'PEK'.
First of all the exhaust. Mild steel exhausts on the XJ series are notoriously short lived, so it was no surprise at all to discover pinholes and very thin metal at the rear of the overaxle pipes. Before long the weight of the rear silencers and normal engine vibration would be fatigue cracking the pipes and the result would be the silencers swivelling on the rear bayonet mount into the road at a very awkward angle. The rest of the system however was sound for the time being but I knew that to disturb it would probably finish it off, so on each side I formed a length of steel wire into a loop around the pipe and attached it to the boot floor at a convenient point. If the pipe fractured the wire slings would prevent the boxes dropping onto the road.
Next was to investigate the water loss. The engine was not original and had obviously had work done fairly recently. In fact the whole underbonnet area was clean, I guessed it had been steam cleaned recently. Whatever work had been done, the hoses were all in good condition and the radiator did not leak so I added half a bottle of Bars Leaks and called it a day. The overdrive system on the early XJ's includes an inhibitor switch to prevent it being engaged in any other gear than top. In my case it had become faulty and someone along the way had bypassed it. The result was the ability to engage overdrive in any gear, including reverse!. Shoestring budget or not I had no intention of ruining the overdrive. If the worst ever came to pass and this car reached the end of the road I had figured that an overdrive unit would be a saleable item when scrapping the car. So I went to the main dealers and shelled out for a new inhibitor switch. Incidentally the overdrive selector switch is mounted in the gearlever knob. It is not a particularly high quality part, - between 70 and 80 m.p.h. it rattles out loud from vibration transferred up the stick from the gearbox. To this day it still does it and this is just another one of those penny pinching design faults which spoil the whole concept of the car.
Steering, Suspension and Brakes all checked out worn but OK, the front discs
and pads would have to be replaced soon and the rear swivels were "adjusted", - they
tend to wear so badly that they get flats on them, the less fastidious, or in my case in those
days penniless, person removes shims to get rid of nearly all the play and greases and
reassembles the unit wherein the bearing rollers skid around the bearing surface rather than
rolling. This 'fix' not recommended except that its a lot safer than the rear-end steering that
would otherwise occur until the job is done properly. All lights were OK apart from the
nearside front sidelight. This might work when turned on, or you might have to get out and
thump it, you could never tell.
With about a week to go before the big trip I set out with some friends to the coast one evening. Thinking nothing of it I pulled into a petrol station and started filling the nearside petrol tank, which was empty when bought. I filled it to the brim and went to pay. Walking out of the kiosk I saw my friends disgorging from the car, holding their noses and hopping to safety through a pool of (you guessed it ) fuel that was spreading from under the car. Now I knew why it was previously empty.
We didn't needing advising that it was a good idea to get the thing off the forecourt, - indeed the garage proprietor had had the same idea and was quite vocal in communicating it to us.
'Get that car of my forecourt' he said. I wonder if he was training to be a landowner.
I hurriedly purchased some poly piping from the aforementioned cheerful (not) fellow, disconnected the nearside fuel pump outlet, and used it to pump the tank out into the offside one. Thus I guess I lost about a gallon and a half, but what a disaster if there had not been another tank to fill, or worse if a spark of some sort had set it all off. I really was rather disappointed and angry that the vendor had not found it in him to warn me of this fault. Well as ever undaunted we proceeded on our journey with no further mishap.
With a few days left before the trip I went to see the Guzzler in his resting
place. After my supplications, apologies and presentation of a forged jaguar donor card, he
offered up a sound petrol tank, sun visors (missing from the new car), Non-Draught Ventilator
controls, a working AED and the '£20 Extra' Avons were now put into service on the new car.
The great day of the journey came and I am glad to relate that it was a
complete success. The car behaved faultlessly all the way there. Once on the continental
motorways a steady 90 mph was maintained. The engine cruised comfortably showing 3,000 rpm and
sounding healthy. With both tanks nearly full and three occupants and luggage the car was
fairly low at the rear but stable and with no Webasto sunroof on this car wind noise was much
lower. We reached our destination in good time and enjoyed a relaxing week with our hosts.
The return trip, I am glad to say, was equally uneventful - my friends father, in the Royal
Ordnance corps. filled up both tanks with army coupons and sent us on our way. Once again we
set a speed around 90 mph and cruised all the way back to Zeebrugge. Once home I was very pleased with the way the car had performed and determined to try and improve it somewhat over the coming year.
A month or two into the new college year someone tried to steal the car while
it was parked overnight in the college car park. They must have had no trouble at all getting
past the Xmas-cracker quality BL locks but were luckily stumped by the steering column lock,
although they managed to split the lock barrel. Apart from smashing the interior light lenses
and bulbs there was no other damage. Taking the hint I got some barrel-style security locks
and fitted these. Guzzler offered up a replacement steering column lock (and petrol cap
tumblers for which I had keys, as opposed to those currently on the car).
A few weeks later the overaxle exhaust pipes gave up and the rear silencers languished into
the waiting securing wires. I shelled out for new front silencers and overaxle pipes, the rest
of the system remaining OK.
By now the MOT was due and I was quite happy that the car only failed on the
nearside side light and worn steering rack mountings. These two items may be familiar to
other owners. The steering rack mounting rubbers are designed to have an element of movement,
the travel being limited by the fitment of rubber faced washers either side of the rack mounting lugs. These limit the movement of the rack on the rubbers. Whatever the thinking was behind this design I do not know, (it may have been to absorb some loads in tight situations e.g. wheels wedged against kerb stones when parking) but it is unusual and you will be lucky to find an MOT tester who doesn't want to fail your car on this point. I reluctantly rearranged the packing of the washers to close up the travel to the testers misguided satisfaction. As to the nearside sidelight, herein lies another familiar bug bear of sixties cars. The light housing , made of 'monkey metal', rusts to the point where the lens screws cannot be removed whilst at the same time the bulbs can no longer earth properly in their housings and the contact springs rust leading to a poor contact on the live feed. I dived in and made a satisfactory cheapskate repair. - The lens securing screws sheared as predicted, so I drilled and retapped the lugs. I found a suitable spring for the live feed terminal and then (wait for it), soldered a wire to the bulb casing and secured it with a self tapper to a sound part of the lamp fitting. I refitted the unit, ladled waxoyl around it and replaced the lens. This penny pinching arrangement survives to the present day.
A new MOT was duly obtained (as they say in all the best stories) and that
was the end of my troubles for the rest of the year.
During January (1988) I had to replace the ignition ballast coil.
The symptom was that the car would fire up while cranking but stop as soon as I let the key
go from the start position.
Around this time, one afternoon after a long run I realised what the water loss problem was - several of the core plugs on the flanks of the engine were rusty and one was pinholed, - as the engine become hot water weeped out. These again were a relatively easy job to replace using dealer supplied items. By February the clutch was finished, replacing this was a reasonably straight forward job, except that the sheer weight of the gearbox necessitated making a wooden cradle to help manoeuvre it about. The feel of the new clutch added a lot to the enjoyment of driving the car. Around about this time I sorted the rear hub swivels too.
For the next few months the car behaved very well, I did a few little jobs
such as front wishbone slipflex bushes, clutch slave seals, new aerial and fan belt.
Towards summer though I decided to try and save a few pence on petrol and perhaps improve
warm up by fitting a fuel supply cut-off to the AED which had got so far out of spec that it was sometimes necessary after a short trip from cold to take off the mixture supply pipe to get the car restarted . I obtained a cut off valve which would allow fuel to flow only when supplied from a switch mounted under the dash supplied from the ignition supply, mounted it on the rear of the air filter casing and inserted it into the fuel supply line to the AED. For other readers who want to try the same the part came from Tecalemit (part no. TDA135). This modification gave me the desirable AEDSU/WS - AED Status Unusual - Working/Switchable and the satisfaction that no fuel was being wasted via the AED staying on longer than needed.
In late August a trip to Wales came up - from where we would travel on
holiday to France in a friends vehicle. Travelling from London up to Northampton I became
aware that the engine was misfiring when pulling away from rest. Whilst stopped at a friends
house in Northampton I investigated and discovered that not only had the thirst for water
returned, but the cooling system was getting pressurised, presumably by a leak from the
cylinders. Removing the plugs confirmed the awful truth, - mist from No4 indicating an internal
water leak. I could hardly believe the irony that having had 'Guzzler' crack its head the last time I was leaving the country I now had another Jaguar doing the same thing four years later on the eve of another trip abroad. We had no choice but to continue the journey so a bottle of Bars' Stop Leak went in the rad and with a self imposed limit of 60mph we proceeded. At our destination the car languished for a month while we holidayed.
On our return it was another case of self imposed 60 mph limit which got the
car home in one piece. After a few weeks I had the chance to investigate and removed the head.
My fears were confirmed - there was a hairline crack in the head from the exhaust valve out
towards one of the coolant holes. As I had no other choice the engine was reassembled and the
car virtually put out to grass until a new head could be sourced at a reasonable cost. My old
Corsair was pressed back into service. This plan worked except that the car was still kept on
the road and therefore required Mot and Tax. It made a few trips to get some more exhaust
parts and subsequently a new MOT. But use was severely limited for fear of damaging the engine
further and this state of affairs persisted throughout the whole of the next year (1989)
during which time I really had a lot of thinking to do as I was aware that not all was well
with the sills either.
This time round the MOT was failed fairly convincingly due to the sills.
Eventually I decided I would shell out to keep the car away from the scrapheap. Not many places
were interested in taking on the job but I eventually found a place in Suffolk who quoted a
reasonable price so I purchased a set of sill end plates (they would supply the actual sills)
and in January 1990 the car made the (scary) trip over to a bodyshop in Suffolk where it
languished some more before new sills were fitted and the rear wheel arches repaired. By
April the work was completed so I went to pick up the car.
I was rather dismayed to find the sill ends had been fitted inside out,
that the alternator was no longer working (they should always be disconnected, along with the
battery, before welding work commences) and the front seat squabs were mixed up (left squab in
right seat etc!). I was not best pleased but a trip to the resting place of 'Guzzler' offered
up an alternator and I eventually forgave the body shop their other transgressions as I did at
least now have a sound foundation worthy of a properly functioning engine. Once again it gives
me pleasure to use the phrase "A new MOT was duly obtained". Somewhere around this time
another trip to Suffolk was made and a few happy hours were spent struggling to get the head removed
from Guzzler. When I finally managed it with some help from my Brother-in-Law the cause of the misfire that
had followed its cooking experience several years earlier was easy to see, - A badly burnt exhaust valve
on cylinder No 4 and a large crack running from the valve seat out to the waterway holes on the exhaust
side. Given the roasting it had been given on that fated last trip I was not surprised at what
I saw. Time to cast the net wider in the search for a new cylinder head for Gregory.
In the event Ken Jenkins obliged with a head freshly removed for me.
I now looked forward to my work, as I have always enjoyed breathing new life into engines
and was relishing the thought of a properly performing example of the lovely XK unit. The new head was dismantled, cleaned and inspected. All seemed well with the valves in very good order so I sent it off for a skim and when it returned set about Reassembly and shimming. Unfortunately I made the classic mistake of leaving one cam in after shimming one side and then starting on the other and rotating the cam. Result: luckily only one slightly bent valve, which was replaced with a new item. While cleaning the block face however I made another grim discovery - cracking between the cylinder liners. Over the years I have heard various opinions over the significance of these cracks, the opinion I've finally formed is this - Probably 90% of 4.2 XK's suffer from this problem. If you can afford it (and the car warrants it) the best solution is to have top hat liners fitted (e.g. Those supplied by VSE). If this is not an option then you may be OK if the liners have not dropped. The liners should always stand slightly proud of the block face (1 to 2 thou) so that the gasket gets nipped tight by them when the head is tightened down. Cracking between the bores increases the possibility of the liners dropping, and if this happens by even a couple of thou then the chances of ever getting a good gasket seal is remote. For the same reason skimming the block face with the liners in is no help either as it leaves a flat block face with no liners standing proud. Unfortunately in my case someone had skimmed the block face but it did seem that the liners had not dropped since. Once again due to the need to get the car on the road I had to reassemble the engine warts and all.
With everything reinstalled I was pleased to hear it rumble gruffly into life once more. After a warm up and shakedown I re-torqued the head. Halfway through the procedure I had the dreadful experience of the torque wrench going limp in my hand along with a 'ping' sound emanating from the block. - I pulled out a broken stud followed by a gush of water. I could quite easily have cried.
What doesn't destroy us makes us stronger they say, but I personally would have preferred to have found out about the propensity for these studs to break in any other way, by reading an illuminating article for instance. At any rate the Haynes manually was roundly cursed. - Why on earth can't they warn about these pitfalls if they're so common?.
I couldn't face the car for a day or two after that, but eventually I returned with a length of stout studding, some nuts and a variety of washers. I removed the carbs, knocked out a core plug and lowered the studding into the vacant hole and inserted a pack of washers and a nut onto the end of the studding via the core plug hole. I screwed a nut and washer down the other end, tightened (I had to experiment to get the interior nut to bite inside the water jacket) and hacked the studding to a reasonable length. This fix lasted for quite some time. - I reasoned that since the cracked and skimmed block was basically doomed I would just take care of the head by driving the car with restraint and watching fluid levels etc.
Once more I was denied what could be called a satisfactory motor, but in general the engine ran very well in this condition, its lazy nature meaning that ordinary progress could be made without stressing the engine. I am sure that the overdrive helped in this area, as 60 mph was available at 2000 rpm, at which speed the engine was quite content.
In October 1990 I finally got my own home with double garage and a new run
around car. The car was parked in the garage and didn't move again for the next 18 months,
however it now had somewhere to stay until a proper job could be made of the engine. In the meantime
my girlfriends brother was building a Cobra replica and asked me if I would sell him the logbook
for 'Guzzler'. After some soul searching I decided to do so and soon after arranged for the
remains to be taken away. A sad end but the number plate lives on..
Fast forward through a period of total inactivity on the XJ front, to spring
1992 and a weeks holiday presented itself with no prior chores attached. For reasons that I
still don't understand I sprang out of bed at 7.00 a.m, aware that the rear discs were no
longer capable of passing the MOT . Determined not to waste my holiday time I dived under the
car and by lunchtime had single handedly extracted the entire rear axle unit. In the remainder
of the week I dismantled the unit and by Tuesday had placed a large order with the local
Jaguar dealer for a large array of items including rear discs, pads, hand brake pads, caliper
pistons and seal kit, mounting rubbers, diff seals all round , exhaust parts and sundry nuts
bolts and shims. New shock absorbers were ordered from a very large midlands concern. The
rebuild took a number of weeks mainly due to delays in getting all the parts together, but
the result was a properly rebuilt rear axle, which is a major item on these cars, and well
worth having in good order.
Once the rear axle was finished with I still seemed to have a problem with the brakes, being very heavy and reluctant to do their job, my notes show me buying seal kits in June and I eventually shelled out for a new servo. Having done so I then discovered the problem was that the vacuum hose from manifold to servo was collapsing internally. A replacement item immediately brought the braking system back to its former glory.
Another knock-on from the rear axle job was the destruction of some of the remaining older parts of the exhaust system, specifically this entailed the fitment of the later style downpipe which joins from 2 into 1 and then attaches into a Y shaped section going to the two silencers in front of the rear axle. While I was at it I obtained a pair of new cast manifolds from the dealer at a very reasonable price. The result was a sound exhaust system, - for me another Daimler first!
A further period of inactivity (or was it the search for funds?) took me all the way round to the next April and I remember that Easter, with a sheet of newspaper spread out on the dining room table carefully cleaning the insides of the front brake calipers and fitting new seals in the quest for total braking confidence.
In late summer of that year I undertook one of the more painstaking jobs you
could want to undertake, the original nearside front wing was in general good condition but
was very moth-eaten around the headlight. These days replacement headlight sections are
readily available, but at that time the only option was to replace the wing or try and repair
it in some way. In my case with money definitely still a factor I chose to repair. A visit to
a local scrapyard yielded a series three wing in fairly good order, from which I cut the
headlight area
After lots of measurements and thought I commenced surgery with an angle
grinder on my existing wing
Out with the rot!
Then I let the newer part in, holding initially with self tappers and
once in absolutely the right position I mig welded it in place.
Doesn't look too promising?
Making good and filling to make the repair close to invisible was long and laborious, but
increasingly satisfying as that lovely compound curved profile returned to the wing.
Improving
Once finished that portion of the wing was sprayed, pending a proper job on the whole wing at
some later date.
Wings better, bonnet still a disgrace.
Soon the car also gained a new rear valance to replace the old rusted
through item and in September gained its first MOT in three and a half years. Hurrah! However
whether due to an accumulation of various bad experiences , or the niggling nature of some
thing still needing fixing, or the fact that the engine block was still not right, I did not
do many trips in the car.
Yet Another XJ
Sometime that autumn I spotted an Ad. In the local paper for an accident
damaged 1971 XJ6. I couldn't help but go and see it. I recognised the car as one that I had
seen around town a few times in the past, an Ascot Fawn J-reg car with a biscuit interior and the
'perforated' style leather seating, driven sedately by its retired owner, but now looking a
bit distressed due to a very bent rear bumper and a caved in rear valance. Unfortunately I had
nowhere to keep it, but as you will have guessed by now, I bought it (for a small sum). The
idea was to salvage anything useful and scrap it as soon as possible. What happened was
different.
Two's Company
Looking round it I could see that it had a lot of filler, but mechanically was
totally sound. The rear accident damage could be cured with a new rear valance, replacement
bumper and some heat and a moderate amount of violence. So by some strange process this cuckoo
of a car upstaged the Turquoise one, which was parked in next doors back yard whilst the XJ
was repaired. The engine in this car looked very unmolested, but was smoking a lot. Given my
observations of the car in progress at the hands of its former owner I guessed the rings were
gummed so the plugs were removed and half a can of WD40 posted down the bores, this was left
to soak for a number of days, then the engine spun over on the starter. Then the process was
repeated another couple of times. This freed up the rings and cured the smoking problem. Before
driving the car too much I checked the valve clearances, just in case they'd closed up enough to
cause damage. Indeed I found a couple of inlet valves down at 6 thou. (spec is 12-14 thou )
and also discovered
that the exhaust cam was 8 degrees retarded, not a good idea for high speed usage.
Meanwhile the rear end renovations proceeded without too many problems and by the next
spring the car was back on the road.
Rear Ends, Beige car showing little signs of its rear end shunt.
It drove very well and everything worked well,
(AED status - overenthusiastic) a credit to the mechanical maintenance it had received
from C.J. Burr, the local non-franchise Jaguar specialist. However the bodywork was always
going to be a problem, - although superficially tidy, there was plenty of rot slowly making
its way out from the inside, and bubbles and rust-stains lurked menacingly just under the
surface.
With the Ascot XJ6 taking the limelight the Daimler was pretty much ignored for most of the year. In September it came out for the MOT and failed on the rear exhaust boxes blowing and on the rear radius arm bushes, which had mysteriously gone 'beyond the pale' inspection wise during this particular year of inactivity. The near side petrol tank was spotted to be leaking very slightly too. I was very pleased to find that rear silencers were available from the dealer for £12.50 each!. So a pair were bought and fitted. The same dealer also supplied and fitted new bushes to the radius arms, though annoyingly they took it upon themselves to insert the front bush at 90 degrees rotation from how they should be. I got them to put them right. Then I removed the nearside petrol tank and locked the filler cap, and the car passed its retest.
Now came a crunch point. I had taken a job which meant a fair bit of travelling and a number of nights away, the result being that I had less time at weekends for fooling around with cars. It was time to rationalise. The result was that the XJ6 was lent to my brother-in- law in Suffolk for a month or two while he did some major work on his daily driver, in return for which he helped me scrap the car that Christmas (1994). It was a shame to be scrapping a car that was running perfectly (the engine in particular had come to life with regular usage) but the rust issues were never going to go away, and no-one had made me a sensible offer for the car. Never mind - its legacy would live on....
A large pile of parts resulted from the scrapping of the XJ, and bonnets
were swapped with the Daimler one which had rotted through. As usual time was at a premium
and I made the trip back from Suffolk late at night. As you may remember at this stage the
engine consisted of an overhauled head, cracked block and one jury-rigged head stud. For
whatever reason the top radiator hose chose to burst at midnight and about 15 miles from home.
Barrelling down the A14 a couple of miles from Kettering, wisps of steam started to snake out
from the bonnet and onto the windscreen. I reduced speed and limped to my junction onto the
A43 and pulled into a lay-by. A plethora of images and emotion flooded back from a day more
than a decade previously when I was faced with a similar situation. However this time I was
slightly more prepared, I had a supply of water, a bonnet that would open, and a boot and rear
seat full of parts!. Mind you , I didn't have a spare hose, but I gaffa taped it, topped up
and set off again, with the radiator cap on but not fully tightened. By the time I got home
the engine was, shall we say, warm.
The 'Beige' period
However for the next year or so there was little progress - I was busy with work and travel and the Daimler was low on my list of priorities, not least due to the fact that in my eyes at the time it had disgraced itself by busting a hose on one of the very few long trips in recent history. Looking through my log I notice I bought a full gasket set in April 1995, presumably with thoughts of the inevitable but as-yet still unscheduled engine job.
Nevertheless with less than 1000 miles on the clock since the last test the
latest MOT was a disaster, failure points were - NSF sidelight not working, Hazards not working
with ignition off (they never had!), Fluid leaking from rack, Excessive play and roughness in
OSR wheel hub, front NS subframe bush separated, OS lower ball joint worn, front brakes out of
balance, NSF brake hose split & perished, Nearside exhaust pipe holed?, CO reading too
high? Well at this stage I parted with this particular testing station, they were a permanently
miserable bunch and too ignorant to know that this car did not have to be tested for emissions.
I overhauled the steering rack and refitted it with the uprated bushes, changed the OSR hub
( the bearing was indeed worn) , replaced the brake hose, fitted the subframe mount and new
lower ball joints, fixed a small exhaust leak and topped it off with a new battery and an
isolator switch under the bonnet. Six weeks later I thumped the wing in the special place that
brings the sidelight on and took the car to a new MOT testing station. Their list of woes was
interesting reading , - O/S Headlamp aim low, OSR chassis corroded, drivers seat loose on
fixing and both fuel cap seals perishing. Not one item corresponded with the previous list,
despite the fact a couple of items had not changed since the first test, and a whole list of
new ailments. I wondered what the inspectorate would make of this. So after a spot of welding,
a tightening of some seat bolts and the replacement of two perfectly serviceable fuel tank cap
seals returned to the new testing station. They now complained that due to rust they could not
adjust the O/S headlight aim, so I was obliged to take a trip across town, buy a new headlight
bowl, and borrowing their tools fit it before they dained to make the necessary adjustments,
finally I was granted another years motoring at Her Majesty's pleasure. Yet another testing
station was crossed out of my phone book.
Now with an upswing in the ebb and flow of enthusiasm that characterises any
long relationship, (as much with cars as anything else it seems!) I resolved to do the long
awaited engine job. The engine of the scrapped XJ6, was trailered home and I removed the head
and knocked out the core plugs to inspect the head studs. Happily they were mostly in good
condition (though a couple were rusted and would need to be replaced) and all of them
screwed cleanly out of the floor of the water jacket. So it was decided to proceed with a
full overhaul of the engine and fit it to the Daimler.
Many people seems to enjoy engine overhaul work and I count myself among
them. The engine strip was straightforward and revealed an engine in very good original
condition, backing up its performance in the XJ before scrapping. The bores and pistons were
standard bore and in fine condition, but the main bearings were showing signs of age with some
slight scoring of the crank. I took the crank over to VSE in Wales who did a very good job
of grinding the crank 10 thou under on both Big-ends and Mains, balancing it (27 grams
removed!) and making sure to finish off with a very fine polish carried out in my presence
using the finest grade available emery cloth. VSE also supplied a ring-set, bearings, oil-pump,
locking tabs, head studs, chains , dampers all at very reasonable costs. The reassembly
proceeded throughout January 1996, I took my time to do everything right and enjoyed myself
into the bargain. I did find that the core plugs supplied by VSE were a very tight fit, and
as I already had some main dealer items skulking around these were installed instead and fitted
very nicely.
A day came in Feb 1996 when my brother in law came over and the engine swap
was done. We refitted the previously overhauled head from the Daimler, which was none the
worse for its encounters with broken head studs and burst hoses. New hoses were fitted all
round and the various ancillaries carefully checked over. The newly rebuilt engine was quite
tight and needed an extra battery jumpered on to turn it over, it also took quite a bit of
slogging over before it caught, but finally it did and rumbled into life defiantly. We
celebrated with a slap-up meal at the local Chinese restaurant.
The next few months featured various forays into the local countryside,
running in the new engine, but for whatever reason not a huge mileage was clocked up. That
summer I left my job and managed to arrange a couple of months of free time. This was of great
benefit to the Daimler, as I spent many sunny hours stripping the front wings and nearside
front door of paint, the bonnet was flatted inside and out, but not to bare metal. Then I
sprayed the whole lot in cellulose. This made quite a lot of difference to the overall
appearance as for the last year or two the bonnet had been in the original Ascot Fawn of
the XJ6 it had came from and the wings had been a mixture of shades due to the localised repair
work on the headlight regions.
Front end all the same colour again.
Yes, that is my shadow towering over it.
No, I'm not *that* tall.
Nice Shape.
After this I took the car out a few more times, enjoying the engine as it
began to free up and chasing down a few niggles. Around this time I got hold of the Manual AED
conversion. This proved to be a successful modification and when properly adjusted makes for
easy starting and good control. We now have AEDSU/WSM - AED Status Unusual
- Working/Switchable/Manual.
That autumn other priorities appeared in the working world and again there
was no time for the Daimler, and the MOT lapsed, after which came Christmas and a trip to
Australia so it came to be February 1997 before it next to went for an MOT test. Yet another
'Testing' Station. Shock Horror it passed first time. The cynic in me said that it was due to
the new all-one-colour paintjob, but maybe, somehow along the line the car had finally turned
the corner from dodgy motor to cared-for 'Classic'. What ensued was a particularly quiet 14
months or so, in which not only was less than 160 miles covered, but no money at all was spent
on repairs! Again the car ran out of MOT, but in June of 1998 it failed on a rust patch on the front chassis and another patch on the floorpan under the drivers seat and guess what I'd forgotten to thump the recalcitrant NS sidelight into action before the test. Of course both the rust spots were not much different to what they were ten years previously when I bought the car, - but there was simply less and less for the enthusiastic tester to fail the car on. These items were soon attended to and after the yearly thump on the sidelight area an MOT was 'duly obtained'
Well I feel now that I really am getting into more recent history. Without reference to my notes and receipts I can recall that another quiet year slipped away with the car slumbering in the garage. So quiet indeed that the MOT lapsed with about 100 miles travelled. In late 1999 I had a couple of wheels shot blasted and powder coated before fitting a pair of Pirelli P4000's. This did wonders for the look and feel of the car, although the rear axle stills carries that pair of wheels that cost me dearly on the front of' 'Guzzler' back in 1983. I finally cured what I thought was a leaking heater matrix, but turned out to be a weeping hose connection due to a rusty and cranky jubilee clip and fitted new balljoints to the stub axle upper joints and a second new set of slipflex upper wishbone mounts. I also fitted new rubber tubing between the brake fluid reservoir and the master cylinder and two new pedal rubbers, - still available from the dealer under the original part number!
This springtime I finally got round to getting the Jag road-legal and back on form. I had a
good look over, under and inside the car and couldn't find anything that I really thought would
cause a failure. Even the nearside front side light, jury-rigged so long ago was still working.
I took the long way round to the testing station so as to bed the brake pads in after a long
period of inactivity and for the first mile or so the engine only wanted to fire on five
cylinders, due no doubt to carbon build up on the plugs after such a long time without a
proper run to heat and clean them thoroughly. Eventually it cleared and the engine was back
on song. I was mightily pleased when the car sailed through the test first time, and over the
last few months have tried to take the car out at least once or twice a month.
I've really fine tuned it to my satisfaction now, - a new set of NGK plugs and Lucas points
and mixture adjustments have yielded a steady idle down to 600 rpm. For power at high revs
the static ignition timing must be no less than the recommended figure.
In the case of my 4.2 litre engine this means 8 Degrees BTDC, - Any less than that and you
will lose a lot of urge above 4000 rpm. I may experiment with a little bit more advance
but the downside is the risk of kickback when starting, its also worth noting that the mechanical
advance on these cars is fairly aggressive, - the spec. figure for mechanical advance
(vacuum pipe diconnected) is 20 degrees at only 1700rpm. As I so love the
clean pulling power from idle of these engine, I don't want to compromise that with pinking
caused by too much advance.
Interior View January 2002.
Note controls for switchable AED fuel supply and manual choke on RH side underdash.
Parcel shelf has since been refitted. New Carpets on the list of jobs.
With the adjustments described above its nice to be able to report that the
car is going better than ever before.
The manual/overdrive of this car gives a hint as to what the E-type must be like to
drive, and allows the car to demonstrate the lovely torquey nature of the engine, - pulling
smoothly from idle, it is pleasureable and practical in normal usage to gather speed from
1000rpm (in any gear including overdrive top) and from 1500 rpm you can really feel the urge
building. Once you reach 3000 rpm it really starts to haul that heavy body along and from 3500rpm
the exhaust note
starts to harden and with the slightly louder than standard exhaust the engine begins to make that
lovely vintage howl that is so distinctive. Combined with the rather sophisticated clatter
of the chain driven twin cams it makes a sound that you can never tire of.
Handling-wise you can never forget that this is a car that weighs a lot.
When hustling along A roads or good B roads I always find myself approaching bends with
forethought and carefully preparing for them, but every single time when I come to the actual
bend I am pleasantly reminded how well these cars turn in (albeit with more roll at the front
than is fashionable today) and that they have so much more ability than you would credit for
such a large car. In particular I have driven no other car, including many modern ones, whose
rear suspension deals so effortlessly with sleeping policemen and other traffic calming
measures, - it just floats over them.
One thing I am opinionated about, none of my cars have had a leaping cat on
them, I think they look fine on those cars that were designed to have them, but totally out of
character on the cars that were not.
No leaping cats required.
So there is my story, keeping my Turquoise Daimler on the road and gradually
restoring it has been a long and fragmented story and although the running gear is near
perfect there are a whole lot of details and paintwork that are far from the way they should
be. In the near future I will be looking at a few mild modifications, some to the suspension
and some to the engine, which may include some exhaust manifolds and breathing work by Andy
Gardner, a successful XJ tuner and racer, who runs BandW racing and happens to live round the
corner from me. Check out "B and W racing"
I seem finally to be achieving the confidence trick of forgetting so many years when
every trip was something of a leap of faith.
However in spite of the economic madness that this mountain of parts bills represents I find
myself now at a stage where I can actually enjoy the car more than ever before, I have a fair
chance of completing a journey with no snags, and the dynamics of the driving experience are
now not far from what they were when the car was new. - I finally seem to be completing each
journey with a smile of genuine pleasure rather than mild relief.
I'm glad I stuck with it!
Full Frontal View January 2002.
Yes, the grille has a dent in it.
THE END
If you would like to e-mail me click here and replace (at) in the address in the generated e-mail with the @ sign
rob3(at)hod3.fsnet.co.uk
