No time at all, eh?

It has taken over a year, but I am pleased to be able to say that the Jag is back on the road!

The big cat's return from the doldrums began when my Dad sold his house, meaning that 'H9 WAP' was evicted. As she wasn't taxed, MOT'd, or in any fit state to run, I arranged transport to my place of work where she could be parked off the street and could get her into the garage for the necessary repairs. I have to say a huge 'Thank You' to the staff and students Edinburgh College's Midlothian Campus for putting up with my derelict car as she long overstayed her welcome. Without the kind patch of private road offered her I would have been really stuck, so thank you!

On arrival at the Campus, the car was in desperate need of a wash. There was moss growing where it shouldn't. She had become her own ecosystem. It wasn't pretty, but was easily solved thanks to a pressure washer. Once 'H9 WAP' was looking like someone cared I moved onto her mechanicals.

Now, the 2013 refusal to issue an MOT certificate was due to the broken front spring and knackered parking brake, so these were tackled first. Thanks to some very keen pricing from Euro Car Parts, the loan of a special tool from Mulsanne Motors, the ramps at Edinburgh College, and help from Big Billy, replacing the springs was fairly straightforward. Granted, the first one took a while. Any little noise the spring compressor made had me running for cover, while the alignment of the spring pan on refitting proved tricky.

Once both sides were successfully swapped out it was on to the parking brakes where de-lamination of the shoes turned out the be the culprit for inefficiency. My stash of spares in the Jag's boot was raided and a good found then duly fitted. The rear discs were replaced at the same time too (I'd previously bought a spare pair off a parts car which were refaced to remove corrosion. Sadly this took them right to their minimum thickness and warped them for good measure, so the only option was to buy and fit new ones).

With that mechanical work complete, and the car given a pre-MOT check thumbs up by automotive students, my attention moved to the foosty interior. A rear window had been left open a crack while 'H9 WAP' was on the driveway in Dunipace and the boot was unlatched too. This let moisture in and resulted in mould growing on the passenger seatbelt, the seats, ski slope, radio, and the steering wheel. A thorough scrub with microfibre cloths and Milton's disinfectant brought things back up to standard but I'll need to feed the leather seats, get into the nooks and crannies with an old toothbrush, and shampoo the mats/carpets. Those are tasks for a sunny day off. At least the car doesn't smell like a squaddie's sock now.

Feeling good that the car was presentable and the last MOT issues had been resolved, I booked the Jag into GP Autos, Dalkeith, for a new test. I know the staff from my time at Mulsanne. They have a lot of experience in old, luxury metal and the £40 MOT test is a bargain. To be honest, I could see it fail. I mean after all, the backbox still had a hole in it the size of a tangerine (which oddly was never mentioned in 2013). What I wasn't expecting though was such an epic fail...

Here's the list...

Fails

• Brakes Failures: RBT Brake Imbalance: 52% and 9%
• Offside front headlamp aim too high
• Offside rear brake pipe excessively corroded
• OFR and NSF inner sills holed (right within the subframe mounting area - ouch!)
• Offside rear box has major leak of exhaust gasses (aye - was expecting that)
• Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content at idle excessive (due to the backbox)
• Brakes imbalanced across an axle

Advisories

• Park Brake Efficiency 16% (Offside was worst)
• Front to Rear and NSF brake pipe slightly corroded
• Both rear brake hoses have slight corrosion to ferrules
• OSF and NSF chassis rails corroded but not excessive (slight de-lamination)
• Windscreen lightly scored

My heart sank when I got the phone call. Having forked out for the transport, the parts, and having done a load of work, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Sadly I had run out of time and space to do the work myself. The insurance was up too, plus it would still need road tax. I felt bad for abandoning it on the driveway and neglecting what has always been a dream car for me. Rather than just accept defeat though I asked GP's for an estimate which came back costing a lot less than I was expecting, so I gave the them the go ahead to fix her. It had to be done!

As the repairs saga rolled on I galvanised myself into sorting out the other stuff needing doing such as finding a place the the Jag to rest. I took on the rent of an Edinburgh City Council lock up, after checking my car would fit, finding a bone dry garage in a nice central location, near a Police station and in the shadow of Arthur's Seat. That will be The Beastie's new home. 

Meanwhile, fully comp insurance this year came in at under £200, though it is a limited 3000 mile per annum policy. Given the distance accrued over the last two years this is no issue. The odometer has gone from 119093 in March 2012, to 121054 in April 2014. A grand total of 1961 miles. In comparison, she did over 4000 miles between 2011 to 2012, and 6800 the year before. 

Tax was, as usual, expensive but necessary. I have a few years to wait yet before 'H9 WAP' is exempt.

Last week GP's called to say that 'H9 WAP' passed her MOT at the third time of asking. The smile returned to my face, well, at least until I had to pay the bill and discovered the retest had turned up some additional advisories. 

Bonus Advisories!

• Both front bearings have slight play
• Rear axle both bushes slightly deteriorated
• Both rear tyre treads low
• OSF disc warped slightly

Oh well, wouldn't be a classic Jag if there wasn't something to do!  

So, with all the t's crossed and i's dotted, repairs done and some fresh fuel in the tank, tonight it was time to hit the road!

It's like the first time all over again.

I remember the nerves I had on the trip from Glasgow the day I bought her, how I was waiting for something to go wrong. The adrenalin was flowing. My muscles tense. Maybe that's half the attraction of having an old car? That wait, those nerves, the chance to fix something if it fails and feel all manly about it. After a while though I settled into it and enjoyed the driving, the same as I had done just over two years ago. The magic carpet waftiness is still there, blissfully so without the clunks from the front end caused by a burst spring. The brakes, gearchanges and steering are all smooth, and all the electrics work. Ample power is beneath my right boot and the ambience can't be beat.

Of course, a few things have reared their head or are still outstanding. She is a Project Car after all.

For instance, the idle speed is too high thanks to a manky throttle body. This means you have to pop her in neutral and blip the throttle for her to unstick and settle down. Hardly the done thing in traffic. My battery is still suspect. The ABS warning light came on, then went off, so perhaps a connection is loose. The blown bulb warning light appears then goes away on its own. The brakes are still a bit spongy so it would probably be a good idea to re-bleed the lot given how long she sat on that driveway in the crap weather. I still need to do the upper timing chain tensioner before doing serious miles. The alloys are all buggered, leaking air at the rims and in need of refurb, plus the steering wheel reach adjustment needs sorting, and I need a new wiper. Oh, then there's the checkstrap and rear bumper brackets to be done in addition to bodywork and painting - specifically targeted at a rust bubble on the NSR arch and multitudes of scratches all over.

But, with all the money spent, the work done, and the work still to do, I have a classic Jag on the road at less than the cost price of my tired old Almera. This is a good thing.

I would recommend buying one in a heartbeat. Prices for big Jags are still falling. You'll find much better examples than mine for sale at around or less than the £600 I paid. I admit that had I waited, and added the cost of the repairs I have paid to the purchase price of the car, I could have had something with less miles on and in better condition. Then again, the classic car journey is why people get into this hobby. Destination is one thing yes, but the getting there is what keeps you interested. Every little bit you fix, make new, improve or polish. It all adds up. When 'H9 WAP' is back to perfect condition I will feel an enormous sense of satisfaction and I'll enjoy myself getting there. And so a Jaguar's Tale continues! :)

An update...

It has been a good long while since the last blog post and there's a good reason why... LIFE!

Yep, the daily goings-on have taken over and as such I have had no spare time to do anything with the Jag, nevermind having the money to do anything with it anyway. Such is the lot of a Classic Car owner who also happens to be a poor student!

On a positive note though she does have a place to stay off the mean streets of Edinburgh, and now lives on my Dad's driveway in Dunipace near Stirling. This move became a necessity as the tax expired in March but it has been a blessing. The drive there was accomplished with no bother at all. Everything worked. Air-con, radio clock, lights, kickdown, all gears. Everything! All was well apart from the battery shenanigans which have now been largely resolved now thanks to a donated OEM battery from a sister 3.2 Sport (which is currently waiting either restoration or stripping for spares up at Mulsanne Motors if anyone is up for it - though I bagsy the wheels!). I must admit that it felt good to be back behind the wheel. Mind you, the brakes were still crap...

After a month on my Dad's driveway though it was time for an MOT. I'm afraid to say that the Jag failed on a broken coil spring, and poor handbrake. The warped discs and huge hole in the backbox didn't appear to be a concern though. As a result, she has lain dormant on the driveway save for the occasional firing up and jaunt around the cul-de-sac. My Dad enjoys the old thing so is willing to stump up some cash so that he can use it properly while I work my bahookie off.

Speaking of working, as you know I'm a full-time student. I work on the eCar project one full day a week, and I work evenings from the half 4 to 8. When I'm not doing all that I'm on the 'SS Explorer' restoring and promoting her. My only other free time is enjoyed with my Wife and my Stepson. At some point I also sleep! It is a lot of work for lots of rewards, but not a lot of pay - hence the stalled restoration on H9 WAP. However, things are about to change...

My college course and the internship for the eCar Project are coming to an end. I had considered staying on at the college as a student and moving into an HND Engineering course, but had been put off by the debt this would put me in. Having spent many, many years clearing tens of thousands of pounds of it, I don't want to go back there. Happily, another option has come up which should see me in a full-time role at the college as the Administrator for the eCar project! This would see me in a £15k a year job until Christmas at least, which added to my wages from the Council should give me the disposable cash I need to get the Jag to a perfect condition. In addition to that, my Dad has come out of retirement to take on a new job at his old place of work so he will have money spare too. The upshot of this is that the Beastie will have a lot of work done over the next few months and I fully expect her to be back on the road where she belongs in no time, with ALL the wee problems sorted.

So, watch this space for the return of the grace and pace!

Vintage Apple Results...

Here's a teaser of the finished Vintage Apple Photography work from a while back... :)

A doodle...

Not a Jag, but this is an example of some of the stuff I doodle in notebooks... Usually during meetings and stuff. :)

Got the bug back...

I finally decided to face facts a few weeks ago and confront my poor old abandoned Jag. She'd been parked up in a side street ever since her last visit to the college when two slow punctures were sorted out among some other bits & pieces (like completely replacing the front brakes!). 

I hadn't sat in her for around 4 months, let alone drive anywhere. The reasons? Well, lack of mojo brought about by rising repair costs, potentially crippling engine issues, and what I perceived to be a dearth of results from recent repairs. I just parked it - and ignored it. Now I understand why cars lie in barns for decades, under tarps in people's driveways, or buried beneath the detritus of family life in a dusty garage. It's really easy to forget you're responsible for that vehicle and what becomes of it. 

Unsurprisingly, 'H9 WAP' reacted to the abandonment by draining her battery. She was sleeping and there was no way she was moving. With the help of classmates from the college we managed to jump start her and begin the warming up process. A couple of problems became apparent  - there was a horrible noise coming from the power steering pump, and the battery was toast. The pump noise was quickly cured with a top up of fluid and we found that the brakes all worked (nothing seized thankfully), so with a bit of gentle manoeuvring the old girl eased from her place of rest. The big cat became Nyan Cat though, leaving a rainbow trail of leaking fluids in her path...

Nevertheless, I shifted her to a new parking spot closer to home so that I could keep a better eye on her. It also gave me the chance to remember why I love this car in the first place. The ride, the power, the presence  the looks... As soon as I sat in her again I was grinning. I had been silly to ignore its pull.

As with anything that isn't used regularly, 'H9 WAP' had developed a couple of problems. The power steering fluid top up didn't stay where it should and the brakes were crap - spongy and dead. They worked though, but by the time they did my foot was nearly out the floor! After a short run around town to blow off the cobwebs (literally), we parked up with a plan to come back later in the week to sort the PAS issue and get things back on the road. I wanted to get the rear brakes replaced using the spares I'd bought months ago, and I also wanted to get things moving on replacing the holy back box. 

So, in the next update, I'll explain how all that went, and where we are - a year after I started a Jaguar's Tale.  

    

No Mojo...

I haven't driven the Jag for nearly three months now. It has sat parked up at the side of a quiet road, away from passers by, just mouldering. The battery has gone flat from it being sat so long - a fact I disappointingly learned when collecting some stuff from the boot. What's really sad though is the fact I haven't missed it... It's not that I don't enjoy driving it, I do, but recently the noise from the timing chain tensioner and the spongy brakes have put me off using it. I've gone without and almost forgot about it.

Realistically though, the actual running costs have been more of an eye opener and a mojo killer. Looking back at my outgoings over the last year or so it has been clear that I was haemorrhaging money on petrol. In fact, I must have spent upwards of £600 a month during the summer. It didn't help that the Ka failed it's MOT and that I had to buy the Almera. That expense really left me broke. No spare cash means no money for spares, no money to use towards petrol, and no money to use towards restoration work on the big cat.

So now I'm at a bit of a fork in the road... Keep it, or sell it? Put it in long term storage and accept the fact that many more things will go wrong the longer it sits, or run it once a week where funds allow until the tax and MOT run out in March? I'm not sure what to do.

Bangernomics & EV's...

Drafted a couple of months ago...

I'd like to put another big 'Thank you!' out there for Rob Jenner of the Jaguar Enthusiast's Club, who has once again supplied me with parts to keep the Jag roadworthy. This time it was a complete rear brakes set-up: callipers, carriers, pads, discs, shoes and their fitting kits. All for beer money.

The parts need cleaned up but I can do that in the college, or hopefully when it's quiet at Mulsanne. Fitting them will be done at the college after the timing chain tensioner/rattle is sorted. I won't be mucking about when it comes to doing that particular job. New bits are the order of the day there. With a JEC and possibly a trade discount too, a new tensioner, dampers and gaskets shouldn't break the bank. Which is just as well because I haven't been in full-time employment for over 2 years and my money is running out!

I should explain why that is actually...

Just over those 2 years ago I was working full-time at The University of Edinburgh. It was a management position worth a good £25k per annum or thereabouts and seemed to be a suitable evolution from my previous, similar roles with BSkyB and Motorola. I hated it though. The machinations of being a team manager, plus the stress of the office politics that come with it, had just wore me out. As I looked at my career, I realised I'd steered it down a dead end. To use a modern analogy it was as if I'd been using Apple Maps the whole time.

An opportunity arose to leave the University with a redundancy payment in hand, so I took it. I decided that I needed to take a chance and make a change, to do what I should have done when I left school. To that end I applied for motor vehicle courses at all the local colleges as I wanted to train to become a Mechanic, and waited with baited breath for a reply. Thankfully I was able to enrol in Jewel & Esk College on a full-time course, plus I was awarded a bursary. The financial support meant that my lump sum from the redundancy could be stretched out considerably longer. What would have been six month's wages was now more like ten.

There came a point though when those funds were drying up. Just before they did I was fortunate enough to receive a successful PPI claim for a sum of money roughly the same value as my original redundancy payment. I used some of it towards paying off old debt and clearing my feet to reduce my monthly outgoings, then I bought the Jag, and ultimately the Nissan when the Ka bit the dust. It is the remainder of that fund which is currently running out.

There is a Scholarship available at the College though that will pay the bills and which will open a few doors for me if I am successful in my application.

The College are looking to employ an assistant on their EV Project. This is a sustainable, zero carbon transport initiative piloted by Jewel & Esk which sees them using a fleet of electric cars instead of the petrol/diesel alternatives for day to day inter-campus commuting and deliveries. The data gathered so far indicates that the EV's are mainly used for short, stop-start journeys and that you can travel 18000 miles in an electric car for just £630 in charging costs.

The enterprise is really beginning to take off as the fleet of cars is expanding and the extra data gathered needs to be analysed, interpreted and presented to demonstrate the usefulness and viability of the EV's. For instance, one thing that someone (hopefully me) will need to do is find out just how far you can actually go on a one way trip using one full charge - and how that range is affected by your driving style. Once the values for those are known they can be collated with the rest of the data. If someone then wants to know whether or not an EV will get them from Midlothian Campus to Dunbar, we will be in a position to tell them. The aim of the project is to switch attitudes to EV's and demonstrate to large organisations how they could use them. In doing so, they would reduce their carbon footprint and save money. If the vehicles are charged using renewable means (eg. solar or wind turbines), the organisation's carbon footprint would shrink even further.

We need to demonstrate that the EV alternative is practical though and that's where I hope to be able to make a difference.

Check yo'self...

While 'The Beastie' is resting, pending new bits, I have focused some attention on the Almera. An opportunity arose on Thursday afternoon to bring it into the college workshop so that I could try and track down an annoying 'clonk' from somewhere in the front. It's quite apparent on uneven surfaces, or when turning right. Given that a lot of Edinburgh still has cobbled streets the noise is beginning to annoy me.

There wasn't a free ramp to begin with during the class so I initially popped the car up onto axle stands at the front so that I could have a good poke about underneath. First impressions were good in that there wasn't anything loose or bushes that were obviously split. One thing I did notice though was that the trailing edge of the front bumper on the nearside was flapping about because of broken mounts. Thinking that might be the cause of the noise I set about repairing it. I used pop rivets through the plastic to secure the bumper ends to the arch liner. It isn't elegant, or permanent, but it will do for now.

Nothing appeared to be amiss under the Nissan so I dropped it back onto the level ground & began checking the fluids while a classmate did the tyre pressures. I'm glad I did the check because I found out there was nearly no oil in it!

Apparently, the garage who sold me the car had checked all the fluids before sale. If that was the case and they were all fine, then the Nissan is either burning oil or losing it some other way. I certainly haven't noted it marking its territory as the Jag normally does so that could indicate the oil is being used by the Almera's gutless 1.5. I fired in a litre of 10w40 to bring the dipstick level up to a more acceptable place then put the car onto a free 2-post for further checks.

Once again, there was no odd suspension travel apparent, no wear or play, but I did see a potential oil leak from around the top of the pump. One to keep an eye on then. I also discovered that the rear gearbox mount is a bit worn which could account for the judder felt while using reverse.

Other than those wee things the Almera is looking good. The 'clonk' seemed to be a wee bit better on the drive home but it was still there. I suspect there's maybe another loose bit of trim or something I'm missing. It might even just be the motion of the heavy bonnet bumping against its stops. My partners old Ka was noisy like that. In any case I'm pleased that the levels & tyre pressures were checked. If they hadn't been it might have led to expensive damage. Just goes to show how important the seemingly mundane checks are. When was the last time you checked your car? :)

Diamonds are forever...

When new, my Jag was fitted with Diamond Turned 20-spoke alloy wheels. They were the same as the normal Sovereign wheels but, instead of a painted finish, the spokes received a gentle grind from a diamond equipped tool which brought out the naturally shiny glow of the aluminium alloy used to make them. A lacquer was then applied to stop any corrosion. Sadly, over time, the lacquer can crack and allow moisture in, which is exactly what has happened to my alloys. They look awful.

I had made some enquiries about refinishing the wheels but people were saying it isn't possible to get them back to the original state. I'd have to settle for a painted finish. It's either that, or choose a totally different type of wheel altogether. However, I might have found a place that can help. It would cost a bit of money, and I'd need replacement wheels to use while mine are sent off, but it does seem possible that the Jag's boots will gleam again. Here's what they should look like... I'll keep you updated on progress.

  

Do want, x4 please...

Anchors - Day 2...

Picking up from where we left off yesterday, my classmates & I began putting the Jag back together. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of any of it because the pressure was on to get the job done and get the car out of the door. As Hagrid would say, "Sorry 'bout that!".

First things first, we refitted the rear wheels. All punctures & leaks had been sorted so they were good to go back on. Although I noted yesterday the rear pads and discs are worn out, they still work, and are going to have to keep on working until mid next week when I can get hold of replacements. New parts are out of the budget range so hopefully the bent 4.0 Sport that donated its front components will also donate its rears. And bumpstops too. Maybe.  

Once the rears were refitted we moved onto the front of the Jag and focused out attention back on the brakes to remove the old callipers. I had been down in the workshop earlier in the day so that I could spray even more WD40 on everything which meant that dismantling the old gear was a lot easier. Their flexi's needed to come away and we aimed to cannibalise any good parts from them, like unchewed bleed nipples and rubber covers. 

Incidentally, here's a top tip I learned while disconnecting the flexi's - have a set of blank ends you can screw onto any brake pipes you cannot clamp, so that fluid loss is minimised. To make them, simply create one end of a replacement brakepipe as you normally would, but instead of putting a union at the other end, hammer it flat and fold it over. Cheers to Billy for that one! As we didn't have any of those to hand, the new flexi's were temporarily fitted then clamped while we tested the new callipers before they were bolted on. 

While one team got on with that, I set about putting new ends on the ABS earth wire for the OSF which had come adrift at the calliper. I had hoped to re-crimp the original ends of the wire however there wasn't enough time, so non-original generic ones were used. The attachment bolt was pretty rounded but I was able to shift it using an Imperial socket ever so slightly smaller than the 8mm Metric socket that should have fitted. To make sure it was securely on I gave it a wee tap with a hammer - which can also serve to 'shock' the threads a bit, releasing the hold any corrosion might have on the part. This is also a good way to free up stubborn brake nipples too. A golden rule there though is simply never force it and don't get angry - that's when you break stuff or inadvertently punch something hard, like a subframe, when the threads finally release. Just soak it in penetrating fluid & try again in a bit.  

Moving back to the replacement callipers, they were confirmed as good. We later found out the brake circuit rig was filled with green LHM instead of Dot 4 fluid which would mean a really, REALLY thorough bleeding after fitting the callipers as the LHM is not good for their seals so needed to be flushed out. All the parts went back together, torqued up to the settings from Autodata, then we bled the front brakes, making sure that the fluid coming through was clear and free of bubbles. The brake fluid reservoir was filled up to 'MAX' then it was simply a case of refitting the front roadwheels and torqueing them up too. The Jag came down off the ramps and it was time for a road test.

Now I must admit, 1st impressions were not good. The pedal went almost all the way to the floor and the brakes felt horrible. Before the job I would say they had a typical Ford feeling, in that there was a positive action, a firm pedal, and a 'bite' point probably halfway up. As I backed out of the workshop though they were just 'mushy'. However, as I drove the car the action of the brakes improved. The pedal movement was still odd but the pulsing, juddering, pulling to the left, drone when coming to a halt from high speeds, and the high speed wheel-wobble, had gone. A quick visual check confirmed no brake fluid leaks so there must be some air still in the circuit somewhere. I would like to  re-bleed the entire system, rather than just the front callipers, and triple check that all unions and hoses are tight. That's a job for Monday lunchtime at Mulsanne.

So, mission accomplished for the brakes. If the re-bleed doesn't cure the softness I may have to live with it. The brakes do work and the spongy feeling may just be down to the new flexi hoses having a bit more 'give' under pressure than the original (and expensive) Jag bits after all. And anyway, the new brakes still need to 'bed in' a bit. 

The next job - before anything else - has to be the upper timing chain tensioner. To do that I will need a few hours to remove the cam cover and replace some of the guides (if accessible) as well as the tensioner itself. I'd rather fit a Type 2 one but in the absence of that a Type 1 will do. The latter are easy to swap out at a later date. This forum post covers the whole procedure and the details exactly the symptoms I've been experiencing. http://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj-x300-xjr-26/note-redesigned-upper-tensioner-x300-can-also-fail-61698/

That's for another day though. Tonight I'm celebrating another job done in the restoration of this fantastic car and I'd like to thank, again, everyone who has done anything to help out with the project! :-)

Anchors - Day 1...

I started replacing the front brakes today with the help of my classmates in the Level 2 City & Guilds Light Vehicle Maintenance & Repair group, but it didn't all go according to plan...

The Jag was feeling a bit sulky having been left alone on the roadside for a week or two and on startup there was a really good misfire. I'll put that down to lack of use and the really grim, very wet weather that seems to have stalled over Edinburgh & The Lothians today. I let her warm up for a bit and the misfire went away, then I set out on the trip to college which was uneventful but satisfying nonetheless. It felt good to be back in the Jag.

The 'Core Skills' classes (Communication, Numeracy & ICT) flew by during the morning, then after lunch it was time to get started. A 2-post ramp was picked and after a bit of adjustment we set up the arms for the ramp, lifting the Jag gently off the ground. My classmates got stuck in by loosening off the 22mm bolts holding the roadwheels, then taking them off completely with the vehicle raised to a safe working height. Both nearside wheels went off to the tyre machine to have their punctures fixed, while the offside ones were placed out of the way. With the wheels off, access to the discs, pads & callipers is brilliant...

Front discs - gubbed...

I went round all the nuts & bolts we'd be removing with WD40 to make our job easier, then went on to do some other tasks while it soaked in.

One of the things I keep banging on about is the lack of rust on the car, and I want to keep it that way. Taking advantage of the fact the Jag was at a good working height all the wee grot traps in the arches were scraped out and gently wirebrushed to get rid of the accumulated mud and crap that will dissolve the car if left unchecked. I was really pleased to find that someone in the Jag's past had filled in the vulnerable leading edge of the rear arch, where it meets the sill, with some sort of hard material that prevents mud getting stuck there. The return lip of all the arches was cleaned out and we found that the original looking underseal appears to be in good nick. My recently applied Tetraseal doesn't seem to have covered as much as I would have liked so that is going to be re-done.

Rear arches - all good. Discs - gubbed... Spot the missing bumpstop.

While my classmates continued the cleaning of the arches, I caught up with the lads who were dealing with the tyres. The NSF was losing air around the rim while the NSR had a sodding great bolt in it. The NSF was already off its wheel, which was being sanded down and smoothed, then coated with rim sealer to make it airtight. Once that tyre was refitted we balanced the unit but found it way, way out. The solution was to pop the tyre off the rim again and rotate it 180°. The reason for this was to put the 'heavy' part of the tyre opposite the 'heavy' part of the wheel. With that done the amount of weight needed to balance everything came down to more sensible levels. The NSR tyre got a puncture repair and balancing that one was less traumatic, it was pretty much dead on first time. I can honestly say though that my alloys have had it. The polished aluminium finish is peeling off like old paint in a wet ruin. Replace, or refurbish? I've been told that a basic refurbishment is completely possible, but I want the polished finish - just because I like it shiny. How to get that, cheaply, will be the challenge. In the meantime I may swap out the alloys for something different.

Back at the 2-poster, the original pads, callipers & discs were coming off. The seized NSF put up a fight and needed a pry bar plus some oaths to come away, while the carrier bolts on the OSF were being awkward too. More WD40 required. The pads on both sides seem to have plenty of meat on them surprisingly so I'll keep them as spares. As we stripped off the rest of the old bits though, we found a potentially very serious problem or two, which is when my plan to have all this done in one afternoon came off the rails...

The team discovered that both brake flexi pipes at the front are f... ff... fffu... broken. They have perished and split. No fluid is leaking yet, but all it would take is one hearty stamp on the anchors to burst them. Which would mean no brakes. Given that the whole point of doing the brakes is to make sure the Jag is safe, there was no way I was going to fit replacement callipers, discs & pads but leave dangerous flexi's attached.  For the sake of £17 for a set I'm not going to muck about. Eskside Factors wouldn't be able to deliver until Friday afternoon though which meant the Jag would not be off the ramp today.

With that spanner in the works I took some time out to check the rear discs & pads, They are past it. The pads are pretty much down to bare metal and the discs are close to their minimum tolerance, with a pronounced lip around the edge. I have a feeling that Eskside may be delivering more than just flexi pipes tomorrow. Better safe than sorry though. I also noticed that one bumpstop is gone and the other is hanging off. Easy fix though.

So, that was Anchors - Day 1. Stay tuned for another update tomorrow when we test the callipers, put it all back together, adjust the handbrake and bleed the system before roadtesting.

See the crud on the floor? That's what was left AFTER we cleaned up the rubbish scraped out the arches.

A change is as good as a rest...

It has been an eventful few weeks in Jag terms. For starters I was finally able to get the oil & filter change out of the way, plus I was able to apply Tetraseal to the undersides of the car, but in doing so I found a new issue or three to resolve.

The replacement oil & filter had been sitting at Mulsanne Motors for a wee while, waiting a quiet lunchtime and a free ramp. When the two combined I was able to get H9 WAP up on a two poster and set about making the change. The process itself is really straightforward and could be done on a level driveway but having access to a ramp though makes it 100 times easier.

The old oil that came out, at least the stuff left in the engine that hadn't leaked away, was as black as pitch. I dread to think when it was last changed. Given all the other mechanical niggles with the Sov I would guess that it has been years since she's seen fresh stuff. Getting the filter itself off proved to be a wee bit frustrating, given that it was screwed on by the Hulk or something. I used a plumbers wrench to give me some leverage and it eventually unscrewed after putting up a fight. After changing the filter & while the old oil drained away,  I checked the diff and I'm pleased to say it had fresh looking oil, with a bit of red colour to it, and at the correct level. One less thing to worry about there!

Something that had been bothering me though, and I had been unable to do yet, was rust-protect the vulnerable areas of the car. A couple of months ago I made a start on it and was able to wire brush the Jag's bahookie to remove any surface rust, mud and other rubbish that had accumulated. The A-frame at the rear, front subframe mounts & areas around the sills/arches were places I wanted protection on as soon as possible. Using an air-line and sprayer I was able to put a fairly comprehensive coat of Tetraseal on the car. Hopefully this will arrest the development of any rust already present, and protect the car for a few years. I don't intend to drive it during the winter so she won't be exposed to road salt which should help keep her body in good condition.

While I was doing that my colleague at Mulsanne, Tommo, was doing a few basic checks since the Jag was airborne. He noticed that there is slight play in the OSF (Offside Front - side closest to the middle of the road) wheel bearing, there was an oil leak from the front of the engine somewhere - possibly cam-cover gasket, and the NSF (Nearside Front - side closest to the kerb) brakes were seized. Oh. Bum... Well, that at least explains the pull the the left which didn't go away after the alignment was done, or when there's an extra couple of pounds in the NSF tyre. Speaking of tyres, I spotted a nail in the NSR, which would explain why it goes flat... Tommo also picked up on the rattle from the upper timing chain tensioner but was otherwise very complimentary about the overall condition of the car.

Once she was back down on her 4 wheels, The Beastie swallowed nearly 9 litres of fully synthetic oil. It made an immediate difference. The rattle was lessened  (I hope that means the tensioner was just clogged) and there seemed to be more urgency about her on the way home. Mindful of the seized calliper though I parked her up and let her be while I started sourcing some of the bits I need.

Coming to the rescue again was Mr Rob Jenner, without whom my Jag would not be on the road, nor would it look and work as well as it does. His advice, council, encouragement and seemingly inexhaustible supply of spare parts have certainly kept the whole project going. This time he was able to supply two front callipers & their carriers, barely used front discs, a complete set of unworn pads, an early type upper timing chain tensioner, and a wheel brace. Most of the parts came from his Wife's unfortunate 4.0 Sport which met an untimely end in a ditch near their home last winter.

As the bits had been off the road a wee while, they needed cleaned up. This was done at the college during one of the workshop classes & was a good chance for the class to practise some care & maintenance skills. One stumbling block was the pad retaining springs as one snapped in the OSF calliper and needs to be drilled out. If the calliper becomes unserviceable I may just have to replace the one. Not recommended, but at least it's a plan B. The college will be getting used again this coming Thursday as the replacement bits are all fitted, during class once again because the work needing done conveniently falls within the syllabus. The puncture will be repaired at the same time, as it, also conveniently, falls within the syllabus too! I'll maybe do the tensioner at the same time too but while researching the Jaguar Technical Service Bulletin relating to rattles it may be a job for another day as the cam cover apparently needs to be removed when switching out the later type one currently fitted to H9 WAP. I'll give the fresh oil time to circulate & hopefully that will solve the problem.

Well, I did say it had been an eventful few weeks!

Vintage Apple Photography...

A wee while back I was contacted by a former colleague who was interested in taking pictures of the Jag. Natasha Yates is a passionate, talented photographer with experience in themes such as lifestyle & weddings, who wanted to get a few shots of the Jag with the aim of pushing her photography & camera skills by trying out new subjects. Her business is called Vintage Apple Photography and the website is http://vintageapplephotography.com/. There you can see examples of her work and have the chance to collaborate through the 'Top Tip Tuesday' section on her blog - see here http://vintageapplephotography.com/toptiptuesday/.

The 'fabulous' Scottish Summer we've had put a delay on our plans but we finally hooked up last weekend to take a few pictures of the Jag in a couple of contrasting environments. We had a grand old morning setting up shots & trying out ideas. Natasha will be manipulating a few of the results in Photoshop to experiment with dynamic ranges, monochrome and so on. I'm looking forward to seeing them and hope to work with her again soon. In the meantime, please visit her website, enjoy her pictures, suggest projects or even commission your own! :)

Here are a couple of my efforts from the day to keep you all going...

Natasha getting a good angle against a suitably industrial background...

A bit of posing in front of an interesting wee building - just ignore the scuffed bumper! :)

Fleet drama, a drinking problem & a new arrival...

It has been a hard month for the Jag as she was forced into daily driver duties following the wee Ka's awful MOT performance. It failed on corrosion in the sills, a-pillars and elsewhere, plus the cracked windscreen, dodgy brakes (imbalanced) and a leaking power steering rack plus a burst gaiter. The latter two issues were ones I hadn't been aware of so came as a bit of a surprise and add to the already sizeable list of work needing done to the Ka. The failed MOT, along with lapsed insurance and end of the Road Tax have put it off the road, hence the need for the Jag's call-up.

All the problems with the Ka have brought me to decision time regarding its future. Whether they mean 'putting it down' so to speak, or stashing it away as a restoration project (and by that I mean a complete strip down to bare shell, followed by a weldathon, engine rebuild/replace & gearbox change), I haven't determined yet. Part of me doesn't want to let it go. It has been a great wee car and huge fun over the last 8 years. I really enjoy the way it drives, how it handles, and how it looks, slammed on the 15-inch alloys that used to adorn my first Ka. However, if I'm being honest with myself it's gubbed. The cost of repairs just to keep it on the road is far too much. I mean, the rack problem itself might necessitate a swap out, which would put the Ka on its FIFTH one, and they aren't cheap. So, unfortunately, scrapping SN02 FVT may be the only option. If I find the space though, I could maybe put the whole lot away to work on in my spare time so that I can practice and hone the skills I am going to need if I want to be a classic car restorer...

On a positive note, the drama with the Ka meant that I got to use the Jag a lot more this month. It has majestically taken me everywhere without complaint. The daily use has reinforced at least two things, the first of which is that she is an awesome car (sport mode FTW), and secondly she is not suitable for use as a daily driver if you are on a small budget. Why? Well, lets put it this way, she has a serious drinking problem!!

Over the course of a week or two I must have sank about £100 worth of fuel into her, only to see it gobbled up thanks to an average MPG of around 14 to the gallon thanks to the stop-start city driving & short journeys normally handled admirably by the Ka. H9 WAP's prodigious thirst for unleaded plus the sheer cost of fuel nowadays really limit the amount I can enjoy driving her. Enjoy it though I have and there has been no bother at all with the Jag while she was doing the rounds. The rattle from the timing chain tensioner is louder mind you, or maybe I'm just more conscious of it, and I've noticed a nail or something in the nearside rear tyre which explains why it needs pumped up every week. College is due to start again next Wednesday so I will hopefully finally be able to get the oil changed, swap out the knackered tensioner for a 2nd hand one, fix the puncture, and then apply Tetraseal to her bottom. I also need to order replacement pads & discs as well as bump up the mileage on the insurance but need to generate more income before I can do either. As ever, work in progress.

One of the duties undertaken by H9 WAP was ferrying me around the region as I chased a new car to buy as a replacement daily runabout. The poor economy of the Jag reinforced the need for something more 'sensible' and to be fair I had been thinking about getting a bigger car to use as a daily for some time. My stepson, William, isn't getting smaller and had been finding things a bit cramped in the rear of the Ka. I set my budget to less than £1000 & began looking about. I am afraid to say that most of the cars available in the price range are shoddy, rusty, battle scarred shitboxes. Either that, they are too small for my needs, have intergalactic mileages or are large, thirsty saloons like the Jag. I actually saw a decently presented Jaguar S-Type V6 for a measly £800 but I would've ended up living in it had I bought her. In the end I plumped for a 2002 Nissan Almera 5-door in blue with part history through a reliable local garage, receipts showing lots of recent work (that I don't have to do, hurrah!), proven reliability, proven economy, CD player, central locking, A/C plus Tax and MOT through 'till May 2013. Ladies & Gentlemen, I present 'The Nameless Nissan'... Some monikers have been suggested, such as 'Thor', 'Malaria', 'Hyjinx' and even 'Norman', but I've yet to decide on a name. It might not ever get one!

I am impressed with the wee Nissan so far. It does everything I need it to do but I find perhaps that it lacks some of the charisma that the Ka has. Not to worry, what it lacks the Jag more than makes up for.




  

Reflections 2 - The Scottish Car Show...

The 2nd event of the month was The Scottish Car Show on the 15th July. This used to be solely for modified cars but has changed tack this year to include classics, retro and other types. It was loud, lively and packed all day, with something for everyone to do at the Royal Highland Showground site.

I began prepping a day or two beforehand by cleaning some stains off the Jag's interior and carpets, 'feeding' the leather too, as well as giving her bodywork another polish. While I was working on the street where I normally park a resident walked up to ask 'Is this your car?', 'Where do you live?' before giving me grief about having it parked in the street for days at a time. Now, where it was parked is round the corner from where I used to stay, and about a 10 to 15 minute walk from where I stay now. It's a quiet, sleepy neighbourhood in a well to do area with ample, free, unrestricted on street parking. Most of the homes there have a driveway or a garage. Up until this one person had a go at me, no-one had complained about the car being there. In fact a couple of people I had spoke to while cleaning it were quite interested in it. This NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) though didn't like that I had parked within a 20 metre range of his house twice in a row. I was under a streetlight, away from the trees, in miles of space and well away from his Audi. The Jag wasn't even leaking any oil!

He moaned that guests coming to visit could not park directly outside his house because of the Jag, then went on to say that I could park in the street (like it belongs to him) but needed to 'move it about a bit'. Looking at all the empty spaces outside his house, either end of the Jag, across the street and 7 or 8 steps around the corner less than a car length away, I was a bit staggered that his guests had nowhere to park. A point I raised with him, as well as pointing out that the car does get moved and put in different spots. He then went on to complain that the car had been 'abandoned' and that he was going to contact the Police about it. Seriously? I mean, he had seen me cleaning it the week or two before so knew fine well it wasn't abandoned. It is taxed, insured and on a PUBLIC road with no waiting, loading or parking restrictions. There was no driveway blocked and certainly nothing to indicate that special access was required to the front of his home because someone had a disability or something.

His attitude was really patronising and I was getting angrier & increasingly indignant the more he bleated on. After sounding off at me for a while, with me taking on board his comments then countering them, he buggered off. I finished my cleaning then moved the Jag. Not because I agree with his viewpoint, but because I felt the neighbourhood was no longer a safe place to leave it. The impression I got from the chap was that if I didn't move the car from the area, things would happen to it to make me move it.

So anyway, on the day of the car show the Jaguar Enthusiast's Club met up early on the bypass so that we could travel in convoy to the event and all park up together indoors. We were some of the lucky few who were able to do so. Once again, I noticed that the Seagulls had done their business all over the Jag but I didn't have the time to sort it out before we were on our way. On arrival we parked up in the main auditorium right next to a tap though so I was able to wash off the worst of the bird poop then run the polishing cloth over the car, again! Having done that and got settled in I had the chance to wander about a bit and see what was happening. There were a good few classics in the main area along with many. many modified cars, a soundstage, funfair ride, mobile tattoo parlour and myriad of stalls selling things. Outside there were hundreds of other cars, clubs and petrolheads, including my Uncle Bobby & his daughter Rachel who were there showing his modified Mondeo. The smell of burnt rubber and the squeal of tyres drew me to watch the Drift Taxi's ply their trade for a bit. It was spectacular to watch. The £10 cost to be  passenger for just two laps of the (short) drift track was a bit steep right enough. Having said that I did pay nearly a fiver for a burger...

I had wanted to take a load of photos of what I was seeing but forgot to charge my phone the night before the show. I formulated a cunning plan though and ducked out for a while to nip away to Tesco's Corstorphine so that I could buy a mini USB cigarette lighter charger. When I got back to the show though I discovered that H9 WAP's cigarette lighter didn't actually work... Now, here's a tip. If anything electrical on a Jag stops working, check the fuses. They often blow. In X300's there is usually a fuse map, showing you where they all are and what they're for, under the flap of the storage/toolkit compartment in the engine bay on the right hand side. In most cases there are spare fuses there too. Some Jags even have a wee toolkit. I quickly discovered that the fuse for the cigarette lighter was blown. A quick swap later & I could charge my phone, but only with the ignition on. Seeing as I couldn't go anywhere for a while I left it on charge and began cleaning.
With the ignition on there was a nice cooling breeze coming from the fans as I set about the engine bay. I got right into the nooks & crannies, cleared out dead leaves, cleaned parts that have probably never been cleaned, dressed the tyres, and then worked some more on the glass, interior & exterior to bring out a shine. I noticed people taking photos & video but didn't think much of it at the time. Happily though I've since found out that I made it to the official video of the event and there is also a picture of the Jag on the StrathyCruise website! Screengrabs below...

Pic from the Strathy Cruise website - accessible from http://www.scottishcarshow.com/

Video screengrab 1 - whole vid can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcUblXpYTc

Video screengrab 2

I was feeling quite chuffed with the work that had gone into making the Jag nice & shiny so sat down in her for a bit to rest & check Facebook etc. on the phone while it was charging. While doing that I happened to look up at the dash & saw the battery gauge well down from where it should normally be. At this point the ignition was still on. I realised that I had drained the battery by having the ignition on. A twist of the key to start the Jag was met with a click and nothing more. D'oh! I asked about the other JEC members on site for jump leads or a starter pack but no one had any. The Police had a stand nearby so I asked them and thankfully was able to borrow a booster pack so that I could fire up the Jag & run it for a bit to put some juice back into the battery. Cue lots of photos being taken of the situation and talk of me being 'charged' by the Police... The battery in the car really is too small so I will be purchasing the correct part in the future. Of course, I should have remembered that before I drained it! :)

Embarrassing moments aside, at least my phone was charged. I wandered back around the show & took a few snaps...

Edinburgh & South East JEC tucked away in a corner.

Main auditorium.

Beautiful Jaguar Mk IV.

Cadillac.

Uncle Bobby's Mondeo, 'Rosie'.

Porsches.

As the show drew to a close I hung about for the awards. One of the JEC members won for best classic of the even with his immaculate Mk 2. I didn't win anything but my time will come! H9 WAP started first time, even though the battery power level still appeared to be low, and we headed home. Once again, she was running smoothly. Even the lumbar support on the seat seems to have resumed working.

Post-show chill...

I enjoyed the show but it had a totally different atmosphere to the month's earlier one. The Scottish Jaguar Day seemed to be much more chilled out and more relaxed, whereas the Scottish Car Show felt a wee bit 'edgy' at times. It was still good though. There are more shows coming up but I need to watch what I'm doing with the car and address some of the wee things that are really needing done, like the chain tensioner, the minor corrosion, oil change, brake discs & pads, plus transmission/diff fluid renewal. I also need to drive it less. She's on a 3000 mile limited mileage policy and I've done probably 2600 so far since March. It's more use than the Jag has been used to seeing over the last few years, but she's all the better for it!

Reflections 1 - Scottish Jag Day...

It has been almost a month since the last update so I thought it was about time I put a few thoughts down relating to the two shows I've been to (so far), as well as the ongoing progress with H9 WAP.

As mentioned in the last post she was due for a service. This was only partially completed due to a lack of ramp space at the garage, but at least the plugs and air filter were changed and all the fluids were checked. The oil and its filter are still in the garage just waiting for a time when they'll be used. Sooner rather than later I hope. Needless to say, I forgot to take pictures of the procedure for replacing the plugs and air filter but it is simple enough. The payoff for such an easy task has been smoother running, better idling and a wee increase in economy. I've also been able to keep the old plugs as spares since they seemed to be in good condition.

The price for 6 plugs, filters and 10 litres of oil was only around £60 so anyone who says running a Jag is expensive must be shopping in the wrong places!

With the partial service done my boss took the car for a spin and remarked on how good it was. There are a few wee things that could be done with being sorted, chief among them is the upper timing chain tensioner. A new part direct from Jag will come in at about £50. Fitting costs would not be cheap however. I'm on a budget so will source a good 2nd hand spare for much less and fit it easy enough on the roadside myself.

So, with the partial service done and a full tank of fuel, I geared up for the Scottish Jaguar Day on the 1st July. On the morning of the show I discovered that a flock of Seagulls had 'painted' the car. I don't know what they feed on in Edinburgh, but judging by the amount of, and appearance, of what comes out, it's probably best not to know! On route to Doune I stopped in Dunipace to pick up my Dad and cleaned the car as best as possible. I got most of the stuff off and we made the show in good time, helping to set up the Gazebo before the rest of the Edinburgh & South East JEC members arrived. Once that was done I set about polishing and cleaning while Dad chilled out. Here are a few pics of the event...

My Dad and 'The Beastie' as he calls her! 

Some of the Edinburgh & South East JEC cars

See the wheels on the burgundy Jag? Thinking about a set of them for mine...

It was a really relaxed, chilled out day. Productive too in that I got a lot of detailed cleaning done, bought a complete set of handbooks plus the correct folder, as well as a replacement keyfob (which I really need to programme at some point...). The Jag ran really well for the whole trip, a wee bit noisy though when revved thanks to the tensioner and blown exhaust backbox, but other than that there was no drama. There was plenty of automotive eye candy from E-Types to an SS100, XKR's S-Types, plus a random Mustang, and the company was excellent. Roll on next year!

Polishing up...

I'll be going to the Scottish Jaguar Day this weekend so thought it was about time I gave the Jag a bit of special attention. It had been away out at the Grangemouth Gala Day last weekend and was used for commuting on the following two days - which it needed to be fair. Seems to generally 'work' a lot better when it is being used - so as a result it was pretty filthy. I discovered that the Tesco near the college has a really good pay-as-you-go jetwash with a foam brush so I made full use of that before driving home and breaking out the Autoglym polish. After about 2 hours work, the results are below...

Near mirror finish on the paintwork - not bad for an old motor!

Stainless Steel flashes out front still good...

Rear 3/4 view. Roof and bootlid all straight. Bumper to be fixed...

Right hand profile showing the small but deep 'battle scar' on the wing, and the very slightly wonky rear bumper...

All glasswork polished too. 

I'm really pleased with how it polished up! Compared to how the car looked both inside and out when I bought it there is a huge, positive difference.

Although she looks great, mechanically I want to address a few things as noted before. A service is planned for Saturday (tomorrow) where I'll change the oil, filter, plugs and air filter as well as checking the diff and gearbox levels. My boss will also get the chance to have a look underneath to point out any areas for attention I've missed, as well as road test it to give me his opinion on what else is needed to make her 100%. If I'm lucky I may be able to get ny A/C recharged for free and have the Jag Waxoyled to protect her bahookie from the salty, Scottish roads. 

A couple of things have sorted themselves out, again. My seats adjust fully now (apart from lumbar support though I can hear the motor going) and the erratic tailights seem to have settled down to working condition. Fluid leakage is still minimal. 

On the other hand though, while driving about with the A/C off and windows down, I noticed a horrible rattle when accelerating. I know the upper timing chain tensioner perhaps isn't in the best of health, but the rattle only happens under load, not when the engine is revved at idle, so I wonder if it's something to do with the drivetrain? Having said that the big Jag still goes like a scalded cat, with no untoward noises from the gearbox. A look online seems to indicate that what I might have is a loose Catalytic Converter which is bouncing about as the exhaust gasses pass over it. If that's the case, and bearing in mind there's a hole in it already, then it may be time to put aside some money for a new exhaust. I don't suppose another tranny fluid and filter change will do any harm either. Rosco's years of experience should help me pin down the noise - which is oddly intermittent too - and set up a plan for dealing with it. Spares shouldn't be an issue as Rob Jenner has just bought another X300 to break. :)  

Going in the right direction...

Apologies for the lack of recent updates. Things have been happening to the Jag, but as the college course has drawn to a close that's been my main focus.

The Motorcycle and Small Engines Maintenance & Repair experience (actually with a heavy bias towards general automotive maintenance & repair) has been great fun. I have completed all the outcomes and done so well that the college presented me with a 'Student of the Year' award! My application for next year has been accepted so I'll be moving onto City & Guilds Automotive Level 2, skipping the Level 1 course. I can't wait to get stuck in!

As the course came to an end, and even though all the assignments and assessments were taking priority, I managed to get the Jag into the workshop to sort out her wheel alignment, check for leaks, and wire brush some of the underside in preparation for undersealing it at a later date. I'd been putting up with an off-centre steering wheel and odd cornering behaviour for a bit (easier to turn left than right) so it was time to sort things. I used a 4-post ramp to get the Jag airborne, wire brushed and WD40'd the track rod ends, then walked away for a cup of tea to let the WD40 do its stuff. Once back I got out the 4-wheel laser alignment gear, set the steering wheel to straight ahead, and sprayed the track rod ends again before starting any adjustments. The initial readings on the alignment gear confirmed that the alignment was well out. It was a quick fix though and within minutes the front wheels were both pointing in the right direction. The rears were within 1mm of each other. I really should have checked them first to make sure the thrust line of the car was dead on, but the 1mm difference is OK.

Here are a few pics of the job in progress...

Laser alignment gear all set...

Offside track-rod end. The spring you see is probably the wrong one for the car. It doesn't match the nearside! That wire dangling down is the earth for the ABS. Before clean up everything you see here was caked in mud, dirt, grime, oil, coolant and transmission fluid from all the various leaks. No major leaks to report now though!

Rear A-frame and under car view. What lies beneath, eh? Well, a fair bit of surface corrosion, but no holes! Overall it's in really good condition for a 15 year old car with nearly 120,000 miles. The rust has been brushed off and I'll give it another going over before the whole of the underside is coated in Tetraseal or something similar. The exhaust has seen better days though. More on that later!

Pointing in the right direction...

Now, as it's prudent to do when underneath the car, I had a poke about at any rusty bits. The chassis is good, including the sills and arches, but one of my silencers for the exhaust now has a hole in it. Makes the car sound a bit bad-boy, but it has to go. 

Poke, poke... D'oh!

A quick bit of welding after the area has been cut back a bit and dressed will maybe sort this out for the meantime. Ideally though I'd like a new exhaust for peace of mind and because I want to bring the Jag back to excellent condition. On almost every XJ I've seen, the rear silencers rot out here. I couldn't see a drain coming down onto them, but there must be some reason for such localised corrosion? Answers on a postcard please!

After the alignment had been done I can report that the Jag drove much better. The steering wheel wasn't canted over and the cornering had improved. I decided to use it for a couple of days and took the opportunity to go to my first Jaguar Enthusiast's Regional Meeting at the Craig House near Dalkeith. It was a rand night out with like-minded people and I was able to begin the process of sorting out new wheels etc. thanks to Rob Jenner. H9 WAP's current ones are too far gone to reasonably restore so I'm thinking about a set of XJR rims. 

So, now that college is over for the summer I'm a bit stuck for workshop space. Having said that though I hope that Ross at Mulsanne Motors will be able to let me on a ramp long enough to do a service, the underseal and re-charge the air con at some point. Maybe the minor welding too! 

History Mystery...

As you'll know, H9 WAP was bought without a scrap of history or paperwork. None. Not a jot. I broke one of the golden rules of buying any car and took one hell of a chance on it. Still glad I did mind!

Anyway, there was at least one wee tiny bit of information with the car, namely its last MOT and a V5 registration certificate. On the day of the sale, using those documents, I did some online digging and managed to source the Jag's previous MOT history back to 2006 (she was on 105,000 miles at that point - only 119,900 now... ). This information was useful because it let me see all the passes, the fails, and the advisories against her over the last few years. I was therefore able to make an educated guess as to what sort of maintenance had been done to the car over that period of time. For example, the advisories in 2006 were:

• All Coil spring corroded (2.4.C.1b)
• Nearside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
• Both Front wheel bearing has slight play (2.5.A.3c)
• Both Rear wheel bearing has slight play (2.6.2)
• All Brake hose slightly deteriorated (3.6.B.4d)

Since then the coil spring corrosion has been noted on all the MOT's, but none of the other issues have which indicates they were fixed. Looking under the car at the visible pipes and testing for play in the bearings confirms this. Other stuff sorted over the years around MOT time have included blows in the exhaust, faulty Lambda Sensors and dodgy lights. 

It bugs me that I don't have a history though with details on what else was done and where. So I set about getting some. 

Armed with the advice from the Jaguar Enthusiast's guru Rob Jenner, I nipped into the Jag dealer in Edinburgh to ask for information from their DDW (Direct Dealer Warranty) system. Stratstone couldn't give me much but did point me in the direction of where H9 WAP came from - which is Cheltenham in England and a dealership called 'H.A. Fox' on Rutherford Way. I decided to give them a phone to see what information they have and to my surprise found that they had carried out all the servicing and any warranty related repairs needed on H9 WAP for the first few years of its life. The last record they had was around late 1999 where the recorded mileage was around 40,000. 

In an example of going beyond the call of duty, the chap I spoke to at Fox's offered to trawl their archives, pull all the original paperwork, photocopy it, then send it to me free of charge!

My next step once I receive the info from Fox's is to contact the DVLA to request the registration history, which will give me a list of former keepers. Once I have that I can write to them and ask for any paperwork they have, or tales relating to the car. If I get a response it will help me further add to this Jaguar's Tale.

The other car...

Seeing as things are a wee bit quiet on the Jag front I thought I'd add a wee post about the baby of the fleet, my trusty Ford Ka. Here it is...

Bit different from the Jag, eh? SN02 FVT was bought in 2005 as a replacement for my previous Ka, a purple Mk 1 that expired after well over 100,000 miles and a dodgy engine swap. Many, many, many miles later (about 134,000 so far) FVT is still running and has well and truly replaced the first one. I took a wee while to warm to it though.

Spec wise, it's a Ka Collection in Panther Black metallic with cloth seats, an RDS 6000 EON CD/Radio, electric windows, central locking, and a 1.3 litre Endura-E engine which can trace it's design lineage back to the Ford Kent found in Anglias and the like. Since purchase I've added the 15" O.Z alloys, a G-Max sports suspension kit, wheel spacers front and rear, the shorty aerial plus a chrome trim for the exhaust. Everything else is standard.

I can't begin to tell you how much fun it is to drive this wee thing. It's no rocket but since you barely have to lift for any corner it feels faster than it is. The handling is helped by the lowered suspension and slightly wider track, but that comes at the expense of comfort - just ask my partner who gets car-sick on long journeys!

Sadly, the intergalactic mileage has taken its toll on the Ka. The situation right now is this: the engine is oil-tight but very noisy and it leaks coolant. This coolant loss has been a minor long term problem which was partially resolved using Radweld which stopped a water-pistol like stream from the intake manifold. There is a new leak now, not a dreadful one, but the coolant drips onto the engine, pooling around the No. 1 plug where it burns off thanks to the heat. That means I can't drive the car with the windows open because after a while the fumes get too much. Previously, coolant used to leak from the thermostat housing. That was resolved by removal, cleaning off the corrosion, then refitting with new gaskets and sealant. No idea what the solution will be this time though.  

Over the years it has been a reliable workhorse, hammered around the country, abused, and taken for granted. I didn't scrimp on servicing though and whatever needed done to it when it was needing done, was done. For instance it has had at least 3 steering racks, a power steering pump, several wishbones, pads, discs, drums, shoes, heater control valve, heater blower motor resistor, coolant temperature sender, new catalytic converter and manifold, complete new exhaust, new coil, a replacement headlight, a new clutch and a new flywheel. I've kept pretty much all of the receipts, stamped the service book and farmed out any work that I couldn't undertake myself. The Ka has paid me back by not letting me down. The only time I have had to pull over and stop was when it first became apparent there were overheating problem as a cloud of steam curled up from the bonnet while I was in traffic. After cooling down it got me home. It has always got me home - even when the clutch disintegrated, taking the old flywheel with it...

Time passes though and anything well-used will wear out. If the Ka lasts until its next MOT in August I will be happy. If by some miracle it passes, I'll be happier still, but in the back of my mind I'll be waiting for the day it goes bang. A pass in August is unlikely without some serious structural welding and a new windscreen. Unfortunately when Ford built the Ka they used foam on the inside of the body in areas that attract moisture. The foam traps the moisture and the car rusts from the inside out. 'FVT has rusted out around the fuel filler cap, rear crossmember/boot slam panel, offside sill, both front sill ends, base of A-pillars, round the rear wiper spindle and on the front of the offside wing (had an argument with a BMW once). Here are some pictures to show just how bad it is...

The boot & rear crossmember

Left side of boot & rear crossmember

Edge of boot, rear wing

Offside rear quarter panel

Rear wiper attachment

Fuel filler cap. There is no metal here. Only Duck Tape...

Nearside A-pillar base

Offside A-pillar base and cracked 'screen

Front of offside wing

We'll see what happens come MOT time. Just now though I am still enjoying what has been, and continues to be, a great wee, fun car. Having two constitutes a fleet as far as I'm concerned and I'm very happy to have them both!