Practically Classics Forum

Today involved a lot of running around in circles while also trying to get the Lada ready for tomorrow.

By 1500 or so I finally actually managed to get to the car.

[] Steering box oil topped up, check. Still sodding awkward.

[] Gearbox oil checked - didn't need any.

[] Diff oil checked - didn't need any (despite having looked like it leaks like a sieve since I got the car, it's never used a drop).

[] Screen was topped up.

[] Engine oil checked.

[] Clutch fluid checked.

[] Brake fluid checked.

[] About 30 litres of LHM and goodness only knows how many bits and pieces removed from the boot - and dumped in the Xantia instead.

Having been on daily duties for the last couple of weeks the car was generally a bit grubby, not in a condition I really wanted to hand it over in.



Not having time to give it a proper clean myself today (especially as I was rapidly running out of daylight by that point) I decided to run round to one of the hand car washes need us which I actually trust. Sadly I discovered they're closed on Tuesdays...so reverted back to the one just round the corner from us.

This it turned out was a mistake. Despite me telling them no less than four times NOT to spray TFR all over the car...they did anyway.

So I wound up with a car which was no longer shiny and was covered in splotchy marks. They were very apologetic and then spent half an hour frantically hand polishing it, which made it slightly less dull but still covered in splotches. Not amused.



That's the third time they've done that now...suffice to say I won't be darkening their door again. Ever. I usually try to do this sort of thing myself...but if I don't have time it will be Magic Hand over by Tongwell who will get my business. They have never failed to follow my instructions - and in fact the first time I was there specific said to me before I even got to the front of the queue that they wouldn't be using any of the stronger chemicals because it would dull my paintwork.

At least they didn't do a bad job of the interior.







Next step: digging all the bits of Lada out the garage and from out back.

Couple of things I've not been able to find and I'll need to send on later, but the vast majority of things are now in the car.





So she's about as ready as she's going to be. 0800 tomorrow we'll be fuelling up then heading north.



I'll miss this car, I know that.

What's going to replace it I wonder...

Today was new car collection day. My destination was roughly 160 miles away, so a nice little run without being too much of a slog.

First order of business was of course fuelling up, for the last time. I'll miss the comedy lack of damping of this gauge. With half a tank the reading could vary between off-scale full or having the warning light on depending on which direction you were turning.



Breakfast was then consumed and we set off. Did take a quick break to grab a drink at Norton Canes Services, and took the opportunity to snap a last photo of the Lada sticking out like a sore thumb in a modern car park.



Little bit later and we found ourselves in an unassuming little back street, where I had a lovely chat with a gent I know from one of the other forums I'm on and handed him the keys to my Lada. Oh, and goodness only knows how many spares that I crammed into the back of it yesterday.



I will definitely miss that car, it definitely will be up there on the list of favourites.

I drove away in something rather different though...in many ways...many, many ways.



Which rather narrows things down doesn't it?

Yep...I've gone and taken leave of my senses!



There were a couple of points of concern. The first was that she hasn't had a decent run in forever, had been sitting in a damp garage for the last three months, and was running on fumes. Thanks to the first few points she was running on what sounded like about seven and a half cylinders. I had a feeling though that she would clear up once warmed up properly and able to clear her throat so to speak.

First step though was to very carefully limp to a fuel station as economically as possible and fuel up.

Turns out I probably wasn't running on fumes as the gauge appears to be a little on the pessimistic side.



My theory that we were facing a combination of fouled up plugs and a damp ignition system seemed to be on the money, as after ten or fifteen minutes once we got onto the motorway she smoothed out. Obviously I'll need to see if that remains so when next started up from cold...but I reckon she'll be fine. Ignition system service will definitely be on the to do list anyhow though.

Back home a few hours and 180 miles later, she was running really sweet.



I also made a quick run round to our local Shell fuell station to throw some V-Power fuel in. Running the numbers from the trip home showed an economy figure of 18.7MPG. Given she was running horribly for a portion of that and we had a fair bit of stop start traffic on the M1 that's actually better than I expected. If I can keep my average in the high teens I'll be very happy...though around here I'm not expecting it! MK is just murder on fuel economy, and there's really not much you can do about it.

Safely home.



Fun fact: Photographing a black car after dark is really hard.

The important details.





Original stereo still fitted which is nice to see, though the speakers have been upgraded at some point.



The lamp which provides illumination of everything aside from the instruments, trip computer and gear selector via fibre optics is obviously in need of replacement as it barely manages to provide a feeble glow - though they're not the most effective at the best of times.

Dash lighting is just fine at least.



Speaking of the instruments...I was surprised to see that the indicator lamp on the dash for the rear window demister is green...know that was quite common back in the 60s and 70s, but surprised to see it on a car from 1985 in green rather than amber.



For all they have their drawbacks it's hard to deny that Jaguar used to make some incredibly inviting interiors...



Also it has to be noted that I love the camera on this phone. That was taken completely freehand.

Observations.

[] Drives far, far better than expected for a 30+ year old Jag which has actually been used rather than pampered every day of its life. Absolutely no knocks or clonks from anywhere in the suspension etc.

[] Judder when braking (noted by former keeper), suspect a flat on the brake discs from when the car was standing around a couple of years back.

[] Electric mirrors refuse to adjust (noted by former keeper), suspect dirty switch contacts.

[] Air conditioning disabled (noted by former keeper) due to the clutch on the compressor pulley failing.

[] Veneer on most of the interior wood needs refinishing (been wanting to try to do that for years!).

[] Cruise control doesn't work.

[] Windscreen wiper blades need replacing as a matter of urgency.

[] Interior is a bit musty courtesy of spending months in a damp garage.

[] Exhaust was knocking against the underbody when we started out, but it cut it out once the misfire sorted itself out.

[] Tyres aren't the best.

[] Needs a thorough clean inside and out.

Very happy. Very, very happy.

Really looking forward to getting stuck into things tomorrow and getting to see if properly in daylight and get to know the car a bit better.

I'd originally been planning this to be a way to scratch the itch for a Jag which has been there since I spent a while driving the dark green one here.





Not really intending it to become a long term resident...however can already see it getting under my skin.

It just feels exceedingly special...

Well done you! That's a lovely thing. I got to drive the gaffer's wife's late 3.6 litre IL6 engined version when I ran the engineering division of a large leisure company, based in Windsor, back in the eighties. OK, so the job involved going round the sites and making sure that the workers on the grounds weren't skimping on the assembly work when setting up the rides prior to a feast, but I'd have taken a job sluicing out the facilities in a care home if that had come with XJS time. Though the free rides on the dodgems were the USP when I was offered the gig.
And frankly, I have no idea why, but I'd have been less surprised to see that you were replacing the Lada with a road legal, superbike engined dodgem than I was when I came in here to see that gorgeous glimpse of how amazingly diverse the UK's motor vehicle manufacturing industry used to be.

Under my right foot, probably because the car was someone else's, that six pot XJS used to manage at best around 20mpg on my occasional runs over and back along the M4 to & from Bristol, but 3 gallons of 4 star cost £5.08 at Barkers in Windsor (the place where they had an early concours Austin 1100 in Fiesta yellow in the showroom window to attract buyers to their newer stock) - far less than that in Slough or Reading at the time - so nobody seemed to mind that I was using so much.

Could anyone else say, hand on heart, that they owned two such very different cars as that and your AC? For this alone, you're to be congratulated. For the fact that you found such a lovely specimen, claim your medal right now!

Looks amazing .. enjoy!

How many other cars have the handbrake to the right of the driver's seat like the XJS? I know the A30/A35 does (I have an A35!) but haven't seen that set up on many.



My Grandfather's old sit up and beg Ford had the "umbrella handle" under the dash which threw me when I took it out one day to get fuel for him .. as did the 3 speed box ..

gazza82 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:20 am Looks amazing .. enjoy!

How many other cars have the handbrake to the right of the driver's seat like the XJS? I know the A30/A35 does (I have an A35!) but haven't seen that set up on many.

Two from memory were my late dad's A60, the car I learned to drive in, plus a Hillman Hunter I briefly owned in about 1970...…

John

gazza82 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:20 am
How many other cars have the handbrake to the right of the driver's seat like the XJS?

My Jag XK8 does, though not surprising as it shares a fair bit of DNA with the XJS.

Zel - I've had jags for years, and a friend & neighbour has a V12 XJS too, so shout if there's anything you need to know.

How is yours for rust? For me that would be the number 1 consideration, as it's a pain to fix on these. Nice purchase though, well impressed, will be very interested to see how you get on.

Regarding the parking brake location thing; the one on my daily driver - and most similar Yaris derivatives with bench seats rather than the buckets found in the US built, Scion badged ones - is to the left of the brake pedal, which provides the added advantage of having a completely accessible floor as there's nothing between the front seat and the dashboard. It has a further advantage over a dashboard or floor mounted parking brake in that the pedal can only latch down when the car isn't moving forwards.

But IMHO, a hand-operated parking brake on the "wrong" side of the seat is a good thing, or can be. The Volvo 140 series also had the parking brake at the right, in their case the lever operated via a relay tube - part of the seat frame - that connected the cable and ratchet mechanism under the tunnel in the middle of the car, meaning that the same cable could be used for both LH and RHD cars, but also that the handle was always in the same place relative to the driver's hand. That always struck me as a good thing.

Zel, you mentioned your satisfaction with the quality of the interior image. I was impressed by that too, almost as much as I am by the car!
What breed of phone did you use for this please? The interior shot is of brochure quality and looks at least as good as the similar one used in the 1978 Jaguar-Rover-Triumph brochures from that year's motorshow.

I'm with Rick on the significance of rust once it gets in about at one of these fine old things, but the way I see this as it applies to anyone who can weld is that it's a darned sight easier to make minor body repairs to a high standard than it would be to repair damage to those sumptuous seats and even for those who farm out some jobs, the cost of decent interior work puts it alongside structural work in terms of what to look for when buying a car that's so full of luxury materials.
Yours appears to be very straight and many of the rusty ones show visible signs of the dreaded brown stuff long before they're too far gone in the structural areas, I suspect that you would have spent much time poking around underneath before doing the deal. I, on the other hand, have been known to miss that sort of thing as I'm the rogue trader's dream buyer when I see something that I like, this in spite of the decades of experience. But then the barber doesn't always have a decent haircut!..

I found one downside of having the A35 handbrake on the right is when the psycho who was my driving tester decided it would be good idea to use hand signals AND on a hill start.


Now the window on an A35 isn't massive and has quarterlights so in my haste to get the signal hand out and not hold it on the clutch too long ... knuckles and metal met ...


...which was bloody painful!!! As in they were then bloody and painful for the remainder of the test!!

I hope you passed! And well done for holding a car with an on/off feel to the clutch and presumably a coil spring cover (unless of course yours had the far more manageable Laycock clutch kit with its diaphragm spring cover, as found in parts books under Hillman Imp), on a hill at all, especially for long enough to pull down the window. It could have been worse, I found that my A40's indicators had failed during a long drive home from work, at night, in winter. I went to pull down the window, the plan being to make a hand signal for the benefit of the one other driver I'd met on the way but the glass was stuck because of frost forming in the channels. I pulled a wee bit harder and you're probably ahead of me by now.. Yep, the block came off the glass with the window having moved only just enough to allow a perishing wind to join me in the car for the rest of the way.
I've never wished for wind up windows more than I did then! A month later, the car was fitted with a pair of MK2 doors, complete with their winding windows, oh the luxury of it. I rarely make hand signals these days, but carry my hairy hands monster gloves in the glove hole just in case. At least even the MK1 A40s came with a parking brake that was found in the middle of the car.

I had lowered the window anyway .. it was hot and sunny .. and yes, a coil spring cover .. so no, wasn't easy hence my urgent flailing of right arm ..

And yes, I passed!

S*d's law also said a dog ran out in front of me on the way back to the test office .. so TWO emergency braking manoeuvres in one morning!!

And yes, I also know about the glass blocks .. the one on my driver's door came off regularly until I araldited it back on .. but get the car back home after 40 years laid up in a garage and .. you guessed it ... the block is lying on the floor! I do have an plan to try to convert these to winders .. or should I say electric using guides and motors from a Corsa.