Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Now to do something about those shock absorber mounts.

Not much left here.
You might imagine that it made a bit of noise.

During the '80s and 90's Jaguar used a different material for it's insulating bushings. Instead of plain black rubber, they used what appears to be a special foam rubber. I imagine that it was more resilient or perhaps had a measure of inherent self damping. Certainly it wasn't particularly long lasting.

That red dust is all that remains of the upper bushing.

The bottom bushings held up a bit better.

Jaguars are full of rubber bushed and isolated assemblies. As they wear or "perish" all sorts of components start to wobble, wiggle, and rub up against each other. This is announced to the driver by mysterious noises and sloppy steering and tracking, Some are quite easy to replace, others well, maybe not. Not easy equates to expensive.

The problem is not helped by Jaguars famous high level of depreciation.

Suspension rebuilding is a labor intensive operation. Either you do it yourself, or you pay the price. Many times the cost of having a shop do the work might rival the price you paid for the car!

Is it worth it? I don't know, it all depends.

Replacing these shock bushings was pretty easy. I had them on hand since I ordered them off of RockAuto. I didn't even have to remove the wheels. I removed the top nuts then I jacked up the car. I turned the wheels to the extreme right or left, then pushed down and held the shaft down while I extricated the worn bushings. These are gas filled shocks and they put up a bit of a fight! Were my fingers tired!

I'm still having problems with that leaking alloy wheel. I gave it a treatment of Slime. This slowed down the leak quite a bit. It will hold enough pressure for a few days. This would be an incredible pain in the neck if I didn't have my own air compressor! I need to source a replacement wheel, soon!

I contacted Jaguar Heaven in Stockton Ca. They advised me that a set of four dimpled alloys would run me 525.00 plus tax, of course.

I've seen several XJ6 and XJ8 models in the local Pick and Pull yards and I might find a wheel there for closer to fifty bucks. It's worth a chance. I've just got to find the time to check the yards out.

Some of my other fixes have been holding up pretty well.

I really appreciate the mirror staying put while I'm driving but I discovered this morning that the glass was missing from the mirror! A quick survey found it sitting under the front edge of the driver's seat. I've never had much luck with using double sided tape to hold things together. For some reason it always seems to melt and fall apart from the heat. I've read where body kit parts are held on with this stuff but I would never trust it. I'm going to use some of the adhesive that my Wife and Daughter use to glue  their jewelry and craft projects together. It's called E6000. It is quite strong and water resistant and it doesn't have such a strong odor. I had considered using RTV silicon sealer, which would probably work, but would leave that horrible smell behind. My Jag may be old, but I can still detect the odor of the Connolly leather interior, a pleasing and satisfying fragrance.

This could have quite a few applications in fixing our cars interior trim

The "sacrificial" tires seem to be holding up pretty well. It's been 300 miles since I replaced the left front tire. I did purchase a replacement for the right front, but the existing tire wasn't down to the cord yet, so I decided to hold off on mounting it for awhile. The tire will be ground down in it's own time, so far that's another 300 miles down the road! As I mentioned previously, the darting and poor stability looks like it was related more to the tread separation that the left front tire suffered. I remember that it was pulling to one side quite noticeably. I'm wondering if this pulling to one side is what caused the right side tire to wear prematurely. Now it's been tracking straight down the road quite nicely, but there are still some clunks and squeaks. The car feels secure rolling down the road and I've really enjoyed driving it.

Of course there are always some kind of problem with any old Jaguar, especially with the CEL and other warning lights. Mine is no different. The CEL returned after passing the smog test. I reset it, but it returned a while later. The car has continued to run well and smoothly, but once last week the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree.

The rainy season seems to have passed, so I hand washed my XJ and it looks fabulous, clean and shiny. I unwrapped my new car cover and in unison with my car duster will try to maintain my car as clean as possible.  I will modestly admit that Jaguar built a gorgeous car, the least I can do is keep it clean.

I will do what I can but I need to get the next two years of use out of the car.

This is the crux of owning an old hobby car. You can fret, fuss and freak over every problem but that sucks all of the fun out of the experience. Do the best you can, but drive the thing.