I wish there were better pictures to show you of this long-stored Jaguar. The car is located in Caro, Michigan and is for sale here on craigslist, where the asking price is an ambitious $4,150. I say ambitious mainly because some parts were removed from the car in 1965 when the first restoration attempt was made and scrapped while the owner was serving in Vietnam. The missing components include the front and rear bumper, fender skirts, front splash pan, passenger side gas tank, and air cleaner. Some of those components will be difficult to find, and probably pretty expensive when you do find them. But if you could negotiate a better price, this project still might be worth doing simply because of the relatively solid body. What do you think? And if you can come up with a good story for the hole in the left front fender, I’d love to hear it! Thanks to Robert R for this find!
I love these old Jaguars and this would be a worthwhile restoration candidate.
As for the hole in the left fender, Jaguar had side lamps that protruded from the front fenders, and these were mounted in steel pods that were formed seperate from the body, and then grafted onto the body using lead to fill the seam.
This was a notorious spot to trap moisture and these parking light mounting nacelles tended to rust along the leaded seams. The previous owner apparently removed the entire steel housing by melting or grinding the lead and had intended to form new nacelles for the parking lamps.
So, yes, that hole is factory original. You would just need to source and graft the new parking light housing back onto the original fender.
Chas
That fuel tank is going to be nearly impossible to find. It took me a year to find one for my Mark IX, and that one had to be repaired. They do not make replacements. Many other expensive parts are missing. And the interior is shot. There are over 40 individual pieces of veneered wood trim alone, some which are probably beyond salvaging. The cost of a #2 driver these days is $20-25K. You will spend much more than that attempting to bring this car only to that condition. My vote is buy it and part it out.
Thanks to both of you for the information. @John — my wife REALLY wants a Mk. IX; I will be selling some cars on to make room in the next year or so. What advice would you give me? I doubt that my budget will stretch to the obvious “buy the best restored car you can” advice, so assume that I’ll have to do at least some work. What should I look for? Thanks!
There is a guy who specializes in these parts and cars. Private email me for his contact info. He also sold a really nice Mark IX not long ago. Very fair pricing to boot.
Ben
YGreetings,
Ben Cavileer, if you could email me who you know that specializes in these parts, I’d be grateful. Rossw.lovell@yahoo.com. No Caps.
Car taken off road in 65? For light nacelle? That’s a lot sooner than I’d expect but possible. Had to be a hard twelve years judging by the upholstery.
Transmission was from the States and old Chevrolet unit also used in other cars from the late forties. Manufacturers never sold competition the newer units. These did not have a transmission cooler or an easy way to fit one so the fluid would circulate.
Now my disclaimer. Originally from Michigan, currently living in Connecticut but destined to move back.
Here in the Hillsdale area that I’m familiar with and I travelled quite a bit when I was a teenager here. I went not one but two and a half months back in the early eighties and only saw one decrepit TR7 the whole time. This…..from someone who can spot any rusting hulk of a British car at 300 yards no matter what seems to obscure it or be growing through it, never mind the open doors on barns that were checked out when they were opened maybe quarterly if lucky on some.
Always found prices here on “sports cars” and the like priced like old Ferraris. Price is highly optimistic in light of missing parts, bumpers easier to source in non-original polished stainless than finding cores to re chrome.
MKIX’s had disc brakes, MKVII’s still had drums, they all had sunroofs but only the MKVIII and MKIX’s had sewage line chrome to facilitate a two tone paint job. MKVII’s had full rear wheel spats while the others had a cutaway added.
The missing bits are only hard to find if you know know where to look :p
The right person for this car should have little issue restoring it!
Great find guys!
Greetings All,
Own a MKVIIM and a MKIX. Have loved these cars since a teenager in the seventies.
Make no doubt, easy to get underwater on these. Lots of unpainted boxed sections for rust meant that I passed on many examples that had the bottom ten inches of the car missing.
If the wood is gone, it’s pricey. This wood did not look too bad. Delamination can be repaired, missing veneer much harder, I’ve done both for others.
Interior and carpet kits run about $6K combined, you supply the labor.
Not a lot of sheetmetal available other than rockers and lower door repair panels, new fenders on the other side of $5K. Light pods replacements available as they are common to the XK’s.
Regarding the fender signal light pods…….. always surprised at the corrosion issues. Always wandering through boneyards, knowledgable enough to know where the American vehicles had their lead loaded joints. Interestingly, never have seen a loaded section fail on a panel that had not been compromised by a previous accident/repair. Why does Jaguar have this issue?
Gas tanks, either overseas but more likely in this country as we bought the bulk of these cars and being that there are two tanks, one in each rear fender, they were painted and high enough not to be affected by rust from the outside but will rust from the inside, still I can come up with several places out of Hemmings easily.
This car is an early one judging by the cam covers which are lacking the end bolt hold downs that were on the sprocket end. If this car is a manual it may have the overdrive. If it is a late one it may be an automatic. The later cars had power steering which sucked as it was a remote reservoir meaning it leaks, wrapping the tank around the pump was smart.