1974 Daimler Double-Six VDP (higher axle stands)

Nice motor, how are you getting on with her?

£250 for such a car... Good luck with the project mate

I actually like the colour ;D

Cant wait to see how this came along!

Love these! And I would have just taken the risk with the black plates.... doubt many traffics cops would know the changeover year!

So what happened next?

I love the Daimler Double Sixes. This just goes a little further. Wonderful cars.

As with many projects they don't look as bad at first sight as they do when you get right into them. I only really have one picture of the car in the lock up where it sat from December 2000 to May 2005 I think.

In the lock up there was no mains electricity for welding so I focused on 'important' things like tarting up the wheels and sorting out the fuel and exhaust systems. I also got a large 2nd hand battery and hooked it up and she did actually crank over but looking back I think why wouldn't it? It blew my mind at the time tho.

I took the fuel tanks off a sealed them. One reason was that I figured if I was welding one day it would be safer and secondly because I did that for a sideline and we gravitate towards things we know we can do. This inadvertantly led to discovering the reason the car was put of the road away back in the mid eighties (last tax disc is 1986):

I think the seller told me there had been some problem with the fuel supply that was never sorted and and in the boot I found several new and old fuel pipes from when mechanics had probably driven themselves mad trying to get to the bottom of this fuel problem. You can also see in the pictures that the rear lower quarter panels had been removed. Someone trying to check the tanks? Anyone who has seen the maze of pipes etc on the V12 will appreciate its like spaghetti junction.
Anyway I took the drain plug out of one of the tanks and pulled off the plastic filter that goes onto the internal pipe and stuck a screwdriver up the pipe and out poured lots of (now dry) dirt. I reckon the pipe had been full of sludge and no-one ever got to the bottom of it but all those years later it had dried out and just fell out. The car also has had a the fuel pumps replaced on one side. One side has the original markings and one some British Leyland replacements.

I also armed myself with some repair kits and rebuilt the older fuel pumps and one set of carbs and got some new downpipes and middle exhaust sections as the originals were incomplete and the downpipes had been adapted at some point.

I later found out why. It took me about a week to get the driver's side downpipe and manifolds off. Previous mechanics working under pressure would have just put a sleeve on the downpipe to connect it to a new exhaust section. The original downpipes were stuck in the manifolds so I had to remove them to separate everything. Its almost impossible to reach the lower nuts.


from a rich owner in Chester in the 70s to a council lock up in East Kilbride in the 00's




pimp my rims. powdercoated wheel with rechromed hubcap and trim ring and whitewall trim



driver's side carbs removed for overhaul many years ago



original SU fuel pumps from one side rebuilt with kit. Other side of car has replacement unit with 'British Leyland' tape. Probably replaced during fault finding mission many moons ago



driver's side exhaust manifolds and original downpipe with new downpipe and exhaust pipe

One anomally with the exhaust parts is the downpipe. The parts List and Jaguar Daimler Classic Parts book (introduced to go with their new classic parts service from March 99) both show that the downpipe changed from long to short type at VDP chassis no. 2P1163. My car is 2P1627 so I ordered the later type but you can see mine definitely had the longer type fitted originally. Its no big deal really as I bought the matching intermediate pipe to suit the short downpipe. The parts were pretty cheap. Was only £26 for the long pipe and £42 for the downpipe if I remember right.

Awesome car, I love old Jags, my old man had a number of them over the years.

C`mon, don`t keep us in suspense. ;D

Thanks again guys and I'm not holding out on youz lol just busy backtracking through my records in the early hours and working on the car 8 hours a day.

Last night I found a few of the many pictures I took of it on my first mobile phone. Most of them were lost when I lost my phone and changed PC. The pictures weren't very high res in the first place and have been uploaded and downloaded from phones to PCs and back again a couple of times (no Photobucket back then) so have lost a bit of the quality they had but they're better than nothing. I also scanned some more photos I had and again the quality is lost, to some extent.

My records show that I spent 2001 working on the fuel & exhaust systems (driver's side) but something significant happened early 2002:

I had bought a large road compressor in 1999/2000 to use for air for sandblasting/painting (another story in itself) but still had the problem of no mains electricity for welding. The lock-ups do have 32V electrics for special low voltage bulbs but nothing of any use for tools.

My lodger had given me a few months rent up front while he went to tour South America so I set about buying a generator big enough to run a welder. I found one through the small ads and was just about to hand over £300 for it when the seller asked me why I needed it. I explained and added that I'd been looking for a workshop for about 13 years and had given up.

As with all the best stories he turned round and said 'I've got one here. £50 a week' ;D

So...the generator wasn't purchased and I moved into the unit which was 30' by 14' and 11 miles from my flat.

Instead of moving the Daimler down I thought I'd find my feet with welding painting etc on my Mk2 Polo. That is, again, another thread for another day but I worked on the Polo down there till the end of 2004 roughly and when the majority of the work completed on that one day won some cash at the bookies and decided it was a good time to pull the Daimler out the lock up and get it somewhere proper to live. I regret to this day not having pics of that journey but I didn't have time to organise a camera etc.

I believe this was in May 2005. I know it was a Saturday and Celtic got beat and I had put £10 on them to lose and got about £80 back which paid for the truck. It was an emotional moment for me. I remember as I drove through the leafy main street of Bothwell towards Viewpark/Uddingston, with the truck behind with the old beast on the back. It was a lovely day and that song Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderfull World by Isreal Ikumboweyo (or whatever his name was) playing on the radio it did seem like a wonderful world.

So here are the few pics I have from that era


Polo & Daimler shared this unit from Spring 2005 to Summer 2006. Polo looks bigger than Daimler....weird



my first mobile made the paint on both cars look inches thick



aftermarket rear box section needed a lot of tweaking to fit but looks ok here




first job tackled was drivers side sill assembly. front/back/inside/outside



scary looking rot on front end of inner sill. 'they all go here'



my first attempt at a complex repair section to repair outside of front box-section/jacking point. was well pleased with it



upper part of inner sill very sound despite appearances. bottom replaced in 3 or 4 parts working around seatbelt and seat-mount plates



worm's eye view of aftermarket rear box-section. getting fit here correct is crucial or suspension arm will not relocate


as with sill rear inner wheelwell sound above rusted part


Anyway. I'm of to do another 8 hours or so on the VDP

Ive come over all emotional after that. Be great to see some current restoration pics. Good luck with it.