1975 Jaguar XJC convertible

I had previously owned an XJ5.3C, which I thought would make an excellent big family convertible, something simply not available at the time, (unless one had the wherewithal for a Corniche), but sold it during a financially lean period. As things improved, I fancied another, but wanted a manual transmission example (all 5.3s had an awful 3 speed auto), so hunted for a 4.2 instead; easier to find too, I thought. I found one for sale in six months, but couldn't make a deal on it, settling for this pretty looking 4.2 auto, to convert using relatively easily available parts from the much more common four door saloon.

For several months I used it daily, as an automatic, until a trader mate called me offering the pedal box, gearbox, flywheel etc from a manual S2 4.2 which he was breaking. Duly purchased for £100, the parts were installed in two days, together with a new clutch kit. As soon as I drove it, I realised my error. There is a really good reason that even back then the vast majority of powerful cars came with automatic gearboxes;- they are better. The four speed and overdrive did make the car quicker, but not that much, and it was a clunky device, and really needed a servo for the clutch.

When fitting the manual box, I had noticed a surprising amount of underbody corrosion for a seven year old car, and the need to repair that reintroduced the idea of hacking around an already spoiled car to attempt a convertible conversion.

When new, before the rust got them, the series XJs were one of the strongest cars ever made, and the two door version, with its frameless windows and deep sills in which to hide stiffening, a prime candidate for a roofchop.

Lynx and Avon had alredy done a few, although in my opinion they were rather clumsy looking with the top down.

Lynx:

Avon:

At this time, and indeed for much of my working life, I had a "day job" (albeit with not entirely daytime working hours) to guarantee paying the bills, as well as my car business which has taken various forms, then mobile mechanical and welding repairs, bigger jobs being done at home, and a bit of casual trading. There was an emphasis on Jaguars, but I took whatever came my way.

One of my trade contacts, a small time Jag dealer and breaker, was a bit miffed that I had sold the open XJ, as he had his eye on it too, something he failed to mention to me. A couple of weeks later, by agreement, he appeared with the rustiest Daimler coupe I had seen, to convert to a similar stage as the previous one.

As I had established that the outer lower foot of the coupe needed to be rebuilt in a stronger manner to compensate for the lack of roof, structural condition was almost irrelevant; a good thing, because this model competed with1957 Vauxhall Victors for pace of corrosion.

After this, my day job took me from West Essex, to the Essex / Suffolk border where, my new home having better garaging, I was quickly able to re establish myself with more of a workshop bias, a few of my customers following me. The next three years saw the Jaguar repair & modification work expand, including another four builds for others, each better than the previous. For two of them I made detachable GRP hardtops contrived to appear as much like erect soft tops as my skills allowed, but I had not yet devised a soft top which would fold flat to my satisfaction; I considered most European four seat factory convertibles to look like prams with the roofs down, the worst being Golfs.

By 1989, I had just three dependent children, and the idea of an extended holiday mooching around Europe in a family size convertible became more realistic, so I looked around for another XJC victim, landing on a Fern Grey car with a leaking Webasto sunroof, shiny paint with bubbling filler, and radius arm posts which had been re welded so badly that the wheelbase was different right to left. Decent survivors were already commanding good money, this one was cheap and had the dubious advantage of bolt on chrome wire wheels.

This time I knew what I was doing;- before cutting anything, I temporarily welded triangulated 1" x 1" box section reinforcing frames across the door apertures.
I removed the inner and outer sills completely, replacing the inners with 16swg right angle "Z" sections, the lower part seam welded to (1) the trimmed back floor pan, (2) foot well boxes, (3) front seat cross member, and (4) rear seat pan, the vertical to items 2, 3, 4. The upper horizontal to item 2, the lower part of the A and B posts all extending from front to rear arches, closing plates front and rear, gussets to stiffen the A and B posts with a further front to rear section (making a box of triangular cross section) welded to the upper horizontal and vertical of the new inner sill, the closing plates and gussets.
A 1.5" square hoop welded inside the A posts, crossed the car behind the dash, just below scuttle level.
Where the roof was cut approximately 2" behind the screen, the stiffener was welded to the remains of the roof, and the cut off screen pillar ends closed off. The rear seat pan was cut open about four inches inboard of the new inner sills, gussets welded in and the pan welded up again. Where the roof had been cut off at the rear wings, the resulting holes filled by plates seam welded in.
Cheap pattern replacement outer sills, also seam welded, returned the exterior appearance of that area to near original, providing additional strength.

More on the way than it looks; driveable if not legal:

After finishing and spraying, I initially made another GRP hardtop which could be broken into 3 sections,and stowed in the boot, and a friend handy with a sewing machine made a tonneau cover for me. Not quite what I wanted, but it did the job of carting us around France and elsewhere for a few weeks and became my daily use car. Returning to the day job, I found a quantity of 2.5 mm steel strip of varying widths in a skip; I had my simple, compact hood frame material which could be easily bent to shape. I used the slightly modified upper seat belt mountings as the pivot point, and the same sewing friend made a single layer cover to fit.

More finished photos: