1971 Jaguar XJ Series 1 AJ6 - This update blows...

I will be following along. Beautiful, beautiful cars.

Best of luck to you, John

Having passed the MOT I celebrated its graduation from paperweight to rolling restoration by getting rid of the Pepperpots and giving it a polish.










Over here the Series Jags are still very popular with banger races, which has proved to be a valuable source of otherwise hard to find parts for an excellent price – including this set of the original Series 1 steel wheels with trim rings and caps, which I painted black to suit the body. I also sourced some missing interior bits and redid the Furflex along the cantrails.





It was put into regular use after that. I straightened up the bent front bumper and fitted the smaller US style plate.






The sagging gearbox mounting spring shown here was replaced, mostly solving some driveline vibrations.




Some longer runs showed that the Jag was a capable car, but that there were some niggles that made it less usable.

1. The steering did not inspire confidence.
2. The three speed BW66 gave the combination of sluggish shifts and high motorway RPMs.
3. A top speed run revealed that a considerable part of its 170 emission-controlled ponies had gone off to pasture over the years.

To solve the vague steering I took a better look at the front suspension. The original anti-roll bar bushings had turned into crumbly lumps of coal, so replacing them with new polyurethane returned some feel.






Whilst I was down there I’d found that the upper wishbone bushings were equally rotten, and the rebound bump stops missing entirely. Replacing them with Superpro PU made all the difference, and it really does feel quite tight around corners now – especially considering its age.






Whilst I was there, I decided to replace the original 3-pot calipers with solid disks for a later XJS set-up with ventilated disks and 4 pot calipers. This also requires the complete uprights of the XJS to be used, including steering arms, spindles, and hubs. A new set of disks, braided hoses, pads, and calipers ensured that the 1680 kilo Jag stops on a dime with excellent feel.




The noisy motorway cruising was a matter of gearing mostly. I’d considered swapping to a manual 4 speed + overdrive box, but after test driving a manual 4.2 I found these boxes to be too expensive to live with the agricultural gearchange. So I turned my eyes to the rear suspension, finding it just as tired as the front. I used this opportunity to switch out the original 3.54 open diff IRS for a complete 3.31 LSD axle from a Series 2 XJ12, which I rebuilt with new disks, pads, rubbers, and control arms. This improved the car quite a bit, although it didn’t quite make it the effortless cruiser I’d wanted it to be.




It was however a perfectly working and usable car. Parked in front of my house I could never resist looking back as I went off to work. It surprised me how much attention it got, from being photographed on the street for bystanders’ Instagram.




To having a young couple I didn’t know ringing my doorbell to ask if they could borrow it for their wedding. Instead of lending it out I took a day off and drove them myself – a very special memory indeed.




And then I decided to poke it with a screwdriver…

What region are you from if I may ask?

I have some fond memories of helping someone on their XJ Jag and the series one is a car I have and will always love!

The car had always been leaky, which I’d always put down to British charm. I knew it was leaking from the front and rear screen surrounds, so being inspired by the great bodywork threads here, a recently acquired workshop space, and a MIG welder I decided to take out the screens. Easy job, right? Buzz up any holes you find, fit some new rubbers, done in a weekend.

This of course was the start of two years of welding. Because what is a Jag restoration without a weldathon?

The screen surrounds were easy enough, after attacking it with the wire wheel of death I could spot the holes and simply remove the offending bits.




Clean out the holes they left and rustproof everything.






And replace the metal with some pieces I’d cut out of a donor. Some expert grinding action to hide beginner level welds and it's good to go.








Some little holes at the window edge of the C-post were dealt with in a similar manner, being made more challenging by the 5mm of factory lead-loading on it.









Then I decided to attack some little rust spots around the rear window channel and filler cap.

Until suddenly the wire wheel erupted in a scirocco of white dust that would make Escobar jealous, leaving this:



Oh dear. No problem. I’ll just have to remove the rear bumper, remove the tank pans, and remove the tanks themselves to make a nice hole.




Which could then be filled with a donor piece. I specifically cut this so the weld would either be hidden inside the boot aperture or straight and away from feature lines.






The right-side rain channel around the bootlid was equally holed, making me suspect a poorly rustproofed previous panel replacement – the left side was completely rust free. This was all replaced with new metal of course.




A similar thing happened when I decided to take the front of the right rear arch back to bare metal, a piece which had looked perfectly factory original.




Now by this time I suspected the previous owner wasn’t Stevie Wonder (as I originally thought, deduced from the eclectic wiring) but might have actually been Michelangelo. Who else could have made such beautifully sculpted bodges out of filler and mesh? Whilst I respect his talent I’m personally a sucker for structural rigidity, so out with the rot:





And in with some lovely new pieces of zinc plated steel. The sill end was holed as well, although the rest of the sill was rust free luckily.














All solid again, shown here before the final cleaning up of the welds.

I inspected a bit of cracked filler below the left taillight and found the master at work again.




A small dent that had 10mm of filler sculpted over to serve as a sponge, rotting out everything beneath it. The bit was removed, a donor piece let in, and welded up again. I took the chance to also remove the holes for the antenna and sidemarkers.







Next up was the lower rear panel, which posed a number of problems. Firstly it housed the LPG filler under the bumper, which required me to twerk to the ground each time I wanted to fill up this thirsty car. Secondly it was adorned with a towbar which due the rest of the panel rotting away had become structural over the years . A bit of aluminium pop-rivetted over it finished this stunning display of craftsmanship.






Removing this panel and tow hitch revealed the inner panel. This received some minor repairs and rustproofing, after which a new panel (sourced from SNG Barratt) was let in.






Now this left me without an LPG filler on a car which uses a lot of fuel. I wasn't going to remount the filler in my fancy new rear panel, so I decided to modify the left filler cap to house the LPG filler. To do so I modified the filler itself, merging it with the LPG filler for a hidden look.






The LPG filler hose was routed through the boot panel, which required a modification of the left boot hinge. Some thicker metal was used to keep the hinge rigid.






I then soldered up a new sender for the tank so the LPG level could be displayed on the original fuel gauge, following the original resistance curve of the Jag fuel sender.







Then it was just a matter of tending to a few rust bubbles on the front of the car, which should of course prove no trouble at all*.

Love how you got the original fuel gauge to work for the lpg.

This is amazing. You are SO casual about the work done here. I'm not fooled though, :-)

A Gentlemans express saved, great job. Now hurry up with page 2.

The painter did an extremely thorough job and essentially bare-metaled the entire outside, taking care of smaller spots I missed, and sending a lot of pictures along the way.














Including the tidy job he did welding up the sunroof:








Now you might wonder which colour it would be. After all I could pick any colour I wanted, being especially partial to the Jaguar Light Blue shown here on someone else’s car:



But..








I went for the original black. It was originally a black car, which was a rare colour back then despite black being very common on new cars.

And doesn’t it just look lush?


After that it was building the car up again. I won’t bore you with details of fighting with ill-fitting new rubbers and overall alignment woes – there were plenty. Especially the door and window rubbers were absolute pains.

It’s such a deeply fulfilling process though, building up a freshly painted car. It also really showed off the minor custom touches I made to clean up the shape. At the back I’ve deleted the side markers, antenna, some badging and the reflectors below the taillight, plus I fitted the all-red US taillight lenses.




I also added some early straight exhaust tips instead of the original later swan neck tips. These were introduced when Jaguar found out the earlier straight tips could suck exhaust fumes back into the cabin at certain speeds. I’ve driven the car plenty after fitting them and haven’t died once so far, and they look much better so they’re staying for now.




At the front I’ve deleted the sidemarkers as well, removed the aftermarket leaper from the bonnet, removed the side emblems, and switched to Euro-spec headlights and indicator lenses. I added some regrettably cheap bullet mirrors which are mostly useless and already rusting out after a few months.




Later on, I also changed the hub caps from the original full chrome to a set I painted in matching black. I’m happy with how it tones down the big slabs of chrome on the wheels for a more classic look.












Now that’s just the exterior of course. Building up the interior was a whole new adventure, so stay tuned!

That's some very impressive work with an outstanding outcome. I'm not a fan of what you did with the hub caps, but it's not my car!

Thanks all for the great responses!



I haven't quite made my mind up on the hubcaps either so there might be some further experimenting. Losing the rear reflectors is legal, although visibility wise not optimal of course.

I know what you mean with the overriders, I've pondered about them quite a bit. The front do a great jobs hiding the hood hinges, and the underlying bumper has substantial holes for said overriders. I've seen people without them and I do like how clean it looks, but they most likely modded and rechromed their bumper.

Plus the rear doesn't look good without the overriders (did some photoshop explorations), so having them on one end but not the other felt a bit off. Choices, choices..