Well, the day finaly came when the car was shipped - after waiting a very long time-
The transporter was supposed to arrive with my 99.98 car by noon and here it was 9 pm and he still didn't arrive.well, 10:30 and he's almost here.
I was a bit worried when I saw the truck pull up as it ...let's just say not like a truck I would want my car being transported in, and certainly not like the truck described to me.
The driver decided to unload the car on a dark street near my home on a curve with no cones put up or any warning devices at all, so here I am in the darkness trying to wave oncoming traffic around the truck and around me- now I know what a bull fighter must feel like avoiding the oncoming bull...well, lot's more bull to come...
The car was started after several attempts and coughs and sputtering. The transporter is backing out of the truck and I see no reverse lights and no right tail or headlight working. I get in the car to drive it inot the garage around the corner and to my surprise, no gas pedal.
As it coughs stalls and I have to get a jump start to get in tjhe garage i finally park it and take a look around. Pieces of interior trim coming unglued and falling off, power windows die as I try them, power door locks don't work....let me go out and admire the paint and body I figure.....oh well, so much for admiration. Scratches, deep ones all over the car- on the roof, trunk, hood, doors........chrome molding is oxidized, trunk opens like a barn door, and oh yes, the spoiler dented and rusting.....and the car doesn't run.
Went to bed and tried to sleep, first thing in the a.m. I called the local mechanic for a jump and ride to his shop.
The car started up after nearly 15 minutes of fiddling and ah I would finally enjoy driving her, if only to the shop. The brakes, oh my - what brakes??? The brake pedal went all the way to the ground , the car pulled to the right, and the sputtering of the engine was drown out by some squealing noises- nope didn't run over any pigs....
Well, I gave the car back and lost $4000 on the deal and lots of emotional sanity- whatever i had left.
...anyone need a NOS right side view mirror?
Just wanted to say thank you to all you JCNA members who answered my questions and made the wait more enjoyable than the car.
SFJC
1976 XJ12L
BRG/Biscuit
Submitted by jessn@bellsouth.net on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 14:57
Harold,
The 1976 XJ12L that is listed as "dead" in my sig was bought by my father in me in 1987, not running. My joke ever since has been that if you ever buy a Jaguar "not running," they tend to stay that way. (g)
Our car never really did run. We got rid of it in 2000 and we'd put almost 350 miles on it in 14 years. The motor was solid, but the fuel system was complete trash (by far the worst malady the car had), the trans was going out and the interior of yours sounds identical to the interior of ours.
What finally killed it, though, was rust-through in the floor pan. We had bodywork fixed twice and would have kept fiddling with the fuel system, but when the passenger's side floor rusted through the third time we cut our losses.
We paid $4,000 for the car when we got it, easily put another $4k-$6k in it, and got nothing on the back end. To be honest, I'm surprised at myself that I ever went back to the marque.
But the reason I did was my experience with restoring old Mitsubishi Starions. I have two of them. One of them, a 1987, I bought at 90k miles. The car had been ticketed for a trip to the junkyard. The other, a 1988, I got at 110k miles. It had been abandoned on the side of Interstate 59 near Gadsden, Ala., and I found it by accident.
In the years since, I've restored the '87, and it now has about 193k miles.. I've entered it in car shows, driven it in rallies and I proposed to my wife in it. The '88 now has almost 170k. It, too, is restored, and has become one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned. And believe me, Mitusbishi Starions and Jaguars are not much different from one another. They both have reputations for refinement and performance...as well as mechanical insanity. And restoring a Starion was just about as expensive for me as fixing up the 198 XJS V12 that I owned a few years ago.
The bottom line is that as long as the car isn't about to rust away on you, everything you just listed can be fixed, and your car can be reliable. I laughed about your missing gas pedal -- ours didn't have one, either. Just remember that mechanically, a car is a car is a car. There's no magic in making them work, just good science and elbow grease.
Don't give up on her yet.
Jess
1963 XKE (sold)
1976 XJ12L (dead)
1988 XJS (sold)
1999 XJ8