Fonzie's Series 2 XJ12

A.Fonz

Active Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
291
Location
Broome, Western Australia
Car(s)
1979 Series 2 Jaguar XJ12
Well, it?s not mine yet, but it will be in a week or two,

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It's a Series 2 XJ12, I'm buying it off my mate's dad for $1000. Everything works beautifully, no rust, chrome looks brand new, tires are barely worn, interior is in beautiful nick, all the electrics work, and the engine doesn't skip a beat, although it does chew through the petrol. He pretty much giving it away because he hasn't driven it in ages and he just missed out on renewing the Rego, and he doesn't have the time to do the whole Road worthy thing again. To get road worthy all it should need is some new gearbox seals as there is a leak, and some new front shockies, although I think it might just be the bushes that need renewing.

Sorry bout the crappy phone pics, Will take some better ones when it's actually sitting in the driveway. :)
 
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So what's gonna happen to the XJ40?
 
You'll definitely need all new bushings in the front end. They're forever going out (or slopping around) on those cars unless you upgrade to polyurethane.
 
Looking nice! Is that a vinyl roof i see?

It sure is, it's in great nick too. No cracking.

LeMans GTR said:
So what's gonna happen to the XJ40?

It's still here, I'm still gonna do her up, she's a bit lighter on the petrol too.

Spectre said:
You'll definitely need all new bushings in the front end. They're forever going out (or slopping around) on those cars unless you upgrade to polyurethane.

Cheers mate, I'll look into that. :)

I also forgot to mention that it'll need a respray too, as the paint is starting to fade, and there was a default in the batch of paint that was on the cars coming out of the factories around that time, which has caused a kind of crocodile skin affect to the paint around the boot, hasn't led to any rust though thankfully.
 
What a fantastic car! I absolutely love Jaguars of that vintage. Everything about it looks so cool. I'm extremely jealous!
 
Nice! My old nightfill manager had an old XJ12 like that but his was in mint condition. As i'm sure you can imagine I'm a big fan of cars of that vintage, especially big luxury cars.:thumbup: Some day we should race 'em! :lol:

If you do get it repainted are you going to remove that pointless, ghastly abomination of an exercise in tastelessness from the roof? :yucky: Pleaseohplease say yes.:cry:
 
Gah- Damn you!
What a beautiful car! And for a 1K, it's a steal! Although, that is the pre-H.E engine...

27L/100km in traffic. Ouch.

On the flip side, it will go well. Spectre/Fonzie, any ideas on rated power of the V12 in this incarnation?
 
Nice! Should be great!

I was looking on carsales a bit ago, I was thinking I could really go for a SIII XJ12 with the pepperpot alloy wheels! <3

You MUST record a video of the engine singing!
 
best deal of the yeaR!!!! who cares about gas!!! great car!!!
 
Just picked it up about an hour ago, bloody hell it's beautiful. Unfortunately it's doing something that hasn't happened very often lately, it's raining. So I can't get pictures right now, but I'll try later on this arvo if it starts to clear. :)


If you do get it repainted are you going to remove that pointless, ghastly abomination of an exercise in tastelessness from the roof? :yucky: Pleaseohplease say yes.:cry:

I don't know, I quite like the vinyl roof, it looks real good with the British racing green. The respray isn't really on the top of my list of priorities at the moment, so I'll decide when I get there.

Dsemaj said:
You MUST record a video of the engine singing!

Haha, can do, Although it is extremely quiet, you can barely tell it's running inside. Which means I think it is need of a sports exhaust, just so people know it's a 12 :p
 
Cheap fix for the "too quiet" problem - remove the two mufflers ahead of the rear axles and replace with straight pipes. The rear mufflers (actually, resonators) will quiet it down enough to keep it street legal, but will let you hear the engine when you get on the throttle.

And you'll get 10-15hp back.
 
What do you think the power would be as is?
 
What do you think the power would be as is?

Stock horsepower was rated at 265 I think. It'll do 0-60mph in 8.5 secs, not bad considering it weighs around 3,950-4,300 pounds.

Anyways, I finally got around to taking some pics and a video, Although I'm not very good at using a camera :D

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What would a Jaguar photoshoot be without the leaper shots,

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Now just give me a sec while I figure out how to upload this video. :)
 
That engine bay looks terrifying, like an airport terminal under construction. :blink:
 
Are those stone chippings around the headlights or just dirtspecks? And the engine bay doesn't look very mechanic-friendly, i would always be worried that i would have a few parts left over after doing something, and not knowing where they should belong.
 
Are those stone chippings around the headlights or just dirtspecks? And the engine bay doesn't look very mechanic-friendly, i would always be worried that i would have a few parts left over after doing something, and not knowing where they should belong.

The're stone chips, like I said it will need a respray :) . Haha, that engine bay is the home of skinned nuckles.

Anyways here's the video

[YOUTUBE]q8ENvAcTpBA[/YOUTUBE]

Hmm it's not working, anyone know why, it says it can't be broadcast to the public, sorry I've never used youtube before
 
That engine bay looks terrifying, like an airport terminal under construction. :blink:

Are those stone chippings around the headlights or just dirtspecks? And the engine bay doesn't look very mechanic-friendly, i would always be worried that i would have a few parts left over after doing something, and not knowing where they should belong.

Yeah, the EFI 5.3L V12's are pretty intimidating looking.

But they're easier to understand than their contemporaries - either Mercedes or US Domestics - because the nice thing about the EFI V12 is that it *doesn't* have 30 meters of vacuum hose in the engine bay (which cracks, falls off, or disappears, leaving you to figure out just what the heck went wrong in 30+ meters of vacuum tubing). If memory serves, the EFI V12 only *has* four vacuum lines.

Something else you all need to know - the top of the engine looks busy because Jaguar *knew* that you can't really get to the sides of the engine in either the XJ sedan or the XJS (though the E-type guys laugh at us when we complain about air filter access). And they knew that if you had to dismantle the engine every time you needed a spark plug change, you'd be unlikely to ever want to buy another - so they put EVERYTHING that would need to be changed for ignition or fuel up top in the Vee or up front. The spark plugs, distributor, fuel injectors, rails, throttle pedestal (it has two throttle bodies) and AC compressor are all up top in the vee. They're actually not that difficult to get out for service, it just looks like a rats nest under there. And Jaguar has some *incredibly* well written documentation for these cars, so while they're not as easy to fix as, say, a Corolla, or even the six cylinder Jags, I'd much rather tackle one of these, than, say, a W123 Benz with the big gas engines.

Fonzie - you need to change the video from "private" to "public" in your uploaded vids section. You also need to go pester the Jaguar-Daimler Historic Trust or your local main dealer for the repair/service/parts/owner's manuals on CD for the car (no more than ten pounds sterling) before the rumored closure/sale of Jaguar. The part numbers *you* need are: JHM1142 and JHM1144. That's the repair manuals and the supplementary manuals (such as the *real* electrical diagrams) respectively.
 
Fonzie - you need to change the video from "private" to "public" in your uploaded vids section.

Hmm I've tried that, but it still isn't working :? does it matter what format the video is?

You also need to go pester the Jaguar-Daimler Historic Trust or your local main dealer for the repair/service/parts/owner's manuals on CD for the car (no more than ten pounds sterling) before the rumored closure/sale of Jaguar. The part numbers *you* need are: JHM1142 and JHM1144. That's the repair manuals and the supplementary manuals (such as the *real* electrical diagrams) respectively.

The fella I baught it off included the haynes workshop manual, which includes good electrical diagrams, but I've been meaning to join the Jaguar Car Club of Australia for a while now, So hopefully me and the old man will be able to get to the next meet, and get some info on that cd, amongst other things. :)
 
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