This is a great example of a 1989 Jaguar XJS convertible with the famous 5.3L V-12. I purchased this vehicle from an E-bay auction. It was a great dealer at only $6000.00. The second owner was retiring and wanted a golf cart in the garage rather than an extra car. The car was generally in well cared for condition. At the close of the auction I traveled from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to inspect and complete the sell of the auction. I was skeptical of the condition and quality of this great deal (as anyone would be). Upon arriving the owner pulled the car from the garage and I inspected the car. The interior was in very nice shape and had only a few small flaws. The outside cord on the driver's seat was coming apart, as most tend to do because of the entry and exit manures required for a tight cockpit. The headliner had begun to sag but was still in place and not torn. The only other flaw was the wood grain on the center console. Most Jaguars suffer the problem of delaminating and splitting of the veneer from the steel substrate just as this one had on the center console. Following the inspection I took the car for a test drive. The AC was not functional and the cruise also was inoperable. I felt these were not that important because it's a convertible that would not be traveling long distances so the need for A/C or cruise was not great. Handling and control were good, but the power seemed a bit disappointing. All in all, the car appeared worth the dough. I paid the gentleman and loaded the car onto the trailer. After returning to Las Vegas I drove the car for a while on nice sunny days, of course with the top down. After a few months I decided to check the reasoning for the lack of power. I began to look under the hood and found that my mechanical skills were not up to working on the extensive electronics and wiring under this hood. most of my experience is with 50s-60s era cars without fuel injections and a billion sensors. So, off to a local jaguar shop where they completed diagnostic testing. It was hard to believe but this car was running on only 6 cylinders. The 89 V-12 jaguars has two coils with twin contacts within the distributor, and one of the coil inputs had melted the cap and was not firing ($400.00 tune-up and parts). Other than the lack of power the car ran as smooth as you can imagine. With the problem repaired the car ran even smoother and the power increased, but not what I would have expected for a V-12 that was reported to have 262 hp at the crank. But then you have to consider that this car also tips the scales at 4700 lbs. and also has a 3.00 rear gear to put the power to the ground.

I had planned to leave the interior just the way it was but the driver's side cord on the seat began to become an eye sore. I called Paul's Jaguar in Florida and ordered a new set of seat covers for both seats. Just a little note: Paul's Jaguar carries a great number of products for many Jaguar models both used and new. Paul has been a great life line in the search for parts. I would recommend his services to anyone looking for quality parts. He can be reached at (954) 846-7976, and a mailing address of 4073 N.E. 5th Terr Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334. Paul is one of the last suppliers of original Jaguar leather made by Connolly leather. When they went out of business he purchased the stock that they still had. When the seat covers came in I pulled the seats and the pre-sewn covered fit perfectly. Upon installing them back into the car the rest of the interior had faded to the point that I was not satisfied. Most people would not notice or even care, but I guess you could say that I�m a bit meticulous. So, another call out to Paul, and I began to shipping my interior to him piece by piece. Door panels, center console, arm rests kick panels and any other items that were cover in leather or matching vinyl. At this point the interior was empty so I decided to put a new carpet set in and replace all of the wood on the dash and doors (carpet and interior $5000.00) . After beginning the soft interior components I decide that I should also do the wood that lined the interior. While replacing the wood I found addition wood pieces to add a bit more texture to the interior. The steering wheel, dash gauge surround, radio bezel, key and headlight bezel were all replaced with matching wood grain (total $1200.00). It was something that jaguar should have offered or done originally to the car. Now that the interior was complete I turned my attention to the exterior.
I replaced all of the black rubber bumpers ($1300.00) and had all of the wheels straightened and re-chromed ($1500.00). Then I mounted new Pirelli tres to smooth out the ride. These wheels are not original to this model. These are '95 jaguar wheel. I like there look better so I keep them on the car. The original wheels are 15" honeycomb style while these are 16" The car began to look like it did the many year ago. I drove the car on weekends and any sunny days that the top could be dropped. Coming home late one night the car stalled and would not restart. I had it towed home, and looked through things to see if I could find the culprit. Of course I had no luck so I had it towed to the jaguar specialist. Their diagnostic revealed that the harmonic balancer had delaminated (the two halves are held together by a soft rubber core) and the crank sensor had been struck by the harmonic balancer and also broken. Then the electric nightmare of most of the British car containing Lucus electrics began. The fuel injection harness had become so brittle that large segment of wiring (some areas as much as a foot of more) were exposed and caused the computer to malfunction. This wiring harness is not available in aftermarket or from the dealer. It was luck to find an exceptionally used harness and had it placed ($2400.00 harmonic balance, sensor, and wiring). Once again problem resolved. Several months later I returned to the car after dinner, and I noticed a large puddle under the car. Further checking found the radiator fluid low. I filled the radiator and proceeded home quickly. This time I found something that I thought I could repair. The hot water heater valve had sprung a leak. I purchased a new unit at almost $100.00, and began the arduous task of replacing the valve. I think it might have been easier to requisition 2 added joints in my arm or pull the motor from the bay, but I persisted to complete the job. This task was fraut with complication. The valve is located on the firewall behind and at the level of the lower portion of the intake manifold. After working on it a day here and there it was completed and back on the road.

Shortly there after there arose a smell that is not something that I take lightly. The smell of gas developed and I began to search for the cause. Finally, I found one of the vacuum fuel regulators had begun to leak. Just as always the parts had jaguar written on them and cost in the neighborhood of almost $100.00. After I replace both sides I found that this was not the only leak. The fuel line from the fuel filter in the trunk has also begun to leak under the car. This proved to be more time consuming than anything else, especially when you don't know how the lines run through the body. Once again the car takes to the road after completing the repairs and the problems seem to be at bay. Just before I moved I had the A/C repaired at a cost of $600.00 and then one week before moving the headlights failed. I moved to Virginia and had the car transported in the truck with the furniture. When they unloaded the car I was beside myself to see that they had not tied the car down and also packed things under and around the car. All of the bumpers had to be replace and everybody panel had either paint worn through or chipped. That was not a happy day, but I knew that I would get it fixed again.

The car sat in the garage waiting to be repaired. During that time I came home one day to find that the car had come to life on its own. The radio was playing and the A/C fan was running but the ignition was off and the keys were in the house. I'm not sure what caused that (Christine....comes to mine), but after charging the battery and driving the car around the neighborhood the problem went away. Now all that remains is that the onboard trip computer memory is reset each time the ignition is turned off. After 6 months of arguing with the insurance company and finding a competent restoration shop to do the work the job was once again complete. The car was repainted the original off white, and all the bumpers were again replaced. I took this opportunity to replace the head liner ($400.00), and redo the engine compartment. The paint in the engine bay like most jaguars had begun to turn yellow. The fenders and under hood were stripped and repainted along with the car. The rest of the engine was detailed and cleaned to show the original finish rather than the accumulation of oil and dirt. Also, the dealer installed body protection moldings were removed and the holes filled. I never like the looks of those modeling and was glad to see them go. Then it was time for the pinstripe. I original strip was not exciting so I decided to replace them with my school colors from Virginia Tech orange and maroon ($500.00). It was a good choice and they are not to distracting. After looking for the headlight issue I discovered that the relay had failed once again the parts were jaguar and the relay cost about $130.00. After picking up the car from the shop the radio would not accept the antitheft security code. These are the pictures after all the work has been done and the car detailed. Now that I have done this much I�m determined to fix the remaining issues, the radio, trip computer memory, and cruise. So, the total invested in the car is around $19,630. Not too bad, but reasonable for the over all final condition of this GEM. Let me know what you think.