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Latest News.........
 
January 2010, not much to report really, the car is safely tucked away in the garage awaitng the spring. I am hoping to get the car taxed and MOTed in March as I would like to take it to some car shows this year.  The paintwork is still looking good after the respray but there a couple of rust bubbles on the bonnet and bootlid which will have to be addressed.  I also bought what is claimed to be a Trilby Hat that was actually owned by George Cole and used in the series.  I dont know for sure if that is true but I have studied my DVDs and it is identical to the one in series 6 and 7 and anyway it looks good on the parcel shelf of the Jag!

25/01/2005, Purchase and inspection of car.
01/07/2005, Website now active.
07/07/2005, Stripped bulkhead area.
13/07/2005, '93 spares car purchased.
15/07/2005, Spares car stripped.
17/07/2005, Bonnet and engine ancillaries
                 removed.
19/07/2005, Frontend now stripped, found lots
                 of filler and GRP/mesh, not good.
20/07/2005, Donor doors from later car
                 fitted but need rewireing, not
                 good! Driver's sill made of filler,
                 NOT GOOD AT ALL!!!
21/07/2005, Stripped Boot, and removed
                 rear seat.  Boot floor, rear panel
                 and drivers footwell rusty.
23/07/2005, Cut coroded sills from each side,
                 and treated inner sill surface rust
                 with jenolite.  Stripped rest of
                 interior and dry stored.
24/07/2005, Removed bootlid for better access
                 and started grinding away rust and
                 loose metal from boot floor and floor-
                 pan. areas treated with jenolite.
28/07/2005, Painted underseal onto solid rear
                 wheelarches and the underside of
                 the car except areas that require work.
29/07/2005, Donor doors removed and put to one
                 side.  Wiring '93 doors to a '87 car is not
                 possible...I gave up!  Door shut areas
                 cleaned and found to be in good shape.
                 A rare victory in the battle of rust!!!
01/08/2005, Under front of car I found crossmember
                 to have only superficial rust so cleaned
                 up with wire brush and hammerite.
                 Started making repair panels for A posts
                 using rotted originals as template.
02/08/2005, Removed windscreen and set about the A
                 posts. All rust cut out and inner A post
                 has only surface rust, treated.
                 Cut rust from inner front wheelarches.
04/08/2005, Bought a MIG welder and now the fun
                 begins!!! Better get some practice as I
                 haven't welded since I was an apprentice.
10/08/2005, Started welding new plates into the boot
                 floor and floorpan, quite happy with the
                 result.
11/08/2005, Trial fitted new sills and held in place with
                 grips. Very good fit but took some time as
                 they are pattern parts.  Ground welds of f
                 boot and floorpan and undersealed area.
12/08/2005, Purchased 4 good second hand doors
                 from an '88 car in a local breaker.
13/08/2005, Bit the bullet and welded the sills into
                 place. ground the welds and primed with
                 weld-through etch primer.
21/08/2005, Welded A post repair sectons in.
22/08/2005, Fitted new doors, and wiring!  took alot
                 of time on the panel gaps and as they are
                 silver it looks a whole lot more like a Jag.
26/08/2005, Welded repair panel into inner wing and
                 undersealed wheelarches and inner A pillars.
27/08/2005, Fitted new O/S front wing and the repaired
                 N/S front wing. Panel gaps are ok.
28/08/2005, New bonnet fitted but wings needed
                 adjustment to even up gaps. Now aside from
                 patches of primer and a red O/S wing I have a
                 solid shell!!!!!! and mostly silver.  This is a
                 turning point for me as the work is starting to
                 pay off.
29/08/2005, Started attacking and treating surface rust on
                 rear wheelarch lips, rear quarters and
                 windscreen surround.
18/09/2005, Back to it after a holiday. rubbed back the
                 surface rust repairs and filled with metal
                 enhanced filler.  Refitted bootlid.
21/09/2005, Filler repairs smoothed, skimmed again
                 with filler rubbed back and primed. 
                 Started detail repairs on weld marks on
                 the A posts and sills.
22/09/2005, Removed rear screen rubber and treated
                 slight rust bubbles around rear screen.  
                 Skimmed welds with filler. Rubbed down
                 and primed O/S wing.
27/09/2005, Rubbed down last of filler and used 
                 stopper paste on all filled repairs to get
                 rid of imperfections, flatted with 1200 grade
                 we and dry paper.
05/10/2005, Have decided not to respray until next spring.
                 Striped front brakes and replaced discs and
                 pads. Fitted battery and it started first time!!
08/10/2005, Striped down and re-assembled bumpers.
                 rear one is off the '93 spares car and in good
                 cond.  Original front one is solid and the
                 chrome came up to an acceptable level with
                 autosol polish. Although not immaculate it
                 is worth retaining the rare original.
                 Cleaned up headlights and mountings but
                 will source some '90 spec Sovereign chrome
                 rear lamps.
17/10/2005, Spent the day in the shed cleaning and
                 polishing chrome trim, purchased windscreen
                 bonding adhesive and will wait for a fine day to
                 fit.
28/10/2005, Fitted windscreen but will leave new rubbers
                 until the shell is resprayed. 
30/10/2005, Checked windscreen for leaks and trimmed
                 trimmed excess adhesive.
10/11/2005, Have now got all parts to complete from my
                 list,  the correct door mirrors for the '86 and
                 '87 models arrived today.
26/11/2005, Had an email from a TV researcher and they
                 want to have my car on set in a documentary
                 about Minder!  Problem is that its being filmed
                 on the 13th of December.
29/11/2005, Have decide to try to get the car presentable
                 for the documentary.....I think that I stand a
                 50/50 chance!!!!
01/12/2005, Managed to get most of the car in my work-
                 shop and started rubbing down the entire
                 body work with 1000 grade we and dry to
                 key the surface.  Degreased the car and
                 masked it up ready for primer.
02/12/2005, Soaked  the workshop floor and dusted the
                 body.  Sprayed 2 coats of primer.  Started
                 Getting all the interior from the attic and
                 cleaned it all up.
07/12/2005, Flatted the primer coat and degreased
                 the body.  Re-masked and sprayed the
                 first coat of Talisman Silver over the roof.
                 the transformation was amazing as I worked
                 downwards.  While the paint was still wet
                 it gave me a taste of the finish I wanted. As
                 it dried I was reasonably happy with the result
                 and gave another coat on top.  Was 2am by the
                 time I finished!!
08/12/2005, I opened the garage door and couldn't stop
                 smiling :)  It looked so good, I then flatted the
                 car with wet 1800 grade emery and degreased
                 again and masked up again.  I then gave it two
                 coats of laquer and left as I didnt want to ruin
                 my work.
09/12/2005, Yet again I have started with a smile....it looks
                 so good!  Then things started going wrong :(
                 The finish is very good, I cant complain as I was
                 expecting to pay around £1000 for a good re
                 spray and this one cost less than £60 but my
                 masking has let me down.  Talisman Silver
                 paint is on window rubbers, engine parts
                 and there is a rough spray through effect in door
                 shuts etc.  Anyway its too late now and I set to
                 refitting bumpers, lights and brightwork.
10/12/2005, I started re-fitting the interior today,  starting
                 with the new carpets and then centre console.
                 I made new door condensation seals and re-
                 fitted the door trims.  In next went the seats but
                 the passenger seat has been creased while
                 being stored.  Apart from this it was painless
                 and transformed the car.  Fitted the new screen
                 rubbers and bright trim.
11/12/2005, It was bloody cold today but I still cracked on.
                 The interior looks better now and I fitted the              
                 new walnut veneer trim which came from the
                 '93 car and it makes a Jag a Jag in my opinion.
                 Took the wheels off and change the two scabby
                 ones for better ones and cleaned them all up.
12/12/2005, Have left the polishing as long as I could to let
                 the paint harden and although there are a 
                 couple of "orange peel" bits the car looks
                 great.  Went to pick up the trailer to take the
                 car for the film shoot tomorrow and finished
                 cleaning it up.
13/12/2005, Took the car to the film shoot in Bristol and 
                 this will be reported fully in a new section of
                 the website.
14/12/2005, Went to unload the Jag today and the clutch 
                 had no pressure., bugger!!!  Further invest-
                 igation lead me to a failed slave cylinder.         

10feb2.jpg

Summer 2006:
 
My methodical logging of what day and date work was done
unfortunately went out of the window!  However during
the summer of 2006 the Jag was languishing in my
workshop awaiting what i thought was a clutch overhaul
but as it was under cover i thought I would carry carry out
a better respray as to be honest my rushed job last year was
starting to look a little sad, filler was reacting and causing
several "bubbles" in the paint on the front wing and rear
doors and the careless overspray was really starting to bug
me.
Around this time jno from the minder.org forum asked if
the car would be finished in time for his wedding next year.
After some consideration I decided that it would be possible
and set about the paintwork.
I bought a new D.A. Sander and started ripping through the
paint and filler.  I was very pleased that most of the groundwork
had been done previously because rust was no longer a big
issue.  With the filler sanded back to bare metal and thoughly
de-greased I gave the panels a fresh "skim" of filler.  After
sanding, re-filling and further sanding I was left with a very sat-
isfactory finish and gave the panels 3 coats of red oxide primer.
I used red oxide as it was a complete contrast to the silver and
it made picking out imperfections alot easier.
Due to work and family commitments that was about all that was
done to the car in 2006 and if i am honest I had started to tire of
the project and was looking for inspiration!
 
February 2007
Inspiration came in the form of jno from minder.org.  He came to
visit and we discussed the forthcomming wedding and the yellow
Daimler from Minder that was on ebay at the time.  He was eager
to buy it and we talked over the pros and cons of owning such a
car and he decided not to but he asked if he could still have my
Minder Jag as a wedding car.
About a week later I started rubbing the car down in preparation
for respray number 2!!!!
As I had already spent alot of money on the project and the fact
that I am a tight arse I had the choice of spending over £1000 on
a respray or conquer my demons and do it myself. Unsuprisingly
I chose option 2 as time was on my side and I didn't have to rush.
I ordered several litres of Talisman Silver from a local motor
factor,  built a make shift spray booth in the workshop using
batton and stapled polythene sheet to it to form a "sterile" area
in which to paint and hired a space heater.
I stripped the car of all brightwork, lights and trim and carefully
masked the car up using masking paper and not newspapers this
time. After a final rub down I was happy with my preparation and
wiped the car over with panel wipe to avoid any reaction with old
paint. I started with the roof and worked downwards with 2 coats of
white primer.
After these coats dried I wet flatted the primer coat with very fine
emery paper and proceeded with 4 coats of talisman silver followed
by a couple of laquer coats and the results were fabulous in my
opinion.
 
April 2007
 
With my new found enthusiasm for the project I focused on the
mechanics, something I am alot more confident with.  Since buying
the car I have only driven it a couple of hundred yards because of
the clutch failure so this was top of my list.  Upon inspection I thought
the slave or master cylinder had failed as there was no take up in any
gear but the hydraulics were actually in good order and the plate 
was moving in the correct manner.  Unfortunatly I finally found the
problem to be a broken shaft in the gearbox.
This posed a problem, being a manual spares are hard to come by
and reconditioned getrag 'boxes are alot of money so I decided to
fit the automatic gearbox from the donor car.  Mechanically this job
was straight forward as I just replaced one componant with another.
The flywheel, pedal box and brake hydralics were changed but the
main problem was the electrics but being a Jaguar the wiring looms
were luckily in place. After fitment of the gear quadrant, ecu and
some transmission fluid the car drove out of the workshop with the
added bonus of the brakes having some feel which they never had
before.  I thourghly serviced the engine next and fitted new brake
discs and pads all round.  
 
Summer 2007:
 
A friend in the trade kindly offered to recondition the original
manual gearbox for cost so the car could be put back to its
original spec at a later date which is a very good thing as it would
be a shame to spoil the originality of such a car.  I managed to
get the remaining pieces of trim fitted to the car and it really looked
good.  I totally polished the car and brightwork one summer's
afternoon and took some photos however I brushed the workshop
door on the way back in and twisted the rear bumper and put a tiny
dent in the rear quarter panel :(
I had a phone call from jno in June to confirm that the car would
be ready for the wedding the next month and I casualy assured
him as all the hard work was done but boy was I wrong!
In the weeks leading upto the wedding I cleaned, polished, shined,
scrubbed and restored every part of the car inside and out to an
original shine but the wheels and freshly bent rear bumper were
the only problems.  So I scoured ebay for the parts needed and found
a set of original teardrop alloy wheels with new tyres locally for only
£200, a total bargain in my opinion as the tyres were £80 each from
a supplier.  The bumper was hard to find as they are notorious for
getting bashed so I did the obvious thing and bought a whole car, a
1990 4.0 Sovereign, a baby with 240,000 miles and a full 10 days
MOT.  This ebay bargain donated its immaculate rear bumper and
perfect walnut veneer trim.  The car now looked great and with 10
days till the wedding I took it for an MOT. 
 
Black Wednesday 11 July 2007:
 
The MOT didnt go as well as it could.  It failed on the handbrake,
numberplate lights, slight blow from exhaust and most worryingly
structural corrosion on the inner passenger side sill and around the
rear suspension mount.  I sorted the handbrake and lights that day
and pinched the exhaust off the '90 sovereign the day after but
the rust had come back to haunt me.
The next couple of days involved dropping the rear suspension
and cutting out the effected metal.  This really was depressing as
I had done much of this work before 2 years ago but being an old
Jag the rust had re-appeared.  The carpets and half of the interior
was removed and after grinding me and my friend Tom made repair
panels and welded them in.  The area around the rear suspension
was the most challenging as it is a very awkward shape but with 3
days till the wedding it was finished and passed its MOT.
The next couple of days involved more cleaning and I fitted a new
coachline which really sets it off.
 
October 2007:
 
The wedding was a fantastic day and the car didn't miss a beat!
In all I covered around 200 miles and the car returned a very
reasonable 26 MPG.  Everything works as it should and it drives
extremly well but the original whine from the rear has started to
get alot louder.
I would say that the car is now 95% finished and I am very happy
with what i have achieved and the car I have ended up with.
 
I am fussy when it comes to this car as it has been a long and
involved project that has cost much more than I had originally
planned and taken up much more time than I antisipated.  So
My final list of jobs to do are........
 
Repair the small dent in the rear quarter panel.
 
Repair a small rust bubble on the bootlid.
 
Repair a small rust bubble on the A pillar.
 
Overhaul the whinning diff.
 
Refit the original gearbox.
 
Sourse a set of Isis blue door cards.
 

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