New blog for Old Car

 I've owned this car since 1980.  But I've never created a blog for it until now.  Of course, in 1980 no one even knew what a blog was!

So let's start with some history.  I bought the car locally with some rust on the rockers and rear wheel arches plus an engine that would turn over but not run.  Sold a perfectly good ski boat to buy this non functional car!  But it was an awesome looking car with only 44.653 miles on it.

First key finding was poor compression, turns out the valves were bent due to over revving the engine, "floating" the valves which then smacked the pistons.  Not good.  Removed head, had it rebuilt by Central Machine, and re-installed.

Next issue was  poor oil pressure.  Prior owners had skipped a few oil changes.  Result was scored main and rod bearings.  So pulled engine and had crankshaft turned with new bearings by Central Machine.  Car had such low mileage we did not have to replace the pistons, just new rings.

Also put in new clutch and rebuilt brakes and carbs.  Now I had a nice running classic Jaguar!

Then talked Sermerschiem's Corvette shop into doing the bodywork.  They removed the cracked black paint that had been sprayed on over the original white paint, repaired rusty panels, and now I had a nice running and good looking classic Jaguar!  This was all completed by 1981.

Here's a picture of my maintenance log showing key dates and projects implemented:

I've been driving the car 10 miles once per month for over 30 years.  It moved to Michigan and back with us.  In October 2019 it finally turned over 50,000 miles:

So now we come to 2020.  Finally decided I needed to do something about the 55 year old leather seats, which were falling apart:

Took seats to Muncie Classics, which is also known as Original Jaguar Specification Interiors (OJSI).  They did an awesome job rebuilding the seats:

But now the rest of the car looked kinda sad.  Time for a good washing, power wash wire wheels, treat tires, and clean interior.  

I then bought new rubber for around lights and bumpers.  This involves removal of those lovely covered headlights:

Then my friend Ray and I buffed out the paint and applied wax.  The 38 year old paint job is definitely not perfect, and I wish some spray repairs done about 15 years ago matched better.  But still, this is a mighty fine looking car:

This picture is me in front of the open bonnet with my reflection in the newly buffed out paint:

I've still got a leaky clutch master cylinder to replace (took a year to drain reservoir).  Always something.  But I've owned this car longer than any other. Matter of fact, this car has been in my life longer than my wife and longer than my work career.  Kind of exciting to see it get cleaned up!