Re: Introduction to Nick

["Ryan Border" <border@best.com>]

Hello Sheldon,
  I thought I'd kick in my thoughts on the 420G you're looking at.  I guess
my advice is to foget about the purchase price of the car for a moment.  
By the time you have this thing put together, shaped up, and running- 
$1600US is going to be a tiny drop in the bucket.
  You can get Jaguar engines pretty cheap- I bought one from a guy who was
putting a 350 chevy into his XJ6.  Scanning the papers I see them selling
(with tranny's) for $500->$1000 every couple of months.  I don't know
how common they are where you are (where is "tt" anyway?).  But, then 
you have to rebuild it; and the general rule is that it takes about $2500 
to put one of these motors back in shape.  Let's just assume you can 
find a tranny that's good to go with it.
  Then there's bodywork.  What you describe sounds pretty rough (holes in
the floor, etc.).  I'm assuming you'd have to have somebody do the bodywork
for you... in which case I'll toss out a figure of $2500 to get the rust
repaired, and the body prepped for paint.  The %99 rust free doors is a 
concern.  The rust mode for these doors is that the drain holes at the 
bottom get clogged with dirt and leaves, and then standing water is 
trapped.  The doors rust from the inside out, and if you see it, it has
come all the way through the metal and is bad.  When this happens, the 
skins need to be replaced or repaired, and the bottom plate (where the 
drain holes are) also needs attention.  Is the rust on the bottom corners 
of the skins?  Have they swelled too?  That $2500 figure would be with 
you doing quite a bit of the grunt work (removing trim, 
interior pieces, and such).  Then there's paint...  where you can spend 
exactly what you want: from $50 backyard jobsto multi-thousands of 
dollars for super nice, hand-rubbed-between-coats, custom
paintwork.  As a reference point- my MK1 cost me about $2500 in bodywork,
$1000 for paint- and I did all the work.  I don't think it was as rough as
what you describe, and it is a MUCH smaller car than a 420G.
  Figure $500 or so getting the brakes in shape- you doing all the work;
*if* the servo is good.  If not, add another $250 or so.
  Then there's the interior- you describe worn leather, missing parts, etc.
Again, the 420G is a big car, and there aren't that many of them- so parts 
aren't as easy to find.  I'm guessing an interior kit would run in the 
neighborhood of $2500 to $3000.  Not including any woodwork.  With 
patience, you might be able to do the wood yourself.
  What's your time worth?   This car will either consume a lot of it- or
your bank account.  My neighbor tells me that if I bought my car to work 
on it- then I've really gotten my money's worth :-).   He's right in a
sense-  part of what I bought the car for was to have fun restoring 
it, and so the time I've spent working on it has (for the most part) 
been a fun hobby; not a job I *have* to go do.  This may or may not 
be the case for you.

  All I'm saying is that from what you describe, the $1600 up front isn't
what you should be mulling over.  If the guy offered to *give* you the car-
would you want it?   With a big picture perspective, he *is* basically 
giving you the car.

I paid $1,700 for my car.  Cheap, right?  At the last tally, I had a little
over $20,000 into it.  With 20/20 hindsight, I could probably save $5K 
or so from that figure- by not doing things twice, not paying for things 
I should have done myself, and not trying to keep the car driving *as* I
was restoring it.  Like you, I wasn't a mechanic when I started, and
just figured out things (by necessity) as I went along.  

I'm not saying don't buy- I'm just saying think hard about it.   The 420G
isn't the most collectable Jaguar- and I'm guessing is one of the hardest 
to restore. Are you sure this is the car you want to invest your time and 
money into?  


Good luck-
Ryan Border   border@best.com / rborder@cup.hp.com / webmaster@jags.org
http://www.best.com/~border/pages/jag
----------
About a year ago I was driving in an area not too far from where I live and
I saw a old Jaguar car parked on a hill. The car didn't attract my
attention because it was old and weather beaten and because of my
impression of Jaguars (mentioned above).
A couple of months back, after checking JagWeb, I decided to see what model
Jaguar that particular car was. It turned out to be a 420G.

The car was parked outside and weather beaten for about 10 years (that's
where I saw it - it's parked at a mechanic's place, the guy is a general
mechanic, not a Jaguar mechanic). The car was originally brought there by
the owner to overhaul the engine.

There is no engine and transmission in the car. It seems that the engine
was sent to a machine shop to re-bore the cylinders but when completed, the
owner was unable to pay for the job, thus the engine was left at the
machine shop (that was about 10 years ago). The owner it appears,
subsequently left the car at the mechanic's place and asked him to see if
he could get a sale for the car.

The car seems to still be solid. On inspection of the car, I observed that
it is in good condition considering the harsh treatment it has undergone.
The roof of the car has flaked paint and as a result there is some surface
rust where that happened. The flooring of the car is rusted with holes at
various places. The car seems to have never been in a serious accident.
Both front doors can open and close quite easily and are about 98% rust
free. The door upholstery of the front doors is missing. The rear doors
were not opening and are in about the same condition as the front doors (it
seems as though they were locked, but I didn't know how to open them). The
seats are in good condition (still soft and quite comfortable actually -
though dirty). The dashboard wood is faded and at some parts have actually
fallen off. The centre console where the power window controls reside is
present but not secured properly, and the control switches seem as though
they may work. The instrument panel seems to be good and may actually work.
The hood/bonnet hinges are not functional. The trunk has very little rust.
A few chrome strips are either broken or missing from the doors and hood
etc.

The car still has its suspension. I am not sure of its condition however.

The asking price is TT$10,000.00 which converts to approximately
US$1600.00. I find this price is quite expensive, but then I don't have an
idea of the value of a car like this. I also suspect that the mechanic is
trying to get some money for the time that the car was parked there and
probably for what money he may have imagined to have lost because the owner
could not pay to complete the job.

Yours Sincerely,
Sheldon Hinds

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