1959 Jaguar Saloon

Here you will find information on my 1959 MK1. I've owned this car since March 1993. My wife and I bought the car pretty much on a whim; finding it at a park'n'sell lot in Northern California while shopping for a pick-up truck. The initial plan was to fix a couple of things up, and then use it as a semi-daily driver. This is my first Jaguar, and the first car I've ever tried to do any restoration work on.

One thing lead to another, and we ended up doing a total rebuild, with some substantial upgrades. One of the first things I did was overhaul the suspension, and convert the car to right hand drive. I ended up buying a parts car to get a new rear axle out of, which proved to be a good decision given some of the problems I started to encounter. A broken neck put a halt to the restoration for a while, but before too long I was back working on the car, installing a 4.2L engine. Soon after the motor was sorted out, the body work was completed, and the car was resprayed. After paintwork, a new light tan leather interior was fitted. The last major work done was the fitment of wire wheels, which forced another front suspension rebuild.

Of course, you will find a few pictures here too, and I think you'll agree that the MK1 is one of the prettiest Saloons Jaguar ever built. These cars are very close to their MK2 offspring, but with a few cosmetic quirks which definitely identify the car as a product of the 1950's rather than the 1960's.

Someday I'll probably put a 5-speed into the car, and maybe rack and pinion steering. But for now, I'm just enjoying the fruits of my labor, and try to drive the car at least once a week... though I now live in Colorado, and the car will probably be given a good rest in the winters here.

Enjoy-
Ryan Border.

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