Hi all my names Scott, long time reader first time poster, lifelong car guy.. I brought this one home a few weeks ago. She's pretty complete just missing the motor and radiator. All and all the car is very solid, no floor pan rust, no rust through on the panels that I've been able to find so far. One dent on the drivers rear bottom quarter and that's about it. Plans include a 5/6 chop, 250 inline six with t-50 Five speed tranny, Jag front and rear suspension/ brakes, frenched, shaved, radiused....lots more but we'll see where it goes. At previous owners house. Finally Home, 150 miles of travel. It was really fun trying to get it on the trailer with no front wheels, It literally took us 3 hours. The previous owner didn't have any keys to the trunk and he didnt have any wheels available and I was far from home... When I got it home I jimmy'd the lock and found the front wheels in the trunk. Talk about pissed. Interior.. When we got this beast home the Wife and I had hell getting the rat piss soaked interior out. My wifes a real trooper, I dont know many women that would put up with that nasty mess. Floor boards Dash, Front Seat all and all the interior is complete and actually in decent shape, the smell of years of rat poop and pee make it un-usable, not to mention a lot of the cars parts were stored inside of it which stained the material with rust and grease. What a shame Front end, it's is missing some stuff, not that I care, for sale very cheap if anyone wants it. Blown Apart. Chassis seperated from the body. Jag XJS Donor. Its a V12 car so it should have the Posi rear. Jag frontend in. Easy swap, I welded it in. I'm gonna make some gussetts so that its in as stout as possible, but for now at least I can roll it. Jag rear end started. So far this has been pretty straight forward. I decided to keep the rearends stock cage, with this car and fender skirts you'll never actually see the rear so in my opinion there was no need to make a crossmember to try to pretty it up. I also like the idea of keeping it rubber mounted. So far I've just got it loosely in place. I'm gonna take a while to think over how I want to mount it up to the frame. I'll take plenty of photos when I do. Any comments or pointers are appreciated!
This goes to show ya there is always a different way to do things!!!!I think ya are on to something!!!!!I would of never thought of a Jag for a donor!!! KOOL!!!!
It's funny we were just talking about doing this in the HAMB chat and then this thread pops up... great work looks good
Hey looks like a great project.I really enjoy my 52 hope you enjoy your build as well.Great start, good ideas.Keep the pics coming as you progress.
looks good! whats the width hub to hub on the front? is it the same or wider? just wondering if it was narrower than using a nova or camaro clip... i did the nova front clip and it was too wide.. so i took it off and started over with a mustang II kit...
Very cool . What year is the jag? And can you give us another pic of the front, the first one is a little dark.
I roughly measured 60" I think the stock was approx 59 1/2" The Jag wheels have a lot of inside offset.
This one is a 90 XJS, Classic, its a V12 car so it should have heavier springs and a posi. Here's some good info on jag setups, years widths ect. http://www.uk-hotrods.co.uk/v2/tech/jag_rear/tech_jag.php I'll get a better pic soon.
Still working on the 52 here are some better pics of the jag stuff and how I mounted it. Looking for a small brake booster so I can get the brakes all lined out. I still have to build some mounts for front sway bar and the rear ends the trailing arms.
This is going to be one cool build. Good to see you're using something different from a sbc. I'll watching this one for sure. Good luck.
Just subscribed, great to see the pics of the jag suspension install. I will keep watching for more updates. Keep up the good work.
They've got those aftermarket ones that are tiny, but you might think about the late 70s corvette ones, pretty small for a firewall application.
Hi Scott, Cool beans, man! I've subscribed to the thread. Your pics are really helping me out. I've got a similar project going ... '90 XJ6 donor for my '50 Chevy sedan. Haven't got past the "scratch yer ass, drink a beer and look at it" stage yet, but I'll be avidly following your build. One question. I was under the assumption (there's that word!) that Jaguar had changed to outboard brakes on the rear in '87. Of course all my reading was on the XJ6 (XJ40). I suppose the XJS series kept the inboard brakes for a while??? Anyway, good luck. I'm anxious to see how things go.
A+ for being creative on this one & another A+ for what looks like nice install job FOOTNOTE: save the Jag information for when you go to purchase parts.
Yeah the XJS' are a breed all their own, from what I've read they stayed the same from the mid 80s to 92... Ugly little car but I'm sure it packed a punch in its day with the v12 and ifs/irs. Lookin forward to seeing work on your 50!! No doubt!
I'm really on the fence with installing it on the firewall. It's probably the easier solution but I like the idea of the lines, booster and master cylinder being hidden under the floor. I'd like to run a remote reservoir to either under the hood or trunk.
Thanks for the pics. This looks really doable, and cost effective. You have my attention! Keep up the progress, hope to see it at Roundup.
The Jag option has been quite popular over here for some time, looks like a grouse base for a project, keep up the good work! OB
Yeah I'd much rather use the Jag stuff then go with a Mustang II and the price was right on the Jag, 500 for the entire car, still plenty of parts left on it to use too! Thinking hard about putting that jag rear window in it when I chop it.. lol
Got the brakes under control, I gutted the stock master cylinder andwill build a rod to go from the brake lever through the stock cylinder and to the new 7" booster/master combo. I built the mounting bracket for the booster out of 1/4" and steel welded in place. Its pretty damn solid if I say so myself. Once I get the brake lines ran I'll touch up the frames paint, get the underside of the body cleaned up and painted and join them back together. My wirefeed pooped out on me last summer so I've been having to arc weld everything, if that aint traditional then I dont know what is.
Very cool Scott, subscribed. Man, your wife is a keeper (and a trooper for sure!) retromotors, I laughed my ass off!! . . . Haven't got past the "scratch yer ass, drink a beer and look at it" stage yet Yessir, guess that's where we all started (after the car got home). Great stuff, I do wish you would post more pics. Or shed a little more light on your thought processes. You got it going on, man. Me like.
Hey, if you have the pre mufflers from the Jag, get in touch with HAMBer 1950Coronet600hp. He's looking for Jag pre mufflers.
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