My '57 Jaguar Mk VIII | FerrariChat

My '57 Jaguar Mk VIII

Discussion in 'British' started by RichardLane, Jan 24, 2010.

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  1. RichardLane

    RichardLane Rookie

    Apr 6, 2009
    32
    Sydney, Australia
    Full Name:
    Richard Lane
    #1 RichardLane, Jan 24, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Well, it isn't a front-engine V12 Ferrari (anyone got a 250 GTE they want to sell for 90% off?), but it IS a decent start to the collection! My first "impractical but fun" car since I stopped using my Austin-Healey Sprite as a daily driver and sold it ten years ago. Attached photos are from the vendor's place - I have a single car garage, not the extravaganza he has. (Black and red one is the colour scheme I'm thinking about).

    "Queen Victoria" is a 1957 Jaguar Mk VIII. She's had two significant owners prior to me, both for over 20 years (there was some minor shuffling between family friends when the original owner died, then she was with an enthusiast in Qld from ~1980 till November 2009 when I purchased her). Only 40,000 miles (documented), never restored, never apart, always maintained and serviced by Jag specialists. Always garaged, spend the vast majority of her life in Qld, thus (staggeringly) there's absolutely no rust at all other than a tiny bit of surface rust on the boot floor which came off with a wire brush and just needs re-painting. No obvious accident damage or bog - chassis is straight and undamaged, panels all appear spot-on other than a few very minor parking incidents - she's ken-huge, and with no power assist, a barge to park. Steering is very nicely weighted above about 10 MPH, but OMFG, I'm going to get a workout from parallel parking her. The bus-sized steering wheel they fitted makes a lot of sense...

    The Mk VIII has the high-performance version of the 3.4 litre twin-cam 6-cylinder XK engine as fitted to the XK-140 (and similar to the C-Type and D-type Le Mans winners) - the engine is astounding, pulls like a train from about 500 RPM. I was lucky enough to find a Mk VIII with a 4 speed + OD gearbox - most had autos, and most of the manual versions didn't have overdrive fitted.

    Interior is a little tired - carpets will need replacing, but the leather is salvageable - I've put half a litre of Leatherique rejuvenator into the seats and cleaned them – probably need to do another batch. Woodwork is very good. Needs some minor refinishing on driver’s side door capping, and a tiny repair to the dash. Occasional tables on the back of the front seats are perfect. Headlining and door trims, while not perfect, are good enough to leave as-is.

    Exterior is a bit of a dilemma. She was originally black, but the first owner decided it was too hard to keep clean – he was driving the car around PNG, almost certainly on gravel roads. So he resprayed the car the chocolate maroon colour you see in the photos. The paint is very tired after 50 years – many stone-chips on the front, scratches elsewhere, and the whole car is showing minor humidity blisters. Paint is obviously pretty porous at this point – discolours when wet, then goes back to normal as it dries out. Chrome-work varies from excellent to acceptable, and won’t be touched – the only piece that isn’t very, very good is the rear number plate lamp. Bumpers, side strips and window frames are all pretty much perfect. Body rubbers are all original, and in the condition you’d expect – rock hard and cracking up. Likely outcome is to take the chrome-work off, chemically strip the exterior and re-spray the car factory black, probably with the most popular two-tone colour scheme – black over red (pic attached). Replace all the body rubbers after the respray, and probably the carpets at the same time. She’ll never be concourse, she’s a “survivor”, and will be kept that way as much as possible, but given the colour isn’t original (or a factory option) I’m thinking I’d rather go to a variation of her original factory colour. She already had front seat-belts fitted, I’m having those replaced and the same ones fitted in the rear – safety beats originality in this case.

    Mechanically, she’s almost flawless. Leaks oil like a Jaguar should (probably part of the reason there’s no rust), this isn’t a fixable problem without removing the crank and machining it so you can fit a proper rear main seal. Moss gearboxes are also self-rust-proofing. Brakes have already been re-built and re-sleeved in stainless. Engine needs nothing done – air cleaner was off, has been re-fitted, and carbies were badly mis-tuned, since fixed. Gearbox has a whine in the input-shaft bearing, but it isn’t something I’m going to remove engine + gearbox over. Gearbox is excellent other than the whine – better than the 4-speed in Dad’s fully restored & rebuilt XK120 (I think he’s after my overdrive....) I’m replacing the front suspension bushes and ball-joints (still original, and dangerously degraded).

    Original brake-booster has been replaced with an after-market “VF44”, which to be fair is probably a substantial improvement over the original. However, the booster has a larger diameter than the original, sticks out below the chassis, and has already clipped the top of a ramp. Massive safety issue – the car has single-circuit brakes – so the booster will be relocated somewhere safer, probably the engine bay (space is not an issue under that bonnet). This is another “safety > originality” issue, IMO. Braking power is amazing for such a big car – you’d never pick the fact she’s on drums – discs came in with the Mk IX in 1959, and apparently aren’t actually much of an improvement (other than for racing, where fade is an issue).

    Drives amazing well for a 50’s vehicle – easily keeps up with modern traffic, very tractable – top gear is usable from 10-15 MPH through to top speed somewhere past 100 MPH. Huge amounts of space inside, the ride is fantastic (better than my modern Alfa) and the boot is just staggeringly large. She’s going to make a fantastic touring and navigation-rally car.
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  2. rdefabri

    rdefabri Three Time F1 World Champ

    Jun 4, 2008
    33,571
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Rich
    That's a beauty - congrats!
     
  3. Crawler

    Crawler F1 Veteran

    Jul 2, 2006
    5,018
    Fantastic!
     
  4. 2NA

    2NA F1 World Champ
    Consultant Owner Professional Ferrari Technician

    Dec 29, 2006
    18,221
    Twin Cities
    Full Name:
    Tim Keseluk
    Cool car, the Mark 8/9 is my favorite Jaguar sedan.
     
  5. Bullfighter

    Bullfighter Two Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Jan 26, 2005
    22,599
    Gates Mills, Ohio
    Full Name:
    Jon
    It is very nice, congrats. Jaguar elegance personified, from back when Jaguar was Jaguar. Would be great to see interior photos.

    On the "preservation versus restoration" point: I've yet to see a 1950s car made of metal that has no rust. If the paint is in bad shape, and it isn't original anyway, taking it down to metal and applying something more protective and less porous is absolutely the right move. Ultimately it's the metal you need to preserve, and paint is somewhat sacrificial.

    I'm going through a restoration now on a 1950s Porsche, because bare metal is the only way I trust these older cars.

    The proposed color scheme looks magnificent.
     
  6. mseals

    mseals Two Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Sep 9, 2007
    24,468
    Kuwait
    Full Name:
    Mike Seals
    How very elegant....what a great choice!

    Congratulations!

    Mike
     
  7. bcc

    bcc Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    Jul 31, 2006
    486
    DFW Texas
    Full Name:
    Brent
    Great Jag, Congrats!
     
  8. SilverF20C

    SilverF20C Formula 3

    Jun 22, 2004
    1,126
    Congratulations - She is a beauty! This just brought back some pleasant memories of helping a relative take apart the engine and some body trim pieces off of a MKIX (I believe) in my teen years. He was restoring that car and I was very honored to have been asked to help out.

    It looks like you'll be enjoying this one for years to come. :) Cheers
     
  9. Glassman

    Glassman F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Nice Jaguar. Nobody could do an expanse of wood quite like Jaguar.
     
  10. RichardLane

    RichardLane Rookie

    Apr 6, 2009
    32
    Sydney, Australia
    Full Name:
    Richard Lane
    Thanks to all for the various "congratulations".
    Short of actually stripping the paint, we've done the most detailed possible inspection, we can't find any - we had it up on the hoist for an hour looking before purchase, I've since had a full inspection done in Sydney by a Jag specialist, and I've had it up on another hoist myself. There are particular places in the chassis that these cars rust - utterly solid on this one. We really can't find any rust or bog - it's somewhat staggering.

    Possible explanation: The original owner had the car rust-proofed upon purchase - some sort of spray oil inside the doors, and the entire underside of the car was bitumen sprayed (though this has mostly been removed). It spent a short amount of time in Papua New Guinea, but the last 50 years it has been garaged in a hot, dry chunk of Australia. It was also pretty clear from poking around underneath that it had rarely got wet or been driven in the rain - there were a couple of undamaged mud-wasp nests on the chassis.

    For the Americans: Think "Garaged Arizona car", but not quite as hot or as dry, so the interior hasn't been baked out.
    I tend to agree. I'll probably aim to maintain FIVA "Authentic" status - I can do the paint and carpet, but no full restoration.

    The radio is another minor conundrum. Current one is inoperative AM-only. One of the primary passengers is a toddler who very much wants to be able to listen to The Wiggles on long trips. Rather than altering the current radio, I thought I'd fit something from RetroSound instead. I can always re-fit the original radio if required.

    http://www.retrosoundusa.com/
     

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