FACELIFT 6.0 COUPE

It’s personally upsetting to me to view Mike Freeman’s superbly detailed 6.0 XJS coupe – I’m overcome with a sense of failure that my own 6.0 convertible resides at home in a rather less than complete state. All the more galling, because Mike has owned his car for less years and claims little mechanical knowledge prior to his restoration adventure - and I’m supposed to know about these things!

MIKE’S BACK STORY

after a while he realised that working in a windowless box was not his thing (which seems to be the fate of the average sound technologist) and craved a more outdoor based pursuit. A career handbrake turn occurred as the role of ‘Length Inspector’ for the Canal and River Trust piqued Mike’s attention. In plain English, this means walking a 130 mile length of canal and reporting on any maintenance work required – it certainly keeps his steps up! Think of him on your next narrowboat holiday. This left Mike with the bandwidth to pursue a hobby, but first let’s explore the path that led him to the ownership of the XJS we have before us…

HIS CAR HISTORY

Since his driving test pass at the age of 19, Mike estimates he has been through 50 to 60 cars, all in the ‘£100 including 1 year’s MOT’ bargain bin - used, abused then discarded! A massive increase in budget to £300 saw his first Jaguar (a 3.2 XJ40 in BRG) enter his life at the age of 24. This lasted a year (read: the MOT test duration) until corrosion and multiple issues signed its death warrant

Classic car ownership frequently becomes an obsession, Mike Freeman adds a dash of compulsion and freely admits it may well have become a disorder…

WORDS: RAY INGMAN PHOTOGRAPHY: GREGORY OWAIN

- Maintenance wasn’t a word or deed in Mike’s lexicon at this time – cars were for driving, not spending money on!

But the XJ40 had truly sewn the Jaguar seed and a facelift XJS beckoned – he found the distinctive buttress styling attractive, but being a 90’s child, the earlier models looked a little fussy and dated. Issues all addressed by the body colour skirts, longitudinal rear lamps and apparent increase in glass area of the updated model.

In no great hurry, the ideal candidate was eventually found in 2005 via an ‘Autotrader’ advertisement: a 4.0 automatic in Kingfisher Blue. In an unprecedented move, Mike left his Barnard Castle home with £4000 cash in his pocket (a huge financial multiple of any previous motoring purchase). Whilst travelling somewhat apprehensively to a random car park in Peterborough, a thought occurred – although a generally peace loving person, he reasoned that if mugged, on this occasion he would actually put up a fight!

It was tantamount to love at first sight – made all the more amazing by the small detail that Mike had never before actually seen a facelift XJS in the metal! An impulse purchase was made - he was so struck by the car that he didn’t even make a lower offer. The drive home was rewarding and incident free. To steal a Ford Capri tagline – it was the car he had always promised himself.

Continuing his ‘zero maintenance’ policy, the 4.0 lasted until 2008 as his daily driver until the combination of a move to Manchester and a growing list of faults (the worst of which being a snapped radius arm, causing horrific throttle steer) forced him to sell. Scrolling forward some years, Mike imagined his car would have »

been long since broken for spares or some such fate, but increasing values have ensured its continued existence, a recent internet search revealing it now resides in Bulgaria.

In the game of automotive Top Trumps, when his car was admired (fine vehicle that it was) he was always slightly apologetic that it wasn’t ‘the real thing’: a V12, an attribute he felt synonymous with the model. This was not for outright performance reasons, a motor bike was now his daily driver and after a 180mph Yamaha R1, the quickest of four wheelers leaves little impression.

THE V12 ARRIVES

After another move, this time to Cheshire, Mike found himself with the space and time to own a hobby car, a 6.0 it had to be… November 2015 was the fateful date. A dealer had taken the car in part exchange, but it wasn’t the kind of model he traded in, so tried to move it on by the medium of another Autotrader advert. 1994, 50k miles and £6k asking price were the key figures. A bike ride to Birmingham in the rain and dark, followed by the ‘not to be recommended’ road test in the rain and dark resulted in another quick purchase – but this time a sense of the vendor wanting to ‘get rid’ resulted in the ready acceptance of a £5k bid.

A cold light of day appraisal revealed a generally sound and tidy car with some evidence of skimped maintenance and a few bits missing. Scuffed alloy wheels, marks around the edges and bubbles around the windscreen surround, all indicative a car on the downward slope -but one ripe for rescue. On the upside, despite hating the phrase, Mike found the V12 to “pull like a train”, progress only spoilt by heavy clunking and grinding noises which transpired to be the relatively simple to rectify gearbox centre mount bush.

After around four years of road driving (undertaking just ongoing maintenance, major cleaning and polishing plus having the wheels powder coated) something clicked. The evidence of corrosion around the windscreen started to niggle, ignoring the bubbles was no longer an option. An astronomic professional quotation of £8k to repair and repaint the area reinforced a new DIY philosophy, and an ethos corner was turned: This was to be a forever car, maintained, improved and cherished – yes, really! In no way was it going to be considered an investment, but in common with Graham Morison and his S-type (CJ Oct/Nov 2022), Mike was to use his XJS as an automotive educational experience. Prior to this he confesses »

THE RESTORATION PROCESS BEGINS

that his hands-on talents were a little stretched with a wheel change…

DEPARTING FROM STANDARD

Total originality isn’t part of the obsession, an obvious example being the eBay sourced bonnet mounted leaping cat. Mike’s view is that the pleasure of following the mascot along the road shouldn’t be confined to earlier models – a sentiment I wholly agree with.

Possibly a little more contentious: if you study the suspension and underbonnet images, you may realise that the powder-coated components are a lighter shade of black. In fact, Mike quietly confesses that his finish of choice would have been chrome

In January 2019 work commenced on the scuttle. With no sense of fear, Mike cut out the bonded in windscreen and started to remove the affected areas with the aid of an angle grinder. In ‘if I knew now…’ confession, had he realised the relative ease of front wing removal, he would have done just that and improved access immeasurably. Evidence of previous repairs were found: the area being ‘reinforced’ with builders expanding foam! By April, he realised things were getting considerably beyond his skillset, a saviour was required. Enter Andy, the proprietor of A&B Autos, a general repair garage and MOT station in nearby Rudheath. The damaged areas inevitably extended way further than the original bubbles suggested. Andy’s skills were employed to fashion the repair panels and weld them in. A relationship developed, and wizard Andy took Mike under his cape, a sort of labour barter arrangement developed whereby Mike would work on customers cars (under close supervision) adding to his mechanical talents whilst building a bank of time which Andy returned on the XJS. Mike becoming a veritable ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’.

As is the way of restoration projects and with the scuttle work ongoing, between October and January 2020, Mike decided to address some more issues that had became apparent. The engine bay was partially stripped to allow localised touching in of minor rust and ‘rattle can’ refurbishment of components such as the radiator top crossmember and air intakes. Engine cleaning and belt changing were also undertaken. By March 2020 car was finally ready for a professional front end repaint and the windscreen bonded in. Mike meanwhile decided to refurbish the front bumper, as he felt it was letting the side down, why not! Unplanned, the rolling restoration had stopped rolling for two years.

A seepage from the power steering HP pipe took three attempts and one week to achieve a leak free solution. With the benefit of hindsight, Mike would have removed the front subframe in its entirety… be careful what you wish for: He started trying to refurbish the front brakes, but still in

effect – but he was ‘talked down’ to “Ruthenium” by the wise proprietor of Alloy Circles powder coating in Winsford. In retrospect, he realises this was the correct choice and highly recommends their services – and powers of persuasion!

The cut out switch on the battery box was fitted to stop minor battery drains flattening the battery during periods of storage – for those who are wondering, an uncoded aftermarket radio is fitted, so no problem except it loses its station memory! The subtle switch adjacent to the A-post is simply to extinguish the interior light during long periods of internal fettling, which brings us to: The most obvious deviation from the Coventry product concerns the flight of fancy glovebox, this has undergone »

his inexperienced phase, he snapped the two notoriously stubborn caliper bolts, then damaged the vertical link, great start! Replacing the link required front spring removal, a homemade tool was fashioned and proved successful. He then got totally carried away as the entire suspension was removed, piece by piece whilst on the car, followed by the subframe - a bit ‘cart before the horse’! With all the front suspension parts back from powder coaters, the subframe was rebuilt and refitted. Apparently, this was the most terrifying part of the restoration – worrying about the huge energy locked up in the front springs!

In January 2021, after the two years of inadvertent restoration, the car was at last back on the road, enjoyment initially tempered by the trepidation of driving the car on a suspension and brake system rebuilt by a novice – he needn’t have worried, all was well!

It didn’t end there! During the MOT test at A&B Motors, up on a ramp for the first time, Mike was able to take in the vista of underbody condition, the exhaust system was nearing the end of its life and surface corrosion decorated, well, everything!

Work restarted, adding new stainless steel over axle pipes and rear silencers from Simply Performance, then AJ6 Engineering supplied one of their ingenious ‘TT’ stainless exhaust systems, the twin elongated secondary downpipes (mated to standard refurbished manifolds) giving an improved extractor effect, optimised by fitting new chip in ECU. Rerouting of the wiring for the controlling lambda sensors was required.

Mike started tinkering with rear brakes at this point, imagine what happened next… You’ve guessed – the rear suspension was removed from the car and stripped. The final drive was refurbished with new output shaft bearings and seals. Mike purchased the biggest spanner he’ll ever own to achieve this! The parts were again all powder coated, reassembled and by September 2021 the assembly was back in the car. Meanwhile, surface rust on sills and underbody was addressed and all underbody fuel and brake lines refurbished.

several iterations. Initially the lock didn’t work, many of us would have repaired it – but the problem inspired Mike to install an actuator mechanism triggered by a remote control. Upon opening, a backlit, polished chequer plate lined minibar is revealed, featuring cut glass tumblers and a bottle of Southern Comfort, maybe a little unwise should one be pulled over by a member of the constabulary, so the latter is now replaced with a mini cinema – obviously!

As an aside, the car came equipped with its non-standard ‘L80XJS’ registration number, which puts me in mind of a homage to the JDHT’s final V12 coupe: P60XJS.

MIKE’S RANDOM RESTORATION THOUGHTS

The initial restoration problem he encountered was the lack of ‘facelift’ specific information available, the factory workshop manual covering the early model in precise detail but later model supplements seeming to brush over major facelift design changes. YouTube was the alternative knowledge source of choice, but the same problem was faced – Mike himself has since attempted to address this issue by creating a Youtube channel of his own.

To facilitate the renovation, he »

“...the enjoyment of ownership is derived in 50/50 proportion between working on the car and actually driving it...”

has developed a parts sourcing protocol. His first port of call is SNG Barratt’s impressive website where he obtains the part number of the required components. It is then easy to determine availability and price on the site. If the answer is negative, the search fans out to other specialists including Black Country Jaguars, David Manners and eBay – then the net widens further to more general internet searches. After many months of hunting, a recent win was the ‘hen’s teeth’ central plastic engine cover, obtained for around £400 including shipping and taxes from North America. Whilst in transit, the same item popped up locally for £300 – such are the tribulations!

Asking Mike his thoughts on his XJS adventure, he reveals that the enjoyment of ownership is derived in 50/50 proportion between working on the car and actually driving it, with so many people, it is either one or the other. He accepts that as he learns, it often results in achieving three steps forward and two back, but this doesn’t worry him – all part of the learning process and he doesn’t consider revisiting elements he is not totally happy with to be a setback in his OCD driven quest for ultimate perfection.

For the most part the work is carried out in a double garage around 1” longer than the car – so much juggling and ingenuity for sideways access is required – particularly in the winter months where opening the garage doors is inadvisable. His home ‘exhaust extraction system’ is a joy to behold – pipes through the wall attached to the rear silencers by flexy silicone hoses…

The future? The hard learnt lesson of being without the car during the scuttle and ‘associated’ repairs, Mike now carefully plans a program of winter works which, during this off season, will include a radiator swap, air-con condenser and cam cover leakage issues. Further projects involve some totally rust-free scuttle repair sections that have been sourced from California, used to perfect this forever car. Plus experimentation to the exhaust system in order to obtain a purer V12 sound. ■

Thanks to: The photographs taken on the ramp were courtesy of the previously mentioned Andy, of A & B Autos, Rudheath (01606 354555) - A man ‘without whom’ little of the foregoing would have been possible!

FURTHER WATCHING

As previously mentioned, when embarking on his XJS adventure, and let down by the Factory Workshop Manual, fondly referred to by Mike as “The big green book of nonsense”, first port of call for information was YouTube. He was a little disappointed to find that most of the material contained on the portal was relevant to the pre-facelift model. For the benefit of humanity, he has rectified that omission by setting up his own YouTube channel which can be accessed by typing ‘Jaguar XJS OCD’ into the search function – there you will witness many of the operations referred to in this feature, and much more!