Last weekend I purchased a complete set of rims with very good tires. They were located in Germany not far across the border. I had spotted them already a while ago and decided to go for it. The guy in question had in fact 2 complete sets but 1 set was with good tyres. So I agreed with him a fair price. I nicely could combine this with a city trip to Düssseldorf and do a little shopping with the family, win win.
The reason for purchase was two fold. With a spare set I could easily get the one on the car reconditioned with little hassle. And now I have as well a complete set of good tyres. Last year my car passed the MOT but it did had a remark on the rear tyres, see blog:
The remark was only about the profile being just sufficient. But knowing the overall state of them it is even more surprising there wasn't a comment about them being dried out and worn out, or should I say torn. I would expect this would be a MOT fail. Have look yourself:
Surprisingly the previous owner had only the front tyres replaced with new expensive Sprint Classic tyres.
As said, I collected them and the guy was a friendly Jaguar/Daimler nutter :-)
The tyres were indeed very good and the rims were pretty good too. As you can see on the tyres, there are still "hairs" on it with sufficient profile:
So now I need to find a company who can recondition and repaint them. But again, I'm still not in a hurry.
It has been a while. I ordered this car cover already a few weeks ago. It turned out it was no longer on stock and new ones had to be made. And finally it arrived earlier this week. And today I visited the car storage to put it on. As posted earlier, I have this Jaguar flag but am not sure if I will stitch it on:
Oh, shortly after I purchased my car cover I noticed these tailored made covers with the Jaguar logo printed onto it. Pretty cool but a bit pricey too:
Anyway, my car collected a bit of dirt and dust so before putting on the new cover I had drove it thru the car wash. A nice opportunity to make little drive. It started instantly and ran very smooth.
It's the Satin version, very good quality with soft flanel fleece on the inside. It costed € 133,- + € 20 shipping costs. So I will update the cost spreadsheet as well. At the time I bought a similar cover for the 400 (the Pyjama Extra - cotton).
Yes, it has been a while since I've been working on my XJS. But as said, I have other more important priorities for now. In any case I'm still following closely interesting XJS updates. Yesterday I came across this interesting posting on Facebook:
To avoid potential overheating of the engine this guy had his A/C compressor and dryer removed. Apparently this also resulted in obtaining a higher top speed. Personally I do like my comfort in the car, so disabling the A/C is certainly I would not fancy. When flicking thru the comment fields I noticed the following remark in red:
William DampierThe V12 is anything but delicate. If you’ve ever taken one apart it looks like a 8000 horsepower top fuel dragster engine with 4 extra cylinders. The worst thing for a Jaguar is ignorant mechanics. Mechanics who replace the radiator, the waterpump, headgaskets and even rebuild it simply because they fail to oil the distributor. If not properly oiled the advance freezes and causes the timing to be off. That’s the usual reason for overheating. Mechanics who fail to properly adjust the throttle linkage or replace cracked rubber hoses. Mechanics who neglect the rubber fuel line and allow the engine to catch on fire. Mechanics who replace whole computers and a lot of company’s because a sensor is loose or contacts corroded a bit.
Then an interesting spin off discussion takes place on this matter. You can read the all the other comments yourself given the FB link above.
Clearly there could be other causes for overheated engines but this one is a easy one to check and to tackle. I did happen to have my rotor and cap replaced last year:
As said, I ordered this analogue/digital converter last week and today I could hook up the whole lot to make the digital recording. So, here is the music centre I bought. It's a classic one which many people had in the seventies/eighties. This particular one is a Rotel RM-5010. For those who are into audio will know it's a high end device. With it I bought a pair of Wharfdale XP2 speakers as I could make a nice package deal. I suspect the complete set belonged to each other as they seem from the same time period - late seventies. Surprisingly everything was in working order, even the turntable was working. However when I wanted to use it again today it was no longer working. When I checked I noticed the belt was dropped off as it was worn out (stretched and dried out). Guess when I tried last week I was Lucky. But after so many years unused I'm not surprised. They seem still to be available and can be ordered, so should be ok. I'm very pleased with it and will furhter hook it up properly in the garage. The sound is incredible good and very warm. Also the switches and usage of this device feels so solid and good, including the materials used. Just wow!
Interestingly I bought a very specific "car"record in Japan last month so this music centre comes in quite nicely. On my return today the record was waiting for me. Guess that have to wait for next time and it's not XJ-S related either. So I will not bother you with that.
In any case, here the music set up:
That's all it takes. The converter came with a software package as well. I jacked it up using the USB to the headphone connector on the music centre. Then pressed play and recorded the whole lot. Afterwards I converted the recording into MP3. With Windows Moviemaker I added a picture and put the MP3 onto it and converted the whole lot into a WMV. Uploaded it to YouTube and Presto!
So now everyone can listnen what's on the tape, or perhaps reuse it and record it on a tape :-)
and Side 2. Not sure if the content will be audiable since I expect YouTube will block it due to copyrights. (easy sharing link: https://youtu.be/_ynDtFWFGWE):
1) O Fortuna (from "Carmina Burana"- C. Orrf) London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Andre Previn, Conductor 1975 EMI Records Limited"
2) Wichita Lineman; Glen Campbell
3) You Can Do Magic; America 1982 Capitol Records Inc
4) Tonight, I Celebrate my Love; Peabo Bryson/Roberta Flack 1983 Capitol Records Inc
5) Imagination; Ned Werke
6) Pageant; R Harvey, Royal Philharmonic of London
Selection 1-4 under license from capitol records, inc or EMI Records Limited.
A while back I saw another XJS for sale and out of curiosity I checked the advert. To my great surprise I noticed this specific cassette that was displayed on one of the advert photo's :
It's an item I was unaware of and not had seen before. And clearly I had to have it. So I reached out to the seller and asked if he wanted to sell it seperately. But the answer was a firm "no". Regardless I offered him a very good price but without joy.
Further checking learned they created a whole series for the entire Jaguar range. At one time I saw it offered on Ebay for a very steep price:
And now a year later I finally saw one offered seperately. Of course the shipping cost is ridiculous but I ordered it instantly:
And it arrived last week. I was very curious to find out what was on it:
As such I played it on my car radio cassette player. The first side is a complete lecture about the car and the stereo. Very cool. And the other side is a very fine music play list.
I have now ordered an analogue/digital converter device so I can record it on my laptop and put it on YouTube. Potentially side 2 will be blocked by YouTube due to the copyright of the music but I will give it a shot. I will for sure let you know which songs are on it. Am now awaiting for the converter. Meanwhile I also bought a vintage seventies music centre at the local thrift shop to play the tape and connect it to the converter. Watch this space.
Oh, by playing the tape I figured out it's an item that likely was presented with USA cars only.
A little while ago I saw someone on FB who offered an Original time period Jaguar first aid kit for sale. I was to late and it was almost sold instantly. A such a searched a little around and ended up on the Kimman (Dutch Jaguar dealer) webshop in the Netherlands. I did find a new first aid kit available but also noticed this Jaguar parking disc. Thought it was a nice item to have, so I purchased it.
As for the first aid kit, I will hope a new opportunity will come across. Picture of the item posted below. Also an Original Jaguar warning / hazard triangle is welcomed.
