JML407 - Clarion E951 car radio surround trim / frame

Last week a friend of mine shared this photo of a car radio with me via Instagram:

Oh cool, I replied, that's the exact same radio as in my XJS. I mentioned to him that I was still on the hunt for the matching radio surround trim.

So he did do a search, apparently he must have looked it up on my blog, as he used the part code nr. And thus he found it instantly for sale in a Dutch online shop:

https://smalldetails.nl/wordpress/product/jlm407-radio-surround-trim/

I was baffled. Trust me that I tried everything to hunt one down. Apparently this must be a very recent online shop. It does not look professional either. It's created by someone who purchased a leftover NOS stock of Jaguar parts. I just checked the senders address and it's coming from this company:  http://www.brabocars.com/  This company is still alive though.

Oh well, the price is very reasonable. But the shipping costs weren't. Despite the item can be send via regular post using normal rates it was send by default via UPS for a fix rate of € 10,-   I asked if he could offer a cheaper postage option but this was not possible as he also wanted to be assured items were tracked and delivered to avoid claims. Bummer. So I bought both frames. Meaning I have a spare now.

I have to admit, despite I all worked it out at the time, this radio is the correct one my XJS. But my friend also remarked the analogue version would be a better fit. Now I have gone through all this hassle I have to admit I do concur with him. So maybe I might change it all together. STAY TUNED!

This is how the radio is currently fitted. At the time I could slide it in entirely, I suspect the radio frameholder is not good.

So now I have taken it out completely - it was quite a hassle as the frame was stuck.

And with the radio out I now did put the surround trim on it. Looks good now. Guess I now need to find either a proper radio holder so it slides in nicely. Or, find the proper analogue Jaguar radio.

Another one bites the dust

It's washing time. Although the car is usually under a cover it still ended up collecting quite a bit of dust. As I had to move out some other cars today it was a good time to sweep the floor and wash the car. It started up fairly easy after such a long periode of standing still. I have to admit I tried to start it up last week but the battery required to be recharged (sigh).

I'm still very pleased with the car despite the huge amount of work it did require. I like the looks, the color, interior, the whole lot. Although it does have some "minor" optical items to be worked upon it looks pretty okay after the wash.

Now the floor has been sweeped and the car has run a little I hope it now remains leak free. Something I can check next week.

Something I did notice today is that the power steering is working fine and does not make a  squeeking noise. At the time I had to fill it up to overcome the squeek. But also since it started to leak which is very likely caused by a hardened bad seal.  Curious to see if it still leaks, maybe it had been filled up to much. I know I checked the dipstick properly at the time. So not sure. I will check this next week.

Window of opportunity

Yes, I'm back, so watch it! Finally I have some more time on side. Meaning I now slowly can look into fixing up the Jag again. In fact I wanted to do this already the past 2 weekends. But when I wanted to order the fuel injector service kit it turned out the UK Webshop was closed due to Corona, sigh. So I figured to tackle another issue; distributor servicing. For which I only needed a gasket. The SNG Barratt webshop showed it was on stock but the shipping costs was insane, 3x times more then the item itself. So I called them and requested to send it via normal postage mail, which was possible. The item itself was on on stock but only available in the UK, so it had to be ordered, which took up another 2 weeks. In fact it arrived today. Oh well.

Furthermore I'm very surprised to see this blog is still attracting quite a few visitors on a daily basis. Apparently it must be some kind of usefull source for other folks. Which is good. In return, for inspiration, I'm often viewing Living with a classic on Youtube which often has quality updates on work carried out on his Jaguars. As such I recalled this video about fixing up the electric windows.

It's a fairly easy job and does not take up much time. And it's very rewarding work. A perfect job to get into the mood to get my XJS up to snuff.

Here is the video in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8zupWZHTps




And yes, my windows had this kind of trouble, you had to click several times before it moved down or up again. Very annoying. I remembered this video but was not bothered to view it first. While I'm now writing up this blog I quickly went over it and noticed the switch in this video is slightly different on the inside and the connectors used. But the principle is the same though. Find below my photo's on this exercise. Here goes:

step 1) unscrew the 3 screws of the top plate. Lift it up and unplug both cables:

Step 2) The switches can then be pushed out, on both sides they have 2 clips wich needs to be pushed inside to get the switch out. Note on how they are fitted, else you will have 50% change to reverse them.

Step 3) Open up the switch. Wait, take the switch to the kitchen table with good light. To open up the switch is a bit of a fiddle job, see the video. If you are unlucky, like me, the spring and pin inside might jump out - hence you need to do this at a clean place with good light, just take your time. Sorry for the poor first photo, this is what comes out:

Step 4) As you can see the contacts are very dirty and some are slightly burned. On the photo below you can see the contacts on the inside are even completely black, rather then shiny copper. This is what step 4 is about; cleaning. I used a cloth and a screwdriver to clean it out first. Then using a piece of sandpaper to give it a good scratch and make the contacts shiny again. 

Step 5: Well, put everything back together. A good tip in the video, grease the spring so it will stick in the pin. Again, a bit of a fiddle job to put everything together.

Then I made a quick test and it worked like a charm. Really happy with this improvement.

Random press photo's

Some random XJS press photo's I came across:

Nigel Mansell

Advert - The legend with the power to move you

Advert - Some claim heritage. Others have truly earned it.

Just for the records

THE 80S CLASSICS THAT STILL WON'T BREAK THE BANK

Surprisingly this blog still attracts lots of daily visitors whilst I'm not doing any work on it. Yes, I'm still around and busy with lots of other stuff I won't bother you with.

I just hit this article and thought it was worthwhile mentioning:

https://drivetribe.com/p/the-80s-classics-that-still-wont-SeEl1QIqQ6GKn708vuMYrA

Press photo Jaguar XJS HE Coupe 2 / 1984

I suspect this is a press photo - the date on the back mentions 2/84.
In any case I like it so adding it here just for the records.

Bill Hayden in front of the latest XJS

Just a nice find for the records. Click to enlarge