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Does anyone have any personal experience with David Manners Ltd when it comes to ordering and receiving parts for a Mark 2 or XJ6 Coupe?

Nothing like a few hours trying to get a tail light installed on the car to reinforce one’s opinion of British car manufacturing. The problem is getting the tail light body seal, the tail lamp and the bolts to match up. See what I mean:

You can see from the bottom picture that the rubber grommet in the middle of the seal doesn’t exactly fit. I’m finding that the light fits the car perfectly – but when the rubber seal is placed behind it – it doesn’t fit exactly and causes the light not to sit flush on the entire seal. arghh!! Any ideas anyone? BTW, these are new replacement seals and I did find the originals that are no longer useable – and the same problem exists. So I am wondering if during the bodywork restoration is that the holes created in the rear wing are slightly off??

While looking at the “Practical Classics” website at the Jaguar 340, I noticed that the bumpers are different than the ones that I have with my car.  This link will show you the picture from the Practical Classics site.  I appear to have, however, original Mark 2 bumpers which are thicker.

I found mention on the “jag-lovers sedan forum” that some Mark 2 cars that were shipped to the US were rebadged in the US by adding the “340″ onto that car.  I need to do some more research on what we really have here.  Of course, I may just have a set of Mark 2 bumpers and not the one’s that were originally on the car.

Last week in Dallas, I stopped by to see Jim again and we started discussing air-conditioning for the Mark 2.  He mentioned that the company that makes the kit that is sold by XKS Unlimited is in Dallas.  The company is called “retroair” and this is the link to their website.

The cost for a Mark 2 system w/o installation is $2095 and the installation requires “multiple – minor” body modifications.  ugh!!!  Does anyone have any experience with this kit?

Imagine trying to explain to a parts person at “Jaguar Parts” company what a Spat bracket is. Beyond the obvious definition of it’s use on a car and where it attaches; what exactly is a spat?

Well a quick search in Google brings up a link to a site defining “wheel spats” for a solar powered car. The solar car project started in 1999 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, interesting reading. Their definition of a wheel spat is:

” The wheel spat is the cover that goes over the wheels to provide a more aerodynamic shape and protects the wheel itself.”

Sounds right, but is it correct for a Jaguar?  Well, I did find a bracket at XKs Unlimited in California but would prefer to find a parts car with one attached.  The search continues..

Today I managed to install one of the rear wheel spats on the car. (See photo below). While trying to install the spat on the rear right wheel – I discovered that the mounting bracket was missing. Oh well, another part to order from a junk yard or xks unlimited. I also cleaned up the hub caps and they definately make a difference.

I also installed the trunk lock after finding the pieces in a paint can that came with the car. While the lock seemed straightforward – I did look it up in the parts manual first. Here is the diagram for the 340.

Next is the photo of the lock before it went back into the car. Installing the lock wasn’t difficult – unfortunately it doesn’t lock! While it closes so that the truck lid stays closed – it doesn’t lock. Being that the key that starts the car doesn’t open the glove box or lock the truck – I probably need a new set of locks/keys. Oh well.

Next was the wheel hubs and spats. I cleaned up the wheel hubs and installed them. There are three pictures below: 1) the original wheels.. 2) The Hub caps dirty and cleaned up.

And finally the wheels with the cleaned hub caps, embellishers and the spat installed.

The hub caps aren’t bad – but they need to be rechromed and the wheel embellishers are even worse. For now just getting the car together is the primary goal.

Well now that the Fuel Pump is installed (even though there is a leak in the 2nd Carb) I decided to get the car out of the shop and get it cleaned up. Helen and I moved the car outside and washed the years of dust, road grime and grit off of the paint. Here’s a picture of it outside. You can see the damaged left wing on the car in this picture.

Next is the waxing and cleaning of the paint. (See photo below).

After a few hours of claying the car and applying some wax, here is the outcome. Not the best, but it will have to do for now.

On May 25th we moved car from Storage to the house in Wilmington for the eventual move to Florida. While the car was in Storage it was on a car trailer with a car cover installed. Occasionally, I would go over to the storage facility and check on the status of the car. At no point did I lift the cover over the left front fender. This was to prove to be a mistake. Because on the day we were being packed by the movers – we found that the left front fender had been damaged! See the photo below.

As you can see it appears that a truck backed into the car as the car was on a car trailer and the fender would have been slightly higher than waiste height. Fortunately, the delay in putting the car back together minimized the damage. Imagine of the headlamps and chrome surrounds had been in the car when hit! Yikes I shudder to imagine the replacement parts cost. Fortunately, the parts weren’t damaged and the car will ultimately head to the body shop for a repair.