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After a few weeks, our carbs and the linkage they went away with came back from Tampa. I had no idea how dirty the carbs were when they went, because the carbs that returned looked new! See Photo below.

When I started to install them on the manifold, I realized that the Carburetor Manifold Blocks were bad and they needed to be replaced. So, I ordered two and waited for them to arrive before the carb s could be reinstalled. lesson learned – double check all components (I replaced the gaskets ) but forgot the manifold blocks.

In Early May 2006, I drove to Dallas, to pick up the car.  I wasn’t sure what the condition of the car would be, and was obviously thinking the worst.  Below is where the car was stored in Dallas.

Another picture of the backlot.

The front of Jims Jags..

And finally the car on the trailer for it’s way home.

And away we go.

In 1988 I relocated to Dallas, Texas from Northern Virginia.  My employer at the time moved my job to Dallas and if I wanted it, I had to move as well.  Just before I left I purchased a 76 Jaguar XJ 6 Coupe from an Uncle in Richmond.  Ray Carpenter had purchased the car new and wanted me to have the car as long as I promised to restore it.

I had the car shipped to Dallas in 89 and began working on the car.  In 1992, I left Texas for Georgia and the car stayed behind at my mechanics.  It had a problem with bad fuel, and transmission issues.  Later that year, it was broken into by some car theves who wanted the stereo.  Unfortunately, they smashed the driver side window in, to get in the car.  The door, however, was unlocked!

The car stayed in Dallas while I relocated around several states and earlier this year I decided to go get the car after receiving a call from Jim House, the owner of Jim’s Jags in Dallas, Texas.

While cleaning the aluminum door sills I decided to clean up some of the components under the hood as well.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the radiator wasn’t actually black.  Here is a picture of it starting to shine, followed by a picture of it after a few minutes with never-dull.

and now the shiny version..

Obviously, I should have known that the car had a brass radiator.  being a novice with this Mark2 variant I am still memorizing the service and part manuals.  I have read a brief history of the car but could definately use some time with a detailed car history.

One of the problems with these radiators is there inability to maintain pressure.  Only time will tell if this radiator needs to be replaced.  For now, it’s just cool to have a radiator made of brass.

As with most old British Cars that have been in a project state for awhile. The wood trim needed to be refreshed. Some was still in the car and most of it had been removed and stored in the trunk. Shown below are some pictures of the original woodwork.

Now the dashboard..

I decided to leave the dashboard as is – I believe the wood will respond well to a good waxing. The other wood trim has peeling sheelac and a general dullness in the shine.

I looked into having the wood refinished but the quoted cost of 3K+ for a Mark2 interior (which is what a 340 is minus picnic trays) was a little steep and not in my budget. So, I made the decision to start the refinishing process, so stripping was the next step.

Now the dash cap..

The end result isn’t bad, but it’s not satisfactory. For the meantime I have put the dashcap in the car but I am actively looking for good information on how to refinish the wood properly. Any ideas? At any rate here is a picture of the wood refinished for now.

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.

One of the first challenges is to get the 340 started and running under it’s own power. Back in 2003 – I briefly had the car running only to discover that the rear carburetor was leaking gasoline all over the garage floor. I tried tightening the nuts that held the bowl to the carburetor but that didn’t help. Obviously the carburetors would need to be rebuilt. With a pending move from Virginia to another state the rebuild was delayed.

I enlisted the help of my local mechanic – Paul Watts of C&H Auto Service in Winter Park – to get the car started. The first we noticed was that the fuel pump wasn’t working. So Paul ordered one for me and electronic version of the classic SU pump. Here is a picture of it installed.

This picture shows the pump installed but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Paul has been trying to get me motivated to put the car back together. So when the new pump came in – he gave it to me to install. He told me it shouldn’t take me longer than 30 minutes and if I wasn’t back in an hour then he would come down to the shop and see what the problem was. Well, an hour later the pump was installed but no gas. So off I went to get Paul.

Paul and I go down to the shop and he looks over my installation and disconnects the pump and looks it over. He physically takes the pump and puts it up to his mouth and blows some air into both of the intakes. Guess what! The diaphrams in the pump are installed backwards! The pump was never going to work in it’s current state. Paul took out the diaphrams – put them in correctly and reconnected the pump.

So gas now makes it way to front of the engine – where it promptly pours out the bottom of that 2nd carb. Paul tinkered, I watched and we agreed that the carbs needed to be rebuilt. So, that’s the next task – removing the Carbs so they can be rebuilt.

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.

The Jaguar 340 that I am restoring was purchased from a mechanic in Maryland in 1998. Per the mechanic – 10 years previously a customer had dropped the car off for some bodywork and subsequently never came back for it. The mechanic filed a mechanics lien and the car became his property. He proceeded to work on the body off and on for the next 10 years and finally sold it for cash.

I remember driving out to some barn in the wilds of Maryland to pick up the car with a friend of mine. The car was in grey primer, the bumbers were no longer chrome and a pile of parts were in the car. The speedometer showed 29K miles and the engine was original and had never been out of the car!

We loaded it up on the trailer and hauled it back to Virginia where it was destined to sit for a number of years in different garages, counties and even different states. Today it sits in Winter Park, Florida where on the weekends I attempt to put the car back together. I was holding off on rebuilding the car until I could restore it completely – but decided in the end that the car deserved a better fate than being labeled as another “restoration project” or “project car”. It’s getting old belonging to the local Jaguar Car clubs and not being able to drive to one in a Jaguar!

So join me as we start the process of putting the 340 back together and hopefully being able to drive it one day to a show.