The Good, The Bad and The JAG...

at least once in every car guy's life he finds himself at that threshold of rational thought and emotional. advice: if you're feeling even a LITTLE bit emotional when you look at an old Jaguar, WALK AWAY AND TAKE A COLD SHOWER or do your taxes or something else that is a buzz-kill IMMEDIATELY.

i did none of these things.

i fell in love with the idea of this: my 1996 Jaguar XJS. did a TON of research, joined Jag forums, etcetc. and ended up with the idea that this, the last generation of the xjs made in '96 and primarily built by Ford was the highest quality for this model.


so i drew up the criteria: southern car, preferably east coast, though not from FLA. one owner, all books and records. -and any color but white.

took about 6 months to find this one:

from VA. one owner (guy bought it and lost it in divorce settlement, you'll catch the IRONY on this in a moment). it hadn't been driven in a while and was not my first choice, but i discovered the field is somewhat limited for these cars. -the paint had completely oxidized.

found (through Jag forums) a GREAT mech down there. actually wired the money to him and he bought the car for me.

took about 2k worth of work to get her road worthy for the drive back up north. had to do a brake rebuild, new rubber, new wires, new sparks, flushed al systems including the tranny (which can be dicey).

he had a great quote when i went down to pick her up from the guy that owned the repair shop. "you ever own a Jag before?" he asked. "no, but i'm pretty excited about it! i love how the xjs looks. sexy, you know? -looks a bit like a woman." i replied.

"i own a couple" he said. "what's ownership like? i asked.

he looked up from his paperwork and said "you ever been married?"

"yep" i said "-so they're like a wife?"

he looked at me and went on: "ever been divorced?..."

"uh, yep. so they're like an X wife? -got it." i said.

"an ugly divorce..." he added. "-...so...they're like an angry X wife?" i asked, my voice trailing.

"yeh." he said then paused before adding "-they're like an angry X wife. -who's WICKED hot and is a complete bitch about it."

great. and that pretty much sums up Jag ownership.

with that bit of info, i jumped into my hot, bitchy, angry future X and drove her back to CT.

-man, how UGY are those stock Jag rims btw? ...had the interior cleaned and repaired (including the rip) by the amazing Greg at Fairfield Auto Upholstery. wow, is that guy good. -there's a pic of that further down.

-ahhhhh, here's how she came out... click on these pix and see how amazing the paint looks. -nice job as always Peter.


then had some additional mech work done. really had trouble starting her up. after spending another 2k or so trying different things found out from Jag "yeh, sometimes we get that. might need a new computer. cost about 3k. might not fix the problem though. we've seen it go away on its' own sometimes..." now THAT'S reassuring.

anyway, with bringing in all the details, then gave it to the guys over at Coatling's. there they stripped her down to the bare metal, got the original paint from Jag and repainted her. -filling all the door dings with lead -and taking all the badges off.

i also picked up a set of custom rims and (again) new rubber.






after all that work, we did get divorced after all. i ended up selling her to my Dad.
-my X now lives in FLA and requires the same amount of attention... i really don't think she's angry.


















-sure is pretty though...

peace,

Joe