A $400.00 daily driver Jaguar. Can it be done?

Those of you who know me might just call me a masochist. After all, I've owned some of the most fearsomely complex-to-maintain automobiles on the planet. Yet something always draws me back to them. Perhaps it's that old school sense of those cars being 'purely mechanical' rather than computer-laden like today's automobiles, and some oddly found comfort in knowing that I can most probably fix anything that might go wrong on an old car versus being at the mercy of a dealership's service department, eagerly waiting to ravage my American Express card for all it's worth. Whatever it may be, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll always drive old cars. Sure, old luxury cars don't have quite the level of 'what we perceive' to be creature comforts today such as sat-nav, heated and massaging seats, a sound system that would rival George Lucas' own home theatre, but what they do have is charm. Pure, unadulterated, old-school charm. And in the case of my newly acquired $400.00 1985 Jaguar XJ6, character. Bags of it.

Ok, I never really intended to buy this car, after less than pleasant experiences with old Jaguars in the past. But damn it, this car spoke to me the first time I laid eyes on it, and I knew that I'd inevitably have it in my possession at some point. The seller's original asking price of $1,200.00 was rather rich for a car on which both front and rear windscreens would surely cave in if a strong enough blast from a high pressure hose hit them. But that aside, it was fundamentally "all there". It ran and drove amazingly well and just about everything on the car, barring the sunroof (which is a frivolous option anyways) and the aircon (which, hopefully, may just require a re-gassing of freon) worked. The brakes felt strong and the gearbox went through all ratios with a firm, positive action. Good enough for me. So after some haggling, I got him down to $700.00, which was still a bit on the high side, considering what a nice Series III XJ6 sells for (sadly). I left a princely offer of $400.00 on the table and told him to call me when he was ready to deal. Sure enough, two months later, the phone rang....

"Aaron. It's John. If you want the Jag at your offer of $400.00, come get it, I need it off the street as the neighbors are complaining." And with that, I was off to Westwood, check in-hand and a buddy to drive my other car home. Half an hour later, I was the owner of s/n 426288, a British Racing Green 1985 XJ6.

My initial plan with this car, honestly, was to put together a nice auction on eBay and punt it for maybe a grand or so. But after that initial drive home, I realized that this car was worth investing just a little moolah into to make a winter driver out of. Actually, that realization came when I discovered that the heat did in fact work!

The next day, I got the car up to my workshop, and, armed with a box full of service goodies from my boys at Worldpac, set out on the patented "Aaron Greenberg Fluid Fetish Service", which consisted of changing every fluid and filter in the car, along with the requisite spark plugs, wiper blades and any other minor service 'bits and bobs'. So far, so good.......