1992 Jaguar Sovereign
Discussion
This is my ‘92 Jaguar Sovereign. I have owned it a long time and it has a huge sentimental value to me because it was once my late father’s company car.
This was my dad’s second XJ40 - before it he bought one of the first cars made in 1987. He generally kept cars a long time so when he came to trade my Sovereign in some years later the offers he received for it were very low. He knew I liked it so he gave it to me, and I have owned it ever since.
I don’t have many photographs of it from long ago. I only got a digital camera in 2008, so have very few photos of it from before that.
The caption for this photo my dad wrote says “France 1985”; that can’t be right so I’m thinking perhaps mid 1990s?
I can imagine him taking these with his Olympus Trip 35, not quite capturing the whole bonnet.
Here is another photo, taken in the South West on a very narrow lane for a Jag! It is from about the same time.
Late XJ40s like this one are well made, strong and very reliable cars which are capable of huge mileages. Mine has been no exception – it really never goes wrong and with cheap insurance and their surprising economy, has proved cheap to run.
Rust is their only real weakness and has killed a lot of them. Sadly the XJ40 doesn’t seem to have much of a following and people don’t seem to save them, many being scrapped for trivial problems. Numbers are dwindling so fast that they will become rarer than the E-Type within the next couple of years.
I’m saving mine though! Here is how it looks now. This photo was taken in 2011.
Edited by dbdb on Sunday 10th March 19:51
My XJ is 20 years old this year and has gone a bit rusty. I took it to a few body shops but surprisingly, most didn’t want to touch the car - or their plan for it was basically bodging and wouldn’t last.
Eventually I stumbled across Autofusion-uk, on RetroRides http://www.autofusion-uk.co.uk/ I liked the look of their work, and they are close to me (in Leigh Lancs. – I am in Cheshire) so I went to visit. They were working on a ‘Seventies Alpina at the time and the work they did on that was excellent, leaving the car looking like it had never needed repair.
Here it is in the body shop. Both front wings are off and the dreaded inner wings are rusty – mine is actually worse than average. I hope there are not too many photos.
It is classic late XJ40 inner wing rust – earlier cars don’t seem to be so affected. Here it is on a V12 (photo Jag-Lovers) so I knew what to expect.
Here is what greeted me when I went to see my car.
Right hand side: this is typical inner wing rust on the late XJ40. Water leaks in here and ends up on the front footwell floor.
It’s all properly crusty and flaky here and very weak. I kept a rust flake as a souvenir – it’s surprisingly heavy for a Bran flake.
On to the passenger’s side (RHD car) - slightly better?
It’s still very crusty this side though...
Luckily, forward of this the body is still in good condition. Jaguar made a rather half hearted attempt at rust proofing though and they don’t seem to have bothered with any paint. I wonder if the lack of paint is the reason why some XJ40s rust so badly under the front wings?
I wish I had Dinitroled it years ago…
The bulkhead is another late XJ40 weakness, but is in good condition on my car.
Right side:
And the left:
The front door pillar on the driver’s side worried me. It had a significant area of rust, which had holed. I haven’t seen this on any other XJ40, so I feared it could be symptom of some unknown horrors lying within.
Luck was on my side – the rust was in the outer skin only, the inside of the pillar is as it came from the factory.
New metal was fabricated and tacked into place:
The door pillar fits the wing evenly down its length, with no variation of the gap. I reckon the repair will be invisible when it is painted.
Eventually I stumbled across Autofusion-uk, on RetroRides http://www.autofusion-uk.co.uk/ I liked the look of their work, and they are close to me (in Leigh Lancs. – I am in Cheshire) so I went to visit. They were working on a ‘Seventies Alpina at the time and the work they did on that was excellent, leaving the car looking like it had never needed repair.
Here it is in the body shop. Both front wings are off and the dreaded inner wings are rusty – mine is actually worse than average. I hope there are not too many photos.
It is classic late XJ40 inner wing rust – earlier cars don’t seem to be so affected. Here it is on a V12 (photo Jag-Lovers) so I knew what to expect.
Here is what greeted me when I went to see my car.
Right hand side: this is typical inner wing rust on the late XJ40. Water leaks in here and ends up on the front footwell floor.
It’s all properly crusty and flaky here and very weak. I kept a rust flake as a souvenir – it’s surprisingly heavy for a Bran flake.
On to the passenger’s side (RHD car) - slightly better?
It’s still very crusty this side though...
Luckily, forward of this the body is still in good condition. Jaguar made a rather half hearted attempt at rust proofing though and they don’t seem to have bothered with any paint. I wonder if the lack of paint is the reason why some XJ40s rust so badly under the front wings?
I wish I had Dinitroled it years ago…
The bulkhead is another late XJ40 weakness, but is in good condition on my car.
Right side:
And the left:
The front door pillar on the driver’s side worried me. It had a significant area of rust, which had holed. I haven’t seen this on any other XJ40, so I feared it could be symptom of some unknown horrors lying within.
Luck was on my side – the rust was in the outer skin only, the inside of the pillar is as it came from the factory.
New metal was fabricated and tacked into place:
The door pillar fits the wing evenly down its length, with no variation of the gap. I reckon the repair will be invisible when it is painted.
Gray really struggled to fit the original wing to the car – it just wouldn’t sit right no matter what he did with it. Some swearing was heard. Nothing would work so he gave up and had a go with the new wing (part number CAP5122) and it went straight on so the old wing must be slightly buckled – perhaps in a minor bump I had in 2003. The panel gaps seem to be excellent and may even have improved slightly from original. XJ40s were never known for their razor sharp panel gaps.
Though there are no problems forward of the sills (the XJ40 does not rust in the suspension tower behind the shock absorbers like the X300 and X308 which can rust badly there and it is not a trivial repair), the right hand sill end has a lot of rust and needed to be completely replaced. A design fault creates a rust trap filled with road debris. This becomes waterlogged and is particularly bad on cars with a sunroof – like mine. The pipe to the right of the photos is the sunroof drain.
Luckily the rust is localised so could be cut back to good metal without a problem. There is classic XJ40 rust where the sill joins the floor at the front too, so rust was replaced with metal there at the same time.
Inside:
I’m worried about what is going on inside, under the scuttle. I poked my finger down the hole here and felt the rust flakes give way down below. Not good.
The area will need to be opened up to find out what is going on in there - I suspect this is the area that lets in water to the footwell in so many XJ40s.
Strangely both footwells on my car were always dry, but it could be that it was never exposed to enough water to fully saturate the soundproofing, then run down into the car. If it had been parked in the rain for a few days, then maybe I would have had a swimming pool footwells too.
Though there are no problems forward of the sills (the XJ40 does not rust in the suspension tower behind the shock absorbers like the X300 and X308 which can rust badly there and it is not a trivial repair), the right hand sill end has a lot of rust and needed to be completely replaced. A design fault creates a rust trap filled with road debris. This becomes waterlogged and is particularly bad on cars with a sunroof – like mine. The pipe to the right of the photos is the sunroof drain.
Luckily the rust is localised so could be cut back to good metal without a problem. There is classic XJ40 rust where the sill joins the floor at the front too, so rust was replaced with metal there at the same time.
Inside:
I’m worried about what is going on inside, under the scuttle. I poked my finger down the hole here and felt the rust flakes give way down below. Not good.
The area will need to be opened up to find out what is going on in there - I suspect this is the area that lets in water to the footwell in so many XJ40s.
Strangely both footwells on my car were always dry, but it could be that it was never exposed to enough water to fully saturate the soundproofing, then run down into the car. If it had been parked in the rain for a few days, then maybe I would have had a swimming pool footwells too.
Bravo! Great pictures and story. Look forward to the updates.
Interesting to learn that in a couple of years these cars will be rarer than E-types
I will ask my specialist to check the inner wings of my Double Six on the next service. There are no visible signs of corrosion, but it is probably worth checking.
As I mentioned in the Jaguar forum, these cars (they are known as "XJ40") are wonderful period pieces and are, as of today, the cheapest route into Jaguar ownership. They are ideal if you are looking for something with the character and charm of a classic car, but the reliability, performance and gadgets of a modern car.
Interesting to learn that in a couple of years these cars will be rarer than E-types
I will ask my specialist to check the inner wings of my Double Six on the next service. There are no visible signs of corrosion, but it is probably worth checking.
As I mentioned in the Jaguar forum, these cars (they are known as "XJ40") are wonderful period pieces and are, as of today, the cheapest route into Jaguar ownership. They are ideal if you are looking for something with the character and charm of a classic car, but the reliability, performance and gadgets of a modern car.
StainlessSteve32 said:
Lovely old girl, well worth looking after.
Thanks! I love the old thing!
AmitG said:
Bravo! Great pictures and story. Look forward to the updates.
Interesting to learn that in a couple of years these cars will be rarer than E-types
I will ask my specialist to check the inner wings of my Double Six on the next service. There are no visible signs of corrosion, but it is probably worth checking.
As I mentioned in the Jaguar forum, these cars (they are known as "XJ40") are wonderful period pieces and are, as of today, the cheapest route into Jaguar ownership. They are ideal if you are looking for something with the character and charm of a classic car, but the reliability, performance and gadgets of a modern car.
So true. They have a real classic Jaguar feel, yet modern usability and can be driven every day without any drama or histrionics. The XJ40 must be one of the most undervalued cars there is.Interesting to learn that in a couple of years these cars will be rarer than E-types
I will ask my specialist to check the inner wings of my Double Six on the next service. There are no visible signs of corrosion, but it is probably worth checking.
As I mentioned in the Jaguar forum, these cars (they are known as "XJ40") are wonderful period pieces and are, as of today, the cheapest route into Jaguar ownership. They are ideal if you are looking for something with the character and charm of a classic car, but the reliability, performance and gadgets of a modern car.
By no means all XJ40s have this inner wing rust, some have none whatsoever so yours could have escaped. It is definately worth taking the wings off to have a look if you plan to keep the car forever, but the rust is visible with the wings still on if you take the plastic wing liner off.
The XJ40 launch video is on Youtube.
This will have been playing on a 14" SONY monitor TV in some cosy corner of the dealer at the launch party. Welcome to 1986 and a nostalgic world of metallic gold and beige leather!
Even though they were a small company with limited resources, Jaguar put a huge effort into the design of the XJ40. I found the design and manufacturing processes interesting too. Was the XJ40 the last major production car designed by a handful of people?
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-9jXsDIKY
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 2/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOI3VEPla6Y&fea...
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 3/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8xxLnq9REI&fea...
This will have been playing on a 14" SONY monitor TV in some cosy corner of the dealer at the launch party. Welcome to 1986 and a nostalgic world of metallic gold and beige leather!
Even though they were a small company with limited resources, Jaguar put a huge effort into the design of the XJ40. I found the design and manufacturing processes interesting too. Was the XJ40 the last major production car designed by a handful of people?
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-9jXsDIKY
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 2/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOI3VEPla6Y&fea...
Jaguar XJ40 the legend 3/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8xxLnq9REI&fea...
i love xj40's, they are such a great looking car,
about 5 years ago me and my brother went though a phase of buying them on ebay, spamming them up a bit, and movining them on for a couple of hundred quids profit at a time
a few we had are
1) a daimer with everything - it went like stink, i wish i had kept it
2) a late, last year 'ford' one (with the better electrics and keys) - first owner was rusty lee (t.v cook women) - i had to sell it as id had a car accident and couldnt drive it - that was a very very good one
2) a super cheap one (it cost about 67 quid on ebay) that was rotten to the core, the engine was seized solid - it was shocking how bad the rot was on this particular car, yet all four doors where mint - it was if the shell had been dipped in salt!
3) a terrible 3.2 that the previous owner was going to convert to a diesel engine from a jcb (honest!) - it was that slow that the diesel engine may have been quicker.....
id have another in a shot
about 5 years ago me and my brother went though a phase of buying them on ebay, spamming them up a bit, and movining them on for a couple of hundred quids profit at a time
a few we had are
1) a daimer with everything - it went like stink, i wish i had kept it
2) a late, last year 'ford' one (with the better electrics and keys) - first owner was rusty lee (t.v cook women) - i had to sell it as id had a car accident and couldnt drive it - that was a very very good one
2) a super cheap one (it cost about 67 quid on ebay) that was rotten to the core, the engine was seized solid - it was shocking how bad the rot was on this particular car, yet all four doors where mint - it was if the shell had been dipped in salt!
3) a terrible 3.2 that the previous owner was going to convert to a diesel engine from a jcb (honest!) - it was that slow that the diesel engine may have been quicker.....
id have another in a shot
jamiebae said:
I guess your old French pics are 1995 instead of 85 judging by the Micra and Espace which also appear, it certainly can't be earlier than 1992.
Lovely old car, it's nice to see one being looked after properly, it looks very low mileage too from the interior?
It is low mileage for its age - about 97,000 miles. XJ40 interiors last really well, they're very good quality.Lovely old car, it's nice to see one being looked after properly, it looks very low mileage too from the interior?
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