Jensen Interceptor restoration

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Doors now fitted and most of interior trim in, just a couple of small jobs and the bonnet to be fitted then its ready for an ~MOT.

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The car does sit high with new springs all round, im waiting to see if it settles after a couple of hundred miles.
From what ive read the back will be too low before long and I may have to swap the front springs for slightly lower MK11 springs.

The MK111 springs were longer to raise the front to meet USA specs.

Thats my Vauxhall FE 2300s behind it which is my main car and daily driver ive had that for a couple of months and put 1000 miles on it
whereas ive had the Jensen for nearly 3 years and put less than 10 miles and all my money on it.

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Its been a while since I posted and I have now completed 200 miles test driving the car which included an outing to a pub last night.
Although there are still bits to finish it is now a usable car should the urge for a V8 blast take my fancy.

Here it is at the pub



And this shot is with a friends car which he has only just got back on the road recently

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Thanks guys, I'm already having lots of fun it's so nice to know I can take it out whenever the urge takes me as it's been in bits for 2 years since I bought it as a wreck.

This weekend will be spent finishing off some of the trim and maybe fitting the s/s sill covers ready to take my daughter out for her 18th birthday as I promised if the car was ready.

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Here are some photos of the completed car to close off this restoration thread as the car is now finished (with a bit of tweaking to be carried out over winter).
I have covered 900 miles since it was finished some of them in high temperatures and standing traffic which my standard cooling system coped with perfectly.

I hope to get plenty more miles in before the winter and have a busy August planned with it and shows and events around the Northwest.

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Thread resurrection, I still own this Jensen and have used it much over the last few years giving me much pleasure.

I now restore these for a living and have almost completed a J Series MK3 and thought I would share this video I made of the restoration from when the bodyshell returned from paint.
I also have 2 MK1 FF’s and an SP under full restoration at the moment.

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The car went for its MOT and its first 40 shake down miles yesterday, all went well and I stopped for a photo opportunity at my favourite spot.

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dbdb said:

A fabulous thing - what's the colour? - It's lovely.

Thanks all for the lovely comments, the colour is not specific to any car but was mixed to the owners liking. It does have a big flip when the sun hits it.

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GoodOlBoy said:

I've always though that they would benefit from a more modern gearbox and a few other tweaks to get the fuel consumption to a more acceptable level.

Has anyone gone down this route ?

Some have changed for a more modern gearbox although there is no quick fix here and mods will be needed. Personally I find the Torqueflight 727 a good gearbox they are very strong and the gear change is very smooth on a sorted box.

Regarding fuel don't believe everything you read in the press, I get 16mpg from mine driven normally. Those with an SP find even better mpg when driven sedately but once those vac secondaries open the car is so much fun but then expect single figure mpg.
For a big V8 thats using 50 year old technology in a heavy car thats not bad,

I run a year 2000 V8 Landcruiser as a daily and that uses lots of fuel even though its a much more modern engine with fuel injection and ecu’s to control everything. Running it on LPG makes it bearable but running it on petrol is almost as bad as the Jensen.