Jaguar XJC Chassis 2
IK Sport Classic were approached some time ago by an avid Jaguar enthusiast asking if we would be interested in restoring an early Jaguar XJC. We discussed with the owner as to what level of finish he wanted the XJC restoring to, to be told that the car in question was quite a well know Jaguar as it was XJC chassis No. 2 pre-production/prototype with a well documented history. At this point we started to get excited and the discussions centred around the very poor dilapidated current condition of the car ( it had been sat outside for many years) and how as much of the original car needed to be retained so long as it was serviceable, even if some of the components would be showing signs of their age.
When the car arrived we spent a long time carrying out a thorough inspection, making special note as to the many individual differences compared to a later production version. What must be noted is that this car was originally built as a left hand drive vehicle but after a short period of testing it was taken back to the factory and converted to right hand drive before further testing was carried out.
The shell has had extensive repair work carried out including new floor panels, repairs to the boot floor and rear wings, new sills (both inner and outer and work to the front inner wings and chassis legs plus much more.
The shell has all been dry built to ensure correct panel gaps and panel fit and has had it’s first few coats of paint. The next step will be to build the car up to a rolling state prior to having it’s last attention to the paint work after which it will be carefully finished off with final build work including all the interior and exterior trim before being extensively road tested and any snagging work rectified, once we are happy with the car it will then be handed over to the customer for hopefully many years of happy classic car motoring. It is at this point that we will start on one of the owners next restoration projects of which he has many.