Netters,
I have a genuine question here, not just miscellaneous ramblings.
As an aside, I do have to say that your comments jolted me and I'm now
fully on track with respect to my (oops) OUR next car. In fact, I was so
excited about Jaguars last night that I couldn't sleep for hours! This
is bad because it now seems like I've lost what I consider to be
crystal-clear objectivity. So I need your advice.
Here goes. I have to choose between two cars. Of course, on my
budget, they both need a little work.
CAR #1. 1986 XJ-6 Vanden Plas. Theft job. Right door lock
pulled, dash goofed up, seats slashed, grille missing. Rusty (my old boss),
will include a complete interior from same year VdP in good shape,
including dash assembly, complete console and radio, door panels.. the
works. The car has really good paint, and 77,000 miles. It's a light
beige-bronze color, with a 'mesquite' beige interior.
Last week, he sold the same year car, same color, that they had
repainted and installed an interior in for $12,000 , and had 5 people on
the waiting list. He's offering this car to me at cost, along with the
interior and grille, for $6500, and he'll help me wire the dash and put
it in.
CAR #2. Started life as a 1982 XJ-6 with a rather bad engine
fire that extended into the dash and interior. He built this car for his
wife to drive around in, but he wanted to make it special. He installed
a 1986 XJ-S H.E. V-12 engine and transmission, along with suspension
front and rear from a group of XJ-S's that fell of a train on their way
to Hess and Eisenhart in 1988 to be made into convertibles. Then he
installed a nice condition biscuit interior. So the car is like a
Canadian spec XJ-12, but is an H.E, and has a 2.88 limited slip
differential, and rear swaybar (a la XJ-S). It has factory 1989 XJ-S Mag
wheels, (like BBS's). Oh, and a really nice black paint job. The nice
thing about this car is I already
have some pride of ownership since I helped build it a few years ago.
He says his wife doesn't really care that the car has a V-12, and
that he'd like to sell it to me because I'll appreciate it. I like it
because it is a custom car made from all factory parts, so purists can't
as easily snub their noses at it. It has 7" European headlights, and no
goofy spoilers or anything like that.
What's wrong with this one is that the torque converter is doing
funny things, and Rusty's 4 little children (rugrats as he says), have
done a number on the passenger and rear seats. Rusty says he'll give me
the car, along with a replacement GM-400 trans and torque converter, and
a newer passenger and rear seat, for $5500.
The clincher is that he'll allow me to pay what I can now, (about
$2500), and pay the rest off next summer working the counter for him at
$12.50/hr. Since I'll be waiting for grad school to start, and I'll
still get financial aid for the summer (since I'm taking 4 credits for
the first two weeks), I really have an open month or two.
The up's and down's of each particular car are:
CAR #1. XJ-6 series III's, while reliable, are downright slow. However,
the VdP designation has a certain class, and being a metallic
light color, it'll stay clean even when dirty.
CAR #2. Fast, black, says V-12 on the back. Factory mods. Cool wheels.
Handles a little better than a stock one due to the wider tyres,
XJ-S swaybars, and Polyurethane rack bushes. Every component has
been recently replaced, and it has been assembeld right. Only problem,
I don't know what the emmisions guys will say about it.
Rusty has offered to take it down to the testing station this week to
see if the dolts notice anything's amiss. If they don't, I'll be
tempted to go for it.
So what do you all think?
Greg
Greg Meboe meboe@wsuaix.csc.wsu.edu
Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Washington State University, Pullman, Wa.
'67 Spit-6 '74 TR-6
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