I am finally making a concerted effort to get my NADA 2000 auto on the road! I have owned this car for over 10 years now and it has always been pushed aside in favour of new and exciting projects, but no more! She will be road legal, hopefully in the next month.
First a bit of history. This car was bought to NZ in 1971 from California by a family who were immigrating here. (Apparently they bought their mk2 Jag as well but I don't know what happened to that) The father had bought the car second hand and obviously liked it enough to ship it over with him, and used it regularly until the late '80s when it was starting to deteriorate. In the early '90s he decided to have it restored and gave it to a Jaguar specialist for a major cosmetic overhaul. The car had extensive repairs to the body and base unit (all done very nicely) a full respray in Arden green, rechromed bumpers and a full interior retrim in black vinyl including new carpets and hoodlining. Mechanically, I suspect it was untouched except for new shocks and rebuilt rear calipers. All this came to a bit over $10,000! (I have receipts) The car was re-registered in 1993 and returned to the old man who drove it for about a month and then died.
His son parked the car in a shed on their rural Auckland property and there it sat until they decided they needed the space and parked the car on the lawn. It lived there for about another year until a chance conversation with a P5 owner I knew who had seen it when visiting the property on business.
A few phone calls and a bit of negotiation and the car (which was by now up to it's door handles in grass) was mine for $400!
Unfortunately, we were just about to move house at this point so apart from getting the car running, not much could be done. So it was stored at my brother's for a while, shifted to my workshop, to home, to work and back home again with not much being acheived.
The biggest burst of activity was in 2003 when I removed the original (knackered) engine, cleaned and painted the engine bay, replaced all the brake lines and fitted a good 2200TC motor.
However, in the last week (due to the missus being away) I have replaced the rotten exhaust, flushed out the cooling system, got a proper key cut for it, replaced the rear brakes and booster, freed off the front brakes, fixed the radio and bought a set of tyres for it. I have driven it gently to work and back a couple of times and been for a good crawl around underneath to see what needs doing. I am very close to getting it re-registered and back on the road.
How about some pics?
Front view after a wash. taken a couple of years ago.
Rear view.
Showing early type Icelert sensor and clear indicators. Both were missing when purchased and had to be sourced from Ebay.
Touring kit fitted by me. Also notice cool Icelert sticker!
Picture from during the big resto in '93. Looks fairly thorough!
First a bit of history. This car was bought to NZ in 1971 from California by a family who were immigrating here. (Apparently they bought their mk2 Jag as well but I don't know what happened to that) The father had bought the car second hand and obviously liked it enough to ship it over with him, and used it regularly until the late '80s when it was starting to deteriorate. In the early '90s he decided to have it restored and gave it to a Jaguar specialist for a major cosmetic overhaul. The car had extensive repairs to the body and base unit (all done very nicely) a full respray in Arden green, rechromed bumpers and a full interior retrim in black vinyl including new carpets and hoodlining. Mechanically, I suspect it was untouched except for new shocks and rebuilt rear calipers. All this came to a bit over $10,000! (I have receipts) The car was re-registered in 1993 and returned to the old man who drove it for about a month and then died.
His son parked the car in a shed on their rural Auckland property and there it sat until they decided they needed the space and parked the car on the lawn. It lived there for about another year until a chance conversation with a P5 owner I knew who had seen it when visiting the property on business.
A few phone calls and a bit of negotiation and the car (which was by now up to it's door handles in grass) was mine for $400!
Unfortunately, we were just about to move house at this point so apart from getting the car running, not much could be done. So it was stored at my brother's for a while, shifted to my workshop, to home, to work and back home again with not much being acheived.
The biggest burst of activity was in 2003 when I removed the original (knackered) engine, cleaned and painted the engine bay, replaced all the brake lines and fitted a good 2200TC motor.
However, in the last week (due to the missus being away) I have replaced the rotten exhaust, flushed out the cooling system, got a proper key cut for it, replaced the rear brakes and booster, freed off the front brakes, fixed the radio and bought a set of tyres for it. I have driven it gently to work and back a couple of times and been for a good crawl around underneath to see what needs doing. I am very close to getting it re-registered and back on the road.
How about some pics?
Front view after a wash. taken a couple of years ago.
Rear view.
Showing early type Icelert sensor and clear indicators. Both were missing when purchased and had to be sourced from Ebay.
Touring kit fitted by me. Also notice cool Icelert sticker!
Picture from during the big resto in '93. Looks fairly thorough!
