Commissions

My other half is Sarah, and the Big Blue Cat in the heading relates to our 1990 XJ-S 5.3 litre convertible, in Solent Blue with Saville Grey interior. It’s actually Sarah’s baby, bought for her after many, many patient years of waiting.

Jags are in her family, with her brother owning an E-type and various uncles having Mark Xs and Mark 2s throughout life, but the XJ-S was always her personal desire. She’s had to put up for many years with my love for Land Rovers of all shapes and sizes, from Series 1, 2 and 3 through to Discovery 2s and 4s, Range Rovers Series 1s and P38s plus off-roaders and finally our White Witch, a white Discovery Sport 2.2 litre with the registration W1 CHH. Sarah has dabbled with imports, via a Chevy Astro 4.0 day van, a lifted and overboard 3.2 XXS Toyota surf, a Mitsubishi Delica 3.0 litre petrol and her latest, which we still have, a 260bhp Nissan Elgrand. All these came after turning down the chance to buy her first XJ-S convertible in wine metallic for £4000 many years ago. In those days though there was no place for the two kids and the two dogs.

“We have an XJ-S Plus, all the car anyone could want from a Jaguar and then some.”

So after many years of waiting, we bought the cat in late February this year, in nice condition as it was, but then decided to hand it over it to Chris Knowles at KWE so he could, as he put it, “Make it the car what it SHOULD have been in the first place”.

KWE Suspension Upgrades

For the first of their upgrades we plumped for their S1 suspension upgrade, which includes a suspension, steering and brake upgrade, note they say upgrade, not replacement as this makes the car better than when it was new in their opinion.

This included the complete stripping of the suspension, brakes and steering unit from the car, then each individual section stripped down, all those old BL bushes, shocks, joints, dampers, discs, springs and joints as well, basically thrown away. Each major section is then shot blasted and powder coated in zinc and then finished in black or another colour should you ask for it, and all wearing, perishable and moving parts renewed with OE or if they are not available, KWE manufactured parts. It’s then all put back together by a single person, only one mechanic to a car, and refitted with a full geometry steering set up done.

The suspension is then adjusted to how you like it, (Sarah went for sporty!) and road tested until they are sure all is perfect.

Engine & Cooling System

The next decision for us was what to do with the engine, so we opted for their V12 30,000 mile perishable service, with full cooling system renewal, in Chris’s words “The cooling system renewal is so important for V12s because cooling was marginal when new, let alone with clogged old pipes and failing pumps”. There were other options, but as the car had only done 56,000 miles and only 6,000 since 2007 it was thought the engine wouldn’t warrant any more.

What is included in their V12 30,000 mile perishable service, is anything perishable being removed and in place a new radiator, hoses, drive belts, new plug leads and plugs, thermostats, water pump, new electric fan and fan couplings. This is followed by a full chemical flush of the engine coolant system and all oilways, followed by a full 30,000 mile service to body and engine, with any engine tuning needed to get it to the top notch performance you’d expect. Also the gearbox and differential oils are changed and in our case, gearbox mounting bushes changed, see the picture for what came out and what went back!

The Interior & Exterior

Next the cabin, and it wasn’t so difficult to sort this one, as the carpets, leather and wood were already in very good condition and in the way KWE do things, “Not really something we need to touch,” Chris advised us. Still it just needed something to finish it off and then with the options Chris suggested we saw what it was. We then dumped that dodgy 1990 black plastic steering wheel in favour of a gorgeous Motalita Mk5 flat spoke holed steering wheel with polished centre horn push and a change to the T-bar on the gear selector from black plastic to wood matching the dash and surrounds. It finished it to a tee. As a finale KWE gave the paint a machine polish and wax to the interior valet including the seats getting a proper clean and a leather feed, making them just so.

The Finishing Touch

The dashboard instruments had all the illumination of a Victorian candle in a hurricane, so we went for a full interior lighting and instrument panel LED upgrade, and just to make life difficult for KWE, we requested that they do an experimental LED upgrade (never done before on an XJS) of all the control switches on the dash and centre console. This included the heater controls as well. They came through on that task with flying colours.

We got the car back in June, after a much anticipated wait and well !!!!!, was Chris right, it corners on rails, glides along on its new running gear like it is on air. You can see at night, like a modern car. The engine purrs and even after a half hour sit in traffic in recent very hot weather it sat rock solid normal in the temp zone. We’re also averaging 18mpg around town and on a recent long run 23.5mpg.

Was it worth the cost? Well, we’ve spent quite a bit more than the value of the car but what a car it is now!

Worth it ? Oh yes without a doubt, we have an XJ-S Plus, all the car anyone could want from a Jaguar and then some.

With thanks to Dave and Sarah Ash.

Also to Jaguar enthusiast Magazine for publishing the article.

Get involved in this XJS Convertible restoration project – what will you choose?

We’ve been busy beginning restoration on this XJS V12 Convertible, offered for sale. Hailing from Liverpool, it has very low mileage, and will be an affordable and cost-efficient classic car once our work is finished.

All we need now is you! Would you like to play a part in the car’s restoration specification – and perhaps become its new owner? We’re inviting our readers to suggest improvements, such as the colour scheme for the body paint and interior. This is a chance to build the classic car you’ve always wanted!

You can find some photos of the work so far here. As we go through the process of dealing properly with typical rust issues, we’re relishing transforming this convertible into a very strong and reliable XJS.

If you’ve got some great ideas for this Jaguar, we want to hear them – contact [email protected]

It can be difficult to distinguish between some of our favourite XJS restoration and upgrade projects. Each one gives the KWE team immense satisfaction. However, one recent project does stand out.

At the request of a famous TV and music industry celebrity, this 6-litre, V12 convertible has been fully restored and upgraded with some unique styling features.

We’ve stripped the original aubergine paintwork and resprayed it black, with the addition of unique, colour-keyed bumper tops. The V12 was then given the full KWE treatment with a suspension/brakes/steering renewal and upgrade. You’ll definitely see this Jaguar coming with its quad headlamp fittings. The smart exterior is matched by the luxurious cream leather interior with black piping and the addition of perforated centre sections. The internal refurbishment was completed with new European walnut wood veneers.

This XJS has undergone extensive restoration and upgrade work and we think it looks stunning. However, we’ll let you be the judge of that. Take a look at our restoration images here.

We currently have two further low-mileage, convertible Jaguar XJS cars for sale.

• XJS V12 Convertible 1990 under 56,000 miles
• XJ-S V12 Convertible 1988 only 57,853 miles

Why not take a look at these, and all of our cars for sale here.

Our Jaguar XJS restoration skills were fully utilised during one of our latest projects, which features as our ‘Car of the month’ for March 2016.

The new owner of this stunning example of a fully restored XJS V12 coupé requested that we first find and purchase the donor car. (more…)

KWE has become the go-to company for work on Eventers in the UK, and for cars from abroad.

Our latest commission is to bring a very good example up to top condition with KWE suspension/brakes/steering, power enhancement, mid-level engine overhaul and a range of restoration and rust-preventative measures.

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KWE have been commissioned to rebuild an extremely rare - almost certainly unique - Lister Mark III 7 litre XJS Cabriolet.

This monster of a car, complete with extensive 80’s body styling by Lister, has a highly modified Jaguar V12 7 litre engine, pumping out an estimated 500bhp through a 5 speed Getrag manual gearbox. There is more history on the car here.

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A five page article by Ian Cushway appears in the October 2007 issue of Jaguar World Monthly magazine.

Jaguar World MonthlyThe article describes the whole 2 year story and includes comment from the owner, Chris Winn and KWE’s MD Chris Knowles.

For copyright reasons we cannot reproduce the whole article here, so please buy a back copy (October 2007) from http://www.jaguar-world.com/.

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