One of the things that became apparent in starting to use the car regularly, was that the differential had a fairly major leak.  This is obviously bad for the longevity of the limited slip diff, but on the XJ series cars, the rear brakes are inboard so major leaks can impact the rear brakes.

The independent rear suspension used on the XJ and Daimler derivatives is the same independent rear suspension unit introduced on the E-Type in 1961.  It was still far ahead of everyone else when the X was introduced in 1968, and continued to be throughout the 70s and early 80s.  It was only when the competition introduced multi-link rear suspension systems in the mid 80s was it surpassed.  The original version was used until the end of XJ Series 3 production, and evolutions of the system were used until the mid 2000s.

The reason the independent rear suspension for the XJ is related to the differential is the design of system has the entire rear suspension, differential and brakes in a removable rear subframe.   Therefore to fix my differential leak, the rear suspension had to come out of the car.

On my car the exhaust system wasn’t in great condition and had to be cut before the rear suspension could come down. This will need to be replaced later. The good news is that the underside of the car is in good condition. With the rear suspension removed, the differential could then be serviced. A clunk in the rear suspension was traced to be due to bent trailing arm mount brackets.

While the car was in having the differential leak fixed, a few other things needed sorting out, including:

• Leak from transmission pan gasket
• A couple of small coolant leaks from coolant hoses
• The fan clutch was not engaging properly when the engine was hot

In addition to those things, when changing a fuel sender on the left hand tank, it was clear that the cleaning the tank a few months ago hadn’t worked very well.  The tank was still very dirty.  New fuel tanks are still available, so I was able to purchase one and have it sent directly to the workshop to be fitted.   I had feedback it looked like it was very good quality and had some kind of internal ceramic coating.

The front brakes were leaking and so the calipers removed to be rebuilt.  In doing so, it was clear that it was necessary as the pistons were in pretty rough shape.

I also had some new external rear view mirrors fitted, including one on the passengers side.  This wasn’t optioned when the car was new, but I park very close to a wall in my storage area and I don’t want to damage the side of the car.

It as a lot of work on the car, but none of these things are all that unusual for a car that was laid up for a while.

The post Daimler differential leaks, front brakes and fuel tank appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

• Soft brake pedal
• Dirty passengers side fuel tank and pitted chrome on fuel cap
• Dented rear bumper
• Tachometer not working after my attempted repair
• Fuel gauges not working properly

The soft brake pedal seemed to be resolved by cleaning up the calipers and getting the pistons moving a bit better, and then re-bleeding the brakes.    The passengers side fuel tank was a bigger job.  It had to be removed from the car, and it was clear it had been out before and been re-sealed in some way.  It was a bit rusty inside and some of that sealer was flaking off.   The tank was cleaned in acid and then put back in the car.

The drivers side was in much better shape.  Since the rear bumper comes off to get to the petrol tank, the dented section was replaced with a better one.   I also had a better chrome filler cap to replace the pitted one with.

It turned out I had done the tachometer wiring correctly.  However, there were some issues with the wiring at the back of the Tachometer which once fixed had it working properly.

During this service, it was also identified that I would need to bring the car back in the new year to address a major leak from the differential, and that one of my fuel pumps was not working properly.   I planned to replace that myself.

While the car was in, it also had an oil and filter change and other checks.

The post Daimler Servicing appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Instead of using OPUS, I had the car converted to a Pertronix LU-1122A.  Instead of a separate ignition box in the vee of the V12, the Pertronix unit is completely inside the distributor.  In period, the OPUS boxes used to overheat given their location, and were moved in later cars.

The Pertronix system has my car running very well, but the downside is that the Tachometer was no longer working.   Unlike on the six cylinder cars, the V12s were always electronic ignition, so the distributor is already the right type.  From my research, all I needed was to put a resistor between 9,000-10,000ohm between the negative terminal of the coil and the tachometer.

To work out how it was wired, I purchased a book that contained the wiring diagrams for the car.  That helped me understand the purpose of the wires that went to the plug for the OPUS unit.  I was able to identify which wire went to the Tachometer.   Once Identified, I purchased a 9,500ohm resistor and made a line to go from the OPUS plug to the negative terminal on the coil.

I’m terrible at soldering, I so I used some connectors that need a heat gun to join the various wires, then put some heat shrink on top.   Installation was quite simple, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to work.

However, it turns out I had done it correctly, and when I had the car in the workshop, I had them check.  It turns out that the wiring behind the tach was not connected properly, and once connected it all worked.   Its been pretty reliable since, but occasionally it has stopped.  I don’t know why yet.   Generally it works pretty well.   I don’t know if its 100% accurate, but then I doubt the tachometer ever was.

In addition, the other quick fix I did was to purchase the proper V12 badge for the centre console and use some trim adhesive to install it.  A small thing, but it looks great in the interior.

The post Daimler tachometer and V12 badge appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Jaguar went to the dual fuel tank system with the S-Type of 1963.  It then flowed into most of the subsequent models, with the exception of the XJS, until the introduction of the XJ40 in the mid 80s.

Just before Christmas, I had the tank on the passengers side removed and cleaned out.  It was pretty nasty inside, the lines were full of gunk and the screen on the pickup was all blocked.  When it was all put back together, I as advised that the fuel pump for this tank was not able to provide enough volume and it needed to be replaced.

At least on the cars with the quad carburettors like mine, they used a pair of SU AZX1400 series double ended fuel pumps.  The original pumps were points type, but the new ones are normally solid state.  Each tank has its own pump, and there are valves to make sure the return fuel goes to the correct tank.  These same pumps were also used on some Rolls Royce models too. The photo below shows the SU pump that was in my car.

They are now very expensive, at around $1,000 per pump landed in Australia.   The pump that I had been using on the good tank was a FuelFlow 2LM12 pump from New Zealand and seemed to be working well.  Given I have the redundancy of dual pumps, I decided not to spend $1,000 on a fuel pump, and went with another FuelFlow pump.  At $220 delivered, it was a huge saving. The photo below shows the existing FuelFlow pump on the left and the SU on the right.

The pump arrived the other day and I went about fitting it today.  The fuel pumps are located in in the boot, in a cavity to the rear of the spare tyre.  At least on my car, each pump was responsible for the opposite fuel tank.  That mean I would be changing the drivers side pump.

At first it all looked rather complicated, but slowly tracing all the lines had it starting to make sense.

Each tank has its own output line, and those are connected to the opposite pump.   There is one line that goes to the engine, which is on the drivers side of the car.  Therefore, there is a fuel line that goes from the left side pump, over to the right side pump, then to main fuel filter.  Only one pump runs at a time, so when the left pump is in use, the fuel flows past the right pump but not through it.

There is a single return line from the engine, that is on the passengers side.  That connects to both tanks, with a valve that determines where the fuel should go.  This is important, as if both tanks are full, its important that the return flow go back to the tank it came from.

The wiring also looks more complicated than it is.  Since the pumps are double ended, each end has separate power and ground connections.  The power feed for each pump goes to the valve, on each side.   I didn’t really examine these carefully.

The fuel lines for the FuelFlow pump were the same as the SU.  It was quite simple to get the fuel lines setup.   The power feed was a bit different.   The SU has a single power line per end, and the body of the pump acts as a ground, with an unshielded ground wire.   The FuelFlow has a plastic body, so has power and ground lines at each end. The photo below shows the new FuelFlow pump installed.

I didn’t use the unshielded ground wire, I made up a new ground harness that went into the chassis where the valves screw into the body.  The power feed was simpler to adapt.  The wiring in my car had a power feed to the inner end of each pump and then a wire that went to the outer end.   I used the same setup.

The pumps were not screwed in.  Rather they had rubber straps at each end that held them in place.  The SU pump also had a back plastic surround, that I assumed was to cut down noise.  This was missing on the existing FuelFlow pump, but I re-used it for my new one.  When I later tested the pumps, the new one was a fair bit quieter, so I’m glad I kept it.

It started to bucket down with rain as I did the job, so I didn’t end up taking the car on a test drive.  I was able to verity that the correct pump ran when I toggled the switch on the dashboard.

The post Jaguar V12 Fuel Pump appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

By October 1972, the Daimler Saloons were all based on the Jaguar XJ.  The old 420 based Sovereign had finished production in 1969, and the DS420 limo had a separate price list.  That car had a broad appeal, finding buyers from Royalty to funeral homes.  This price list is for the UK market.

The Jaguar Price list of the same period also offered the E-Type which never had a Daimler version.  An E-Type 2+2 was similar in price to a Double-Six.

In terms of the XJ based saloons, the range overlapped significantly.  The main difference was that the short wheelbase XJs (2.8 and 4.2) could be ordered with a manual transmission and no overdrive.  While most Daimlers were automatic, overdrive was standard for manual.   In addition, the Vanden Plas was not offered on the XJ12 LWB, although one car was made for the Queen Mother.

Generally the Daimler versions were very slightly more expensive than the equivalent Jaguar.   Where the models were the same, the Daimler was 3-4% more expensive than the Jaguar. Looking at the price list, the Double-Six looks to be incredible value, just under 15% more expensive than a 4.2 SWB.

The Vanden Plas on the other hand, looks significantly more expensive, at over 40% more than the Double-Six.  However, if you normalize the two models, and add all the options standard on the Vanden Plas to the Double-Six, then the difference is 13.65%, or £525.21.   That actually seems pretty good value for a coach-built interior.   The difference between a 4.2 SWB and a 4.2 LWB is 9.7%, and those two cars are basically identical.   

The options list on these cars was quite extensive.  The options with the * were standard on the Vanden Plas, which is basically everything except for the chrome wheels.   Air conditioning was a pretty expensive option, which is why it was rarely seen in the UK market.

Features like a sunroof or central locking were never offered by the factory on a Series 1 XJ.  Dealers would fit a webasto sunroof if requested.

My Double-Six Vanden Plas was produced in January 1973, so the first owner would have used this price list to order the car.   It was a very expensive car, but compared to A Mercedes-Benz or Bentley, quite well priced.

The post Daimler Saloon Models Price List – October 1972 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

1 – Drive the Car

First step was to get it registered so I can drive it.  I’ve now put about 100 miles on the Daimler.  It hadn’t been registered for around 20 years (although it was used on a trade plate for a few years after that) and It’s only done less than 6,000 miles since the year 2000.   A bit of use already has it driving better and better.

This is also helping me identify future improvements.  It runs well when warmed up, but not so well when cold.  The suspension work so far was the minimum required to get the car registered.  It will need some more to bring back the great ride these cars are known for.

2 – Clean and feed the leather

Preserving the special Vanden Plas interior is critical, and so one of my first steps was to clean and feed the leather.  The leather is not perfect but its really very good for its age.   I’ll want to do this a few more times.  I used the Auto-Glym leather conditioner.

3 – Clean the carpets

The carpets were pretty dirty.  I removed the ones I could easily and used my little carpet cleaner.   The ones in the car I did as I could.   It made a pretty big difference and the water out of the carpet cleaning machine was pretty dirty by the time I had finished.  I also noticed that the underlay material was missing on the passengers front, which led me to my next job.

4 – Replace the underlay on the passengers front

I had some carpet underlay on hand I bought for a previous project.  It was thinner than the material used on the rest of the car, but two sheets together was about the same thickness.  I used the front carpet as a template and cut two sheets to size and installed them.   These cars had pretty extensive sound deadening compared to a regular XJ.

5 – Installed a battery monitor and charge port

I use the BM2 Bluetooth Battery monitor in all my cars.  While the Daimler is fitted with a voltage gauge, I am not sure how accurate it is.  The bluetooth monitor allows me to quickly see the voltage of the battery even when the car is not running.  The gauge is particularly useful on the Mercedes and Citroens that don’t give you a voltage gauge, but I was able to verify that the alternator was working well, and the gauge in the car reads a little low.     In addition, I installed a port for my ctek bettery chargers so I don’t have to worry about alligator clips.

6 – Installed a second hand lower grille

The lower grille on my car was totally missing.  Its not immediately obvious on the series 1, but having a gaping hole under the front bumper is not ideal.   I was first given a grille which turned out to be for a series 3.  I then found one on uk ebay that was for a series 1 and fitted it.  A small improvement that makes quite a difference once fitted.

7 – Fixed rattling hubcap

On my first couple of drives, I noticed quite a rattle from the front drivers wheel.  At first I wasn’t sure what was causing.   I couldn’t see anything hitting the wheel when the car was jacked up.  I couldn’t see the trim ring touching anything either.   Turns out the Daimler badge on the hubcap was loose.  I’ve removed the hubcap and added some glue, and will refit and test.

8 – Owners manual and keyring

I purchased an owners manual and keyring.  I couldn’t find a Vanden Plas owners manual, but owners manuals for the regular Series 1 Double-Six are easy to find on uk Ebay.  At the all British day, I also purchased a Daimler keyring, which has sadly already broken.

The post First improvements to the Daimler appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Both the car and the engine are masterpieces.   The V12 Series 1 XJ was the culmination of Jaguar at their best and when it was launched in 1971 it was a revelation and the ultimate sports sedan.

The V12 engine was probably the most advanced mass produced engine of its period – An all alloy overhead cam v12 that started out life as a race engine and then was developed for the road.   It was originally supposed to have fuel injection from the start, but the supplier cancelled the project and Jaguar came up with the quad carburetor setup as an interim measure.  The engine is well built and strong, but suffers from prodigious thirst.  The timing couldn’t have been worse for Jaguar, launching such an advanced engine right before a fuel crisis.

Even with the XK engine, the Series 1 XJ is a world beating car.   The V12 just took it to the next level.     I’ve always wanted to own both a series 1 XJ and a Jaguar V12, so it made sense to buy a car with both.

While a short wheelbase XJ12 was appealing, the model I really wanted was the Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas.   This wasn’t going to be an easy car to find.    There were only 351 ever made, and none sold new in Australia.   Survival rates are not great.   In the 90s they were just seen as a thirsty old car, and pretty much worthless.   Since most of them were sold new in the United Kingdom, rust claimed many.   Private imports in Australia do exist, but there are few in good condition.

The Daimler Double-Six was an XJ12 with nicer trim, a different grille and more chrome.    The Vanden Plas model took it to the next level.   It started out with a long wheelbase chassis with all the available options except for the chrome wheels.   This included air conditioning, fog lights, electric windows, remotely operated rear view mirror, Radiomobile 8 track, and Sundym glass.

The cars were assembled at Browns lane to a base coat of paint and then sent to the Vanden Plas Kingsbury works to be finished by coachbuilders.  This included a sumptuous interior, special metallic paint colours and a vinyl roof.  A regular Double-Six was £3,848.90.   The Vanden Plas would set you back £5,439.06 as of October 1972.  

I have been on the lookout for one for many years.   One popped up for sale about four years ago, but I wasn’t in a position to buy at the time.  It also didn’t seem like the car for me.  After a while, I saw an interesting XJ12 SWB for sale in British Racing Green.  Given I figured I may never find a Vanden Plas, I went to look at the car.   I liked it, but it wasn’t the car for me.

A while after that drive I mentioned this to and old friend, who told me that a Vanden Plas he used to own might be for sale.   It had been repainted and had a new vInyl roof fitted, but the current owner had two Bentley projects to do, and was thinking about selling the Vanden Plas.   On the upside, it was rust free and freshly painted, and had a pretty nice interior.   On the downside, it hadn’t been registered since 2005.

A deal was done after I went to see the car.    It wasn’t perfect, but it was a rust free Vanden Plas.   The interior wasn’t perfect, but it had a nice patina and was pretty original.   Before I took possession of the car, it required some work to transport it safely.

• Installing electronic ignition to get it to run properly
• Ensuring it would not catch fire by making sure the carbies, fuel hoses and so on were all attended to
• Making sure my lovely V12 engine would not cook by getting the cooling system to work
• Fitting tyres that held air on the correct wheels
• Making sure the brakes worked
• Fitting some of the missing chrome from the repaint

With that work done, I was ready to take possession of the car.   It still needs a few things to get it to the point where I would be confident driving it to Melbourne and back, but it runs very nicely when warmed up, and the engine stays cool.   I’m very happy with it and am looking forward to slowly improving it over time.

So far the main thing I have done is take it on smaller drives.  It runs better and better the more I drive it.

The post My Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas Series 1 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Last year numbers seemed a bit down from prior years.   Probably the move put people off.   However, it felt bigger and busier this year.   While the new location looks further away on the map, in terms of time taken to get there, there is very little difference.

I took my E-Type and joined the rather impressive line up in the JDCA section.   It was a good showing this year.   The strongest displays were the E-Types, XK120/140/50, XJS, XJs and Modern XKs.   Surprisingly there were almost none of the big saloons like the MK VIII, and numbers for the compact saloons seemed down too.

Looking around at the other clubs, there was a great display as usual from the Rolls Royce club, who always have a range of lovely cars.  I enjoy seeing how the pre-war cars get plenty of use.   The Daimler club also had a nice display as well.

Being a British car show, there were of course large displays from popular models like the MGB, original mini and so on.   It is always nice to see those cars, but what makes this show so good is the sheer variety of cars.  I’ve been going for years and I always see something new and interesting and rare.

The show was held on the same day as the French car show.  Normally I would attend that event with my Citroen DS.  However, by the time I properly looked at the British cars, it was a bit late to go over.   I hope next year the dates are not combined.

The post 2025 British car show Sydney appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas is a very special version of the Daimler Double Six.  Essentially it is a Daimler Double Six that was sent to the Vanden Plas coachbuilders to be hand trimmed with a unique interior that was to Rolls Royce levels.  The cars also had special chrome trim, a vinyl roof and other improvements over the Standard Double Six.   The Double Six basically being a slightly more upmarket version of the Jaguar XJ12.

The Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas was offered with a set of distinctive special colours that was different to the rest of the XJ and Daimler range.   These colours started for the series 1 cars and continued into the early series 2 period.  The colours on offer had changed somewhat by the mid 70s.  During this period a base coat was done at Browns Lane and the rest of the paint and trim was done at the Vanden Plas Kingsbury works in Northern London.

I’m not aware of any statistics for the most popular colours.  However, looking at various cars for sale over the years (mostly in the UK), Silver Sand seems to be the most popular.   This is interesting as its probably the most understated, especially when paired with Chamois leather, as they always seem to be.

The next most popular would appear to be Morello, and then I’ve seen a few cars in Caramel and Coral.   Aegean Blue I’ve seen quite a few times in the series 2, but it doesn’t seem to be as common in the series 1 cars.   I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Aubergine, and Sage seems to be very rare.

For the leather colours, it seems like nearly all the cars I’ve seen for sale have chamois leather.   Tuscan is definitely in the minority and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car with Deep Olive.   I personally like the boldness of Tuscan.  Chamois is lighter in real life and cream leather tends to show marks that other colours do not.   Its probably not too surprising that Chamois was by far the most popular, it works with all of the colours.  I think Tuscan would probably clash with Caramel or Coral.  Sage is the only one I would probably pick to go with Deep Olive.

I personally really like the Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas colours.  They are all striking and pair really well with the black Vinyl roof and the extra chrome.    The colour range for the regular Jaguar and Daimler saloons was more extensive, but the exclusive colour range added something special to the Vanden Plas model.

Were it late 1972, I would have chosen a car in either Morello with Tuscan or Aegean Blue with Chamois.

The post Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas car colour guide – October 1972 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

In particular, the car I have always admired the most was the Series 1 V12, in either Jaguar or Daimler form.   The XJ was always designed to take the V12.  I think to this day it is still the only true mass produced V12 ever made.   Given it took a while to get the V12 XJ to market, it was only offered for about a year and a half before the XJ went to the series 2.

The XJ suffers from the reputation it gained in the late 70s and early 80s for poor quality. That keeps prices fairly low for what is an amazing car. It is interesting to wonder how much more successful the XJ would have been if Jaguar was not part of BL.  Certainly they could have afforded to update the cars and the quality would have been much better.

The V12 also has depressed values due to its prodigious thirst and reliability concerns.   The thirst is less of an issue for a classic car. Reliability was largely down to things like the ignition system which is now solved.    The V12 is an amazing engine – first designed as a race engine and then adapted for road use.   It revs up to 6500 rpm and is amazingly smooth and powerful.   The later cars went to very tall differential ratios and the HE head, which made them less thirsty but also less urgent.

I would like to own a series 1 V12 one day, so when a short wheel base XJ12 in British racing green came up for sale in Sydney about a month ago, I decided to go and have a look.  The SWB is quite a rare car.   There were 2,474 XJ12s and 534 Daimler Double Six made in short wheelbase.   When Jaguar moved to the Series 2 in late 1973, the V12s were all long wheelbase.

The owner was a very nice chap who had a collection of very nice Jaguars.   This included another series 1 V12 (an Australian delivered car), a couple of XJCs, and XJS, a modified XJ6 and more.  He was selling the green car as he had found an Australian delivered example.

The XJ12 was in British Racing Green, one of the best colours for the XJ12.  The car had originally been delivered with a cinnamon interior, but the seats and door cards had been changed later for series 2 versions in black.  The black leather with cinnamon carpets was actually quite a nice combination, if not original.  It was nice to see the original thin rim steering wheel.

By modern standards, the XJ is a very low and sleek car.   In its day, it was considered a large car.  Nowadays it is dwarfed by the massive SUVs on the road.   The V12 has quite an imposing front grille on the series 1.  I think is far better looking than the grille on the six.  The Daimler versions have the same grille on the Sovereign and Double Six.

Driving the car, it was very smooth and quiet.   The cabin was cozy and a nice place to be, and i found the controls and instruments easy to read and use.   I’m very all, and I was quite comfortable driving the XJ12.   On the test drive, we had an issue when the car wanted to conk out, but changing over to the other fuel tank fixed the issue.   Jaguar XJs have twin fuel tanks and the driver selects which one should be used.   Since they each have separate fuel pumps, you have redundancy with any fuel pump issues, which I later found was the issue.

I didn’t push the car very hard since it wasn’t mine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the drive.   There was a lot to like about the car, but on reflection I decided it was not the car for me.   I could definitely see myself owning one, some time in the future.  It is much easier to find a nice Series 2 or Series 3.  For me, it would have to be a series 1.

It was interesting comparing the 560SEL I drove to the test drive.   The W126 is a much larger and more imposing car, with more space.   The Jaguar has much lighter steering and a much cozier cabin.   Due to being lower to the ground, the Jaguar feels sportier to drive.   They both have a great ride.

I drove the XJ12 over a month ago, but didn’t post until the car was no longer listed for sale for a few weeks.  I didn’t want to interfere with the sale.

Update 5/12/24 – I found a video from about a year ago where this car was discovered as a barn find in Northern NSW, along with 4.2.  The V12 is from about the 8 minute mark: 

The post Driving a Series 1 Jaguar XJ12 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.