Saturday 31 May 2008

Petrol Cap + Rear Bumper

Today was about sorting out the petrol cap. Last week while filling the car up, the hinge broke. I gave the trusty people at Howard's Car Spares a call and they said they had one, but I had to remove it myself!

I enlisted the help of "The Ramus" and we set to work. It was a sorry sight seeing an old Jaguar the same age as mine rusting away, being taken to bits.



LOL Me doing some work!!!

5 quid later we headed down to Motor World to fit it.

Changing the hinge was a nice and simple job. Only took about 30 minutes to complete but was worth it as the petrol cap now pops up.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5enSAaZKLVM - Yes I did upload it to YouTube!

Then I wanted to fit the new bit of chrome from the rear bumper and have a look at sorting the dent in the rear bumper.

The rear bumpers are really easy to get off, but I had to cut the cable to the rear fog lights as there was no connector to disconnect. The look on Ramus' face when I just cut the cable was priceless... LOL


I will get it to fit!

It took some beating but I got it looking a lot better... Not perfect, but it looks really nice.



The view most people have of the car....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTylVoq6VSQ

Thursday 29 May 2008

Alarm issues fixed

Just fixed the small problem that I had when I installed the alarm. I wired both indicators up to the same relay to save time but in fact when I singled to turn left or right both flashed... lol

I fitted another relay and now both indicators flash with the alarm. Job half done, all finished now.

Below is a basic wiring diagram to show how to wire up the indicators in a Jag...

Tuesday 27 May 2008

They fit

Well it took me and Ramus over an hour to replace all the wheels but it was worth the hard work. They Fit!!!! I have been worried all day, wondering, wishing, hoping.


New V's Old


Ramus doing some work!


All finished.

Straight away I noticed an improvement in the handling and stability at high speed. She has never driven so well... The best bit was not the new wheels, but that the car has been sat for over 5 weeks now and she started first time and I had no problems with the engine or gear box! (Touch wood)...

Wheels are here

Wheels turned up today Yippeeeeee!!! they seem a lot bigger than what is on the car now, but in actual fact they are smaller! Figure that one out...




The Question is will they fit?

Monday 26 May 2008

Sunday 25 May 2008

Warning Contains....

While spending some time today cleaning the engine bay I came across this:





This car was clearly built before the years of Health and Safety!! None of this "Oh know, you cant use that in a car". British engineering at its best!

Saturday 24 May 2008

Funny Ha Ha


This was sent to me by "The Ramus", need I say more.


Rear Bumper

As i'm awaiting for the new wheels to turn up I thought it was about time to replace the rear bumper chrome that had been damaged. (Not me)




I have already replaced the front centre chrome piece, so I know this is going to be a dog to change!! I sourced a new bit of chrome on Ebay for the sum of 40 pounds about 3 months ago lol.
After removing the old piece of chrome, I could see that the rear bumper has taken quite a knock and it would be better to replace it, rather than to waste time trying to fix it!



Going to make a call to the trusty people at Howard's Car Spares. I will have to get Chris at Motor World Car Body Shop Ltd to give me a hand getting it off, as the bolts holding the bumper on, are on really tight!
It won't budge, even with all the will in the world, I feel I am more likely to shear the socket off the wrench.. lol

Thursday 22 May 2008

Already upgraded

I had a telephone call on Monday evening from the wheel company expressing their concerns that a 255 tyre would not fit the arch and it was recommend a 225 tyre would be a better alternative.

After thinking about this I decided that I did not want to do that as the car already has 220's and for the price I had paid it wasn't worth the upgrade...

I spoke with a guy called "Michael" who was very helpful and after loads of telephone calls we changed the wheels and the tyres for a different size!!

I now have coming 245/40/18 - upgraded to 18" rims. The overall size is a little smaller than the current tyres but hay. Size aint every think Ramus!

Message from the supplier

"Just in case you need confirmation we will be sending you 18" muggelo + 245/40/18 tyres. again sorry if we have confused you but it becomes expensive if you get it wrong. thanks dp"

P.S. Thanks Rash for winding me up about the result last night...

Monday 19 May 2008

WHEELS ORDERED!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, I ordered some new wheels for the car. I have bitten the bullet and ordered a nice set of new wheels.

I have gone with some bad boy wide tyres! I saw a set of 255's on Chris's new Range Rover and wanted some of that!

17" DOTZ MUGGELO ALLOY WHEELS SUPPLIED WITH 255/50/17 PERFORMANCE TYRES

The reason I went for 17" is because I did not want to change the overall size of the wheel as I wanted to double check they fitted in the arch and the speedo was correct.

Also a new tyre for these wheels are 66 quid not 140 quid.. so I can replace 4 new ones for the price of 2 old ones... Beat that offer Tesco's

Sunday 18 May 2008

More about the authors

I know its not about the car, but it was brought up in dinner tonight so I tested it... LOL - Google searches on the authors (3R) Ramus, Rash & Ross

Ross Burrows
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=ross+burrows&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

Mark Ramus
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=mark+ramus&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

Arash Foroozandeh
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=arash+foroozandeh&btnG=Search&meta=

Friday 16 May 2008

Cool tool

I have found this tool which shows the effects of changing your wheel and tyre size and how it changes your car.

I have been trying to work out what the change in wheel size will have on the car, and if they will work out a similar size.

This site will even tell you what the effects are on your speedo after you have changed the wheels.

http://www.kouki.co.uk/Utilities/tyresizer.asp

Thank you! http://www.kouki.co.uk

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Wheels - Dimple but not simple!

Well what can I say, it is very depressing trying to find some replacement wheels for the Jag.

I wanted to get some Dimple alloys that replaced the silly ones Jaguar originally used. The old ones are 390mm where the Dimple ones are 16".

EBay seemed a good place to look, but people want silly money for a set of wheels! So I am starting to look at aftermarket ones.

Replacing the tyres was an option, till I got a price of 140 quid per wheel, and need to do 3 of them!! :(


Dimple but not simple!