60FlatTop

Here is a link to the H&E Jaguar convertible top service. http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Electrical/Elect-Tech All/XJS Hess & Eisenhardt.pdf Also the Kirby Palm living document book: https://www.jag-lovers.org/xj-s/book/Jaguar The book will be a great help in sorting out hearsay and misinformation. The Jaguar Lovers site is you best resource in owning the car. You may have to get into the northwest side of the Chicago area to find a shop that will do an acceptable job on your car even if it means shipping it. Just stay away from those with assumptions about the car.

I had a Buick master parts book that I picked up somewhere around 1990. I sold it on Ebay sometime in the early 2000s. Other than looking at the exploded diagrams a few times I never found it to have a lot of value. Luckily the new owner thought it did.

At one time, maybe in the 1980s during the old car renaissance, I remember one gauge of a collector car was how quickly it went through the depreciation cycle and recovered its original price on the collector market. I think Studebaker Avanti was the example quick to achieve that. It was an interesting enough concept that I remembered it all these decades.

Neither did the US customs bridge guard at Port Huron. I could hear my wife praying from the passenger seat while I stood on the rocker panel and told him I was right behind a van. :Dear God, please deescalate this before he starts another one."

Defining "New" is always a good starting point. In the mid-1980s I worked in a former foundry building that had large air rotation heating units around the perimeter. All were marked "New Coil" in big letters with soapstone. One day I found the fine for the replacements. Turns out they were steam coils made with steel due to copper shortages during WWII. New copper coils replaced the rotted ones in 1948. I am 75 years old and prefer the term Collector Car. For me that starts at 15-20 years old. And, looking back. it always has been like that for me.

I remember that happening in 1958 when I first got into the old car hobby. I stayed anyway. I really like cars. Will the knowledge AI seeks today become the dogma of tomorrow?

Buick marketing has always leaned a little toward RR and Bentley. The royal family had a couple of Buicks in the mid-1930s that have been hinted to show the Proper Car manufacturer the way. That is the Phantom III era. Maybe a slight hint in the independent front suspension but not in the intricacies of the V 12 engine or special tools for servicing.

Now, you guys need to be careful. Don't want to get any of those anti-semantic stuff going here.

One more shot.

That RR engine doesn't look much like a Buick when you get down to the sleeves and the weep holes.

I have a setup for pressure bleeding brakes that will work with any car as long as I have a spare master cylinder cap. Here is my setup for my Chevy trucks. I drilled a 1/2" hole in a spare cap and pulled a standard tubeless valve stem through with pliers. I have a length of quick coupler hose, one end locks to the stem and the other goes to a portable air tank. I charge the tank to 20 PSIG to prevent over pressurizing the brake system. It works fine. I made this early style cap to remote fill '40s GM cars. I haven't had to bleed any since I rigged my system but I would just connect a Schrader fitting to the pipe when the time comes. The vent hole has been soldered closed. I can see no problem using this method on your car.

And then there are people from Buffalo.

There is a boat launch on the Erie Canal where I like to walk. Thinking of the term "big old boat" that people use for cars I have often thought of backing my '60 Electra down the ramp until the water just touches the rear bumper. It seems like a great picture to show me emerging from a ride in my boat on the canal.But I know what a recipe for disaster that whole thing could turn out to be. Even if we attached a safety strap to the car I know I would regret it. So I will continue to take my one hour walk and look wistfully at the launch imagining the great picture that could have been. Waist deep. Yeah, if I'm lucky.

"If it was my car" Skirts would not be considered. My first step for about the same cost as fabricating a pair of skirts and painting them would be to reverse the angle of the tail point. Bring it down at an angle similar to the later model Auburn Speedsters. Maybe sell that luggage rack to fund the modification. The sidemounts and running boards look fine but I think they are right at the limit. Adding extra would be like adding love handles to a pole dancer.

I saved this little tracking treasure from the shipment of a Packard taillight harness from Narragansett, R. I. 415 miles, sorta. The world has been in a management crisis since the first man sat in the front of the boat and sent out the first percussive command.

"Mikey" handles odd, size, awkward, or slightly heavy items. Coming within throwing distance of your front steps.... soon.

I bet some 70-75 years old's father was really happy to score those Pilot Rays around the time that car was about 35 years old. Of course that's the way the hobby was headed at that time.

In the late 1980s or early '90s I began to see shipments of southern automotive body parts coming up to my end of New York State by the trailer load. The Door Store was one retail name as well as gas tank outlets. One look at the way those loads were heaved up and packed in was enough for me to say "No thanks, I will fix the rust". Dings, oil can dents, and stretches sometimes never come out. I get packages now with boxes in such condition I just wonder how bad a day the carrier was having. About 20 years ago I had one Jaguar fender shipped by Greyhound. An individual did a good packing job but the neighborhood I had to go through to get to the bus station and the attitude of the two guys who pointed and grunted at the box made me decide that if the car is worth the part I with drive where ever and pick it up. Remember that term "body language"? I must be one of the very few who can recall it.

What's it worth, or not worth?

As opposed to Postmaster. She is the one who asked me if I came from new money or old.

I sold a set of four '94 Buick Roadmaster aluminum wheels a few years ago. I shipped them UPS. I told our local UPS counterman "I'm pretty sure this guy is going to put in a damage claim. The tone of his voice and asking me four times if I was insuring them made me suspicious." The counterman said don't worry it happens all the time. Sure enough, he put in a $40 claim for a broken center cap. He just had to get that little bit out of the insurance. "They" are a predictable bunch and drive some of the price considerations.

I have had good luck with Pirate Ship https://www.pirateship.com/ I have had some Chrysler Hemi parts to ship like an oil pan that went from NY to SC. Through Pirate Ship it went for about 50%. My local Postmistress just retired. When I asked her about it she said it was great and recommended it highly. They say the USPS needs to raise its rates. I wonder if any of the top level management has ever followed Tracking. If a package only went across the country once per shipment it seems like it would cost less.

In the early 1980s I bought a pair of 1940 Ford front fenders and a hood. I sold the fenders quickly but hung on to that hood for a few years with dreams of making it my boattail on something. My delay probably ended up in getting a little more for the hood.

The car in this topic appears to have a Super Eight engine and longer wheelbase.

Of all the disc brake swaps I have seen on all kinds of cars since they started doing them 1940's to 1950's Chrysler products are the only cars I ever considered appropriate for a swap. And the agreement was without hesitation. Most of my life I have avoided Chrysler brakes by buying GM cars.