Welcome to my website covering the restoration of my 1962 2.4L Mark 2 Jaguar Saloon, otherwise known as the Mk2 (or MkII) Jag. 

I’ve owned this car for nearly 37 years. This is what it used to look like back in the day!

The plan

Quite a few years ago, the Jag was languishing in a damp lock up, covered in dust and unloved. It was decision time, does it stay or does it go? My partner uttered the fateful words “You can’t get rid of that car….”

Given the length of time I’ve owned the car, I have some pretty clear ideas about what I want to modify and why. These line up with the intended use of the vehicle which is as a weekend warrior rather than a daily driver.

Summary of planned modifications:

Brakes

  • Upgrade braking system. On introduction, the Mk2 came fitted with four-wheel disc brakes and sported a small triangle on the rear bumper announcing “disc brakes”. This was presumably to warn following drivers (with good eyesight) to expect impressive stopping power. However, Mk2 brakes are no longer up to modern road and traffic conditions. The best option looks to be an aftermarket kit.

Electrics

  • Replace the dynamo and regulator with an alternator.
  • Add additional fuses to protect wiring and components. The original system has only two fuses. This seems insane by today’s standards.
  • Update other electrical items, e.g. headlight relays and LED lamps where possible. I hope to be able to reuse the existing headlights which I have already upgraded to sealed beam halogens.

Suspension and steering

  • Upgrade to power steering? I’m not sure about this. On the open road, which is the intended use of the vehicle, the standard steering is pretty good (with new bushes etc). However, it’s a long time since I drove a car without power steering.

Heating and cooling

  • Upgrade the heater, the standard heater is marginal at best.
  • Add an electric cooling fan, this is more of a placeholder rather than a firm plan and will depend on how things progress with the planned engine swap.

Engine

  • My car is a 2.4 litre with the standard non-overdrive Moss gearbox without synchromesh in first gear. I have a couple of options here; add a manual overdrive gearbox of the right period to my current motor, or change to a 3.4-litre motor with corresponding Jaguar all synchromesh gearbox (from an XJ6). I have the parts for both these options, the current plan is to install the 3.4 litre motor and all-synchro gearbox.

Look of the thing

  • Upgrade steel wheels to wire wheels and cutaway spats.
  • Change colour. The car came in Opalescent Green – the new colour is a big decision yet to be made.

Online resources and site organisation

There are a number of fantastic resources available online for restorers of these classic vehicles, two of the most comprehensive are: Lin Rose’s Valve Chatter and Kriss Motors Jaguar Mk2 Restoration.

The organisation of this site is based loosely on the approach adopted by both the blogs mentioned above. Unfortunately, some repetition is inevitable as we are restoring the same vehicles, where possible I have tried to avoid this. One key difference is that I completed the disassembly of my Jag before launching this website, so I’ve documented the key aspects of that work as a historical account.

To navigate the content click on the menu items above or on the sidebars. The menu item Restoration is the chronological blog detailing progress …

I hope you enjoy looking through my site, please tell me what you think.

Cheers,

Phil