Hi 8bit, this is a great diary, loved reading what you have done so far. Car looks amazing.
Nice to see your so in love with it. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks Dave

 

Went for a drive yesterday morning. Filled up before I headed out and did about 80 fairly spirited miles...

Washed the car today and finally got round to finishing off a job I'd started a couple of weeks ago:

Gave the logo plates and the front anti-rattle clip logos a few coats with some very high-temp lacquer so hopefully the R will stay put...

 

Thats good MPG 8bit

 

8bit, wow...stunning thread, stunning photography.......wow.
still got to order my stage 1 spires, but up in the office this week (Aberdeen) so delayed ordering it.

Nice motor bud

scoobs

 

Thanks Got something else in the pipeline to smarten it up a bit further, hopefully have some new pics in a week or two. I can't take credit for the good photos though but I'll pass on your comments.

Is it this week you're in Aberdeen?

 

So got these back today from getting refurbished and tyres fitted:

Genuine Jaguar Cremonas, as fitted to the 4.2 XKR Portfolio. They came up on eBay, managed to haggle a good price but they were done in gloss black. I know a guy who can get refurbs done for a good price so gave him the wheels and got some new tyres (Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas) and passed them all to him last week. Hopefully get them cleaned and fitted this evening

 

They look lovely but I would say that!

 

Thanks I think I spotted your car once, around the offices at Rubislaw. Yours looks even better on the Cremonas.

Got mine cleaned up and swapped over last night, couple of pictures...

Took ages to clean and seal them properly but hopefully it'll pay off in resistance to brake dust. By the time I got finished it was getting dark so in my rush to get a quick photo or two I forgot to pop in center caps on the wheels! Will get some better pictures soon.

 

Hi 8bit nice motor very nice wheels

 

Thanks wish I could justify the Portfolio Alcon brakes to go with the wheels...

 

I didn't need much convincing! Need to get the wheels repainted, managed to kerb one of them!

 

Stop it, the wife will kill me! Did you get yours from the dealer? If you don't mind me asking, how much were you for them?

 

I got the calipers from Germany new off eBay, the brackets are unavailable from jag so I've been collecting them for a while. TL Jaguar are making the only one I couldn't find for me. I'll do a proper write up with all the part numbers once I've got the bracket and can get the rears mounted. As for cost... I've not totalled it up but there are a new pair of front calipers on eBay in Finland for £900 I think, plus all the fittings, discs, pads, hoses etc. Realistically a better conversion for sane people may be the XKR 380mm red calipers, they just bolt straight on.

 

OK thanks, i had a feeling it would involve fairly substantial costs. I have to say, I don't really feel like my car is under-braked as it is but I've never driven an XKR with the Alcons... Do they make a big difference on yours?

When you say the XKR 380mm stuff do you mean from the later 5.0 cars?

 

Yes the XKR, XFR and Super sport all have brakes that will bolt on, I never thought the standard brakes were underpowered but the Alcons look fancier...
I'm reserving judgement on them until I have all 4 fitted but the fronts are pretty powerful!!

 

Another little job done this afternoon...

Noticed a few, common electrical gremlins lately so hopefully this puts paid to them

 

Something else I did recently; replacing the side vent trims on the wings. The original ones were looking pretty chipped and tatty and the offside one had broken at the bottom so it wasn't secure. Managed to find a pair of original ones on ebay for about 25 quid so nabbed them and got them changed over. Left one is one of the old ones, right one is new:

Last weekend I managed to get the car properly washed, chemical paintwork decontamination done (not as thorough as claying but still worth doing) and re-sealed. Doesn't really show in the pictures but the metallic flake in the paint really shows up in sunlight now. Took some photos anyway

Thanks for looking!

 

looking good 8bit

 

It looks good as I drive by every morning!
Congratulations on the new arrival btw!

 

Looks stunning! What do you use on your tyres? I can't get mine to look as good as yours and I use McGuiars tyre gel.

 

Thanks Simon I guess you live up around my way somewhere then?

JagforJoy - thanks also! I use the Meguiars Endurance tyre gel, applied with an applicator sponge like this - Meguiar's Tyre Dressing Applicator Pad | Sleeved Foam Applicator Pad

I find that two coats work well, use sparingly though - two small drops does each tyre, wait ten minutes or so then go round them again. I should also confess that those tyres are practically brand new, I do find that once they've aged a year or so the product stops working so effectively. You can give the tyres a spray with some gentle degreaser or similar, let it dwell for a few minutes then rinse off, then when you wash the wheels make sure and scrub the tyre sidewalls thoroughly with a medium-soft brush and whatever water/cleaning product you use. If the tyres are as clean as they can be and no worse than slightly damp to touch then the Meguiars stuff works well.

 

Thanks 8bit, I will invest in the applicator pad and follow your method.
Much appreciated - cheers!

 

Car failed MOT last week This was due to a binding brake at the rear offside corner. The wheel wouldn't turn freely with the back end jacked up, brakes off and in N but the other side was fine. I'd hoped it would just be a pad stuck on the carrier or similar so I took the disc and pads out, cleaned it all up and put it back together but when I was winding the piston back in to put the caliper back on the carrier it was very hard to rotate it. Ended up getting the caliper replaced under extended warranty, thankfully, and had the car successfully retested today so we're back on the road.

Not sure when the piston got stuck but it took its' toll on the pads and disc. Note the blue tinge on the disc due to excessive heat:

This is the outboard pad (bear in mind I changed the discs and pads last October, maybe 4k or 5k miles ago):

Even worse was the state of the inboard pad:

The outboard pad passed MOT but it's probably a good job the inboard one can't be inspected unless it was removed (which they're not allowed to do) because I'm pretty sure that would have failed... Pretty annoying because I'll now have to change pads and discs on both sides of the rear again now but these things happen. At least they're not really that expensive and I guess it's probably a good job I had the MOT when I did or I might have been driving about with very bad rear brakes on one side. I've got a new pair of Pagid discs and set of EBC RedStuff pads to go on, hopefully get some time over the weekend for that.

 

Hemmin, whats with all these runs and no invite?


I'm looking to tidy up my callipers by adding new decals. Do those come in red, although I suppose black would go with the black pack.