Restoration, 2000
My temporary assignment to San Diego ended in June 2000 and
I moved back to Finland. So did my Jag. It spent 10 weeks in container crossing
the USA and Atlantic Ocean, through the Europe to northeast corner of Europe,
My, and Jag's new, hometown Oulu is located about 100 miles south from Arctic
Circle and 130 miles west from Russian border... 25°33' E 65°01' N to be exact.
So it may be the Northmost Mk2 in the world? Well, I know another one in Oulu,
but it's south from me! I'll use my Jag only during summers, so it can spend
-30°C (-22°F) winters in warm garage, except first one, as I did not have own
carage in the beginning, I rented a cold garage for first winter and in March
2001 got it moved to my own warm garage.
After getting the car from ship, I went to customs and paid Finnish heavy car taxes and got a one day permit to drive the car to a garage. To get permanent driving permit, car has to pass quite demanding technical inspection, maybe relevant to UK M.O.T. (not that I know what it includes). Anyway, at current condition there would be no hope to pass the inspection, so I'll do some repairs before even trying.
The cold winter brought some surprises, 40 year old rubbers in brake master cylinder did not survive the coldness and let the brake fluid out. Well, I guess those should have been replaced anyway.
As the garage was cold (down to -30°C / -22°F), I could not work there during winter. So I brought some parts home and restored those there. Like windscreen washer, door panels, seat cushions and jack. Those are not by anyway most important parts to start with, just ones I could easily remove and work with at home. I also ordered some parts from UK (David Manners), to be prepared to time when my own garage makes repairs possible. Getting parts from UK is easy as both countries are in European Union, there are no custom fees. But the parts are expensive enough even without custom fees!
New door panels. Had to learn sew and upholster! I hate
sewing pipes! (you can't see what you are doing because pipes are on wrong side)
I made new cardboard panels according to old rotten ones, then I put some thin
foam between and stapled the vinyl to cardboards. And made arm rest and the
pocket same way and fastened them to panel.
And installed the panels to doors at same
time with new window seals. I also put plastic sheet between door and panel,
something PO should have done too... I know doors are not exactly like originals
(horizontal seams) but close enough for me. I still need to take them out once
more and do something to window seals as windows are very hard/impossible to
wind up. The window seal was not original part, but should be suitable as
Manners sells it for Mk2. Maybe some alignment problem with glass and
frame?
And here is new vinyl for center console. I didn't
use foam in this one, except in the top part.
Restoration 2001