Saving Pawla

Started 15th January 2018 at 08:42 · Laurence Jones

📷 No photo added

Hi all,

At the weekend I made a decision that I was going to go ahead and have my recently acquired V12 Cabriolet restored. She’s called Pawla, as she’s a poorly girl with a Reg Number PAW (better name than my daughter came up with “sickly beast”).

When I bought her in September 2017 I was quiet hopeful about getting her on the road fairly quickly. Then we discovered that nothing electrical worked (damp) and there was no sign of the engine running any time soon.

Over the last couple of months I’ve spent some time getting her tidied up myself, before getting her to the local garage for some initial TLC. After 15+ garage working hours we now have a car that starts and run and is drivable under her control between home and the Jag Garage 🙂

So why the indecision I hear you ask, as whether to restore, sell on or scrap. Well, you see, Pawla has rust in her sills and inner wheel arches – not enough to fail an MOT this year but I doubt she’d pass next year if nothing was done. So this work costs money (lots as far as I can tell). Which led me to the other issue – I had money tied up in an XK8 that We needed to sell.

Well at the weekend I sold the XK8 🙂

Now have some initial money to invest in Pawla to get her sills sorted and attention paid to some other key bits and pieces. I’ve not got enough cash to get her fully restored just yet, but I think I’ve enough to make a good start along the road.

Laurence

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- 15th January 2018 at 09:29 #11242
  
  Anonymous
  Inactive
  
  The rust that you show on your pics was similar to mine, so I obtained a repair panel. I suspect the inner closing panel will be effected, which has to be manufactured by the garage as they are not available. To help cut down the labour cost I removed the rear exhaust box, the rear bumper and the boot carpets. Removing some of these parts gave me the opportunity to treat rust especially on the bumper beam and under the chrome. The garage work cost me £600 which was cheap compared to other quotes I received. The unusual thing was the near side panel was not effected. When the job was completed I sealed around the bumper anchor areas and any entry points to this area with dum dump. I bought some good quality carpet and used the old pieces as a template and was quite pleased with the final appearance. I too had to sell my other car (LandroverDefender) to fund this work. I do miss my Landrover as it was my winter vehicle as my wife uses our Honda CRV most of the time. I try to keep my classic car enthusiasm in check as I have spent loads on previous projects. I think the average person that rebuild cars do not make a profit on them unless you keep them for years, even then it is then down to the type of car and the present financial climate. Anyway I do it for the pleasure of improving a vehicle that could potentially get scrapped back to a good condition.
  
  Good luck with yours
  
  Regards
  
  Alan
- 15th January 2018 at 13:58 #11249
  
  Laurence Jones
  Keymaster
  
  Hi Alan @cabriolet
  
  I think I should seriously consider driving Pawla across the Pennines and across to your neck of the woods and have the underbody work carried out by your garage…..
  
  Laurence
- 15th January 2018 at 14:33 #11252
  
  Anonymous
  Inactive
  
  Hi Laurence,
  
  The problem I find is that most garages do not entertain doing classic cars because until they start working on them they do not know the extent of the rust. One garage quoted £1300 for the job because they have been caught out defore with the amount of the work needed. They prefer high turnover and charge high prices for less complicated dents and scratches.
  
  Alan
- 26th January 2018 at 18:27 #11514
  
  Laurence Jones
  Keymaster
  
  I’m really pleased to say that work is starting on bringing Pawla back to health at my local Independent Jaguar Garage, where I know they will take great care of her.
  
  I’ve managed to pull together enough funds to enable all the main strategic work to be undertake in one go – sills all round, rear quarter and front quarter repairs, front brake discs and callipers and bits, lots of bushes all around the various suspension parts….
  
  The front cross-frame is badly rusted in one area, which could I guess have been repaired. However I fortunately hadn’t sold on the remains of my donor cabriolet – sorry Richard Collins @rich you almost had her. We’re therefore going to be able to utilise the front cross-member from the donor car which is in pretty good shape.
  
  I’ll add some pictures over the next few weeks as work progresses.
  
  Laurence
- 28th January 2018 at 15:49 #11556
  
  Steven Foster
  Participant
  
  Just glad i am able to do the sheet metalwork myself……..
- 28th January 2018 at 16:01 #11558
  
  Anonymous
  Inactive
  
  Steven I envy your talent
- 29th January 2018 at 20:31 #11575
  
  Gerben Haringsma
  Participant
  
  nice colour Laurence.
  
  did you send my precious part ?
  - 29th January 2018 at 22:01 #11578
    
    Laurence Jones
    Keymaster
    
    HI Gerben @gerbenharingsma
    
    I couldn’t recall whether it was left or right, so I’ve sent both highly valuable pieces to you 🙂
    
    Should be with you before the weekend.
    
    Laurence
- 30th January 2018 at 07:11 #11582
  
  Gerben Haringsma
  Participant
  
  thanks Laurence.
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