Wecome new Cabriolet member – Claudiu Antal

Started 5th October 2017 at 20:51 · Laurence Jones

📷 No photo added

Welcome Claudiu Antal @kadudu

Hope you find the site interesting and feel free to participate in any new or past discussion topics.

If you could reply to this topic and tell us how you discovered our website, a little about your Cabriolet, and even something about your enthusiasm and interest in them. I am sure John Bleasdale @bleasie and other members would be interested to hear what it’s like having a Jaguar XJ-S Cabriolet in Romania.

You have two Photo Albums created for you on this site, it would be great if you could add a photo or two of your Cabriolet for all members to see.

Laurence

Author

Replies
- 5th October 2017 at 21:32 #8525
  
  Claudiu Antal
  Participant
  
  Good evening,
  It’s nice to be here.
  The story of my buying the xjs is quite sophisticated.
  I have always been attracted by english old luxury cars. First car I bought was a series 3 Jaguar xj12 and I rapidly fall in love with it. The xj was at that time a good runner, so I started making a light restoration, thorrow one was following this year. I bought all the parts that were rusty and planned to switch them on the car, then a repaint was to follow. I even fixed the AC unit, so it blew ice cold air all summer long. The car rapidly became a daily driver in the nice warm summer days.
  I spent endless nights reading everything I was able to find about xj12 and xjs v12. Nobody here knows how to fix these cars. The first Jaguar dealer started selling cars in the late 90’s. Interesting, isnt’t it?
  THEN…
  Looking on e-bay for one xjs coupe I discovered this greatly mistreated xj-sc cabriolet from 1986. My wife and I immediatelly fell in love with the car and bought it for a very small price. The car finally got home with a trailer. When we saw it, the wife said “Doc, it’s a beautiful car, but it’s wery rotten. Can you fix it?”. I said it will take me about 2 years and I must fix it. I sarted investing, bought all the body parts and hope to have a gorgeous red Jaguar xj-sc by Chritmas and to be fully functional in the next summer.
  This is the only cabriolet in Romania as far as I know.
  This is the story…
  More Jaguars will follow…
  I will try to add photos of the restoration process.
  
  Cheers,
  Claudiu
- 7th October 2017 at 19:08 #8559
  
  Laurence Jones
  Keymaster
  
  Hi Claudiu @kadudu
  
  Thanks for telling us your story, very interesting.
  
  Are there many Right Hand Drive cars in Romania ? Would it not have been easier to have found yourself a Left Hand Drive ?
  
  How do you manage to get parts for your cars, is it a challenge ?
  
  Laurence
- 7th October 2017 at 19:34 #8565
  
  Claudiu Antal
  Participant
  
  Hi Laurence,
  
  To answer your question, yes, there are pretty much RHD cars here, mostly BMW’S that belong to people who want a new model, but can’t affort one with LHD.
  My first Jaguar is a LHD. The XJS, however was almost impossible to be found LHD, so I bought this one with the intention of converting it. I already bought all the conversion parts, they should arrive from Poland these days.
  Speaking of parts…, no part for this type of car here. I purchased most of the parts from UK and a few small stuff from Lithuania. The shipping costed me a small fortune, but I was able to find very good quality parts for restoration
  For the XJ I bought some good quality parts from Germany about half a year ago.
  It’s challenging, but I think this makes the restoration process even more interesting.
  
  Cheers,
  Claudiu
  
  P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
- 4th November 2017 at 23:06 #9189
  
  Laurence Jones
  Keymaster
  
  Hi Claudiu @kadudu
  
  Your English is pretty good – no problem understanding you at all
  
  Thank you for posting some photos of your Cabriolet
  
  When I checked the records, it shows that your Cabriolet was originally Steel Metallic – Did you choose to paint it Red for your wife ?
  
  Laurence
Author

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