RESTORATION
Having spent over 700 hours restoring this 1977 5.3-litre V12 XJ coupe, we get behind the wheel to discover how it commands a £69k price tag
BACK IN 1977, Jaguar’s twodoor pillarless XJ coupe cost £11,755new, making it the most expensive of all these models (the four-door V12 saloon cost over £1000 less). According to data from the UK’s Land Registry, that was roughly the same as the average house price, and the average wage was £70 per week, or £3640 a year. So, is £69,000 a lot of money to pay today for a restored XJC V12? Perhaps not, because if we were going by average house prices, the equivalent today would be almost £300,000.
Whether a price of a restored car is a bargain or not, doesn’t just depend on comparative values, but how much someone is willing to pay. If we were looking at an E-Type, then this would be a steal. The other side of the argument is how much time and effort needs to be put in to restore such a car and whether it’s financially worthwhile. In this case, the restoration photographs we’ve shown help to tell the story, although they are only a taste of what happened throughout the 700+ hours it took to revive this Jaguar.
Until now, this particular car hadn’t been MoT tested and on the road since at least 2005. When it arrived at XJ coupe specialist and classic car restorer, Miles Classic of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, there were no major surprises for the team who have lost count of how many of these Jaguars they have repaired, serviced and restored. The business has been in operation since 2011 and whilst it has gained a reputation for dealing with XJ coupes, at the time of visiting the workshop, there was an assortment of other vehicles undergoing restoration or repairs, ranging from a classic Fiat 500 and a Mk2 Ford Fiesta, to an E-Type and 1968 Dodge Charger.
“The car was purchased on eBay in 2020 and there is no documentation, so we don’t know much about the car,” comments Myles at Miles Classic. “We would be interested if anyone knows anything.”
With black paintwork and a biscuit interior, the XJC’s V12 engine was a nonrunner back in 2020, and there were many more obvious problems to tackle. “We could see major bodywork issues such as rust and rot as well as failed paintwork and poor repairs,” Myles recalls. “The chassis beams and other structural areas such as the inner sills were showing signs of rot. Although it was complete, there was little chance of a patina-style restoration.”
One of the first jobs in the stripdown was to remove the interior, which was in reasonable condition, but, as Myles explains: “Once you begin to strip out the interior of a Jaguar coupe you are committed to a minimum level of intervention as items such as kick panels, door cards and rear quarter panels cannot be made presentable and be fitted
