1963 3.8S Restomod

[primaz]

Here is a link to the original posting that provided a lot of details of the build.

http://www.jagstyperegister.com/forum/v ... p?f=6&t=57

It is NOT an easy job to modernize the old Jaguar 3.8s but after about 3 years of effort it was well worth it. For anyone thinking of this type of restomod, keep in mind there are many custom little things needed since there is no kit for it so it is not a cheap swap compared to American muscle cars. The Jaguar engine bay creates a very tight fit.

I have driven the car for about 2 years now and put on over 60,000 daily driven miles. It appears stock on the outside and unless you are a Jaguar owner most people just assume it is a restored classic car. It is much more pleasurable to drive with modern Jaguar electric seats that give full back and head support unlike the halfback stock seats. It also has most every modern feature such as: power steering, upgraded four wheel disc brakes, air conditioning, rear view camera, tire pressure monitoring display, custom stereo with 6" JL Audio sub woofers all hidden & hands free cell phone operation, blue tooth, laptop mount, GPS display in the rearview mirror, LED lighting, custom coil over suspension, refrigerator, color lazar jet printer, 6000 watt AC power supply with dual AGM batteries just for accessories, separate battery for the car, and the list goes on.

The car now sports a lighter more powerful V8 aluminum block & head GM LS1 putting over 400 HP, fuel injection with all of the modern computer control features that make it incredibly reliable. More importantly the four door sedan will now go zero to sixty in 3.9 seconds. It sports custom three piece 17" x 8.5" wheels with 245 wide 40 series tires on all four corners, coupled with the lowered suspension enable the car to be smooth and handle well. This car was built to be a fun daily driver for work which it is the perfect daily driver. What is surprising to me is that for a four door car, it gets a ton of thumbs up, and positive reactions more typical of sports cars. This car has the classic style yet has the modern drive train to not just keep up with today's cars but smoke most cars on the road!

[primaz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9QZaG5iWBk

[Tom Hoffman]

Great job.

[Jose]

it is a fabulous modernized classic.

I thought the mods I've made to my car were over the top for some purists, but Primaz won the Trophy !

[primaz]

Here are some updates to the car.

I upgraded the gas tank to an aluminum one with the correct Jaguar sending unit as the previous Mustang gas tank would never read the right gas level. Since that involved a lot of rear end disassembly, I was able to get another 3.8s rear end cage and related parts and did a lot of extra bracing and welding to make the cage able to handle the increased HP. I also added rear lower control arm bracing. All of those parts were powder coated and with about 90,000 miles it was good time as most of the rubber and bushings, etc. were in need of replacement.

At the same time I had always wanted to increase my train horn with a compressor and tank system but none of the kits would fit. I had a custom tank made by Dirty Works a company that specializes in motorcycle air bag systems and they made a stainless steel 3" tank with gusseted bracket so I could mount to my trunk tool storage box. The Wolo Orient Express train horn is a good match as they are efficient train horns so with 80-100 PSI they sound great and the small tank provides plenty of capacity. I also added an automotive airline port so that I can plug my 25' coiled airline hose to fill any tire with ease.

Here are some pictures and will try to post additional when I can....

[Jose]

are you sure that is not a missile?

[NigelW]

Looking good Primaz, glad to hear you've got 90k on the clock with all the mods so proves you've got it right. Keep us updated.

[primaz]

Since a lot of pictures of the build were on the old Jaguar S-type Register Forum, I thought I would post some of the pictures here, in this post you can see how the car looked when I bought it before all of the numerous upgrades. This was purchased online via Ebay. You can see the wood was in bad shape, it had those uncomfortable half back seats, it had a worn out Chevy 350 iron block with 30-40 holes in the engine bay, the headliner was drooping.

[primaz]

Here are just some of the build pictures. The car did not have much rust at all. The entire under carriage was stripped to bare metal and POR-15 chassis black was painted on. Virtually everything in the car was upgraded for performance, comfort, and all of the modern features of cars today. The stereo has Focal separates in the front in hidden speaker boxes, similar Focal separates in the rear deck, two 7" JL Audio subwoofers in a hidden speaker box in the passenger front area, all powered by separate power amps. The car has back up camera, modern AC, power steering, upgraded brakes with Wilwoods in the front, and E-Type rear brakes, LED headlights & LED interior lights, hazard switch, LED under chassis lights, modern Jaguar leather seats with head rests & picnic trays, custom coil over suspension in the front and rear with custom front A-arms, custom front valance with custom ram air scoop to vent air around the engine & out of the rear area of the engine bay, WIFI, 3000 watts of AC power, off road refrigerator, network lazar jet color printer. Those are just some of the many upgrades.

[primaz]

A handful of more pictures