We washed our Jag with a soft sponge and good shampoo, and here you see the sparkling result...

After our first visit to our Jaguar we recently went again to our sleeping beauty with our faithful 850 Volvo Break (more on this car later in this column) equipped with electric compressor, a good car shampoo, leather conditioner and a load of soft cleaning rags and cloths to wash the Jag, and get a first impression on the actual external condition of the car…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

We were actually prepared for some (nasty) surprises when we started filling the bucket with a good thick shampoo. But we found no rust formation at the door edges, the rims at the rear end of the car, even the chromium did not suffer, apparently.

The chromium parts have hardly suffered, a polish will bring them undoubtedly to former glory...

The car came out shining after we had cautiosly and softly washed off the thick layer of dark grey dust. The woodwork and chromium in the interior manfestly had not suffered too much either. A soft cloth made everything look OK, only the chromed grips of the map bins in the front doors showed some pitting, maybe we can recuperate it with a good polish.

The dashboard and woodwork have survived very well, and a look at these classic dials is wat Jaguar driving is all about. The leather seats have to be nourished and cleaned, but show off their patine nicely and have not cracked.

The mats in the interior and the seats showed no signs of mildew, wisely we had kept the front windows half opened. Fortunately we kept the seats in original condition and did not renovate them, so the now so appreciated «　patine　» shows off nicely.

The Jag had received some 20 years ago a waxoyl treatment, and this might have helped to keep it relatively rust-free. The thick oily coating can still be seen everywhere underneath the car and the inside of the wings.

The Jag had been waxoyled years before its long "winter" sleep. Here is a shot from the underside of the front wings...

We will soon visit the premises of Meguiar’s Belgium, the specialists in Car Care which we met at SpaItalia 2010. We will see what their products can do on our Jag, and also on another member of our stable, an iceblue BMW Z3. This car has been beautifully maintained by its previous owner, but the leather seats and the engine (this car is more frequently used and decidedly a «　runner　») could do with some cosmetic attention. But that is another story.

The Jaguar emblem shines proudly again...

Now back to the Type S. We had bought a small compressor running on the cigar lighter, but the power cable was not long enough to reach the rear wheels of the car, so for the moment the car is still sitting duck with some flat tyres.

The rear boot and chromed license plate lamp housing and bootlid grip were very similar to the then all-new Mark 10, as was the dashboard... One sees clearly that the chrome has survived quite well...  

Soon Garage De Ridder will collect the car and bring it to their premises in Haasrode/Beveren. Of course we will report on this «　voyage　». Story to be continued　!

Hans Knol ten Bensel

After its first wash, the Jag is already dreaming of hitting the open road... but needs some expert mechanical attention... by Alex De Ridder himself, manager of Garage De Ridder in Beveren/Haasdonk 

Note　: the photos have been taken with our small Sony DSC-W170, under (low) available light conditions. This meant setting the sensitivity at ASA 3200. This resulted in some coarsness in the photos, with also the colour balance not being ideal.