2007-02-16 09:59:29 | pauls writes:

Ebay item 2/16/07
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll
Current bid $7,100, no reserve, 2 bids, 8 days left in auction.

Sellers description:gorgeous 1966 Jaguar Mark 10 (MkX, Mark X) Right Hand Drive from a private collection. My wife and I have been Jaguar enthusiasts for years, having owned more than 20 over the last 10 years or so. This Mark 10 began it's life in England, was brought over to the US sometime in the 70s. We purchased it from a couple that lived on a farm near Lancaster, PA a few years ago, and changed it from a Forest Green exterior/Green interior to the Black & Tan beauty it is now.

Over the last few years we've enjoyed driving this on warm dry days while we restored/replaced items on it. In addition to the new paint job 2 years ago, every piece of wood has been painstakingly removed, restored/refinished and replaced, and the wood throughout is stunningly beautiful...highly figured burled walnut that makes you feel like you're sitting in your living room! I used to use the car as a daily driver during the warm months, driving 30 miles one way a couple times a week, and it is just an unbelievable pleasure to drive this car on a country road, with the huge Wabasto sunroof rolled all the way back, making it feel like you are in a wide open convertible.

MECHANICAL CONDITION:
The car has always started more easily than any 1960s or 1970s Jaguar we have ever owned...turn the key, wait for the fuel pumps to prime, and push the button...and it immediately starts right up, even in very cold weather. It has always been very reliable, as I mentioned I would drive it 30 miles one way to the office, and in the summer of 2005 we even took it on a 7 hour drive from Dayton, Ohio where we live to Nashville Tennessee. This past summer I was driving it to work and what sounded like one of the piston rods came loose (sudden knocking...the engine only ran for maybe 30 seconds like this as I immediately pulled over and had the car towed...it hasn't been started since. I have the replacement piston rod, and there is no doubt in my mind that all that needs to be done to get this car back on the road as a daily driver is to simply change out that piston rod, and obviously replacing the gaskets on the block and head since you would have them off anyway.

The transmission, brakes, carbs, steering, lights, etc have always worked fine. It has never had any overheating problems, idles smoothly, is powerful and smooth and a joy to drive. The suspension is very soft and no other Jaguar I've ever ridden in makes me feel like I'm floating more than in this car...it's a very soft ride indeed. The heat warms up better than any 1960s Jaguar we've ever owned...I've driven it on 15 degree (dry!) days to work before, and was quite comfortable...it defrosts the windows well and keeps your feet warm!

In the last 5000 miles the car has had the following work done on it:

1. New professional paint job, with glass and chrome removed/replaced, including repairing the 2 or 3 very minor rust spots that had popped up through the original Forest Green paint. This car has never had any major rust problems of any kind, the rocker panels, floor boards, wheel wells have never needed any repair. The frame of this car is rock solid, as is the body, and it always has been.
2. New Alternator
3. New Brake Master Cylinder, brake lines flushed, new pads all around
4. New Tires with less than 2000 miles on them
5. New power steering hydraulic hoses (custom made as these are very hard to find!), steering is light as a feather--you can steer with your pinky!

I'm sure there are many other new parts and other odds and ends that I'm forgetting, but it's safe to say this car was generally obsessed over and lots of money and time has been put into it. Things that need attention is the gearshift stem has broken off, you can still easily put it in drive, reverse, park holding the stem in place or using a screwdriver, but really the stem should be replaced. These are pretty easy to find, are inexpensive and are pretty simple to install.

INTERIOR CONDITION:
As I mentioned the woodwork is fully restored and is really stunning, including the large picnic fold down trays in the back seat. The leather was in pretty rough shape when we got the car, we took each seat leather out of the car, off the frame, and using tried and true patching techniques (using Surflex and/or Leatherique patching glue, new leather strips, and the correct Tan dye for this year), we were able to make the seats look presentable, but a couple of the patches have split open again (see pictures, you can see the creases/patched areas on the front seat pictures). Suffice it to say that if you were going to restore this car completely, you would certainly want to replace the leather on the 2 front seats and the back seat bottom, but it is not necessary at all to enjoy driving the car as the seat leather sits now. The seats are comfortable, large and sturdy.

The door frame vinyl is original, in tact, and looks good...it's not "like new", there is obviously going to be some wear but there are no big rips or tears and they are all original. All of the interior pieces are in place. The power windows work fine, with the original window switch hardware still in place. All of the dash pieces are restored, and in tact, it even has an original radio from the UK still in place, although I've never tried to hook it up. The carpets have been replaced with correct color/pile to try to match the original as much as possible...it's not concourse quality, but it looks good and certainly looks much better than the 40 year old carpet pieces that we replaced!

The trunk is all original, including the spare tire (!) and jacking tools...with all of the original mohair type backed vinyl, in the tannish color that was common in the trunks of most 60s Jaguar sedans---it has not been dyed, it is original and it's amazing how in tact the trunk is, with original pieces...even the unique bracket/screw piece that holds the original spare tire in place on the wheel well!

EXTERIOR CONDITION:
As I mentioned we had the car professionally painted, changing it from Forest Green to Black. All the glass and chrome was removed for the paint job, and while it's got 2 years and 5000 highway miles on it with a few scratches and rock chips here and there, it has never been in any kind of accident and still cleans up and shines very nicely. It's one of those cars that when it's washed and properly waxed, from 6 feet away it looks incredible, nearly flawless, and on close inspection you can notice small imperfections here and there.

The chrome is in fair to good shape; most of the bumpers look nice and shiny and don't show much pitting, but there is some pitting and rougher spots on the rear vertical bumper guards. Again, not concourse, but from 6 feet away the chrome shines nicely and contrasts beautifully with the Black paint...it's simply a stunning car to look at from all angles. The steel wheel covers are a bit worn, but all 4 are in place and they are presentable.

The Wabasto sunroof is what sold us on this car...it's as close as you can get to being in a convertible Mark 10! It's in perfect working condition. All of the parts to the Wabasto sunroof are original, including the vinyl top portion. There are no holes or tears in the vinyl, with the exception of at the very rear on the edges, on the rear metal beam that holds the Wabasto frame to the body, there a couple of small areas where the vinyl has worn through...this is NOT in an area that can let water in; the sunroof is water tight and can be driven in the rain and will keep you dry.

The car has been in dry storage since this past summer, We've enjoyed driving this car to work, taking it to shows (where it always wins Best in Class, because it's the only Mark 10 around here!), but my teenage children are now in college and we've been slowly selling off our Jaguar collection to help pay for that. It's going to hurt to see this go, and we really want to make sure it goes to someone who is going to love it like we always have, and complete the things that need to be completed on it to make it a near concourse quality daily driver as she deserves to be.

2014-07-25 20:30:24 | pauls writes:

Car sold on ebay Jul 21, 2014 after 1 bid of $1,500.
www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Jaguar-Mark-10-MK10-RHD-Right-Hand-Drive-Webasto-E-Type-Co ...
Car was still in Dayton, Ohio.

Sellers description:
Up for sale is our beloved 1966 Jaguar Mark 10, which was one of my dry-day daily drivers until early 2005. I am a long time Jaguar enthusiast and my wife and I have owned and restored over 20 classic Jaguar saloons since the late 1990s, on a musician's budget, and this particular Mark 10 was my wife's baby. She is great at restoring interiors and wood work, and spent weeks on this car when we first acquired it from an older couple in Pennsylvania back in the early 2000s. We had owned 2 other Mark 10's before this one, but this one is a Right Hand Drive and was (and still is) completely solid underneath and in the wheel wells and rocker panels, and was in decent mechanical/running condition when we bought it. We also loved the Webasto sun roof...when it's open and all the windows are down, it's really like being in a large convertible. The Webasto will need some new vinyl material (easily available), but the framework of it is still in perfect working order, and it opens all the way back and locks tightly shut as it should...it just needs the actual cover replaced to be water tight (obviously from the picture).

My wife completely restored all the wood pieces one by one, and we spruced up the interior, and had it professionally painted, and I did the odd mechanical work that I am able to do...which is just about anything other than opening up an engine.

Here's where the story gets sad. On the way to work one day in early 2005, a piston rod started making some noise, so I immediately pulled over and had it towed home. Not being able to do engine work myself other than changing out starters, alternators and the like, I had it towed to a mechanic that was recommended to me by the local Jaguar Club president. I am seriously tempted to actually mention this mechanic's name, because what he did to us was clearly criminal, but I'll spare you the details, and spare him from anyone local that would recognize his name (we weren't the only people he lied to and screwed over).

Sorry about that, venting bad memories...anyway, on with the story...unfortunately, after disassembling the motor, having the head partially machined, ordering some of the parts to do the job, etc., and putting us off for a couple of years, he went out of business and disappeared. We had to go through a LOT of hassle to track him down, and get the car back, but we finally did. It literally took years to catch up with him and get the car back.

Since then it's been awaiting funds/time to put the engine back together, but my wife and I have finally decided it's just not going to happen. I'm a full time musician, my daughter is getting married in the fall, bla bla bla...I just can't afford to have it done, and like I said, I can't assemble engines on my own.

Don't let the pictures fool you...this is not a barn find. The first picture is from a Jaguar Association of Central Ohio Concourse event in the mid 2000s. Yes, that was a few years ago, but it shows how this car presented itself after lots of love and time, and not a lot of money. When we bought it, the paint and seats looked worse than they do now in the pictures from today. My wife and I were able to make that car into a presentable Driven-Category show car with a $2000 paint job, and lots of time and effort working on the wood and seats by hand, using inexpensive, readily available, and period correct materials that are still available. Yes, that work will have to be done again, but I wanted to include that picture to show what the reward can be. We cherished this car, along with a RHD '74 XJ12L that we used to have, more than any others that we owned.

The one thing we didn't have to do then was assemble the engine, and that's why we can't do this job ourselves and are passing it along to someone who can.

It still has the rock solid frame, rockers and body it always was, and every single piece of the original car is here, ready for reassembly. The head has been partially machined, there are lots of new and very expensive engine parts still in the wrappers in the back and front seats and in the trunk (new cam shaft, drive shaft, etc), and the complete engine gasket kit is still sealed and comes with the car ($400 kit). The original, complete transmission is still with the car as well, as does the spare tire, trunk materials, jack, etc.

This is a great project for someone who knows how to assemble an XK engine. By the way, this is the same triple carb engine that is in the E-types from the same period, if anyone is interested in buying the car just for the engine and trans, and maybe fitting the Mark 10 with a different engine...but it would be a shame to split this car up, and I'm not interested in parting it out or selling the engine or trans separately. I can certainly understand if someone wants to buy the entire car and then use the engine on an E-Type project, but again, there is too much of a good thing here to do that, in my opinion.

A classic enthusiast mechanic can have this car back together and make a presentable driver out of it with time, but not a lot of money, because the parts are all here. Tires are still in good shape and the car can easily be towed and shipped anywhere in the world. I have shipped cars all over the world over the years...even a non-rolling Jaguar Mark 2 to Iceland one time! I would be happy to coordinate very affordable shipping of this car (at buyer's expense) to anywhere in the world, utilizing a carrier I have used many times over the years.

My wife and I only ask that you keep us updated on the restoration process. This car means a lot to us and we want to see it back on the road and being enjoyed again someday, instead of parting it out. It's too good, too unique, to part out. Reassembled, running, and with a decent respray and some interior work, and this will be one of the best looking Mark 10s you'll ever find in this condition. It just looks incredible going down the road at 80mph with that huge Webasto sun roof pulled back!

I believe I still have a complete, original Mark 10 shop manual (about $200 if you can find one), and it will come with the car.