2020-02-25 17:12:50 | pauls writes:

Car at auctio at:
themarket.co.uk/listings/jaguar/420/8e15ac68-d6af-4f4f-8ea8-0ec102d74160

Auction description:

1967 JAGUAR 420

Location: ABINGDON
Odometer Reading: 72529
Chassis Number: IF2088BW
Engine: 4235
Gearbox: AUTO
Color: METALLIC BLUE
Interior: BLACK LEATHER

It’s a 1967 car equipped with seatbelts, an automatic gearbox and unassisted steering (a rare and not altogether sought-after feature!) and with just 72,000 miles on the clock. It’s been resprayed recently but never restored – a new front jacking point is the sole extent of the welding work ever required on the car. (A bold statement that is made in confidence as John has serviced this car for years and knows his way round them after decades of specialist knowledge)

This pale metallic blue suits the 420 beautifully, and from a few feet away it looks magnificent, with an excellent shine. On closer inspection it’s not the finest re-paint you’ll ever see, but neither is it a rush job – the glass was removed and the windscreen went back in with a new seal. The weakest point is the door shuts, which are still in the old faded paint that makes a noticeable mis-match. It’s something John Root now regrets not addressing at the time, but as he says, we’ve all got budgets and we try to stick to them.

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1967 JAGUAR 420

Location: ABINGDON
Odometer Reading: 72529
Chassis Number: IF2088BW
Engine: 4235
Gearbox: AUTO
Color: METALLIC BLUE
Interior: BLACK LEATHER

Background

THE RESERVE HAS BEEN LOWERED

So which one is this, exactly? You may well ask, because Jaguar’s model range became a little confusing by the late 1960s.

Ten years earlier it was simple – they made a sports car (the XK 150) and a saloon (the Mk 1, shortly to become Inspector Morse’s Mk 2). Then, in 1961 they added the gigantic Mark X with its handsome four-headlamp nose and long, sweeping tail, which used the 3.8-litre version of the XK engine from the new E-type that replaced the XK 150.

The range grew a fourth member in 1963 when the S-type arrived, offering the independent rear suspension from the Mk X in narrower form, and sharing the Mk 2’s cabin and engine bay but with its own new styling front & rear. By 1966 the Mk X had gained a 4.2-ltre engine and been renamed the 420G, and the Mk 2 was still in production.

But the S-type was never a strong seller, so a fifth car joined the line-up in 1966. To offer punters something with a bit more power, more modern styling and more luxury, Jaguar modified the S-type’s nose to resemble the 420G and gave it the 4.2-litre engine. Presto: the 420, also known in fluted-radiator form as the Daimler Sovereign.

The 420, as offered here, is the last step before the XJ6 arrived in late 1968 and replaced the whole range. The 420 was the most powerful and sophisticated of the classic compact sporting Jaguar saloons with the best brakes and best-appointed interior. Yet its values have lagged behind those of the Mk 2 and even the S-type, which can only be down to something of an identity crisis based on confusion with the 420G.

Those who’ve worked out what it offers recognise it as a bargain.

The Vehicle

If this looks like a nice, original old Jag, there’s a reason for that…this is a one-owner car which has covered just 72,000 miles. At least, there’s one owner on the V5C: the gentleman who bought it new and cared for it since 1967 passed it to the South Wales Jaguar specialist he’d been using to look after the car.

That was a couple of years ago, since when the car has only done a few miles to keep things moving while John Root, the specialist in question, did various bits of work to bring it up to standard. Because it has this remarkable history and because he never pressed it into use, he didn’t make the change in ownership and kept it ‘in the trade’.

‘We got to know the original owner, Mr Verey, back around 2011 when he began bringing the car to us for its MoT and servicing,’ says John. ‘In more recent times, he began to suffer some health problems that made it difficult for him to enjoy the cars as he used to. So he passed his two Jaguars, an XJ40 and this car, on to me.’

It’s a 1967 car equipped with seatbelts, an automatic gearbox and unassisted steering (a rare and not altogether sought-after feature!) and with just 72,000 miles on the clock. It’s been resprayed recently but never restored – a new front jacking point is the sole extent of the welding work ever required on the car. (A bold statement that is made in confidence as John has serviced this car for years and knows his way round them after decades of specialist knowledge)

On the Outside

This pale metallic blue suits the 420 beautifully, and from a few feet away it looks magnificent, with an excellent shine. On closer inspection it’s not the finest re-paint you’ll ever see, but neither is it a rush job – the glass was removed and the windscreen went back in with a new seal. The weakest point is the door shuts, which are still in the old faded paint that makes a noticeable mis-match. It’s something John Root now regrets not addressing at the time, but as he says, we’ve all got budgets and we try to stick to them.

The car wears smart hubcaps and matching new Pirelli tyres. The chrome elsewhere is very good, but lightly patinated as you’d expect from a dry-garaged, original car. The panel fit and lines are genuinely lovely and the doors open and close just as nicely as they must have done in the showroom in 1967. And those door shuts mentioned above are free of corrosion, bubbles, rot or bodgery, this really is a special example.

John states that whilst the odd bit of filler might have been needed at respray on the cosmetics (this is a ‘60s Jag after all), it was nowhere significant nor near anything structural.

On the Inside

Here is the car’s most seductive aspect – a classic leather-and-walnut interior in exactly the condition we hope for, but rarely see. It’s smart but mellow and worn in, like a pair of favourite shoes, and apart from a repair to the driver’s door arm rest, there are no splits or tears. Indeed, the back seat looks barely five years old, never mind more than 50. The condition of the wood is also gently patinated but in no need of refinishing. Living in a garage, out of the sun, has preserved it all including the padded dash top and door tops. The original steering wheel hasn’t cracked or crazed and the view across that row of handsome dials and switches is superb.

The car’s long-term owner protected the underside himself with either anti-corrosion wax or underseal, or both. The only place the tinworm took hold was in one front jacking point, and that was replaced by John Root when he took the car on. The door bottoms, sills, floors and particularly the hinge panels in the A-pillars and B-pillars are in great shape.

A stainless steel twin exhaust was fitted in 2010. The boot, which is remarkably neat and free of any scruffy bits - even in the spare wheel well - sports an original tool kit with its grease gun, box spanners and spare spark plug.

The engine bay is equally presentable, bar a bit of black tape round the hose up to the air filter box. The car starts on the button (literally…the starter button is next to the cigar lighter) and purrs like a big cat should. The Borg-Warner automatic also behaves just as it should.