Daimler addiction: my fourth, Regency red with magnolia [page 4]
The good points
So, the first good point of the car is that its complete history until 2008 is known, all paperwork is with it and that I even managed to find and talk to the previous owners in Belgium!
The first owner still describes the car as stunning and although it was neglected the past years, the regency red paint and magnolia upholstery look fabulous indeed. The paint is very good, although there are some minor scratches. There is no rust whatsoever. The front ends of the sills are rather good, at least compared to my 1993 Insignia. Only the left one shows some rust.
The Daimler coachline is missing from the right hand side of the car. I inspected the paintwork and found the complete right hand side to be resprayed. It is done very well in my opinion. I could only find marks of the masking in the impressions of the bonnet and boot lid. The first owner confirmed that it had suffered from a side impact, a reason why he sold it in 2008, after sixteen years and 166,500 km of ownership.
The typical Daimler chrome strips are present, although the strip of the right rear door is missing the front 5 cm. This has been solved elegantly by using a coachline. It is very strange that in the boot I found a similar chrome strip of which the exact same part was missing (normally they break after coming loose from the car and the rear door is opened).
The sunroof is rust free, but judging the darker shade of red, it was renewed and resprayed. (I couldn't choose between both images, lighting conditions make a lot of difference when inspecting a car …)
The veneer is beautiful and in very good shape. I do not see any traces of moist damage. However, a tiny piece at the upper edge of the glove box lid is missing. The right hand rear door has a veneer strip that, although in very good shape, shows a different structure compared to the other three doors. (As you will know, eight 'book matched' (mirrored) pieces of veneer cut from the same tree are used to make the four door panels of one car.) The original will have been damaged due to the accident.
The magnolia leather is fantastic, in particular with the cherry red piping. Although it shows workshop grease on some places (from the taxi company from driving it out and in their workshop if they needed more space), it is almost undamaged.
Really stunning are the carpets. In the rear we see the original lambwool overrugs, a clean carpet and dry insulation layers underneath. At the driver's footwell, we see an ugly grey carpet (apparently from a 1993 car, judging the fixing holes), but underneath an almost unmarked original carpet! And unmarked and completely dry insulation layers.
Even after two days of heavy rain the complete interior of the car keeps dry … I cannot believe this, I never owned a car that kept dry … but it really is. This also means that it preserves its smell, whatever it exactly is. Better than that of wet cars, I can assure you …
Lees verder!
Next page: The remarks, good nor bad
Overview: Introduction to my fourth Daimler
Page published on xj40.com January 2014, published on my website February 2016
Kind regards,
Rens Swart