Hi Cameron, just a thought here....
The wheels came up beautifully, the calipers looking good too, really draws the eyes to that area.

It may not be allowed, it may lose points I don't know and is just a suggestion.

I notice that the hubs are dirty, peraps a little rusty as they do?
It would really make that area stand out more if they were painted a stock silver to mimick cast steel etc.

Hope it helps....

Before....


After...

 

I know what you mean about the brake rotors.

This car is running the R1-Concepts "Premier" rotors which have the black coating on the bell/hat (hub?) and around the edge where the vanes are. This got burnt pretty badly from heavy braking at the Wakefield Park trackday last year.





I have painted over the burnt/rusty parts of the bells which you could see when you looked through the wheel. Here's a pic with the paint still wet;



Now that it's dry it all looks a sort of matte black. But I did skip over painting the outside edge of the front rotors, you can see from the last pic they weren't "that bad" but I did to the rears (no pic) because they looked pretty rough...

In one of the pics I posted showing the inside of the wheel you can see the edge of the front rotor, but you cannot see it unless you've stuck a camera in at that angle...

 

Hi Cameron,
This is really beautiful. Congratulations. A job well done.
Gerard.

 

Thanks Gerard.

Drove out to the detailers place last night, 60kms / 40miles in traffic, when I got there I stuck a finger behind the spokes of the front wheels, no dust! So the wheel protector seems to be doing it's job...

Got an update from the detailer this morning, he worked on the bonnet & boot last night:

He'll continue tonight & I can pick it up Saturday morning.

 

Nice!!!!

Those detailing guys do some great work, look forward to seeing more Cameron

 

Can't wait to pick it up tomorrow

 

He's done a beautiful job on the paintwork.

Graham

 

What a day...picked up the car at 8 o'clock this morning from the detailers place, and it was looking mint:





You can see how beautiful & sunny it was in Camden. Well about half way home it got very dark & started raining...

We had to go out & look at houses today with the first open home at 10, so I dumped the XJR at home still wet & took the Freelander.
When I finally got a chance to look at it this afternoon, it was depressing:



Not happy...

The detailer gave me some tips how to get it clean while still in the garage (cause it hasn't stopped raining all day here)
Handwash and finish off with Quick Detail. Been through 15x microfibre towels, lucky I bought a bulk bag.

But the results are in:

















The bootlid is so reflective that the camera could not auto-focus on the panel, LOL!

I'm over the moon with the result. This will probably be the last time the car get's a mechanical polish, the clear coat is really thinned out now.

Oh, and I put the new engine cover on, but that's kind of boring after seeing the transformation to the paint...



Meh...

Well that's it, nothing more to do... ah, not exactly, but i'm outta town this week so next Saturday will be the final vacuum, do the windows, and get the dust of it.

Oh BTW the back of the wheel spokes were still dust free. However I did need to wipe them down, a little bit of dust on the front, but a 120km round trip and the wheels still look good.

If you are in Western Sydney get onto these guys Clarity Affliction Detailing

 

WOW - love the reflections off the paint - great job all around!!!

 

Cheers!

The All British Day at the Kings School has been cancelled until next year, the grounds being so waterlogged from the rain the school has called it off, all the vehicles on the grounds would cause too much damage...

But the JDCA Concours will be held tomorrow at the Asquith Boys High School instead, so all the efforts in preparation will not go to waste.

Final preparation this afternoon;

Went over the panels with Quick Detail and microfibre cloths to get rid of the dust
Quick detail in the door jambs and around the boot
Cleaned the windows (I hate cleaning glass)
Wipe the tyre-shine off the tyres
Another dose of Liquid Leather on the seats (the towels stay clean now, no dirt coming off)
Wipe down of all the interior trim for finger prints (esp. the veneers and the shiny stuff)
Cleaned up the tailpipes
Touching up stone chips...all 10'724 of them...

I have kind of lost motivation now, just looking forward to getting the car out & seeing how it goes. Judging starts at 9.30am tomorrow, I need to get ther at 8am, with 30 minutes of last-minute prep allowed from 9am, then it's all over...

 

A monumental effort!
Quick question, how did you re-attach the leather to the new foam, original clips?

Surprised about yours not having rear footwell lights, mine is a SWB base model and it has them...

 

Thanks.

The leather is held down with metal clips, these had to be cut away to remove the cover, I used small cable ties with the cut part pointing down to reattach.

Maybe the R's didn't get the footwell lights, or maybe because of the colour option? Don't know....

 

Looking great Cameron.........

Good luck & hope to hear how it goes

 

Alright so you can see the pics over in the Regional section https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...ornsby-126242/

Today was a real eye-opener for me, steep learning curve, whatever you want to call it, I think it can be summed up in a few key points

- If you think something is "clean enough" it simply isn't
- Unrestored cars with 170'000kms on the clock do not win a Concours
- You cannot prepare a car for Concours in a dark dingey garage
- Concours winning cars have to be better than what the factory did, "that's how it left the factory" is not an excuse for imperfection
- You have to inspect/prepare the car in the same conditions that the judges will do the judging, or you will miss stuff...

So what about my car? Well...

All the cars were finished to an incredibly high standard, made me realise that my efforts in the last couple of weeks weren't all that spectacular to be honest, and although the XJR presents well for it's age/mileage, there were a number of cars that were just better, in condition and in preparation.

I eavesdropped on the discussion between the pairs of judges (there were two judges for each category) and took note of where they looked and whenever points were deducted, there were a lot...

It's important to keep the distinction between condition and cleanliness in mind, you can have something that is damaged or worn, but as long as it's clean all is not lost.

The major things, some of which are too big to fix or things I simply forgot/overlooked...

Paint damage; specifically stone chips and wear marks. One that got me was some chips out of the door jamb, right down near the sill. You wouldn't see it unless you had bright day light, and got down on the ground, which the judges do. At the same time the lower part of the sills / side skirts were not clean enough.

Rubbers/plastic; around the windows, windscreen, rear screen, sunroof, and the seals in the roof, all show signs of UV damage & ageing, these were marked down on condition.

General cleanliness; polish powder that was caught in the rubbers, the rubber seals in the boot, wheel arches, bits of the engine bay where the crud was so stubborn it needed more scrubbing & i gave up.

General wear & tear; the windscreen being pitted, stone chips, scratches on the chrome-plated plastic door handles & bumper blades, scratches, scratches, scratches, the sort of wear & tear that's obvious if you compare two cars same age, one with 170K on the clock, one with 20K on the clock.

Factory "defects" ; this is the new one on me, just because "that's how it left the factory" does not make it acceptable. For example the thin/uneven/poor paint in the boot, and the messy sealing/adhesive of the panel joins. That's how it left the factory, but it gets marked down. So it has to be better than factory.

The age/wear/mileage related stuff is not such a big deal, but for sure the car could have been cleaner, I realised today that it's too easy to forget the distinction between condition and cleanliness...

A modern, daily-driven UK-import with 170K on the clock is not the ideal starting point for a Concours car, it just can't compete with the low mileage or restored vehicles on condition, so I am happy enough with the feedback i've gotten so far, unofficially from a couple of judges, and the comments from spectators and other competitors.

It would be naïve to expect any trophies with this car, but I am satisfied that the car is "punching above it's weight" in condition but it was the preparation (read: cleaning) that could have been a little better...

 

Thanks for the reply Cameron.
Maybe the sports seats come without and comfort have them as standard.

Looks like at great day out. Sorry to hear about the tree issues.
Regardless of winning prizes, you have got your car looking fantastic with minimal outlay.
I now going to order some new nuts for the struts on mine & rusty bolts as they have been bugging me!

 

+1 on all of the above, great day and no doubt an experience Cameron.

Being fair I guess you have to remember, your car is a daily driver, used and worked but looked after. Something similar thats a garage queen
will always win out, but what satisfaction does the owner have, if its rarely driven?
That is its main use after all...

 

Fantastic write up and all the comments Plus pictures nice one

 

Would you do it again?