Partial disassembly and steelwork repairs




New arch tacked in, later seam welded




Dad applying the basecoat over a lot of primer-filler for a super smooth finish


Dear All,


After 21 years and 173k miles my XJR was starting to look a bit tatty. My Dad has one of those Wagner high volume low pressure spray things and had had some success repainting a replacement wing a few years ago. The main issue with these systems is that you end up with more 'orange peel' finish than a proper, good quality, spray gun. This translates into a lot more polishing to achieve a good finish but on the plus side there is hardly any overspray, saving paint and mess. Anyway, a couple of months ago we decided to have a go at the whole car and he has a new retirement hobby! The main difficulty / delay has been the reaction and or shrinkage of paint in localised areas, requiring areas to be repeated. Next time we would paint the whole car with a barrier before applying the primer / filler and top coats. Flys / dust also an issue.
I will post more pictures to update in due course.

 

Looks like it's coming right along. Can't wait to see it finished!

 

Good effort. The cost of a decent new paint job around here is very prohibitive.

 

One tip to reduce dust is to wet the floor with your garden hose before spraying. A decent HVLP spray gun isn't that expensive, that will help; but a lot comes to technique too.

 

Thanks for the enthusiasm Gents, I hope to be ready to reassemble soon! The cost of a professional job would be 2-3 k including repairs, so would be hard to justify. There has been a lot of trial and error, so better second time around. Also a solid colour would be so much easier, especially where small areas needed repeating due to reaction or rubbing through etc. I like the original colour and didn't want to remove the doors and absolutely everything. It was supposed to be a quick job............

 

Twenty years ago when I moved here I needed to find a painter I could afford. My strategy was to go to a bunch of local car shows and every time I saw a great paint job, to ask who did it and if they didn't mind telling, how much did it cost. I must have expensive tastes because just about half the owners I asked kept giving the same person's name and costs in the $10K to $15K range. But astonishingly, just about 1/3 of the time, the owner would tell me "I did it myself in my garage at home." Therefore, my research proved it is possible for an amateur to get a show quality finish with limited facilities.

I eventually found a young professional who did every bit as good as the $15K jobs for $5K. He's done three cars for me in the intervening years, but he has more recently switched to only doing late model insurance work as the customers are not picky and he can just manage a bunch of employees, making a lot more money for a lot less work. So I went on the hunt again and got burned. A car show friend showed me a couple of cars in his collection that looked fabulous and put me in contact with his painter. He charged $7k for a Corvette body, I made him do it over again, better but still not really happy with it. I think the old man's eyesight must be failing. I'll probably wind up finding someone else and doing it over a third time.

At least doing it yourself, if you're a perfectionist like me, you'll take whatever time and do it over and over again until you are satisfied. I only wish I had a separate garage or shop building in which to set up for painting.

 

I'm also doing my respray @ home 'n all - but outside on my driveway, so its taking ages due to typical British weather!

Although mine is also a colour change to a flip type paint.

 

I plan to respray mine at home some time too. I have repainted cars before, much much cheaper cars, so I will go the whole 9 yards with the Jag. I find the hardest part is the prep work and masking. Sanding is easy but very tedious, power tools are your friend. Mask everything, spend the extra money for the good masking tape. I will probably build a home paint booth out of plastic piping and sheeting. But I also need to buy a new compressor and paint gun too.

 

Good effort on the driveway, we are having a hard enough time in the garage! Did you prep then take all the doors / boot / hood off, paint the inside surfaces and shuts and then replace to get the outside done in one go for the flip to be consistent down the car?

 

I painted the engine bay and inside on the bonnet whilst the engine was in bits and the bonnet was off, the rest i've done using ALOT of masking tape and newspaper - havn't got room the take the doors etc off and do it that way unfortunately.
Paints quite good really, you can do it panel by panel and it all seems to match quite nicely.

 

I sure wouldn't ever attempt to paint a car outdoors. Our Texas horseflies would leave their bootprints all over the wet paint.