Is this a body shop job? Any ideas how much $$$ something like this would cost?

 

It will only get worse if not addressed. A pretty common spot for rust to occur. A lot depends on your plan for the car. Is it a car that you plan to keep for a long time? Something as simple as a rust preventative sealer like POR15 applied with a small brush in the seam, to pulling the trim and glass and treating and refinishing the metal. You could have a glass shop pull the trim (leaving the window in place) than you can get a better idea of how much repair is needed. Treating the rust and resealing the window may be enough to slow or stop the problem.

If you've read my posts you know that I'm not one to throw money at my cars and will take the cautious (cheap) approach. Our X300s are beautiful cars but like many old Jags aren't worth that much on the market. The paint on your car looks really nice and I'm guessing the rest of the car is up to the same standard. I would like to keep my car in good shape but i have to weigh the costs.

This is going to sound like a real cheapskate approach, but you could just shoot some WD40 into the seam (when it's dry). It was designed to displace water and it could provide some protection from the incursion of moisture. It wouldn't even be visible or damage the surrounding paint. It definitely couldn't hurt and it could buy you some more time to decide. Best of luck.

 

I finally got an estimate. They said $2300 because the window isn't part of an isolated body panel and the amount of clear coat they will need to use. Time for some more estimates.

 

Since the affecte spot is barely visible I would follow Rivguy's advice.
Pull the trim, remove the rust (Rustyco works wonders), apply rust resistant coating and paint with a matching paint can/brush.

If you only use the above on the edges of the rusted area it would be barely visible from the outside

 

As far as I know, do it asap, since welding job on the window frames is one of the sketchiest and most expensive ones. But holy ****, 2.3k for just removing window and trim? Thank God I dont live in the States.

 

I removed the trim and window on a ‘40 using a hooked blade



Easy enough to do. This gives you clear access to the area to repair, then just get a mobile screen guy to replace the screen.

 

Have to agree, this will only turn bigger in a year or three and then will require lots of welding so if you can live up with a small patch of your own paintwork that will clearly be different to the rest of the paintwork, do it yourself. Keep it minimal, tape everything around as close as you can, lift up the trim and rubber and try to grind it down to the bare metal, use some anti rust treatment, zinc primer and then filler and normal paint. Hopefully its just a tiny rust bubble that didn't eat the metal much, I have one of these on the rear right wheel arch and metal underneath is still nice and clean.
In a worse case scenario, this rust bubble can turn into rust hole underneath, you wont know until you grind it down, in which case, screen will have to come out and the whole deck will have to be repainted, it would cost you ~ $700-1000 in UK to do it with the paint blended in to C posts.
I've seen this a lot on the XJ40s and its not pretty when it spreads.

 

Is that the rear window or the small side light windows?

 

Small side light windows. Both sides.

 

I got a call and the body shop said the left side isn't that bad but the right side might need a sheet of metal welded to it. Bummer! It's in great shape mechanically. And it only has 117K miles.

 

Sorry to hear that Steve. Did the shop pull the trim? Any pictures?

 

 

 

Wow, that trim can hide a lot of damage. Sorry to see that. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

 

This is what it looks like now.

 

Looks great Enjoy your car.

 

Wow - that was fast too.