2003 black XJ8. The roof has recently started showing sun baking. Clear coat not lifting but lost shine and doesn’t feel smooth. Paint on bonnet and boot much better. Just got done doing a high quality black wax job. Roof looks much better but still not good. Anyone do a ceramic coating self application and can recommend a brand?

 

Out of curiosity did you clay bar it before waxing?

 

Compound and polish it. Prep the panel the paint with some sort of IPA. Or, wash the car. This is so the coating sticks to the paint better. Then, apply your ceramic coating.

Gyeon makes great products. But if you want to buy something at the auto parts stores, Griots or Meguairs.

 

No.

 

^
That “lack of smoothness” might just be an accumulation of contaminants on the surface and some time with a clay bar would be the quickest/easiest way to find out.

If the previous owner wasn’t particularly tall, the roof is the last panel that would have received any attention. I know someone who imported an older Daimler from Japan they had been owned by a hotel and you could see your image in every body panel except the roof…. a good claying and its first wax in a long time worked wonders.

 

India Pale Ale? I’m more of a dark beer guy. JK. I know you mean isopropyl alcohol. I do have a bottle of wax remover.

 

Mask around that area do 320 grit sandpaper
use Rust-Oleum gray primer spray
Get small air compressor and r500 spray gun get the color from ppg and finish 1 clear coat easy to do
If want easier then get same paint in spray can and spray max can goodluck

 

Hard to tell when not looking at it in person, but I think I would wet sand it and buff. You might be able to knock off enough of the baked clear coat and get it back to a nice shine. I definitely would do some kind of surface prep vs just applying a ceramic coating. I don't think that will do anything. A clay bar as suggested above is a good idea too. Some pictures of what you're seeing might help as well.

 

My first choice would be to select the worst looking/feeling area and use good ol' fashioned rubbing compound.
I use the Turtle wax brand with satisfaction. After a bit of scrubbing then I use polishing compound of the same
brand, and once i get the finish back, I top it off with Turtle wax paste. The only car that did not work on was a
1977 Lincoln Continental whose roof paint was so thin, the compound broke through to the primer. I would
expect that Jaguar paint is much thicker and less prone for that malady.

 

Rubbing compound can be very aggressive…better perhaps to start with polish (and polish is not wax - many do not understand the difference)…my favourite is the 3M Finesse-it line.

 

Plan to first use a wax remover to take off recent wax application. Then clay bar. After that see how it looks and consider polish.

 

Agree - clean the wax off, then start with the least abrasive option and increase abrasiveness until the job is done 👍 All paints are different so good detailers working on unknown paint will do a test patch with a fine pad and compound, then if they can still see scratches they'll increase the abrasiveness and test again until they see what they want.

 

Yes, Rubbing compound CAN be aggressive, however the condition described of the surface to be treated
seemed to demand a bit of aggressiveness. If you know what you are doing, you don't have to rub hard to
get past the oxidation described without harming the surface. If in doubt use a polishing compound first to
see if you can remove the oxidation.