I recently purchased a beautiful Jaguar Sovereign. No rust perfectly clean ..or so I thought.
While cleaning the base of the windscreen I noticed a touch of rust near a rubber. Removing it i saw it extended under the plastic form that runs along the base of the Windscreen under the wiper Blade.
This drivers side segment was all rusted out and there was a Foam/Rubber material under the rust..it was all wet.
I extracted this rusted panel portion and the rubber material underneath. I beleive this foam/rubber insert in the box cavity saved further damage to the car as the box cavity is in pretty good shape.. But im going to cut and repair this properly. No rust converter to be used.
I beleive i do not at tthis stage need to remove the dash board in order to weld the area, but the windscreen and the front drivers side panel will be reomoved.
I will be posting regularly with this over the next few weeks.
I will appreciate peoples advice.

Im planning to clean the area first, possibly by blasting it, but im thinking that will be messy, otherwise with a dremel tool.
I will have to cut out the weld points to make sure there isnt rust underneath..all things to consider.

I have included 4 photos , the last is the perfect good side..wish both were perfect.

best regards
Peter

 

You could cut out the rust and use fiber glass to repair since its under the cowel it won't be seen.

 

Fiberglass is hygroscopic. Not the greatest solution - the idea of using steel is the winner, and if osyris can weld neatly that's the route to go. I'd get some POR 15 or similar metal prep like Waxoil or Bilt Hamber's stuff to sign it off with once it's welded in. I think the rubber sealant foam does in fact cause more rot than an open cavity. Reason being it holds water against unprotected panels (the underside) where the e-coat isn't applied. The next place that it fails is at the base of the rear screen where the wing, centre panels meet.
Have a look here, I've already covered rust issues...
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...onsider-59153/

 

Sean
Yes i see your posts on the Rust/Foam issue. I think the the requirement of Foam is dependant on the extent of water volume.
The foam in this particular case i beleive displaced the amount of water that would have been in that box cavity and therefor helped the situation over time.
If there was no foam in there that area wold have been flooded imo, and even if it were not then there would have been a problem with moisture entering from condensation of the air trapped in the cavity. I think Jaguar placed foam in there to eliminate this condensation issue when it comes to closed cavities.Jaguar should have prehaps left them opened and allowed air to circulate and placed a long term Cavity wax in there. But then this may be too complex to replace for people not in love with thir jaguars like us.So they decided to close them up and displace the air with foam.
In yachts and the like, they always design the interior with the idea of allowing air to circulate as freely as possible and use cavity waxes and the like. Maybe Jaguar need to appoint a ship designer to the board!
I may leave the cavit opened, there is a hole that they obviously ued to inject the foam in thrugh thats been capped off... and may place a cavity wax in there.
I will be placeing oil/rust inhibitors/convertors in all little holes i can find!!.. thats for sure.
best
Peter

 

Good post. 11 years later and I've found rust in the same spot on my X305. I believe the foam is the culprit. I'm not a welder and it's very hard to find a repairer to fix this in Western Australia where I live. Lack of trades people. I've been given a wait of 8 months until it can be 'looked at.' No panel beater shops will look at it as they are all too busy with insurance company work. Australia is cronically understaffed after the covid years.
Do you have any photos of your repairs?

 

Hello
yes I repaired that many moons ago.... I still have the car and it was a perfect job. I welded it up myself, sprayed with 2pk primer, colour and clear. It actually is a very simple job if you have a mig welder .The windscreen must be removed, they'll come to your home to do it, so no big deal.
I don't have any photos sorry, but there was nothing to see when I finished, it came out factory standard, invisible.
The technique to use is this :
Get some sheet metal from another car, any car of the same general thickness or a bit more. Slightly thicker is preferred as you will be grinding it down ever so little.
importantly, Don't cut any rusted panels out. First fabricate the new steel sheets to fit on-top of the current rusted area...like a glove ....bend, hammer, dolly until they fit perfectly. Only after all this do you cut the rusted area out. This way you have a template to work with. For complicated pieces, divide it into 2 or 3 sections , form them and weld the piece up, welding on both sides, then grind down with a grinder, to form the piece.
See "Fitzy fabrications" on you tube, he uses this method.
As I said it's very easy. Welders , panel beaters are paid way to much for the crappy work they do. Good riddance to them.
Btw, I don't think it was COVID that deindustrialised our Australian economy, I think we just priced our selves out of the competitive world economy.
If your in Sydney , I could have helped, but I see your not regretfully..
Check out Fitzy on YouTube....he did the same as I did on this all. It's really simple stuff when you do it slowly.
Regards
Peter