The paint on Alfred looks great. Has a nice sheen and also a good feel. Not chalky at all. It looks like it's been waxed in the last year and lived indoors. But it's 1982 Jaguar paint. Up close it resembles a dry lakebed. Tiny crack cover the entire surface. But it's all been well maintained and none of it looks in any danger of coming off or corrosion forming.




Paint texture

And for some sense of scale...




So what can I do to preserve this paint job but also improve it? Is there anything that I can do to reduce the appearance of the cracks?

Thanks

 

My 86 used to look like that... one of Jaguar's wonderful ideas that did not work very well ..thermoplastic paint,.. total crap !!

I took the trim off of the car and using paint remover from Home Depot and a pile of razor blades,.. I scraped the paint completely off.. down to the metal,..a bare metal respray. All of the car !! What total garbage paint that was.

Once the paint was removed,.. the pattern of the dry lake bed was visible on the bare metal as minor rust. Water had been dribbling down between the cracked paint fissures and coming to rest on the metal itself ..trapped there.

So after completing the body work (removed the hideous protection strips along the side of the car and filled the holes). Then the car was repainted with 2 part epoxy primer and paint. The windscreen channels were repaired at the same time.

So either soda blast it or (panel by panel) spread paint remover and use razor blades.

 

Yeah, when paint is crazed like that, there are only two choices:


1. Live with it ??? It will continue to irk you.


2. Do as Alyn did, remove and respray wit better material. Preparation is everything.


My 83 is probably in the original thermoplastic. Nicks and scratches
here and there. That age thing. But, no crazing at all, any where.


Many were repainted under warranty. Was mine? I see no signs of that.


Polished and waxed up very nicely. Still looks good enough to attract
attention and get compliments.


Grosvenor Brown with doeskin interior is striking...


And, vastly different from the mixed herd. s


Carl

 

Yes Carl you have a nice rare color combo Grows on you. I think that because of the fact it has been taken care of has saved you from the "dry lake bed" experience. My car started out being sold new by dealer to a guy in Long Beach Cal. and may have had a rough start in the hot sun. But, interior is like new, not beat up. It has been owned by me for the last 24 years and I am single - no kids to cart around - interior factory fresh.. and heavy tint on windows to keep the interior from baking. No cracks in dashboardm door panel and seats like new . The car had only 119,000 on it when I did the work. I decided that because of the very good condition of the car it was worth while doing and at that time a 350 V8 was in the plans , (DOHC had puked once already - head gasket )... so made sense to me. Glad I did all that work,.. as I have for the most part, I have almost forgotten all the evenings in the garage pecking away at it. Now its a nice ride. Still has low miles 121,000 on body and 250 some odd miles on rebuilt drive train.

So the thought is ... if the car is in good condition, and you have the funds, and the time, and you have the quality of "stick to it ness" then you now know what awaits. There is no short cut. Remove paint / refinish

 

Yup!!!


Our kids were grown and out of the house in 2001, when that color combination amplified a thought in the back of my mind to get a Jaguar.


The cracks in the dash are minimal. The seats are near perfect.
Waxing the dash did wonders.


And, boy howdy, have I spent a lot of time in the garage and in the drive "thrashing". Dear departed wifey understood. Her Jaguar!!!


Now, it purrs with LT1 and 4L60E power.


Pleases me on more than one level.


My daughter and her gal pal are "cat ladies", they refer to it
affectionately as the "cat mobile".


In a year past, Daughter gave me a "bobble head" figure of a black cat.


Perfect. I placed it on the back package shelf. If I come up with
a way to electrify it's eyes, what a third stop light would that be!!!




Carl


l