My '85 XJ6 is starting to show the tiny rust spots under the windshield. Right not they are no serious, but it will be months before I can pull the windshield and do a proper repair. If this was a sailboat, I would soak the rust in ospho to slow them down, but I'm not sure that is a good plan for the Jag. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

On the submarine, we used some stuff called vactan. It is a rust inhibitor and once it is dry, can be treated just like any other paint. It will stand up to water and whatnot really well. The only issue you may have is this stuff is kinda a translucent black. So, you don't get a nice black color, but something that simply tints the bare metal some. I'm not sure what color your car is and if you put this stuff on say a white car, it will definitely stand out.

Other than that, about the only thing that I could say is if you can pull the car into say a garage, you can wire brush the spots for the moment and then apply spot coating to these areas using paint that is very close in color. That way you won't notice the spots. Then, once you can do a proper repair, you can strip off this paint and go from there.

 

Thanks Thermo, Vactan looks like an interesting product. I'll see if I can find a source in the states. Vactan seems to be a better since it includes a sealant, although painting over ospho is an option. The car is claret and even came with a can of original touch up paint that is still liquid!
pv

 

I have exactly the same problem. Two stone chips beside the windshield that have started to rust. I was told that I have to sacrifice the windshield and buy a new one in order to fix the rust properly. Is this true? Is there no way to simply remove the windshield?
Thanks!

 

Having done my time fixing rusty cars in the 1960s and 70s, I can speak with some authority on the subject! Back then, rust was a major problem with almost all cars. There was f'rinstance a Vauxhall Cresta around 1960 whose rear wings/fenders rotted through near the top where the turn indicator was after less than a year! Most cars after only 5 years were in serious rust-trouble. The value of a second-hand car depended on its freedom from rust. Worn mechanicals were never considered, that was cheap and easy.
If you can get at the rust, such as round a windsceen, it's not too bad.
1) With an old screwdriver dig and scrape as much of the rust as possible off the surface of the steel so you can see it bright and shiny. Prise the rubber out of the way with something like a decorator's scraper. If you can, find some grinding device that will grind as much rust as poss. out of the metal. (Wire brushes are no good, they just skid over the surface). Blow out all debris with an airline. This is an important stage. You'll find all sorts of crud buried 'down the crack' and it'll probably be wet as well. THIS MUST BE DRIED! A hairdrier works fine.

2) Treat the remaining surface with an ACID based primer. There are loads of these, "Naval-Jelly" springs to mind; it has to be nasty stuff, so don't get it on your fingers, if you do, wash it off at once. This acid converts the brown rust into black rust which is much more stable. Your windscreen job will need something like a 1/2" flat brush with short bristles so you can 'push it down the crack' between metal and rubber. Clean up your brush.

3) The best primer in these circumstances is red-lead, or white lead if car is a light color. You might have trouble getting it these days, but a car accessory shop could have it. Again, push the paint well down the crack with the short-bristled brush. When dry, use a finishing coat. Clean the brush.

4) When all is dry and set, seal the windscreen with either the proper stuff or that Dow-Corning kitchen seal (the stuff that smells of vinegar).
It'll take 24H to 'go off', keep it away from the rain. You'll need to use the nozzle with the smallest hole to squirt the sealer right down the bottom of the crack. Wipe off excess right away.

You should now have a repair that'll last a few years.
Leedsman.

 

Thanks Leedsman! I am going to procrastinate for a while while my Cat is in the garage for our cold Canadian winter. I will let you know come spring how I made out .
Cheers!

 

Thanks Leedsman. I'll take a look at that process on the first sunny day. El Nino has turned this part of the Gulf Coast from just a swamp into a lake and it looks like there is no sun in sight.

The guys over at the Bronco forum seem to have a lot of rust problems related to running into trees and rocks while playing in the mud. They are swearing by Ospho, so I went ahead and scraped off the loose rust and paint then dabbed some on with a cotton swab. The spots turned out to be tiny, just a couple of centimeters, So I am comfortable that this will not get away from me before the summer.

pv

 

Understanding the rusting process helps too. There are steels that are highly rust resistant, however they are too hard to be pressed into shape by those big hydraulic presses in the factory. Only soft steel is free from wrinkling in the press, and soft steel is very rust prone. The best protection is galvanizing (zinc-coating); this protects against rust very effectively, even when scratched. Rusting around the phosphor-bronze bearing for the propshaft in back of a ship is counteracted by so-called "sacrificial anodes" of zinc blocks bolted to the steel close to the bearing.
This gives a clue to the nature of rusting; it's an ELECTROLYTIC process with dis-similar poles and an electrolyte. The electrolyte in this case is contaminated water on the steel. Contaminated with anything that makes it more conductive such as dissolved CO2 (carbonic acid), or especially SALT. (sodium chloride). The dis-similar poles are the steel itself and any microscopic iron oxide (rust) of either FE2O3, or FE3O2 nearby that the salty water can touch. There then forms a 'pimple' of rust which spreads in a circle even under well-applied paint. Hence the rust spots appear in blobs.
How is the rusting process to be stopped? There are two main methods, galvanization as mentioned, or phosphatization -- basically an american idea which works, not quite so good as galvanization, but very much cheaper. The first european maker to use galvanization was Audi who stopped their serious rusting problem in its tracks. They developed an alternative to hot-dip galvanizing, a cold-galvanizing process. And it really worked! I had an Audi 100 from the eighties, and I reversed into a lampost damaging the driver's door. I procured another door from a scrapyard from a much older car, and on blowing out the dead leaves from inside the bottom of the door, discovered it to be whistle clean, exactly the place where rot used to happen. I was most impressed. Fiat was another european manuf. using cold galvanization to stop their rust problems.
The question is, what can YOU do when faced by rust in an older vehicle?
Hack off and grind off all the rust you possibly can.
Get off all blistered paint to expose the rust.
Remember rusty steel has TWO sides!
The acid-treating of the rust is ESSENTIAL.
Special primer paints for rust, ESSENTIAL.
But I suppose patience and perseverance is the most essential of all.
Leedsman.

 

I've posted this issue a couple of times in the past and am hoping I was in the wrong forum because I really didn't get any feedback. I can't fathom no 2003 XType owners don't have rust? This is an issue that is not foreign to this forum, yet no one wants to discuss it. The 2002 & 2003 X Type models were manufactured WITHOUT the proper seam sealer rust protectant in the rocker panels, hense after 5 years i started to notice rust on the sill plates rusting from the "inside" "out. This means by the time you see the rust to the naked eye, it's too late the damage is done. It occured on the inside of the faulty rocker panels and rots to the outside. There were some links on this back in 2006-2008 with a member that knows of my dissaster, Jag is well aware of this issue which is why starting 2004 they created the XTypes in Aluminum, not steel. SO, they WON'T stand behind their product, they claim I reported this 5 days over the 6 year warranty. I explained to them it rotted from the inside out, therefore this does not happen in 5 days...... they dismissed me and have been for 2 years. ANY THOUGHTS HERE ??? This will be my last plea for help, since I've brought this up for almost 2 on this forum with zero help.... maybe i'm doing something wrong????:icon_d oh:

 

Hi LAD

Whilst I sympathise with your rusting, I can't see you getting anywhere because this is the first I have heard about X-type rusting, and there are an awful lot running around. YOu would seem to be unlucky but consider this - 30 years ago Jaguars rusted heavily after 18 months, so things have improved slightly.

 

Thanks for the reply Fraser, this site is well aware of this issue. If you can check out member "Jvegas" from 1/18/08 @5:43pm "Rust Already" and continued on the same day from "Bojangle" at 11:51, read through it to the end if it'll let ya. See the pics. I was HORRIFIED !! And still am. I know this is whre this is going and rapidly. I love my Jag, no other car I've seen to date carries the same look, AWD features and ego strength (for lack of better words) It's a shame. You'll see my pain if you can find these posts, they're about 5-6 pages long but you'll be horrified if you or anyone else on this site has an 02 or 03 XJag. Try to find it, it'll be worth your reading I promise. It's a shame that a company as large as Jaguar won't stand behind a 40k mfg error. As we Italians in New England say.... "this is a **** hole in the snow" for them. Hope you and anyone else reading this researches JVegas etc starting 1-18-08. Hope to hear back from you and anyone else who has the cahoonas (male anatomy) to join in...