This is just ahead of the right side rear wheel.

I have a welder. I have some skill. But I new to know if this is terminal before I try.

 

I cannot see the pic?

 

Updated. Fair bit of rust where the suspension connects near the rockers.

 

Anything can be fixed if you have either the ability yourself or the money to pay someone to do it. I have seen some very rusty XJS's brought back from the brink of falling apart.

 

The problem will almost certainly be that there is rust in many other places too. Best to do a thorough check all over before deciding what to do.

Greg

 

if you have that much rust, you can plan on a lot more!

thats why they recycle,junk,break,these cars, cost more to repair than ever be worth.

but plenty of time & money, nothing else to do in life,then gives you something to exist for.

 

I've
Checked, this is the worst of the rust. There's other small spots, in areas I'm certain I can fix. I was worried because this is where one of the rear suspension links meets the body.

 

You can fix it. My 88 was so badly rusted in that area that the front mount for the trailing arm had pulled away from the car on the passenger side. This made the car lurch laterally when it shifted under acceleration. Eventually the driver side let go as well, and caused even more problems. even the lower edges of the rear frame rails and rear jacking points were rusted in that area. Nobody supplys those pieces of the body new, so I had to improvise.

I cut out all the rot, back to clean metal, and replaced the flat area of the trailing arm mount and jacking points with 1/8" steel plate, and I welded two pieces of 1-1/4" angle iron into a U-shape to replace the lower portion of the frame rails. Once the rust was cut out, I sprayed all the exposed metal inside the frame rails and inner seals with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. While the car will never pass a concourse (it's a daily driver, so I couldn't care less about showing it), the repair is a hundred times stronger than the original ever was, and will never be a problem again.

That was not the full extent of the rust on my car though. Now I need to cut out the passenger floor, and replace it with a new pan that I bought a few months ago.

 

Correction: I used 1/4" steel plate to replace the jacking/trailing arm mount area.

The lower edge of the 18 gauge vertical reinforcement panels inside the inner sills will likely be eaten away and need to be replaced on your car. It's not that hard to do while you're in there.

 

This is exactly the encouragement I needed. Thanks so much!

 

My 87 XJS was given to me. It was a flood car. It sat in the backwater of the Mohawk River nearly 10 years. Trees were growing up through the missing floor pans! Some quick chainsaw work and she was free. The front cross-member has rusted to the point the right front tire was completely compressed into the wheel well. Both trailing arms were dangling under the car. I had the car running in about three days. I made steel boxes to fit over where the frame rail used to be and welded all summer on it. we completely replaced all of the front and rear floor boards and reattached the trailing arms to the fabricated frame/pans. Make certain that you square the car up first before you weld new mounts in. It will crab terribly under strong acceleration if you don't. Same applies for braking. It will get out of control if you are not squared up correctly. As JagZilla said , it can be repaired. That car doesn't have a title so it's a race car now. It screams! I bolted my rear mounts for the roll cage through to the plates holding the trailing arms. They don't budge now and it really stiffened up the car without adding much weight. I also encapsulated them in Pour 15. I avoided any type of bituminous based sealer because of the fire, fume hazards of a race car. I can't imagine how much it would cost to pay for that kind of a repair. Fortunately I taught my 20 year old son how to MIG and he did the majority of the bulk welding. Get a light duty MIG welder (gas-less) and have at it. I used a .25 wire on the pans and it seemed to work well. I used .45 wire on the structural applications and cage with my big MIG welder. I screwed or riveted all of my sheet metal in before I welded it in permanently. It really helps with expansion and stitching the welds in. Weld over the screws or rivets when you finish. Oh.. one more thing.. never trust a Jag fuel system when you are welding. Be very careful where you weld. We had a few close calls even taking great precautions. Keep an extinguisher handy!

 

That is a very good point!

The fuel lines run right past that area on both sides of the car. Be very careful to shield them as well as possible. It's just too easy to cut into them when removing the rot, or to hit them with the welder when putting things back together.