After moaning for years about the state of the paintwork on my XJRs I've finally bitten the bullet and took the old girl in for a full respray yesterday. She drives so nicely (and is mechanically so pampered) that it was just driving me nuts seeing her looking so scruffy. Hopefully when we're done she'll look every bit as good as she runs!

I'm planning on doing a video diary of the job, the first installment showing the sorry state she was in before work started is up on YouTube for anyone who is interested:
I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,

Dan.

 

Welcome to the forum Dan,

Apart from the rear wheel arches, there's not much to do in repairs before the prep can go ahead. Very surprised to see how the clearcoat has is lifting in large strips. With this and the non matching bonnet shade, it's obviously had a few sections 'blown in' over the years.

Keep the installments coming. It'll be interesting to follow progress and see the transformation.

When you get a minute, please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST section and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

Cheers Graham, I'll do that!

Yeah, it's obviously had patches of repair work done over the years, the guy at the paintshop said he could see where the flanks had been blown in, they'd done the lower half of the rear wings and not the tops. The other thing that wouldn't show on the video is tha passenger door - it's fine in normal light, but my last address had a sodium street light near the drive, and that door was a completely different shade of red under that orange light. It's time to sort it out I think!

Cheers,

Dan.

 

Great thread looking forward to seeing this one grow.
Hopefully your keeping the same colour as this will certainly stand out from the rest when done.

I have had a lot of body work done in the past on Jags and I'll just mention I think you need to do more with the arches than just having it rubbed down sealed and painted. It will come back on a 6-12 month basis if you do.
I found myself a good body shop and they cut the corroded parts out for me and replaced with new metal, this is guaranteed and hasn’t come back yet. Previous attempts to rub down and paint always did. Welding in new metal does cost more but is worth it in the long run. Ill attach a few pictures of mine in the process, all looks scary stuff!

If you don’t mind me asking how much are you expecting to pay for a full re-spray and repair?

 

Hi, thanks for your comments!

The estimate for the work is £2,700, but it depends on what horrors may be discovered as we go along really. It's a full respray of the exterior, but not including door shuts and under the bonnet etc, as these areas are fine. It's going to be in the same colour, as the interior piping is coded to the exterior. If I'm honest I prefer the look of the XJR-s in black, but if I were going to change colour I'd far rather leave this car unmolested and original, and just track down a car that was black to begin with! I've no plans to do that though!

The plan at the moment is for the strip down to be carried out, then next week I'll go back over and take a look, we'll walk round the car and discuss and mark everything that needs to be done. Welding is a service offered by the bodyshop, and I'd certainly go for it if it's necessary. I'm inexperienced with this sort of work, so I'm leaning quite heavily on the advice from the guy doing the work, who comes highly recommended. Any advice that can be offered here is most welcome, as I can discuss the options with him with a bit more knowledge.

One thing I did ask about was the possibility of applying some sort of epoxy based coating with a rust inhibitor to the bodywork behind the bodykit, especially the sills - I work on oil rigs so I was pestering the painters last time I was offshore to see what sort of products they use in the harsh marine conditions. Turns out the guy at the bodyshop has a product in mind already along those lines. He also does wax injection into all the cavities, and this has a corrosion inhibitor as well.

We'll have to see how far into the car the tin worm has gone, and take it from there - I'll be sure to keep you posted on what we find!

That's a stunning looking XJR by the way - there's a lovely gleam to the paintwork!

 

Subscribed.

This should be an interesting ride.

If you are going for the full glass out prep to get at the under screen bubbles, source your replacement seals/mouldings in advance.

Due to bonding, like as not the old ones will be cut out and useless for reuse.

 

Looking forward to seeing the new paintjob! I'm subscribed.

 

Well, the latest update isn't much of an update really - the schedule has slipped a little, as the bodyshop has a lot of work on, and I'm in no hurry I said I was happy to wait a little while and let the job behind me in the queue go ahead. It gives me time to track down a few parts I need (mainly the rubber seals for things like wing mirrors/indicators/door handles, plus a V12 badge for the front grille), plus I'm also going to have the windscreen replaced, so while the guy is there I'll have the rear screen removed too so that blistering under the rear window can be properly dealt with.

Due to work commitments it will be 3 weeks before I get over there and make the next video update, but I'll post back as soon as it's done.

If anyone has any suggestions on the best places to source those new rubber parts in the UK I'd really appreciate it - it would be a real shame to put old tired rubber back onto a freshly painted car!

 

All sorts of places in the UK.

David Manners Jaguar has given me excellent over the phone workshop help even though I wasn't a customer.

Front screen rubber #BDC7178* £36.00 inc vat.

Certainly give them a call BEFORE cutting out the rear screen!

I am moving this into the dedicated XJS section, because it is going to be a restoration thread rather than just Sights and Sounds.

 

Nice car! I bet it'll be a stunner when repainted

Cheers,

Allan

 

Update: It'll probably come as no surprise to anyone that this simple strip down and respray has grown arms and legs! As the car was stripped back more and more filler and fibreglass was found from previous half-arsed repair jobs. I've picked up some new panels, and the bad metal is being cut out and new steelwork welded in its place at the moment, then we'll be moving on to paintwork.

The latest video installment is up: 1990 Jaguarsport XJR-s Respray Video 2 - YouTube

Apologies for the background chatter - the guys love talking shop!

 

I feel your pain. I have just resprayed my 89 in signal Red and it and taken me 1 year to do it in my garage. You will have a great car once it's finished and if it's done properly will last you a lifetime.

 

You're getting your jewel done right, which I really agree with. When I had mine done a couple months ago, I paid a good resto-paint man a fair dollar more than a quickie spray job, but I also plan to keep mine for years.
-I posted my thread titled 'My XJS Make-Over', and shows the difference a good job makes to an already awesome car.
Looking forward to see your end results.