My sweet '89 went in for it's planned strip down paint job last weekend, being done by a respected body and paint man known for his restoration jobs. He works for a large dealership by day, but doing my job in his private home shop.
I dropped in to see him tonight to bring him the new spoiler and a new headlight trim since one of my originals had a bubble in the chrome finish. He had almost everything stripped off, and had just begun sanding, and filling a few minor dings in the doors and one on the hood.
Happily, he had only found one surface rust spot the size of a quarter under the rear bumper. He said it was nice to see a car so well built and solid, which actually could be stripped down properly.
His only pisser was he would need to remove the door glass to remove the door chrome strip at the window, and drill out all the pop rivits holding the trunk finish piece chrome trim.
I'll grab a couple more photos before he sprays, then some of the finished job

 

Looking forward to the pics. Red like mine. Nice. Bud

 

My '89 Convertible has been stripped down, door dings fixed, the ONE quarter-sized surface rust spot behind the rear bumper repaired and epoxy primered,and over the weekend my good body man/painter began spraying the '96 Signal Red -Code CFC water based finish. Four coats later, next day he applied 3 coats of Clear. He has the new Lister Spoiler sprayed, then re-masked to spray each inner fender well black. The photos taken tonight were after the Clearcoat, before the final sand and buffing.

After stripping all the fixtures, we had discussed the potential problem of masking the Convertible top. He showed me tonight, he researched and found how to slacken a cable which runs around the rear deck inside the rag-top which allowed him to roll up the top at least an inch, giving him a good way to paint up under the top, which will not show any paint seam/edge.

He told me he hopes I am not in a hurry 'cause I won't get the car back until HE'S satisfied. I appreciate that. He said probably one more week, as he will be polishing & buffing all the chrome before re-installing it.

Since the factory fog lights both have cracked lenses(but still work), I decided not to re-install them, may find another set, perhaps not quite so big, to mount.
I've found a pair of nice rectangle, Stainless Exhaust Tips which will go on when I modify the exhaust slightly.
-Definitely a RED car. -Getting some nice FaceBook comments too.

 

Looks fantastic! Im gonna get mine resprayed too, but Im going to wait until I have enough in the 'wife doesn't know about it' account to do it RIGHT! No Maaco job for my baby! I need to find somebody like your guy. Who takes pride in his work and seems to be his own worst critic.

 

I've dealt with too many painters who consider themselves "artists". They'll make up BS excuses and hold your car hostage because "they aren't satisfied". In reality, they are simply stalling for time.

Unless he's doing it for free, there should be a schedule. It's YOUR car. You should get it back when YOU are satisfied.

 

Right! Never say "no hurry" or "take your time" to any paint or repair shop. Agree on a schedule and stay on top of the situation. This doesn't have to be adversarial or unreasonable. It's just good business.

Not to be needlessly melodramatic , as we're only talking about a basic re-paint job here, but there are some horror stories out there. I personally know of some cars that have disappeared for *years* at restoration shops.

Cheers
DD

 

I won't get melodramatic, but I picked up my newly finished Signal Red XJS today, and never realized just how beautiful this colour was. I am very happy with the work, and cannot find even one minor flaw.
We went for a 400km 'show-off' cruise this afternoon, and caught lots of rubbermecking and finger pointing with the car.
I really like the way the new Lister spoiler fills out the trunk area.

I know talk without photos is bogus, so will take some tomorrow to post.

Cheers!

 

I still haven't taken any decent photos of my baby since getting her back from strip-down paint, but a friend from my local Car Club took one couple days ago, which I have here.
I managed to find a genuine Hirschman Power Antenna, new in box from a supplier in the UK, a newer model with a different plug for power, but came with a plug socket and inserts to do the proper plug-in by simply determining the constant 12v, switched 12v and ground. all holes lined up great for mounting and works super, I now have great FM tunes plus even the 10sec. delay works slick.
I will get more pix posted shortly

 

Looking good

 

looking awesome!
Im hoping those pics just happened to be in the process of just applying filler and that the guy didn't just fill in dents and dings with bondo instead of fixing them.

 

I was there when he was tapping out two dings from the inside of the right door, and I can only guess he did his best wherever possible.

 

Sweet job.

 

Sweet ride and a "Tip of the Hat" for a job well done!

 

I can't wait to get mine to that stage

 

It's puuurdy :-) I would gladly have had a red car, just unfortunate I found, my black basket case first and had to save her !

 

Since I had my '89 repainted over a month ago now, I've had it waxed and polished and I did join two local car clubs in the southern part of this province after having been asked numerous times. I modified the exhaust slightly by punching out both cats per side, removing the mid-floor mufflers and adding a couple stainless rectangle exhaust tips. The sound is much nicer, definitely lets people know she's no ordinary engine. I changed the T-handle shifter to a nice wooden knob with the Jaguar/Coventry logo. It feels so much nicer in the hand too.
With the local clubs, I've attended four Show&Shine days, to very nice comments from fellow classic car owners and spectators. My red XJS attracts people who usually will circle two or three times, then stand back to look at different angles. Comments are all very nice, and ai believe the nicest, from a distinguished looking gent, was how it simply was the nicest automobile he had seen in many years, that he would take my car over any new Corvette on a dealer lot. - - I started thinking the dollar logic here, and just smiled. -A photo from a Classic Car Show from yesterday which had over 150 vehicles registered, is below.

 

Looking good!!! Enjoy that sweet ride

Cheers,

Allan

 

I cannot wait to get my car on the road. Congrats to you. It needs mufflers. The paint and body will be in the next year budget.
I have a set off headlight wipers on my parts car for your car. Interested?

 

Absolutely beautiful.

 

What's going on here. Two Canadian guys named Greg and both have a Signal Red XJS.