Both my driver and passenger door sills have rust at the rear. I believe this is due to water coming by the quarter window's weatherstripping (which had rotted away and I recently replaced) collecting down there and not flowing out the drains properly.

I've also got several small dings and dents, most notably in the driver's door, and a large scrap down the passenger door and rear wheel well...

Talked to a body shop today about removing and repairing the rust, as well as fixing the various dings and dents. They recommended an entire paint job.

At one point I test drove what I think was a '92 XJS convertible that was a deep blue, and I have always been taken with that color. The PO had repainted this car 'alpine green,' and I'd rather move to the blue if we're going to do an entire respray.

As memory serves me best it looked something like the color of the car in the attached thumbnail. Does anyone know what color code that would be (or a good reference I could look it up in)?

Cheers,

Will

 

@Will

I have various XJS books which describes the colours in words, but obviously that doesn't help.

If you go to this website that sells touch up paint.... http://www.paintscratch.com...... you can see an actual colour swab. Looking at this and your picture, it could be Westminster Blue ? (I looked up 1989 model year)

You could always order a couple of the colours in either touch up paints or aerosols just to try the colours out on something (probably best not to do it on the car!)

 

How much are they charging you for the paint job?

 

If you change the color it will cost alot more if it's done right. Door jams, under the trunk, hood ect. For a good paint job I bet it will be at least $4000 to $5000.

 

This link will probably help you to narrow it down:

http://www.jaguarpartswholesaler.com/1902987.html

Good luck!

 

The top of the line body shop in my town quoted $8000 for a respray way back when. Needless to say I declined. As said above color changes can ruin a car if not done right. To do it right you'll spend a lot extra $$$$

 

Along with fixing the rust on both door sills and a few dings and dents, without a color change $1450. With a color change $1850. Price includes bodywork, stripping the old paint, two coats of paint, and three coats of clearcoat. He uses DuPont.

I have a friend who had this shop do extensive bodywork and paint on his '68 Camaro. The car is his daily driver (as the XJS is mine), and he puts a lot of attention in to it while maintaining a budget. He did research on shops around town and in his opinion found this shop to be below the other estimates while still producing good work. They are definitely not a top of the line shop and the job is not show quality. However, I don't want to pay for show quality (and again, this is my daily driver, so I know it's going to pick up parking lot rash despite my best intentions). I've looked over the Camaro and some of the other work the shop has done, and it's pretty good.

The paint on my car is not the original color (original color was black). At it's best, it was not show quality either and a step below the factory paint... if you look closely you can find a few runs. In it's current condition, there are several scratches and swirls in addition to the scrape running down the right side, it definitely needs attention. Plus the rust needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

I'm looking at a respray of the entire main body after the rust is corrected whether the color stays the same or not... Changing color will obviously require additional work. I don't hate the current color, but I have always loved the Westminster Blue (looked at a paint chip book and that is indeed the color), and this seems a good opportunity to make the change.

Cheers,

Will

 

if your gonna change the color or get a really nice paint job, you really need to get it down to bare metal.

 

That's in the ballpark, yes.

A pal of mine had his XJ6 painted 7-8 years ago. No rust but pleny of door dings and it required a strip to bare metal. He paid about $5300. The shop (local chevy dealer) did a superb job. It's gorgeous and has held up perfectly....no signs of fading or deterioration of any kind.

The same shop painted my XJS for $3000. Equally superb result. However it had only one very small dent to remove and didn't require a bare-metal strip down.

Cheers
DD

 

If you're happy with "pretty good" then I say "got for it" as I doubt you'll ever find anything less expensive.

It's a tough call. I'm in the same boat. My XJR (1995) has picked up tons of road rash over the years and could really use a new paint job but I'm just not in a position these days to spend several thousand dollars on a respray....especially on a daily driver with an ACV of about $4000!

Cheers
DD

 

Exactly! The math doesn't add up for me... particularly as my wife spent $1000 on having the interior redone as a wedding gift to me, spent several hundred on a new rear window, couple hundred on some used 'starfish rims', and I just sent the wood off to British Autowood for refinishing... things are adding up...

I've had the car since '99. This car was the first car I ever purchased... I was living on the beach in San Diego at the time in my first salaried job. Being young and stupid I didn't care for it as much as I should have (although had a lot of fun with it). Hence a lot of the parking lot rash and door scrapes. It was my daily driver back then, sat relatively unused from 2003-2010, and I'm getting back in good condition to be my driver once again.

While I would love to have 'perfect,' I'm willing to settle for good enough to save a few grand...

Question for me really is whether to do the color change or not...

 

Do the color change...it seems that you'll be kicking yourself later if you don't. You'll likely never do this again (unless you get a really crummy job) so make it the way you want!

 

Some before shots... will have the after shots in about two weeks. You can see the starfish rims that I installed last week...

Ding on driver's door:



Scrape on passenger's door and wheelwell (and a little of the rust showing through):



Rust in rear of passenger door sill:



Side shot from the passenger's side (note the door cards are out for the wood refinishing):



3/4 shot:

 

@macboots

The starfishys help a lot....

I had less dents and less rust than you, and kept the original colour (black) and got a 1500 dollar respray from.... wait for it...... Maaco. My car will never be a show car either and for me this was the best balance between looks and $$. We had a group of Bay Area Jags together last Saturday and no one could believe I'd had the car painted at Maaco.......

Your 1800 including a colour change sounds great...... looking forward to the "after" pics

And yes, get the colour changed........ Green is a very challenged colour. The Westy Blue will look much better

 

That looks like Solent Blue - JFJ 715

Sarc suggested Westminster Blue but I think that is darker than Solent Blue. Extremely difficult to tell from a pic!

Graham

 

Looked at the color chip book at the shop... Westminster Blue is the color I had in mind. Took the plunge... we'll see what results I get!

Cheers,

Will

 

Dropped by the shop, as I realized I hadn't pointed out the color matchead area above the windshield that is hidden when the top is up... a lot of progress in two days!

I am surprised the bumpers are staying on though.

Also looked at the rust repairs, all repaired now and initial appearance looks very good.

 

[quote=macboots;546246]Dropped by the shop, as I realized I hadn't pointed out the color matchead area above the windshield that is hidden when the top is up... a lot of progress in two days!

I am surprised the bumpers are staying on though.

Also looked at the rust repairs, all repaired now and initial appearance looks very good.



Cant wait to see the after pics....

 

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement in this process! Just stopped by the shop now. Car is painted and all they have left now is wet sand and then put things back together.

The bumpers did come off. Everything looks really good... Color came out as I envisioned it and I think it looks sharp set against the beige interior and canvas top. Wish I'd snapped another in progress photo while I was there... I'll have finalized photos in a day or two.

They did a great job with repairing the rust and smoothing out the welds. All the nicks and bumps are gone. Looking forward to getting her back tomorrow or Wednesday. Also, British Autowood e-mailed today and the wood trim is finished... should have that back by Wednesday as well so I can put everything together.

All in all it's been a good month getting the car into shape. Fixed the rear quarter panel window motor, installed new weatherstripping for both quarter windows, had the wood redone, installed a 16CU ECU, new (used) rims, new kickdown switch (which had disintegrated some time ago), got the a/c running and climate controls working properly, new media center/stereo, new speakers all around, removed the extraneous climate ducts to the back and plugged the line, new style (used) center vent, replaced the rotted out license lighting (which took about 3 hours longer to install than I envisioned)... next is to figure out what's going on with the timing/vacuum advance, replace the throttle linkage bushings and adjust the linkage, coolant flush and install new thermostats (current ones are 10 years old and a bit tired), and then look into suspension upgrades.

Cheers,

- Will

 

Looking forward to seeing the end results. $1850 seems to be a bit too good to be true, maybe prices are quite a bit cheaper in J-ville than in South Florida?? Last car I had repainted was my 1973 Mustang Mach 1 in 1988. Had it done at a Ford dealer in Palm Beach County that I worked at at the time and for some reason the price of $2300 sticks out, but I'm not completely sure I'm recalling that correctly. No color change, as I was having it painted a similar medium blue that it came from the factory with....but I did have them paint on the matte black two-tone on the hood.

Care to share the name of the shop?? I have some rust issues (who doesn't in Florida?) that need to be addressed. If the savings are enough, it just might be worthwhile for me to Drag the Jag up the coast.

thanks,
howlinowl