Hello,

I noticed today that my 97 XK8 convertible has small wear spots (down to shiny metal) on both sides of the car at the rear of the door openings. There seems to be some corresponding wear on the inner rear edges of the doors. And it's worse on the passenger side.

With the doors closed there is a normal-looking gap between these two bits of metal. I can't see how they would even touch

Is this common? Common fixes?

Do you think something is actually wrong now? Or that this paint damage came from door misalignment (or something else) earlier in the car's life?

The doors don't seem droopy on their hinges.

Other thoughts?

 

If its catching towards the top of the door then unfortunately the car may have broken its back probably due to excessive corrosion.If you look at the hinge side and the gap is even, then look at the lock side and the gap tapers from normal at the bottom to next to nothing at the top and you have no slop in he hinges suspect the worst. Convertibles are quite weak in this area as in normal cars the roof is a structural member so can be more prone to this kind of issue. Unless you have had a prang (you would know about that!) you may have serious issues. Have a poke around underneath especially around the cills from the rear wheels forward and any longitudinal box sections.

 

The car's body is in exceptional condition and there is no corrosion anywhere on the entire underside of the vehicle (or anywhere else that I have found yet). So I think the car's unibody structure should be ok.

Though I wonder if it could partially be from torsional flex. The 2 non-Jaguar convertibles I have owned in the past would both bind up the doors a bit if you parked with one wheel up on a curb (not that one makes a habit of that).

Do any other 4.0-era XK8 convertible owners have wear spots in these areas?

The gaps around the doors look fairly normal to me all the way around when closed and latched (see pics).

I took photos with the door almost closed but not latched (the last 2 pics) and it looks like the passenger side is drooping a bit and I just hadn't noticed it. Though I did notice that the passenger side door/window area is unusually creaky when you drive over bumps with the top down but the windows up. I am less sure about the driver's side.

I'm a bit afraid that I might overdo it if I try to adjust the doors upwards myself (jacking or bending up the door). Do you think a good body shop or a Jaguar dealer would do a better job adjusting it?

Or should I try it myself? I could easily do a practice run on my winter beater's droopy doors first.

 

Sorry about the kittywampus photo orientations, not sure what happened there... all of the pics were/are right side up on my computer...

 

Does your door drop at all when you open it ? Try closing it very slowly, see if it shifts as it comes to the sill. This type of misalignment can push on the paint.

John

 

Johnken,

Yes, the passenger side does shift down a wee bit. The driver's side much is harder to tell. If there's a shift on that side, it's fairly slight.

 

Get two opinions from two body shops. Pay for the fix if you choose to fix this.

 

Red, there are a few discussion about this in the archives. All point to aggressive bend back to proper position. Tried it on mine (0.8cm drop) with car jack - nervous to apply more pressure as advised. Still on my to do list.

John