Purchased car with loose drivers door and took on fixing the issues with door this week.

Previous work on door left it with no clips, again I saw receipt PO paid for new window regulator, not cheap. The left the panel loose all the way around and used the wrong screw at the door handle that jammed the nut in back of handle causing it to spin and not come out. I had to drill off the screw head which left me with threaded part stuck in the nut, I carefully worked and managed to get the handle portion off although I was sure it would break before stretching that far. I could not get it to push nut out of the hole so required drilling from nut side. Amazingly I managed to get it out without loosing much of the plastic. I found a brass wood insert that was close with a 10-32 screw size, filed down the outer screw threads until it would screw into plastic with little force. Mixed up some JB weld and turned it into hole. I think this will be a good fix and will be sure to use a little anti-seize on screw. One issue down.
I found a push fastener that was close enough to work at Lowes, this a little reduction in size via file I think they will hold well and not be so tight to break the door panel holders.
Still have a window switch that has issue with the mirror control joy stick with not operations to mirrors first disassemble and clean did not help so time for longer troubleshooting with meter to see if I can find an way to repair. Fairly sure the circuit board is the issue as mirrors still operate with memory presets.
Need to melt the connections on the center cushion to remove and glue the vinyl back down, as I have had no luck gluing to foam while attached.
Also had vinyl along the top at window was cracking with age, used some JB plastic weld to fill and sanded, mixed up some satin craft paint to get a fairly close color and dabbed with sponge, looks 90% better.
Still think a good condition door panel from donor car would be the best fix in such a case, but my NDR trim color doesn't seem to be showing up. My guess as with limited yeas in xk8 and age there aren't many left worthy. If balance of project comes together well I will consider possibility of new model color that would be acceptable with balance of interior.

New threads glued into place with JB weld




Found at lowes, had to remove about 3/4 of outer thread to get to fit. 10-32 internal screw.

 

Tex,

Try these guys. I was looking this week for a bonnet badge and I remember them having some door panels in inventory. Don't remember the colors, but more than one XK8/R is being parted.

707autoparts

 

Painting weekend arrived. Trunk, hood/bonnet, and top of one rear fender were loosing clear coat when I purchased. To recap I was able to remove more of the remaining clear coat with razor and car wash and only 10% remained. Lightly sanded as required on fender, masked and painted no real mystery base and clear. Removed trunk and detailed on a 6 foot folding table. If you remove the upholstery clips starting at right corner and along the bottom toward the third brake light you can pull connector from inside trunk lid that leads to license plate lighting and unplug the third brake light connector near center as it will be in view under when upholstery removed. Remove three plug along lower edge to see the nuts that hold light to top of trunk. I had two issue with the third brake light itself, cracked in half from stress and the painted cover was broken on one side. Used JB Weld to span the crack inside of light base and part of a plastic spoon embedded in the glue, spread more glue is several places that wouldn't impair assembly and used another piece of plastic bent to 90 degrees using heat stripper and glued to base in the connector. All pieces where still in place for the painted lid portion and glued the back on to complete a repair on the second snap together connector.

Got painting complete started spraying at about 4 and reinstall trunk at about 7:30, I had already done prep sanding and masking earlier in the day. Now we have to wait for a couple weeks to wet sand the clear and do cut and buff. Can't wait to see how it comes out in the end, looking promising. This is only a fix to give the car a 20 footer look while I work out the balance of the bugs and decide if it will be a keeper. All works out then I will pony up the cash for a full sand and shoot by a real professional.

Had a chance this afternoon to tackle the drivers window and mirror switch repair. When purchased the mirrors only operated with presets as the joy stick was dead. Dissembled and started checking the circuit board for breaks from corrosion after checking the $160 replacement cost as well as I wanted to be sure I really had issue with the switch and not something else. Found the first spot fairly quickly and was a break that I could flow solder over to repair. Checked everything else I could see and reassembled, of course it didn't work on the first try, back to the electric meter. Finally found a second break under the main connector pin, and I have to tell you I seriously thought about quitting so I still had window switch of course since it is not my daily driver I couldn't stop myself from trying. Looking down at the top of circuit board from connector side with connector on top the second pin from the bottom left was the bad one. Stripped a piece of wire from a telephone wire where I had a very small wire with only like 5 smaller than a hair wires. Using a needle tip on the soldering iron (wood burner I purchased at HF a few years back that came with the best assortment of tips I ever had) I was able to solder under the connector to about mid point where one of the through circuit pins were. Tried it out with just circuit board and rubber push layer, and found success on second try. Personally thought well that was fairly easy, then Murphy's law set in and it took me 5 tries to get the toggle switch for the left/right mirror in the right place and work. Still a little issue with the drivers side toggle not making a good connection but keeping finger on toggle some times but now have a working unit and can redo the presets for my own preference.

Got the door panel all ready to go back in after some repair of vinyl and touch up paint along the top portion along the window. Tying to work out the best push in connector as the first selection seems fairly tight even after altering some. I notice a really small one in the bin at Lowes but thought for sure it was too small at around 4mm however I want to find one that make it easy to disassemble without breaking clips or holders.



two large silver spots are my first solder




black wire exiting under the connector is added, soldered second pin in from corner between the plastic connector and circuit board then to junction on board

 

If you were going to get a blue one, this the right color

 

Received a sample leather swatch from LSeat.com and their ivory is no where close to my car and the off white is even darker than my almost white. Not sure if I got this right NDR is supposed to be Cream, but it is awful light tint. I haven't called them yet to see if they can do a match from sample but still the price is really good.
Good news after lots of reading and advice I think my seats are worthy of a strip as needed and repaint. Drivers bolster and seat bottom are only places of strong concern the balanced has cleaned up pretty good, with only small bad spot on passenger side, and a couple of scratches in arm rest. I am thinking a single seat refinish kit should fix both seats and be a low cost fix.

I have read several good reviews for different companies supplying the kits.
Any of you guys have the same color and found one of the companies colors a perfect match?

 

Door panel clip repair.
I have been working on the drivers door panel, and swear $200 for a perfect door panel would be a deal if yours is in bad shape.

The typical two holders for the push fastener near back of door were broke on mine. Rather than try to chase down parts from old panels I thought I would try to build some new glue in place replacements. Found some plastic at work that felt nice and strong from a computer monitor cover. Cut out a shape from flat using a grinder with cut off wheel but be very careful if you use one, Used heat stripping gun to warm up the plastic and bent with a variety of pliers. Worked out pretty good and only took about an hour start to finish with JB Weld to make the two parts that I glued to the old base.

started with a simple outline, used a tapered drill to cut the hole then cut the two angled notches, then outside the line to an approximate edge to fold for the replacement I needed




Heat gun and pliers to bend, this type of plastic has a low heat point and very easy to shape, yet extremely rigid when cool.Much stronger than original product plastic




Here is what it looked like finished

 

^^ that was a good idea to 'reform' a new clip.

 

Yea it was really pretty easy, especially on the taller one where the side tolerance had plenty of room for overlap. The one basically flat except of a small angle took a few extra swipes of the light wood rasp to feather it in.
I wouldn't advise anyone do this but used a cut off in my angle grinder to quickly make the cuts, more time slowly working with heat gun and pliers that cutting to get it formed the way I wanted.
The two I did seemed at least as strong as any of the original ones and probably better since it is fairly thick at the spot where they break.
Easier than working in metal, cheaper than buying new ones if you can find them after you break one, and for me was only cost of some JB Weld and that makes it Irish since it saved my money for Whiskey
Just joking at my own expense.

Someone could tool up and stamp them out a bunch of these with a little longer sides, mold them to fit and could be cut down to fit per location then all it would take is a quick cut and glue. Of course no one is going to get rich doing it, but something every mechanic that works on these need to have in his tool box so he can quickly fix and move on.

 

TexMurphy, I thought I would mention this. After I did my secondary tensionsers, I removed the oil pan because it was leaking from the gasket. What I found was many tensioner parts in the pump. More parts than could be explained by the secondary tensioners. I made the decision the change the primary tensioners. In talking to some people, I was told that although the car ran fine, the chain may have stretched and that I should replace the chains also.

I decided to do the full job and I think it was the right move. The primary guides were broken.

 

Hi John,
Yep my oil pan is also leaking, but I hope I am lucky and don't find a bunch of plastic in there. The secondary had lost the shoe on the movement side but was otherwise intact. I am trying to keep it real on the cost side for now, and do some more enjoying it more than working on it for now.

You sure did a fine job on yours the pictures look great.
How bad was putting the harmonic balancer replacement? Seemed to be a tricky part getting it torqued back up correctly.

 

I'm really enjoying reading your posts. Common sense, practical repairs. You are not trying to build a show car, just a presentable driver. I'm in the same boat, I don't have bunches of money to throw at my cars. Keep up the good work.

 

Removing the Harmonic balancer was tough. I borrowed a 3/4" torque wrench with a 3' pipe to torque it back on. I definitely understand about watching the wallet and wanting to actually drive the car.

 

How did you keep engine from turning while torquing. I have seen posts say dont use tdc pin but not what to use. Hopefully I won't be going there.

 

Well some of my paint work finally finished drying, makes you really appreciate the 2K paint when you try to work with regular old school stuff in a can.

When I bought the car both hood and trunk had a bad case of clear coat failure. I saw a jag dealer repair receipt for around 2002 but don't know if anything else had been done since. Really can't complain about clear coat failure in Texas if it is over 10 years old as it really gets hot here, and I know it was an out door cat for the last 4+ years.

It is time consuming to do paint work and that is why they have to charge so much to do a paint job on a car. Actually if you can get someone that does a real base + clear paint for under $3k and they do all the stuff like take the door handles and lights out and it looks like a factory new car when you get it back then you are not really paying too much for the amount of work it is. All that being said I bought the car for $1500 and I can't justify spending $2-3K to make it look perfect.

So I thought I would tackle the rear fender (top next to trunk) and the trunk first to see how good a job I could get in such a dark color. I knew it would be tough to get a good match with this age paint as it clearly has some fade. I found a Carquest that would mix the paint and after doing a paint match gun on it decided to stick with the original formulation from the color code, and it was the right call for the match on the side of car. After sanding it ended up needing color from about the antenna up to the trunk on the fender and all over the trunk top surface.

I was actually able to get 90% of the clear to come off the trunk with water between rainy few days and the car wash wand. Sanded the balance of clear coat to get a smooth finish, washed with dish soap, cleaned with a 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water mix, masked off where I didn't want paint, and wiped down with 50/50 one more time then shot the paint with light mist of color, 2 coats of color, then did same with clear.

Here is the hardest part of the job, wait two weeks for paint to fully cure.

Wet sand 1200 lightly until it feels smooth to hand, a round of DA buff with compound, round of DA with polish, hand coat of good wax for protection.

Now the trick is to always park where I need to walk rearward away as it looks amazing from that angle now. Next up the hood, it is driving my wife crazy... I think it will turn out even better.

$60 in paint, probably another $30 in polish and sand paper, reason to buy more tools DA and pads $60 for a total $150 so far and will be another $80 to complete the car (hood, mirrors, band around windshield). Under $200 for the paint work, I needed the DA anyway for some work on the old boat and love to buy tools.



Here is what it looked like when I picked it up on the trailer.




Cloudy day the dark is a dark cloud above and the right side is my house reflecting. A few imperfections but no longer embarrassing. A good 10 footer.




Here is the fender right about the area from elbow to elbow looked just like the trunk.

 

Tex - she looks awesome - well done!!

 

Thanks Steve it was easier than most people would think if you are not too picky and just trying to achieve a more decent driver look, probably two days of work, now I just have to do all the stuff up front so I smile when looking at the front.

 

Looks great! Good job.

 

Well I have been enjoying driving and less working for a couple of months. Finally got tired of looking at the failing rear view mirror. One of those typical line and foggy looking. Watch ebay and read the articles about sending your mirror off for repair. Well I couldn't stand it, if someone else can repair these why can't I. I found a xk8 that was at a pick a part, after paying my $2 to get inside of course the mirror looked worse than mine. They had a xj8 that also had leaked but looked way better than mine, bought that one for $5 as a back up. Found a S (from 2001 I think) that had the same mirror as mine but the mount is different, so I had my donor glass for $13, now if I could get it apart and into my housing I would have a good mirror. I started with the donor mirror, it was hard to figure out how it was snapped together, you know why...it isn't they glue the front bezel on the body with small spots of glue every 1/2 inch or so. Scratch head and push with screw driver of assorted sizes with little luck, of course I wasn't that worried about the case from donor and kept at it until I got a few spots to break free and then pulled it apart cracking the bezel. At this point I could see how it went together. Now on to my original mirror, with the knowledge of how they were glued I placed a small screw driver in the seam and gave it a few taps with another screw driver so not too much force, the seam started snapping at glue joints and I worked my way around. While I did get a few small chips my mirror was separated with one clean crack in bezel. Swapped out the circuit boards with two solder joints and reassembled with superglue. I got a green light when plugged it but too dark to be able to tell it the mirror is working to dim but I think so. Will report after I get a chance to test. Verdict at minimum I have a clean regular mirror that won't have people asking what is wrong with your mirror. Easier if you can find a perfect match from xj6, or 8 but wasn't in the cards for today, but if you are ready to buy a working used unit from ebay, and you are a complete tightwad like me check with your local parts recycler worst case you waste $15 bucks.

 

Glad to see that your progress is continuing. My mirror was not discolored or leaky. My problem was not only that the mirror didn't work, but that it would fall off the mount. I picked up a nice mirror from a 98 XJ8. The mount is the same but the wiring plug is different. Since I was at Pick and Pull I found a nice Ford oval unit, with map lights, just in case I got tired of messing with the Jag units. I also picked a mirror repair kit that includes a new mounting button. Because the Jag mirrors are so heavy any looseness in the mount is magnified making the mounting problem worse.

 

I think there was originally a yellow plastic part that goes over the screw that holds the clip inside the mirror side, my guess is that is what is missing with they end up a little loose when reattached. I have seen it in a few pictures.