Recent work carried out on my 1991 4.0 Manual XJS during December 2005 and January 2006, this section shows the removal and strip of the front subframe which was very badly corroded. Some photos show the preparation of a secondhand front subframe, which we obtained when we scrapped another XJS with a rotten bodyshell during spring 2005. This frame is in very good condition and considering the current UK price for a new subframe is GBP £827 a bargain to boot.
Click on any of the pictures on this page for the full size image. Do not pay any attention to the dates on the images they are possibly wrong, camera looses date when batteries removed for charging and do I have time to bother with it? The date on the large image below however is correct and is just after I purchased the car.
Click on this large image to go to a page with more images of the car when first purchased.
Above are two images of the car after a good clean during summer of 2005, as can be seen the body on this XJS is in very good condition. But as you will see a nice shiny Jaguar can have some very nasty surprises lurking beneath!
Above are 3 images of the donor subframe after we had stripped it down, we put the parts from each side of the subframe in plastic boxes marked 'Nearside and Offside', this keeps everything correct ie shimms etc and when you are going to end up with this lot times two as we did from the other frame, it is an even better idea. First picture shows the frame after thorough de-greasing and wire brushing with electric drill. The blue coating is Granville Rust Treatment as supplied by www.frost.co.uk, as used on oil rigs and by the military and dries to a hard black glass like coating, which stops any further rusting but must be applied to rust so don't remove rust to new metal. The next two images show the frame after painting with a paint made by Tetrosyl very similar to smooth Hammerite but I think a much better paint. Before we assemble this frame for the car it will be sprayed with Schultz underseal and waxoyl will be blasted into all access holes. When we put the springs back in we will also make sure both frame and lower arm spring cups are coated up with waxoyl. All this effort is worth it, if we are to prevent the horrors you are about to see!
Well a picture is worth a thousand words so they say. These images above show the state this subframe was in when we finally got it on the bench. Very lucky that the spring did not burst out of the frame on the offside. The frame had been welded/repaired in several places including the area that supports the top wishbone, which as you can see had split and you can see the welded patch to the right of that split. Very glad I put this car off the road when I heard the first clunking sounds from the front end. So if you are buying an XJS take note!! I cannot believe this subframe is from a 1991 car, even the 1989 basket case red XJS you see being stripped elsewhere on this site had a subframe that could have been cleaned up and used again.
The first two images above show the subframe just after we had removed the springs and wishbones. Now this gave us a nasty problem even though we had the correct genuine Jaguar spring compressor, how do you compress against thin air? The third image above shows the solution and some of you guys might just recognise the front towing plate from and XJS/XJ6 underneath the bar we had to fabricate to bridge the gap. Notice that we had used an angle grinder to cut a parallel slot in the fabricated bar, this was to make sure that the top block of the compressor tool was located in the bar to prevent slipping. That is why the subframes have two V-Slotted protrusions eother side of the hole for the spring compressor rod, but as you saw we had none of this left on the subframe, just fresh air. My son and I were very relieved when we finally got the tension off those front springs, now I know what those brave blokes who de-fuse bombs feel like. The last two images above show us removing the lower spring pans, with the spring under compression of course. Why the blowlamp? Well after having three of these lower pan bolts snap on us whilst stripping the donor subframe, we made sure we heated the wishbones on this frame to avoid a repeat. So always use some heat to remove these bolts!
Finally the thing is stripped, the first image shows just how bad the offside spring cup was. It also shows the insides of the subframe after an attack with the angle grinder, obviously rotting from the inside out. The final shot shows the bottom of the subframe, you can clearly see the patches welded either side of the rust hole. A complete piece of rusted junk which is on it's way to the great scrap yard in the sky.
Current Epilogue 12th January 2006
We are now going to sift through all the parts removed from both subframes and make a list of new parts we will require. We are going to fit a full "PolyBush" kit and adjustable "Koni" shock absorbers, so as to tighten up the handling of the car. We will use new Metalastic six shot and vee mountings which will help to maintain a smooth ride as well. Will update this section with some photos etc when the subframe is rebuilt.
