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Recent Bodywork carried out on my 1989 XJS 3.6 Coupe" Feb to May 2003"

This extensive page covers the 14 weeks it took to repair the bodywork on my 1989 XJS.I have had the car for over two years now but other mechanical work on the car like a failed auto gearbox, in feb 2003 has prevented me from tackling the job. However when I first got the car my son and myself stripped the car out and spent over a fornight getting 3 gallons of "WAXOYL" into the car. This has definatley saved the car from even more serious corrosion!! During the two years of ownership much mechanical work has been done and a matching donor car was sourced and stripped, as you can see elsewhere on this site. To this extent I have missed the last two "Harwood House JEC days", but I will definatley take the car to "Harwood 2003".

I have used materials from:

"Frost Auto Restoration of Rochdale"

The first product I used was "Granville Heavy Duty Rust Cure". I applied it as directed and it turns blue when you apply it to rust, then sets to a glass hard black finish. So I hope that all the rust has now been stopped in it's tracks.

The second product I used from Frost was "Dinitrol 6030 Pyrmoplast Alluminium" none porous body filler. This is not supposed to hold moisture, unlike conventional body fillers and as I could not use "Lead Loading" for the large amount of work I had to do, it hopefully will last a good few years. I must say it is the best body filler I have ever used, it spreads like a dream and is so easy to sand down and gives a surface ready for painting. No messing about with "Bare Metal Stopper" on top of it to get the finish required. Just spray it with a good primer filler.

The last product I used from Frost was "POR 15 Paint" I had all ready used this paint previously to paint the whole underside of the cars bonnet. This was done at the same time as the "Waxoyl" job. This time it has been used to paint over all areas that have been welded and all the repaired wheelarches. This is really messy stuff if you get it on your skin even its own solvent will not bring it off, make sure you get the latex gloves out, I learnt the hard way. This paint is supposed to last and last and is very tough and after two years on the harsh underside of the cars bonnet shows no signs of cracking etc.

The products I used above are not cheap, but I decided to do the job properly as I did not want the paint blisters to appear again in 12 months. As you will see further down this page the car had all ready been bodged by previous owners, so it was time to do the job properly. I will keep this site posted as to how well these products perform on the car.

The first task was to use the angle grinder to see exactly what state the car was in. The next stage obviously was welding etc, I made sure the battery was disconnected and I even disconnected the "Engine ECU" and the "ABS ECU", to make sure they did not get damaged by the large amount of mig welding that took place.

Click on the pictures for the full size image.

Here I have started work on the offside rear wheelarch, rear lower quarter panel and drivers door. The blue liquid is the industrial strength rust killer from "Frost Auto".The lower rear quarter panel was shot so a replacement was bought from:

David Manners

The new panel cost Ł109. As can be seen the wheelarch was suffering from the usual corrosion, but more surprises were instore! The lower corner of the drivers door only appeared to be a few rust bubbles, but as can be seen was worse than expected. This involved a careful weld job using a small piece of mild steel, so as not to buckle the rest of the doorskin. This is the advantage of "Mig" over "Gas" welding.

The first two photos ( sorry about the quality it was very late ) show the two front scuttle panels. The large areas of rust were caused by the screws that hold the windscreen chrome trim down. When fitted at the factory they simply drilled holes for these self tapping screws and left the metal bare!! I used the rust killer here and previously both scuttles have been coated with waxoyl underneath, by removing the wiper mechanism. The next two images show how badly the nearside rear wheelarch was corroded, in fact worse than the offside one. I had to weld a band of steel in to re-make the wheelarch lip. Great fun with the sparks from the mig welder and my head stuck between the rear hub and the wheelarch. No wonder my wife thinks I am mad.

Back to the offside rear quarter panel now and the old panel was cut off with the angle grinder. There are two shots showing the car with the panel removed and two showing the new panel held in position by a few tack welds. The last of these four images also shows the band of steel I had to use on this side to again make up a short section of the wheelarch lip. The panel from "David Manners" was an excellent fit, but it had the extra indentation in it with the hole cut out all ready. My original panel did not have this and I don't know what it is for? ( If anybody knows please e-mail me ) However as it is mostly hidden by the bumper rubber I have just fitted a grommet in the hole. I also had to drill holes for the drain tubes for the ariel and boot lid gutter and I made sure they were painted with "POR15" before spraying the panel.

The first three images show how the panel was welded to the car ( note rear silencer has to come off ) and the last image shows the wheelarch starting to be repaired with the alluminium body filler after first painting with "POR 15".

The first image again shows the new rear panel and the repairs made to the panel behind the mudflap. The next three images show one of the more ghastly bodges on the front face of the offside wheelarch, two shots from under the car and one of the same area from inside the car. I was just having a poke around when I hit a rubbery substance, what lay beneath was a real surprise. Someone had covered the holes with plastic credit style cards then covered the lot with silicon rubber bath sealant, finished off with a good coat of underseal. There was even a persons name on the credit cards ( you have to laugh ), talk about covering your tracks!! It transpired that the same location on the other side of the car was in the same state and had received the same treatment.

The first two images show how a cardboard template was made for a plate to repair this mess, with the fabricated plate next to it and finally trying it up for size. I put an extra lip on the plate to effect a repair also where the rear wing/wheelarch had corroded away from the rear of the sill. When welded this produced a really solid repair. The next two images show the nearside rear lower quarter panel, this was not as bad as the offside panel and I decided to let in a repair plate. I had to repair the inner panel first with a small plate, which as can be seen was also corroded. The plate that I made for the main repair was a bit longer than required, this was to allow me to bend it to form the wheelarch lip for the lower quarter panel, which had completley corroded away. All the these wheelarch problems are caused by mud getting trapped, so in future the car gets it's wheelarches power washed.

The next two images show the plate I let into the nearside lower quarter panel and how I started to re-form the wheelarch lip. The next image takes us back to the offside and shows the plate I made earlier with a template, fully welded into position this was then painted with "POR15". Note the extra plate welded to the main repair and the "No 7" shaped ribbed seam, for extra strength. By the way it is this ribbed seam that acts as a perfect shelf for mud causing all the corrosion seen. The last image here shows the same area on the nearside after repair in a similar fashion and repairs under way on the main wheelarch. Note that on both sides after painting with "POR 15" the welded plates were than covered in alluminium filler to provide extra sealing of all the edges, before several coats of good quality underseal were applied. The same areas inside the car at the back of the plates were also given exactly the same treatment.

The first three images show the start of rebuilding the nearside wheelarch lip, on top of the steel band that was welded in. The last image shows the first coat of filler on the nearside rear quarter panel repair. Any black paint seen in any of the images on this page is the "POR15".

The nearside lower quarter panel and lower wheelarch area repaired and ready for primer. Look how well the edge has feathered on the alluminium filler really amazing, that was it flatted down finally with 180 wet and dry paper and primer filler straight on top.

First image shows the front of the nearside wheelarch and the filler applied on top of the welded repair. The next two images show the same repair on the offside, one from inside the car showing the filler applied and one from outside the car showing the completed repair which was given a heavy coat of underseal. Note also the repaired drivers door. The last image shows work in progress on the top of the offside wheelarch lip.

The first two images show work progressing on the repair of the nearside wheelarch lip. The next image shows the repair to the drivers door just prior to final rub down with 180 wet and dry. The last image shows work continuing on the offside wheelarch lip.

That was the total extent of body repairs needed to the car and should give other people some ideas as to where an XJS is likely to rot. Generally the car is in very sound condition in particular underneath, the floors, chassis members and radius arm mountings are very solid indeed. The only other welding done by me was last year to put a small plate on the front crossmember, which supports the radiator. The previous owner had made excellent jobs of welding plates on the spot on the front inner wheelarches behind the shockers a favourite rot point on XJS and where the front seatbelts anchor to the inner sill, another favourite rot point on the XJS. These were coated with "POR15" after thorough inspection. When we waxoyled the car we also completley stripped all the carpet gunge from the floors inside the car and coated them with green "Hammerite" paint. At this stage I now feel I am on top of the Rust Monster and the car is getting in very good condition.