Drat, found some more rust which may not go un-noticed by the MOT man.

Its on the chassis box in-line with the front door hinge and jacking point. As luck would have it the worse side if the left side where all the brake and fuel pipes run to the rear of the car. See my pictures below.

My question is can anyone see a way of put the pipes far enough away from the area to do some welding ?

Although there are numerous fixings to the floor pan which could easily be removed the pipes at the front disappear behind an alloy heat shield and then re-appear in the engine bay. Thus I can't see if there any fixings behind the heat shield. It does'nt look like there is any way of getting the heat shield out without first removing the engine ??

Does any one know if the pipes are fixed to the body shell behind the heat shield, if not I might be able to bend them out off the way far enough to be safe welding ?

 

There's 2 or 3 more of those black plastic clips behind the shield - you can bend the shield out of the way to get at them.

 

They curve up and out the way anyway. (they run up the transmission tunnel behind the heatshield)

I'd weld with them in situ to be honest. The plastic clips break as soon as you touch them, and without wishing to bring too much doom and gloom if the rot is that bad on the outside in that area, there'll be naff all left behind it, or of the front chassis leg in general, so you'll be in "bodging a plate over" territory. If bodging a plate over, there's not need to remove the whole of the piece with the rot holes through - run a grinder cut horizontally below the fuel pipes, so that you leave the top 1/2" of the vertical plate. Clean off everything below that as best you can and weld a piece of 2 mm plate over the lot, with a lap joint to tie it into the remnants of the old vertical plate.

If you really want to remove them, then support the gearbox and remove the gearbox x-member. Then remove the plastic clips holding up the fuel/brake pipes, fold the heatsheild across, and the pipes can swing for full welder/grinder access. Replacement clips are P/N 13H9056J from JDHT and less than a tenner for a car's worth.

 

Yes I was think of hacking out the rusty rubbish and then adding a verticle over layered plate. Hopefully the underneeth angle plate is still good enough to keep. I was not sure how far away I needed to get the pipes to be safe when the MiG goes in. Its bit hard to jump out the way quick if your lying on your back underneeth a car !

This photo seems to suggest the underneeth plate may not be too bad.





Do you know if the carpets come out of the foot wells without to much bother, also is there any bonded rubber insulation that also needs to removed from the floor pan ? Not sure how much caution is required to avoid the trim turning into smouldering black mess.

I searched JDHT for 13H9056J, but it seems to be a circlip for the hand brake. They must be on the brake system somewhere. Is there parts search system I can get hold of like the JTIS software.

 

Look for a link in the stickies for JEPC. Jaguar Electronic Parts Catalogue.

One approach might be to soak the carpets so that the result of heat
is steam, and to weld in short stitches.

 

Sorry! Try NNA6127AA...


Keep the pipes cool with a moist rag. If the rag isn't on fire neither will the pipes be. It's actually pretty difficult to melt a steel pipe full of fuel - the petrol will boil inside the pipe and take the heat away from the metal, so the odd bit of spatter really doesn't matter.


Carpets peel up from the footwell if you are patient:



Moist rag inside to take away heat. Don't soak the carpets unless you like the smell of warm cat pee...