Great job so far! I love to see people revive cars that need attention; I give you respect! Good luck!

- Pilotman

 

Thank you all very much for the compliments!

The brand is Motip and can be bought throughout Europe, they make virtually every color you can imagine. I bought it from this French site, google translate is your best friend here.

Peinture carrosserie jaguar année 1998 Motip, Aérosol de 400 ml et stylo retouche teinte constructeur

You can select the year at the top right of the page and you'll get a list of all available Jaguar colors. You can change the manufacturer of the car as well.

There is a slight difference in color, I spray it out to blend it in with the rest. A technique which is very good doable with a spray can. So The initial patch to be sprayed gets the first layer, the the second and 3th layer I spray wider and wider again. Before it fully sets I put clear coat over it, again a bigger area than the color. This will prevent hazy spots under the clear coat. In the end I only have to polish out the clear coat, not the color paint.

Three pics of the blending and the difference in color.







It's not a very big difference, only when you know it's there you'll see it.

 

Thanks for linking to the Motip site.

Are you giving the paint just enough time to flash off
before the next coat?

 

You're very welcome.

I wait till it's almost dry, just a little bit sticky, then the 2nd layer is going on. I do that for all layers including the clear coat.
It depends on the temperature how long I have to wait, if it's hot like today a few minutes will do.

Most of the bodywork is done now, the two rear fenders are like new. The rest involves no rust, only small dents and scratches.
Again I couldn't help myself taking care of some small imperfections before I put the paint on.



The first very thin layer of paint. The end towards the taillights is painted as well because of some scratches.



This is what you get if you don't sand down the body properly, I just overlooked that spot and forgot to sand it. This is also proof that paint won't fill any scratches.



It really was a very thin layer, look at the wheel well. The paint didn't fully cover the basecoat.



Luckily it was a hot day so the paint was hard enough to sand down within an hour.
This is after the sanding and 2 layers of paint.



After 3 layers of paint and 2 layers of clear coat, got rid of the newspapers and because of the temperature I was able to polish it today.



I think it's a pretty good result.





There is absolutely no telling there is a new piece of metal in there.



After all this work it was Miller-time, cheers!

 

Looks good, I have a bit of rust on my drivers arch and have been dreading the repair.

 

Today "Mr. Perfect in one go and nothing else" had to admit he, at the age of 58, is still able to make mistakes.

That person was me, it turns out I'm not perfect and a human being too.

Everything you can imagine went wrong, it's only fair I share my failures with you as well. Tomorrow I will let you know how I dealt with it, at the moment I've had it. Enough is enough.

For the sake of getting it perfect I sanded out a scratch that went over the two doors at the right side, it was like somebody hit the guide rail. They were not deep but visible, after restoring the rear fenders I just couldn't let it be.

I won't search for excuses, just summing up the facts. It was hot today, well in the 90's F (about 35 degrees C) which could have been the cause of it all. The paint was very thin, the two doors were quite hot, if that's got something to do with it I don't know. Normally I'd expect the paint to dry faster and not giving me the problems I had today. Yes, I was working in the shade.

Enough talking, here are the pics.

The front door.





It just looks awful!



Runners...



... scratches ....



... and what happened here I really don't know!



The rear door went relatively well but is far from perfect, there are some runners in it as well. On top of that one spray-can decided to be empty half way and I didn't have the next one ready to continue. Stupid mistake! Got 2 more cans but never even thought about the possibility I needed more paint.





It was pure horror, sometimes it happens. I had to walk away from all of this when I still was able to, without causing more problems, but I didn't.


Did I scr*w up? Yes!
Did I know it? Yes!
Was I stupid? Yeah, at least today.

But.... Can I fix it? Hell, Yeah!

 

Sorry to see you had a setback.

The solvent might have flashed off while enroute to the surface, the existing paint
might have reacted to the solvent because higher temperatures cause quicker
chemical reactions, the paint itself might have been hot if kept in the sun even
if the panel was in the shade. The list goes on ... and who knows?

On one of those "build a custom car in 30 minutes shows" the painter in Las Vegas,
known for heat, resorted to painting at night. That might work for you if you have
enough artificial lighting. Prep during the day, paint at night since the prep takes
the most time.

What paint code is your car? I think we have the same ... so the Motip number would
also be the same. I can see the numbers in the picture.

 

I got Spruce Green, coded HGL.

I got enough artificial light but the nights are damp out here, I don't want any moisture messing up the paint job either. Although I live in a small French castle I don't have a garage so it has to be done outside.

 

With mixed feelings about my drama of yesterday I took a whole different approach to solve the problem. Since it was not the color coat that gave me problems but the 3 layers of clear coat I wanted to try something other than just getting the paint off and start all over again.

I started off with grit 600 waterproof sandpaper to get the tears and the scratches out.

This is quite tricky because if I sand through the clear coat I'm still facing a respray, that's what I wanted to avoid.

As long as the stuff I sand off stays milky-white I'm still on the clear-coat.

The front half done with grit 600.



Grit 600 is quite coarse so I didn't sand out everything, after this I'll sand it with grit 1000.



On the left the result of 600, on the right 1000.



First half of the door done with grit 1500 waterproof, there is already some of the shine coming back. In the meantime I had to look very closely not to go through the clear coat.



Then came back with grit 2000, just a light rub. I still didn't hit the color layer.



I was thinking about going over it once more with grit 2500 but I didn't dare. At that point I wanted to try how it'd work out if I polished it up.



Wow, that could have been worse! I decided to polish the whole door.



It took some time and effort but I saved myself respraying at least one door! Tomorrow I'll try to do the same on the other door.

 

Opps, wrong thread!

Good progress here I must say! Want to come and do my paint later?

 

I'll be happy to have a go at your paintwork, on the other hand I'm far to busy to come to Bremen. Why don't you make it a sort of holiday and come over here? We have a small French castle and we're running a Bed & Breakfast as well.

Anyway, today was not very spectacular. Gave the rear door the same treatment as the front door.

This is what I started out with.



I only sprayed a part of the middle section of that door, what you see on the upper part is just the outspray of the clear-coat. Please, if I'm using the wrong terms here correct me. English is not my native language.


After sanding, like I did on the front door, and a polish.



It looks just as good as the other door.



This side is almost finished.



Only thing left to do is get my polishing machine out and shine it up real good. Then waxed it and buffed it out.



I'm quite happy with the result, getting almost there to have a Jag which is about to be as presentable as it should be.

 

No one would have known the difference in your English.

From the name and location, I figured you were a transplanted
ex-pat.

 

Hahahaa, Great and thanks! Actually I'm Dutch but I'm living in France. My forum-name is a translation of my real Dutch name.

 

After 2 weeks without any time to spare for the Jag I finally got some time to wash it, clean the rims and give it a good polish.



It slowly becomes a beautiful car.





Not quite there yet because there are some spot-repairs I need to do, fill in the scratches and stone chips.

Here I filled some of them with a mix of paint and clear-coat. The clear-coat will encapsulate the metal flakes in the paint so they won't rust.



Detailed info on spot-repair I'll post next time, maybe even tomorrow.

My box of tricks to revive old and worn out paint.



This is part of what's in it.





For those who are interested in my other cars....

My BMW 740i, 4.4 V8 and 330 BHP. On top of that my daily drive.



The BMW Z3 Coupe. No, it's not a genuine ///M. My wife is driving it and being an old tigress 200 BHP in a very light package is more than enough. The real ///M with 321 BHP will be lethal to her, let's just say I love her too much to risk it.



And the Honda CRX, 25 years old but the engine has been totally rebuild by yours truly. Since the rebuild it only ran 1000km or about 600 miles.



*

 

Good luck with all the work you're doing to fix up this Jag!

I realize it must be last on your list but, what are your plans to fix "Dash and center console back lights?"

Some people solder on replacement LEDs (or was it small bulbs?) Jaguar Dealer probably replaces the entire circuit board with all the bulbs/LEDs pre-attached at considerable expense.

I had one back light go out on my 2000 XJ8 & months later, after the fuel pump went out & was replaced by the dealer, all my counsel & shift backlights were out! They denied any responsibility despite it being on the same circuit as the fuel pump & I have not fixed it to date. Just this week the dash backlight for the lock button went out. I imagine one by one more backlights will go out.

 

To tell the truth, I don't know yet. I've seen in numerous posts the backlights fail quite often, there must be a cause for that.

My thoughts are the battery and charging system contribute to that, first off the bulbs are 12 volt, not 13.8 or 11.2 which is causing the amps to fluctuate.

Let's get back to basics, let's assume those blubs are 12V and 1 Watt.

P= U x I in other words Power(Watt)= Tension(Volt) x Current(Amp)

In this case it gives us P / U = I -> 1 /12 = 0.083 Amps or 83 milliAmps.

If the voltage drops the bulb is still 1 Watt and demands more current, the same applies if the voltage rises to 13.8 V resulting in a less demand for current.

Example: 1 / 11.2 = 89 mA and 1 / 13.8 = 72 mA

Bulbs are not designed to cope with this phenomena, the glow wire inside the bulb is actually a resistor of very low resistance. If the bulb is 1 Watt it won't let more current through if the voltage drops, on the other hand it demands the same current if the voltage rises. This results in a higher power and will prematurely end the life of the bulb.

To address the backlight-bulb-problem effectively there should be some kind of regulated power supply available, one that keeps the voltage at 12 Volt and as a result the bulb will not be fed more than it can handle.

This is not very hard to accomplish, there are voltage regulating components available with just 3 pins (input, ground and output) like the uA7812 from Fairchild.

Only thing is you have to find the common wire that feeds all backlights, not very difficult as the backlight dimmer is connected to it.

I think this will get rid of failing bulbs in the dash, at least give them a normal lifespan.

 

Stelen Hout??

I thought you were English too...

 

Hahahahaaaaa !!!!

No, Nico Bos.

 

I cannot speak to whether or not your modification would allow bulbs to last longer or why Jaguar didn't think of that. I bet newer cars have LEDs anyway. I wonder if bulbs can be replaced with LEDs in 2000 XJ8? Most of the work is disassembly & reassembly. All my J-Gate bulbs are out after the replacement fuel pump. On dash so far, only the lock backlight is out. Very recent.

Here is a nice step by step tutorial on removing J-Gate & which bulbs will work:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...cklight-75330/

 

After all the bodywork I decided to tackle the headliner, it's sagging from front to rear and the pushpins to hold it up gave way last weekend.

Got the headliner out and removed the fabric, cleaned it up and there it is.



Sticky static rubbish came off, I cleaned the thing on our table tennis table



Washed the fabric using the silk-program because I don't want it to shrink, looks really good.



Got a few spray cans of neoprene glue which is guaranteed till 100 degrees Centigrade.



Despite of other topics on this forum saying you should buy new headliner fabric I just wanted to try how it'd work out. The trick is to spray it very thin, too much and there will be glue-stains coming through the fabric which nobody wants.

The result of actually a very messy job.



I had glue everywhere, I was not able to let go of something I picked up in a normal way. That's why I don't have photo's of the process but I'm very pleased with the result.