Hi all,

I have been doing some research regarding rust on these forums and thought you guys would be the best placed to give some preliminary advice. I'm looking at taking on my first ever project car and my family have a XJ8 V8 that has been stood for a few years and is certainly needing some love to be roadworthy again. I am just wondering what I am potentially letting myself in for. I don't have an issue spending a few thousand to bring it up to speed but I'm not looking for the tens of thousands - may as well go buy a new car for that.

My main concern is rust - the engine is pretty solid and has already had all the tensioner gear done - I think it just needs a service really. The sills have had better days and the rear quarters are rusty - one quite bad on one side and the rear of the sill/arch just flakes away. I have not had a chance to look underneath properly but based on your own experiences, are these visible issues just the tip of the iceberg? It's likely going to need a respray too as there is lacquer peel galore. Photos included.

Thanks in advance

 

Hi there

I'm pretty new to the X308 - I picked up a reasonable 2000 3.2 two months ago on a whim. Intitially, I just through I'd run it for a year then sell it for spares but my wife loves it. I'll share my experiences.

First a couple of good You Tube videos which helped me find the rust and work out what issues I might have:



It's the bodywork that's the big one. I have had a couple of areas behind the front wheel arches repaired and now it looks great. I cleared out all the rust traps and will make a point of doing that regularly in future - I filled a bucket with leaves and soil behind the wheelarch liner! You can still get a lot of the panels so if you're respraying anyway, you might want to consider that - it will be expensive, however.

I had lots of electrical gremlins which all came down to bad connections. Check them out (with the help of these forums) before you spend money on new units. I got about £300 of components given to me by the PO that he thought would fix the issues - I didn't need any of them. Rather, it was all fixed with a multlimeter, test light, solder and heat shrink, some new connectors and a lot of patience.

Clearly, if the engine is bad then run away from this project but everyone tells me that if it's runnning well and has had the standard precautions and servicing. it should run forever ;-)

I've got to say that I love this car and prefer it to the later versions. If you put time and effort into the project, it can look and feel wonderful. Also, I may be imagining it but the values for good ones seem to be on the up...

Keep us informed!

 

I have an X308 that was rusted through in most of the usual areas; all four arches, floor pan, sill area of front arches, etc.

The bodyshop I chose cut out all of the old rusted metal, and welded in new. They were a pain in the backside to deal with (I won't go into that here), but appear to have done a pretty good job. It all cost me around £3K. You have to shop around as bodyshops vary wildly in price. You really need one of the smaller ones who like to work on old cars, as the large organizations usually specialise in insurance work.

If you are doing this yourself, it will be a lot of work, but whether it is worthwhile will depend on if you will enjoy it, and if you want to do it. If you are paying for it then it depends on whether the car is worth the money you will need to spend. If the latter I would recommend visiting bodyshops for quotes.

 

Brilliant thanks guys. It will be a body shop for all the welding/painting etc as I have never done that before. I'd just hate to see a great car like this go to waste and I'd rather spend £10,000 making a tired but good car great again than buying one of these dull electric things manufacturers are spewing out now. Also have some idea for making it a bit more modern internally but going to focus on the body and engine/gearbox first. Thanks for the advice

 

I'm intrigued!