The spot-welded flange or lip on the underside of the sills (rocker panels US) on my silver 2000 XJR have been painted black with what appears to be some form of under-seal treatment. It is partly flaked off so is blotchy black and silver. Whatever it is was poorly applied. This is one of the things that lets the car down visually (that and some pitting/flaking on the alloy wheels).

I'm unsure if this will look better silver or satin black - either one easily done with a rattle-can and strip of masking tape. I've removed the black on one side leaving the silver stone-chip finish intact; still blotchy on the other side.

Can any of you confirm if originally this lip (about 3/4" or 19 mm across) was body-colour or black?

PS: took her for first decent length trip yesterday: New Forest to Bristol, then Weston-Super-Mare and back mostly Motorway driving, so perhaps 300 miles. Cruises comfortably at 90 and remains stable and quiet at the 100 mark. Terrific power for on-ramps etc., she can really pick up her skirts and fly! Fuel economy, from early indications, is eye-wateringly bad when pressing on....but worth every penny.

Happy Motoring!

 

My '99 XJR is silver (platinum paint) I bought her new and the underside area(lip) was painted black,
I have rattle canned this area twice using a satin black color
this photo shows how the sill rolls in and you do not see the black line

 

That black flange on the sill is coated in some kind of sealant/
protectant, it is not meant to be body colour. The spot welds
are visible if you look at the car side-on. I would guess that
yours are either wearing a worn factory finish, or that someone
(a previous owner) tried to improve them with some inferior
finish.

This panel will not take well to a coat of body-colour paint,
not even the textured kind found on the upper bit of that
sill. The silver you see peeking through must be a galvanic
layer or something. Then again, maybe they are dirtier on
my XJR. On my previous car they were just metal, I don't
remember what kind of sealant they wore.

I suspect Jaguar were slightly ashamed of the visibility of
this part... hence the re-touching they did on some side-
on photos



Cheers on the new Jag

Ian

 

That area is coated black -- I believe the whole shell is body colored - better to hide the body seam.

It may be undercoated --- as the coating is thicker than common paint - that part of the car is subjected to a lot of road dirt from the tires.

 

Thanks Ian, Roger, and Yeldog - I've taken your advice and painted the area satin black - looks much tidier. Took an hour each side to remove loose older black "paint" and then an hour to mask and paint both sides using a rattle can. Let's see how long it lasts.

One job off the list.....

 

I used truck bed paint from advance auto and painted it on there with a brush. this stuff is meant to not chip off from all the abuse of a truck bed, and it doesn't look bad