I have owned a series 3 XJ6 in the past, It was an Arizona car that was repainted with enamel and looked great until one night when I pulled the car out of the garage to warm up the engine in the -35 C weather... well it was a sickening feeling to hear the paint popping off the car and hitting the ground in 3" round pieces. It looked like a pinto after that with the white exterior and brown primer spots...

I was wondering if there is a year that Jag stopped using Lacquer on the cars as my wife would love another one and I would like to avoid a repeat of the past experience.. Thanks! Bill

 

Billy, the other solution to your dilemma is to have the body shop doing the painting to strip down the outside of the car and build the paint back up from there. It costs a little bit more initially, but then you are garanteed a good paint job that isn't going to flake out on you.

 

Thanks but actually I knew that the proper preparation for painting a car originally painted in Lacquer with enamel is to strip it. At least if your going to be taking it from a heated garage to extreme cold..

I was hoping that Jaguar stopped using Lacquer so I can avoid that prospect.

I was going to actually repaint and re-power the pinto car with a SBC however the thought of stripping door jambs and all that other prep work made me run and sell it! That was years ago and just finished a Porsche for myself. I like Jags as does my wife and I would like to put one together for my her. It's just she would be running it in the winter and while I hope to find one with beautiful paint, moving a lacquer painted car from a heated garage to -35C isn't the best thing for the paint. You will often get at least crack lines. like I say, I was just hoping they changed to enamel some year? Thanks!

 

All Series 3 saloons were painted using the TPA system (Thermoplastic Acrylic). It was an awful system right from its installation at the factory, and Jaguar eventually went over to the Clear-Over-Case system, (COB). The only way to effectively repaint one of these cars is to strip all the paint off and start again at bare metal. TPA will not accept other finishes on top of it, in fact Jaguar repaired some brand neww cars that had paint damage, and they were barely able to get through the warranty period without the paint bubbling and coming away from the TPA. It was a disaster from start to finish !!

I think early XJ40s were also painted using TPA, but am not sure.

 

Thanks! A body guy told me it was Lacquer and repainted with enamel. Never seen paint so thick so I assumed it was a heavy respray also. Not what I wanted to hear but the info I was looking for! Thanks!!!

 

Needless to say, I rushed typing my reply up. The paint process is, of course, Clear-Over-Base, used by virtually all motor manufacturers today.

The idea of TPA was that it went on and dried like orange peel, but when the paint was heated in the oven to cure it, it flowed to give a glass-like finish. Trouble was it just didn't work !! Just to give you an idea of how stupid the paint suppliers were, in 1979/1980, the only colours Jaguar could offer were plain White, Red, and Yellow !! My own 1980 was white.

 

Body and Fender has always been my weakness. You should go over to the detailing section. THere is an expert over there. Very helpful with the doos strips on my XK8.

 

Is this thermoplastic acrylic a single stage paint? I have bad paint checking all over the car and was wondering if I could try to color sand it down to the point of failure (very carefully) and then polish it out.

 

I may be wrong but I think that they changed the paint process to COB on the last of the series 3's. My '86 has the old style paint and has checking all over, but my late '87 VDP has COB from the factory and the paint is beautiful.

 

TPA was a single stage application - no clear coat, but was applied on top of a grey surfacer, which again was applied on top of the black cathodic electrocoat primer. Jaguar production engineers turned their hair first gray then white trying to get it to work, and eventually some sort of compromise at the body stoving stage got it to an acceptable finish but never more. Key thing is that the normal refinish paints will not go on top of it for any length of time. It will look OK for a few months, then deterioration will start - and you will have wasted a lot of time and money as refinish paint is NOT cheap.

When the changeover from TPA to COB was made, I'm not sure, I thought it was during XJ40 production, but it might be earlier. Bear in mind that the XJ12 Series 3 carried on in parallel to the XJ40 sixes until 1992. Only about 50 a week though.

 

Not sure when the change over happened but I checked my '87 and it shows COB and my late '86 shows Thermoplastic Paint. I think it is allowed... I've included the link to a page from JagLovers that shows the different paints.

Paint and Trim Codes

From seeing a number of different cars the ones with COB paint seem to hold up much better. The '86 that had Thermoplastic paint that my family has had since new required a partial repaint within 3 years of purchase. The sections that were not repainted are now badly checked.

 

Yes, this looks right. The paint type changes in 1987, one year after the XJ40 was released to the UK market. So clearly if Mr Wild Billy wants a well-painted XJ Series 3 it will have to be the last of the sixes, or a V12 up to 1992. I am not sure if these continued to be sold in the US after 1987, though.

Incidentally, I went to look at a 2008 Alfa Romeo Spyder yesterday. This is a sports convertible based on the Brera. Beautiful looking car with the Alfa Red paint, but I noticed it seemed very prone to chipping because all over the front of the hood were little white dots where the pebble or whatever had taken a chip out of the paint showing the white undercoat. Yet the red bumper below I couldnt see any, but suspect this was due to use of a dark or black colour undercoat. The bumper is plastic so no rust problem, but the hood would need attention on a regular basis.

Here's the car......

Mangoletsi, Alfa Romeo Dealership in Knutsford - New and Used Cars Manchester, Cheshire, Sale