Hi all, been planning on re painting my car for a while and the fender bender i got into kinda kick started that process as the replacement fender i got was a different color, anyways i sanded down all the bad parts that were cracking on the original paint like i was told to and left what was smooth, it wasnt until now when i was about to get ready to paint that i saw jags used whats called "thermoplastic paint" from my understanding painting over this would only result in the new paint coming off in a few months time, the more i read about it the more i saw that it was difficult to sand and remove and when people tried they say it "melts" the original paint on my car was actually fairly easy to remove with a sanding wheel, i still used a chemical stripper as it was quicker and it worked wonders, once i found out about this thermo plastic paint i thought about how the paint on my new fender seems different. from my understanding Jaguar switched to clear coat over base (COB here on out) in 87' the thing is the new fender is from a prior year to my car (i forget exactly which 85 i think) and the paint is much harder to remove even with the chemical stripper but whats odd is this paint seemed to have been"peeling off" not as a whole thing but almost like a clearer plastic ontop of the basecoat, this all seems *** backwards as from what im told they should both be ThermoPlastic paint but im not so sure, im hoping someone here will be able to tell based off look. as underneath the original color there seems to be a yellow primer/ base coat vs under the new/ older fender it seems grey and has been removing(where i can) in one peice rather than with the original paint just the color comes off with the stripper leaving the base/ primer behind. ill attach some pictures and hope one of you legends will be able to tell , hoepfully i wont have to strip the entire car but if i do so be it.


(brown is original green is different)

 

The paint process was called "Thermoplastic Acrylic", or TPA for short. I'm not certain when the paint process went over to "Clear over Base", (or COB), but TPA was indeed a disaster from start to finish, not least because no repair shops could paint the cars properly after accident repairs ! Even Jaguar had trrouble, because with inevitable damage to new cars paintwork, they could not be repaired properly, and didn't get past the warranty period, although Jaguar was in an almost terminal condition as a company by then. My 1980 XJ6 was certainly TPA, and when I did some repainting, I removed all the paint back to bare metal. In fact a 1986 car may well be COB. There is a way to tell the two apart but my memory fades unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the Info! everything i could find was pretty scattered but this summed it up nicely! unfortunately i cannot find the paint code anywhere! ive checked all door jams the drivers side has a sticker containing the car info (the one that says passenger car w the weight and everything) but theres no paint code on it! very frustrating if you manage to find any info on telling them apart please let me know! as of course this is one of those "Jag-Things" theres like no info about it anywhere most google searches including thermoplastic paint just give you videos on street markers haha.

 

I'm not able to tell if they are both thermoplastic stuff or not but I'd guess they both are as I've read only the 1987 cars had clear over base.

Do you know the color of your original paint? If the door is your original paint color, maybe it's what Jaguar called Antelope paint color, code AFM? Or Curlew Metallic, AFT. I can't vouch for the accuracy of this chart, but it may give you an idea of what paint options Jaguar offered for the 1986 models.

 

Paint code should be on right wing under the bonnet. Mine is a 1985.

Dave

 

AH ty for the reply, i feel kinda blind.. for those awaiting results, pain, those are the results AFM the antelope metallic clear coat is unfortunately a thermoplastic, guess i have a fun week ahead of me! at least its something to do. anyways thank you all for the help, i would've been kicking myself in a few months when id have to redo it all because the paint is falling off!

 

Well, the paint doesn't fall off straightaway, but does eventually ! Whoever chose TPA for Jaguar bequeathed a load of trouble to subsequent owners of the XJ Series saloons !

 

Egan took over the reins at Jaguar in 1980 and was faced with bushfires in every area of operations. Frankly, jaguar's build quality was at an all time low. Poor paint quality on the earlier XJ cars (and that includes the XJ-S and others of same era) has been acknowledged since as perhaps an even bigger reason than poor leadership from the BLMC Board that Jaguar came so close to folding . . . warranty claims and customer complaints were apparently at an all-time high.

l recall seeing a pale yellow XJ-S at the Australian launch at the Mildura National Concours d'Elegance in mid 1976 (I still have the program booklet) that looked like it had been painted by a very drunk Queensland cane-cutter with one hand tied behind his back and his eye-patch unfortunately mounted over his remaining good eye! It was perhaps the greatest PR disaster for what the Jaguar marque that had been regarded here throughout the Mk 7 -10 era as a symbol of bespoke quality. Compared to my then pristine red S Type, which finished runner-up that year (see my album), the poorly painted, brand new XJ-S looked woeful.

By the mid 80s, Egan demanded and got a huge multi million GBP budget to completely replace the paint line at the factory. IIRC, so a dramatic shift and improvement in body painting from '86 or '87 sounds right. To be fair to Egan and the company, heads rolled, the investment brought resurgent customer satisfaction, invigorated sales results, and the company staggered back into the black.

I realise this is just a historic backdrop to the technical issues that the OP and Fraser have raised, but they are right to paint this issue as critical (sorry; couldna help that!) . . . but I recall many in what was JLRA Australia under Leyland branding, convinced that their careers were within weeks of going down the toilet . . . and the vastly greater number of us customers left to ponder life with no factory or dealer support.

Perhaps you think I am making a big deal out of not much, however, this was going down in an era when every bank manager, doctor, and legal eagle worth his salt here in Australia bought a new Jaguar as soon as each new model was released . . . and every successful (read, very cashed up) farmer/grazier did the same. This had begun in the 1950s, reached its peak across the 60s, but was slipping badly by the mid to late 70s.

This doesn't mean that resurrecting these old beauties is a lost cause, but it does call for a dedicated, thorough prep as our OP is doing.
Best wishes, and keep us posted on your progress.

Cheers,