Anjum,

Well enjoy the ride and climb that mountain just becasue it's there. No shame in that. My first coupe was just as bad as yours so I'm speaking from experience. This was how I learned and since it was such a basket case I had no fear making major alterations.

I recently acquired a completely solid and all original coupe with 43k miles. To me it's a historical document. The gaps and panel fit are flawless and like no coupe I've seen before. The other 5 coupes I've had were all rusted or had major rust repair and the panel fit was just not there. Since I'm a modifier by nature this car make me uncomfortable.

Just for discussion, If I was in you situation again I would buy a solid series 2 or even a 3 sedan and transfer the doors, the roof and rear 1/4 panels. It would be quicker. Reinforce it while I was in there and had it all open. Series 3 would be more difficult as the windshield rake is different. This space would be an opportunity to fit the XJS convertible's window seal and perhaps quell the endless wind noise associated with the leading edge of the coupe's windows seal.

 

Thanks. The last coupe I did I used 3.5 inch EMT. It's thin wall galvanized electrical conduit and fairly low low cost and easy to find here. It was welded in to the front torque box and to the rear torque box with a strut in the center where the seat box is. Be sure to grind off the galv coating before welding. The car is on the road now and has a very solid and contemporary feel. More importantly... I also put struts from the from frame rails to the top of the transmission tunnel like Jag did on the XJS. I believe this was a great mod. My coupe has no cowl shake when going over rough roads...and here in NYC we have many rough roads. Jag also corrugated the sills on the series 3 and did so even more on the later XJS's.

Do these MODs, jag did them for a reason on the XJS and keep in mind the XJS was an evolution of the XJ coupe.

 

Amazing. I forgot how terrified I was of rust.

Glad to see you are not.

This makes us think long and hard about what to do with our second XJ12C shell, which we have currently labelled as "for scrap"

We'll be really interested to see your work on the floor and the bottoms of the quarter panels...... thats where our "parts car" is the worst.

 

The floorpanels are still available, albeit for the long wheelbase which will need shortening by cutting a strip out of the middle of about 4". These are a relatively simple cut out and fit if all the panels around are sound.See Elinors thread for some very helpful details. The chances are that at least the toeboard s are rotten but these are available as well. You can either drill out the spot welds or cut out and weld in a patch on the lower edge where it connects to the floor.

The bottom of the rear quarters can either be shaped out of new metal, or could even be cut out of a door and a lip bent on the bottom edge(four door please!!) and a section of arch formed, or bought and adjusted welded to it.

There is a complete rear wing for a coupe on e-bay at the moment.

If that's the major rust on the shell, as I said in your thread, it would be good to either restore or sell the shell on to someone to restore. as they are so rare.

If only you were in the UK....

 

Too late

What icsamerica writes is absolutely correct in particular as regards my Jaguar.
It should have been scrapped.
But now it will be brought back to life. Because I had spent too much time and money on it before I realised it should have been scrapped.

Regards'
Stig