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This has been covered many times but, what the heck. There are several way to do this; Jose has one method described on his webpage, I think.
Here's how I did it.
Removed the original socket from the marker lamp. I used a Dremel tool to cut it off; not difficult. Replaced socket with a new, plastic socket....as mentioned a few posts back. This new socket in UNgrounded.
The wiring is very easy. You simply tap into the wires for the front park lamps and turn signals.
On the left side the relevant park/signal wires are Green/red and Red. On the right side, Green/white and red.
Splice the wires from your new marker lamp socket into these wires ^^^^^
The wires on the new market socket are two different colors but it doesn't matter which goes where; one will go to the red wire and one will go to the green/white (or green/red).
A dab of solder, some electric tape, and then re-wrap the wires.
Doug, given that your car must have had some TPA paint on it, was there any mention from the paint shop of difficulty sanding it off your car?
No mention of it, as such. The "mention" was in the form of about $1000 additional to fully strip the upper surfaces . Well earned, I'd say. Lots of checking, lots of old paint.
They wanted to fully strip the entire car but my budget nixed that idea. The sides were nowhere near as bad as the upper surfaces anyway.
Can you tell us what type of primer and paint were or will be applied now?
The color coats are urethane. Not sure about the primer. I think the primer was urethane as well but I honestly can't remember.
If you're wondering about specific brands names, I dunno.
I'm reasonably satisfied with the job. It's bright, shiny, fresh, and all one color ! But a bit too much orange peel for me to be really happy.
No regrets; it's a big improvement. And for a daily driver, good enough
Except my car was Arctic White, I could be looking at my car after paint in 1993, (apart from that V12 badge, of course !). Orange peel can be polished out but is pretty labour-intensive, even with the polishing tools.
The color coats are urethane. Not sure about the primer. I think the primer was urethane as well but I honestly can't remember.
If you're wondering about specific brands names, I dunno.
Not brands but type of paint as you gave us, thank you. I was thinking back to the article Mr. Mitchell linked back in post #9. Looks like I'm in a similar situation to you--TPA and the horizontal surfaces are shot but the sides look very good still. Are you happy with the transition point from new paint to old at the shut lines of the doors/hood/trunk?
PS. From what I can see in your latest photos, you have made that XJ look new!
Are you happy with the transition point from new paint to old at the shut lines of the doors/hood/trunk?
No, and they were a mess when I bought the car, as it had seen partial resprays at various points in its life. Correcting this adds a new, large dimension to the overall picture for a really good result. Half-way attempts are worse than no attempt, especially regarding the doors.
PS. From what I can see in your latest photos, you have made that XJ look new!
Thanks but they always look a lot better in the photographs. It's a long way from 'as new' but it is a big improvement from the old.
No, and they were a mess when I bought the car, as it had seen partial resprays at various points in its life. Correcting this adds a new, large dimension to the overall picture for a really good result. Half-way attempts are worse than no attempt, especially regarding the doors.
Thanks but they always look a lot better in the photographs. It's a long way from 'as new' but it is a big improvement from the old.
Cheers
DD
Good info, something to be aware of. Thanks.
Your XJ12 appears to pass the "10-foot test" at the very least, so let's say it actually looks like a one-year old. I'd be proud to drive it.
Hi Doug, I noticed in your picture of the rear valance there seems to be some sort of black gasket around the exhaust opening. My 86 doesn't have that and I don't think I've ever seen that before. That area of my rear valance is starting to get a bit crusty and I'd love to know where you got that.
Rgds Rich
Hi Doug, I noticed in your picture of the rear valance there seems to be some sort of black gasket around the exhaust opening. My 86 doesn't have that and I don't think I've ever seen that before. That area of my rear valance is starting to get a bit crusty and I'd love to know where you got that.
Rgds Rich
Good eye!
I was wondering if anyone would notice.
It was some rubbery-vinyl edge trim that I laying around. If you Google "Automotive edge trim" or similar you'll have lots of choices.
I'm going to try the edge trim, it looks like it came out great and I really don't want to replace valance, which seems like a bear of a job. Do remember what the profile was, U shaped, L shaped, flat, and where did you put the seam, top, bottom, side?
Rgds Rich
The stuff I had was flat on one side and semi-round on the other. I put the seam at the top and the flat side out. Does a good job of covering ragged exhaust port edges, as you mentioned.
A few blurbs on windshield replacement. Someone PM'd me asking for any pointers. I thought I'd just do this write-up for the group in case someone is wonder about the job
This was my first time on a Jag. If there's ever a next time I hope it goes better. Others with more experience will chime in, I'm sure.
In my case the job was complicated first by the previous installation where the installer glued the stainless trim to the glass....which made it difficult to remove the glass. The second round of complications came with reinstalling the trim.
Anyhow, the high points.......
-Glass removal. First, carefully cut away the bright metal stainless steel trim. Be gentle, it is easily distorted....which complicates things down the road. You want to cut it completely free so no pulling is required to remove remove it.
-I used windshield wire to cut out the old glass. Nothing remarkable here; ample You Tube videos to give you the lay of the land if you've never done it before. I removed the dashpad to avoid accidental damage. Watch out that you don't scuff the A-pillar trim with your cutting wire. Ouch! Ask me how I know.
-If you plan on using the old glass make sure is is cut completely free of the body before attempting removal. If yours is already cracked or otherwise ready for replacement then breakage isn't that big of a deal
-On removal of the glass you'll probably find rust. Rust repair, if you need to do it, is a different topic that I won't go into.
-Clean out the opening of debris. Most experts say that the urethane that remains in place after cutting out the glass , if it is still well bonded to the body, can be left in place. New urethane is simply applied on top of it. If you go this route you'll need to use some One Step Primer on the old urethane. I removed all the old stuff, though, and sanded and re-primed the area with urethane primer (a little hard to find in aerosol cans) as people who know more than I do advise doing so.
-Replace flange finisher if needed. Item #10 in this illustration. Not expensive.
-Trial fit the glass. Use suction cups and a helper. Jaguar used locating blocks at the bottom of the glass to help position it properly. Mine were long gone as the glass had already been replaced at least once before. I found that two 5/16” wooden dowels at the bottom of the glass worked well for vertical placement. Left-right centering is just a eyeball thing
-Urethane is messy and sticky, and hard to remove when dry. Somehow the stuff manages to get everywhere. Mask around the area with tape and paper. Have lots of rags and a mild solvent at hand. Wear your rattiest work clothes.
-If all seems good after the trial fit then treat the edges of the glass with One Step Primer to help the urethane bond to the glass. Apply a heavy bead of urethane along the flange finisher. You need to build up your urethane so it is above the flange finisher. I went 1/4” or so above and it was a bit too much. With your suction cups and helper plop the glass into place. Insert your dowels at the bottom. Gently press the glass downward, going along the circumference several times to make sure it seats evenly. You want the glass to come firmly in contact with the rubber flange finisher
-Some urethane with squish out into the cavity between the glass and the body. Remove as much if this as possible. Remnants and globs left behind will make installing the trim more difficult.
-You're now done with the easy part. The trim is where the real fun comes in.
-At this point I walked away and came back weeks later to install the trim when I got the car back from the paint shop
-The “trim” consists of the stainless steel brightwork, an outer rubber strip between the stainless and the body, and an inner rubber strip between the stainless and the glass. The idea is the the gap between the glass and the body be filled with adhesive and the stainless bits, and the outer rubber strip, be stabbed into the adhesive. The inner rubber strip is pinched in place between the stainless and the glass. This all sounds easy but it isn't.
-The stainless brightwork pieces are easily distorted. This happens on removal. If they don't lay perfectly flat on the glass then the rubber bits won't fit correctly. I had two sets of stainless; neither were very good. Whatever you can do to get them resting flat as possible against the glass will help. Do several trial fits before getting out the adhesive. Make sure your corner pieces engage the side and upper pieces easily so you don't have to fight them later...with adhesive all over the place. The battle I had was that the distortion in the stainless pieces wants to pull everything away from the glass.
-The outer rubber strip wasn't much of a problem but the inner strip, the one the goes between the glass and the stainless steel, was a big problem. I had to glue it in place and then tape everything down to hold it all against the glass. I'll know tomorrow how well I fared.
Thanks for the step by step Doug, this exercise is coming up soon on my build.
I'm a little fuzzy on the glass to body area. As I understand, the main reason there is such a rust issue around the windscreens is that this area was not filled with adhesive at the factory which then allowed water to seep by the finishers and sit there. As I'm re-reading your post, maybe my answer is there; you clean the excess out of the channel when installing the windshield but fill it back up when you apply the trim later. Is that how the channel gets filled with adhesive and thus waterproofed? From what I've read, you want this channel filled with goop to prevent future brown metal.
Just one last aside, I assume the 5/16" dowels are removed as soon as the adhesive is holding the windshield well in place.
04-17-2020 | 09:22 PM
. Well earned, I'd say. Lots of checking, lots of old paint. 
