I know, I made this exact comment on my facebook page.

I have always wanted an XJS V12 and this only started out with a basic I'll fix a few mechanical issues and giver her a tidy up and it just went from there. You know I may as well fix this and that while I am at it.

I love my XJS and will never sell it, in fact my daughter wants it. Over my dead body - Oh thats exactly when she will get it.

 

Started on the front bar. I didn't have to cut this one into bits although I did have to make a new top - cut the top off the bar and graft the new piece in.

All that's left is to glass the new bit in

 

Been a while since my last update. Finally have the car painted. 2 pack ISO free painted in my garage. I am very pleased with the results, a little orange peel and some dust. I plan on clear coat so she will be wet sanded which will remove any peel and dust.

The bonnet here has already been wet sanded with 800 ready for clear



Hibuild primer


2 pack epoxy primer (nasty stuff)



Stripping to bare metal what a terrible job must it must be done. I want to remove as much plastic filler as I can.

 

Lookin awesome, as always!

Question, is it necessary to wet sand paint, before clear coat? My guy did not wet sand my car after applying PPG paint. He sprayed it, kept it overnight, inspected and then cleared about 3-4 payers.

 

You do not wet sand metallic before clear. Mine is not metallic it's a solid colour and very glossy so it needs to be wet sanded before clear.

 

Rebuilding the AC - The heater core had leaked and all of the connectors were either of full of old coolant or welded together. Getting the heater core out in a RHD drive car requires the removal of the steering column. Although I did get old one out from the left I ended up damaging the fins with one of the heater pipes, not an issue this core is destined for the bin.

I replaced All of the connectors under the AC unit about 6 in total, hopefully this will fix my AC issues when it is functional.

New heater core ordered hopefully will arrive tomorrow




HMMMM me thinks this has been leaking somewhat



I ended up cutting hole in the front of the heater unit to allow access to clean the inside. I will patch this with a piece of plastic.









x

 

This engine is out of a xj40/x300 xj12. These xj12 had a higher overflow tank (same as the 6 cylinder models), which didn't require the filler spout in the cross pipe. Only reason I know is because I am currently swapping the 6.0 out of my 94 xj12 into my 90 xjs, and have spotted the differences.

Warrjon,

Thanks for the info in your blog, I have been following if for a while now. I noticed you where rolling your fenders to fit wider rubber. What size are you planning on running in the back? By my research the widest i have seen with no modification are 255 width on 8" rims with 33mm offset. I just purchased a set of the 16" x 8" lattice wheels with 33 mm offset. My plan is to run 255/50-16" in the rear, and put the widest (up to 255) in the front that I can. I have seen 245 placed in the front with 7" wide and 33mm offset but not 255 in the front.

Thanks!

 

33 offset with A 245 on the front will rub on inner mud shields, and the hub cover will stick out of the wheel, you might need to run spacers. The XJR-S fronts were 16x8 19mm offset

I am planning on 17x8 15mm offset with 245 front and 17x9 40mm offset with 275 rear.

 

Do you think you will have any rubbing on the rear with the 275? You will have to let me know once you get it together.

Just a note, with the 16X8 33mm lattice wheels don't requre a spacer due to the center piece sticking out so far. These wheels actually have 1/4" more room then the original 15"x6.5" 28.5mm offset lattice wheels. I am only concerned with rubbing on the inside. Worst case I can always get a spacer.

 

im running a 275 40 17 with a 40 offset and it fits perfectly in the space

 

Thanks Cal saves me doing a hole pile of measuring

 

i'm running 275-35-18, 9" frt. 10" rrs, had to widen rear arches tho.

with spacers both frt-rr, no rub at all, seems frts would be most apt to rub at full lock,its close.
but been 16yrs so i'm gonna leave well enough alone.

 

I would love to run 10" rears but under the registration laws in my state you are only allowed 1" wider than the widest rims available from the manufacturer for that year model. You can go 1.5" wider but that requires the car to engineered.

 

Well if you want to get radical about it...for my purpose built S that I raced eight years in SCCA I went to the good old english roller and fabricated the flares. Requires enlarging the wheel well body. see here: https://www.facebook.com/jon.frey.568?fref=ts

 

jon; mine all done close to 20yrs now.

 

Update

I ended up repainting the car 3 times, this is what happened to my red after it was Clear coated. BTW I used all the same brand paint in this video.

VIDEO0011_zps24904a88.mp4 Video by warrjon | Photobucket

It is repainted after this video now and after a wetsand and buff looks pretty good. Just need to paint the TWR bars put them on and put it all back together.

I'll take some pics over the weekend and post

 

Were these dark streaks intentional? It does look kinda cool, but something tells me you wanted uniform color.

 

No they weren't the colour came off the gun perfect nice bright red. These dark streaks did not start to appear unit about a week and a half after it was painted and then just got worse over the next weeks, this video was about 3 weeks after it was painted.

Paint was 2 pack ISO free by HiChem here in Australia. It's been very frustrating and has taken me 9 months longer than planned. Stripping the car a second time was a real PITA,

 

I think this is where you went wrong, I would not go very far from: PPG, BASF, DuPont and such.
I used PPG Deltron and ended up with one little cloud of slight darkness, where my ex-painter did not lay enough paint there. One would have to really look for that area, or be pointed to notice, yet it makes me very upset.

 

I painted this in my garage so did not want use 2K paint with isocyanate. If I was doing it again I would set up my garage and use the better 2K paint. Too late now, I want to get the car on the road. I will most likely repaint it in a couple of years. I won't need to pull all the windows out as the jams and frames have been stripped and painted so it will be a sand, mask and paint.

Anyway the engine is the next project, I have that 6.0L V12 sitting in the shed screaming for some work. That and a 7speed sequential gearbox.