Hi Bro

You've probably got a lot more control with an Air Brush, if you are doing small Areas, as a Spray Can usually has a much bigger Jet and usually sprays a Gloss Finish straight from the Can.

Also with an Air Brush (unlike a Spray Can) you can Spray the Flat Base Coat on first followed by the Lacquer, after the Base Coat has dried.

Don't fall into the 'Trap' Bro, where you start spraying a 'Little Bit', look at it, are not satisfied, then Spray a 'Bigger Bit' (rinse and repeat!)

Before you know what's happening, that once tiny little 'Touch Up' Job' has suddenly grown like 'Topsy' getting bigger and bigger, every time you do it, until you've got your head in your hands and Wish you hadn't Started!

I've been there and done it myself in the dim distant past.

Plus it probably takes more Skill to use a Spray Can rather than a Spray Gun.

If things weren't going like I planned, then this is probably the one time that I would take the Car along to one of those 'Stone Chip' 'Touch Up' Places and leave it to the professionals.

Then you can have peace of mind when you are back at Sea, rather than fretting about it until you get home.

Gunner01 is a Wiz at this! perhaps he will jump in on it and give you some advice.

 

UPDATE

Well I'm back at work at the moment.

A little time away from the Blue Goose and some time to ponder.

I am real keen to get this fixed when I return so I am looking at options. I have put my feelers out to see if there is any local places to do it. Looking at price options and also if they can do up a replica or not.

Also looking to see if I can order a set from a few of the links posted earlier in the thread.

It looks as if getting old stock might not be a good idea as it may of lost all its adhesive. A close replica should suit although not sure how Ill go with mine that used to have a leaper in the print on the rear.

So it's shop job vs DIY.

Heh Clarke, does the offer still stand if I go with the DIY job? Ill weigh up the pro's and cons and see how I go. Just waiting to hear back from a few mobs.

I feel bad taking the Blue Goose out in public at the moment. It's like she is naked. Good thing she is locked up in my garage for a month lol!

 

Paul,

Clarke is spot on.

Down here we have a lot of these striping guys in vans that frequent the used car yards. Some are great, and have the method, imagination, outside the norm thinking, and they would do it in a snap, little leapers and all.

Mine had the stripe, with leapers on the front guard, and then the "bump guard" fitted as long as I have owned it. Bear in mind this car was stripped and resprayed by Jaguar under warranty when it was 3 months old, due to massive "Orange peel", and the paint guy fitted that stripe arrangement, at the request of the owner at the time. I think the Red colour gives a different look than other colour cars.

 

Cheers Grant. Nice pics bud

Actually yours looks alot different to mine. I have the stripe continuing onto the front headlight where it connects up.

BTW do you have black head light frames (as opposed to chrome) or is that just the picture? Always love pics of the Red Devil!

So these mobile companies can make up any length/width/design you want? That might be a good option...

Also I got an email back just before from Jaguar Heritage. They are just after my VIN number to get an exact match. Gotta go through my photos of my VIN badge in my phone tonight to find em...in there somewhere.

Be interesting to see what the cost of getting a set sent over from the UK would be vs getting someone to do a replica locally. If I can get a local guy to do an exact replica I wouldn't mind.

 

My headlamp surrounds are indeed Black.

The Chrome was peeling on mine, and I was employed at Jaguar at the time, and located a pair of "Primed" surrounds on their "dead stock" list, and simply purchased them for $5 each. They had the small screw hole in the side?? for an additional attachment, so I also sourced the "correct" stainless brackets to do the job proper.

Painted the surrounds in 2 pack, and fitted them up, and I really do prefer the Black to the Chrome on the Red car.

Anyway, whats this "locked up for a month whilst I am away" nonsense. Surely the wife takes it shopping/school run/etc?????, and if not, WHY NOT.

 

I have tried and tried but she simply will not touch it. They only time she drove it was when I was drunk and she had to move it back in from out on the footpath to the garage.

I have offered her many times to drive it....it think she is scared of the mighty V12!

 

HA.

They can be stubborn, for sure.

Mine misses her V12's something fierce. Mainly when we are low flying on an interstate cruise, and pull out to pass something, the V6 has mumbo, but its just NOT a V12.

Drove an S Type R recently, bloody missile, but I reckon future maintenance will be a killer. Then the endless tickets in the mail will be a joke.

Then a mate turns up with a Benz E55AMG, now that thing was just plain insane, and scared the hell out me.

Keep what I got seems like a plan.

 

yeah I think it would be hard to go back to anything under 6 cylinders after driving the Blue Goose. I was curious of the price of the base model of some of the latest Jags like the XE, XF etc and found the base models were straight 4's. Where is the fun in that?

BTW here is the link if you want to toy with the idea of a brand new Jaguar. Its a price calculator and has different model versions. Pretty cool: https://jaguar.webqem.com/driveaway/#?range=XE

Well in regards to my coach stripe, I had an answer back from Jag Heritage and a few other mobs:

So thats just shy of $200 Australian. I guess that sounds ok? They sent me a picture of the sticker. Does it come in a roll?

I didnt know about the Leaper being added later, can anybody else confirm that? That would make sense though I guess as I met a bloke who had a car very similar to mine at the last meet and his had no leaper at the rear (see pic). No, that isnt the Blue Goose! His was an 83 build in real good condition but unfortunately had not had the blessing of the great Wizard!

Well..... it all sounds like a goer anyway. Happy days!

 

This striping versus non striping is almost like, "what oil is best for my car".

The dealers of the day did whatever got the "warm and fuzzies" going to sell a car. They were not, and still are not, purists, enthusiusts, whatever. They are sales people, and all that really matters is the commision and the end of the month.

OK, in fairness, there have been, and probably still are, some exceptional cases out there.

Whatever is offered by Classic Spares, or JDHT, is what Jaguar would have "offered" at the time. Whether ALL the cars took up the "offer", who knows.

The XJ-S is one of those cars that lends to the owners/dealers little touches without detracting from the beast at all, and I reckon the striping fits in that slot perfectly.

Similar, but different to, the leaper versus no leaper.

That drained the brain cells, damn, I need a drink.

 

the coachline ' leaper ' was never a standard jaguar supplied decal , however, different parts of the world offered the new car with different options, and who to say the original dealer didn't enhance the cat before she left the workshop , or indeed a PO didn't add the pinstripe and or leaper decal them selves

the only deviation from this that i can find is the addition of the ' lemans ' car to the celebration model for a very limited run in 88

BUT

its your car, its how you like it, so whats wrong in replicating what you have had for all this time, but just refreshing it

i would go for the above kit you posted, it will come rolled up , and then you can look out for a leaper decal to add yourself as there are many for sale on ebay in custom colours for very little money

as for NOS kits, they will still be sticky , mine were

BB

 

cheers for the feedback guys. It is always appreciated

 

heh guys sorry its been so long since an update

Well i got home from sea only to receive my coach stripes from the UK. With an offer to help from the very generous 34by151 we picked a day and tackled the mission.

They appeared an identical match save for the leaper design now missing in the rear. We started doing the LH side first and after a bit of preparation we laid her down...only to find it would not go in the "groove" left by the last coach stripe. As mentioned above the paint is lower where the stripe used to be than the rest of the body. What we figured out is the previous coach stripes had a curvature in them to follow the rear panel.....the new ones were dead straight. We bit the bullet and just continued to lay it down...we had already committed.

After stepping back we realized she didn't look too great and you could clearly see the older lines and it looked a bit wonky as the old lines through you off and it doesnt follow the curve the same....bummer.

We looked on the other side and we used a heat gun to clear off a bit of the residue on rear RH panel. Low and behold the indentation started coming off and hence the raised line....it appears it is the clear coat. (ie. they sprayed clearcoat over the stripe once they finished) We worked at it and got the rear RH panel looking great.

Now....the problems started. The RH drivers door had alot thinner paint and at once section it started to show bone. We used a different approach and used 1200 grit wet n dry to smooth out the lines made by the clear coat. It started to work. Then we used some cut and polish with a buffer tool to go into the electric drill and we buffered her up real good. Only problem is it has a distinctive line of clear coat left. We are going to re-apply the clear coat in the next few days.

Now the front RH panel behind the wheel arch was the worse. The paint was paper thin and with only a little scrubbing revealed the body! It looks like in her early history she may of had some panel work done or who knows...she is 30 years old after all and history is only really known from the last two owners. Anyway I tried to use some paint and polish the edges back but she still wears down to the bone just as soon as I breathe on it lol!

Finally the front nose (RH) was looking swell however once i polished off the line it revealed a "painted on" coach stripe underneath! Geez its becoming a mission! Hopefully I can just lay the new stripe over that.

Whats next? Clear coat the RH door and front panel. Rub back and polish. Then apply coach stripe.

The LH side? Well we are going to remove it and use the same technique as the RH side to remove the lines, now that we know how. Probably going to have to take a sample coach stripe to a print shop now and get up the pieces that will be wrecked on the LH side during removal. oh well it has been a learning experience.

I would have been totally lost had it not been for again the generosity of 34by151(James) cheers mate!

to be continued.......

 

This is looking like 'Mission Creep' Bro.

One of those jobs you wish you'd never started.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but if it was me, then I think I would take all of those Stripes off and then take her to a Professional paint shop

and let them get the Paintwork looking perfect.

Then take a step back and consider if you really want stripes after all?

If so wait a month to give the Paintwork plenty of time to cure and then take

her back and get them to Spray on the Stripes.

 

Yeah kinda OB but it has been a good learning curve.

Getting it resprayed would be great but it costs a bloody arm and a leg over here almost to the point of it costing as much as I paid for her.

Luckily I got help (34by151) otherwise I would be a bit lost though. Up until a few days ago i didnt know how to cut n polish lol!

In reality i think if i could get the panels to come up nice id leave off the stripes all together but places like the RH nose leave me no option as i discoverd it was painted on so it would have to be properly painted over.

Heh by the way like your new signature bro. Is that Cherry Blossom?

 

Hi Bro

Yup! That's 'Cherry Blossom'

I got scared of driving my other one, when I hit the Brakes and almost had the Wheel snatched out of my hand.

So I've put on yet 'Another Valve Block' on the ABS and hope this may have sorted out the problem.

Having first checked and then cleaned the Wheel Sensors.

So now I'm off for a Test Drive to see what happens!

As long as you're Happy with your Car, then that's all that counts and if you've improved it in any way then that is all you need to worry about.

Paint work is the only place I wouldn't want to go, except for a Small Local repair, that wouldn't show too much if I screwed up.

But you could try this!

Go along to a Collage, where people study all sorts of Stuff, so they can get a 'Certificate' City and Guilds' we call em over here.

They can get these for Mechanics, Car Repairs and even Flower Arranging! and also Car Refinishing (Painting and Spraying)

Go and see the 'Head Honcho' who is in charge of Teaching that particular Course and ask if they would like to have an interesting Car to practice on.

As well as giving them something to spend on Stuff they need. $100-$200

I can pretty much guarantee you, they would do a perfect job.

That's what I did with my MGB and was amazed at the result.

Its always much more fun for them, if what they do has a purpose so that they can see the finished result.

Its gotta be worth a try Bro, you've got nothing to lose by asking and I bet they'd really love to do your Car.

 

It comes down to what you want. At one end of the scale is a concourse car that is rarely driven and the other end is an affordable classic that you drive every day.

We discussed this quite a bit and Paul leans to the latter.
From my point of view neither is right or wrong and I appreciate both

In saying that I have built a number of show quality Hot Rods that I spent many months on paint.

A keen eye looking at the paint can tell each and every repair over the years. The average person wont spot most of the work only major damage. Looking at the panels its clear both rear quarters, one door and the roof have original paint. Its had at least 3 shunts and repairs (both sides and rear). The off side front guard is also a second hand panel that was only buffed and sprayed. Also the original paint on the near side rear quarter is cracking.

As for the paint applied by the panel shops. Most was done with minimal ripples to match as best an average eye but not to factory finish. Some of the panels has the absolute minimum paint applied.

That's the bad news.

The good news is some elbow grease and patience will get the job done to a good quality. Paul is on a steep learning curve and is doing very very well. Bear in mind at some point you have to learn and we do that by doing. Along the way you make some mistakes but that's part of the process.

Looking at the bigger picture if Paul wanted to create a concourse car you would respray the whole thing. You would need a painter that is at a min is in his 50's otherwise he only know how to spray "orange peel". That would cost many time more than the car is worth.

The second option is to learn and get the car looking as best it can, drive it and enjoy it. I didn't build a show quality car my first attempt but each car got better as I picked up skills, mostly with the help of others. Paul is on this journey and i'm sure this wont be the last car he has but its one he will always look on fondly

For the stripes the paint applied just needs more coats before sand and polish leaving only the clear coat repair.
Personally I like it without he stripes but Pal leans the other way. I respect that an it also means a lot of the repair is covered by the stripe so colour match can be a lotte off as well. The only thing really needed is to have it smoothe

As for the rest of the paint a claybar treatment followed by a cut and polish will get the car looking as best it possibly can, far better than Paul, has ever seen it look but looking like a good clean car that has some age but is well looked after, a great example that many people would live to own.

Cheers
34by151

 

Heh guys

Sorry its been so long since an update.

Just got her back from the Spray shop. Got both sides resprayed plus a few dings and scratches repaired for $2500 AUD.

I am really really happy with the result. The bloke did a great job.

Seeing her looking nice now without the coach stripe I think I am going to leave it off for good. Thoughts?

I have to clean her tomorrow a bit so will take some more photos then but for now just got a quick one in the garage.

 

I once saw one in a magazine without the coach stripe and I thought it looked a lot better without it.
I would go without for time being, you can always put it on later if you want to.

 

Looking good Paul, she'll look fine lined up with all the other Jags on Sunday. Look forward to seeing the new paint.
I like it without the stripe.

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