I'm faced with a dilemma, and thought I would solicit opinions and advice from the wisdom of the forum.

The clearcoat is showing signs of failing on my 1990 XJS Convertible, and since it's a black car, the failing areas are more obvious. The car only has 65K miles and I've had it since it only had 8K miles (20 years).

It's a perfectly wonderful Sunday driver with the top down, but it is at the point that it could use a new convertible top, new boot cover, new seat leather, and a complete respray. None of which I intended to do anytime soon because I'm not sure the economics make sense, and I've spent all my efforts on making it mechanically excellent. I can DIY the top and interior at reasonable costs that would be a good investment if the paint was in better condition.

However, a really good quality re-spray might cost more than the car is worth now or foreseeable future. The area I live in, not only has crazy high labor rates, but has been actively zoning/regulating automotive shops out of business, which only makes costs higher. So a repaint wasn't on the radar and something to consider 'one day'. I always figured that several years from now when I had more free time I'd teach myself how to do a quality job. My daughters would never forgive me if I ever got rid of the beast, so I've been content keeping it in the garage and taking her out only on beautiful days since I no longer use it as my daily driver.

My oldest is getting married this spring, and just asked me if she could use the XJS as her wedding car -- which I don't think is nice enough with it's current paintwork.

What to do? No way I'll have a enough free time to attempt the job myself, and a factory quality respray doesn't seem like a wise investment at current values. Any suggestions or ideas are welcomed.

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

 

 

Generally speaking, owning an XJS is not a wise investment.
But, you can't put a price tag on your daughter's happiness.
Just sayin' . . .

 

My checkbook can argue that point...

 

i repainted mine myself for about $800 in materials using quality paint. you can do it yourself without a paint booth start to Finnish. iv painted several cars in home garages before with good results. you might have a few dust nibs to wet sand and buff out after your done spraying but the end result is still the same.

 

As long as the daughter has no problem with it being nice enough why do you think its not good enough.

 

There are very few cars that you could make a profit restoring, and largely because of the cost of professional services like a paint job. It costs pretty much the same to paint a base 66 Mustang coupe as it does to paint a 66 Shelby GT 350. One is worth painting, the other really isn't. But we gearheads tend to spend inordinate amounts of money on our cars with no hope of a return on investment. To some, we are not owners, rather we are just temporary caretakers. The way I look at it, there are economically worse hobbies. For the cost of paint job you could play golf every weekend for a year, take a cruise, or attend a half dozen major sporting events. All of which will take your money and leave you with nothing but memories. A good quality paint job, if its kept indoors, will have you and everyone who sees your Jaguar smiling for probably the next 20 or 30 years before it needs doing again.

 

OP is in California, you've got two options...well 3 but I'll get to that.

If cost is an issue in your region you can either drive up to Vancouver Canada or a place in Arizona, don't ask me why but that state has cheap quality autobody options...probably due to low labour costs and UV damage. Vancouver is the supercar capital of North America and there are more quality shops then you can count and you'll get the exchange rate in your favour. Time it right and it could be a nice 4-5day road trip.

Third as some suggest is to fix it yourself which most people won't do. I recently had to patch a 1x1' clearcoat section with a can of clearcoat, 4000grit pad and a bottle of clearcoat polish, I could of done a better job but I layered it on without sufficient time or sanding so its fine from 5ft away but upon closer inspection you can tell. It'll be good till my respray but I think with proper lighting, time, and sanding in a heated garage you could do a half decent job if its a small patch.

 

 

Mac, you present a scenario that many of us who love the XJS have or will face some day. l work in the auto collision industry so I will share a few insights from both a professional and as a XJS enthusiast, a passionate one also.

First and foremost repainting a complete car is an expensive proposition if you hand your car over to a shop and ask them to take care of the complete process. Doing a repaint correctly is a very labor intensive job so with the values of the average XJS being what they are I highly recommend you take your time and repaint your XJS on your schedule doing as much of the prep work yourself. You will not only save thousands but you will also create a new bond with your car just like you have taking care of it mechanically.

You have made it clear that you do not have enough time right now to handle doing a lot of the work yourself getting the car ready to paint. You also did not say that your daughter would only want to use the XJS in the wedding if it is in pristine condition. Sounds like your kids grew up with the car over the last 20 years and your daughter just wants the car in the wedding not because it is perfect but because it has been of part of her life and all the flaws on the car are part of her experiences. Nothing wrong with letting the car be part of the wedding just like it is as it has earned it's flaws. I must say that I have two very nice XJS' but I am more proud of the rock chips and flaws on the cars as they remind me of where I was at with the car when each flaw happened.

I would just allow the car to be part of the celebration as it is and when you have time to repaint the car or spruce up other areas it will feel even better because you will have done as much as possible yourself. I am reminded often when I am around my cars that I often focus on everything that is wrong with the car when I should just be enjoying the whole package.

 

I wonder if attempting something like this makes sense in my circumstances:


Polishing off all the faded areas of cleacoat, claybar the entire car, and apply a ceramic coating.

Obviously not a permanent solution, but I wonder if it's worth a try?

 

Some of those ceramic products cost as much as a new paint job! None of them seem to be less than half of what I paid for a repaint! It wasn't done in a paint booth, so there was some dust and stuff, but its a daily driver, so it looks fantastic as that, not a show car. I was very happy. I paid $2k and he did a lot of minor bodywork correction as well. Had the riveted side moldings removed and he used PPG paint and clear. I was thrilled with the final outcome.

Found him on Craigslist!

 

The nano ceramic coatings themselves are not very expensive, what drives up the cost is the paint correction and prep is very labor intensive and most people would expect perfection which has to be achieved prior to putting on the ceramic coating. That's why it can be several thousands of dollars.

$2K is an incredible price given that PPG products, epoxy primer, and all the other required supplies would run well over $1K alone.

 

correcting dust nibs is pretty easy if you wanted to fix that, no real special tools needed either just a soft sanding block some sand paper ranging from 800-2000 grit and a bit of polish.

 

Probably the hardest thing is not to be afraid to try. If it screws up beyond repair? Then it needed to be repainted in the first place. It's amazing, as long as there is some paint left you can perform miracles!

 

 

2000 is abit harsh, try to find a 4000grit and use soapy water as a lubricant, an orbit sander works well with this. Regardless you'll still need a polishing compound or 'scratch remover' after to clean it up as with 4000 for example it'll look foggy until you do.

 

im hoping to pull my semi truck in the shop and do a paint job on it soon, when i do that ill probably do a video on that, and probably a paint correction video after that, but if not im sure there are lots of other videos on youtube as well that show how to do those things. the 2000 grit will make it look dull at first but it will polish right back to a shine, its not hard to do, even when you get a paint job done in a booth there will be a little bit of paint correction to do, things still land in the paint, a show quality paint job will have the entire car blocked out and buffed after its painted, thats how you get that super smooth super shiny glass like appearance.

 

Please do a video, theres lots of try-hards on youtube but they arn't here on the Jag forum.

 

How hard is it to remove the bumpers (and any tips on how to do it)?

Ezrider, I noticed in your photos that you were able to pull away only the back edge of the convertible top without removing the whole top, how did you do that?

Any other tips or instructions on how to remove mirrors, door handles, etc.

Thanks very much!