I recently put new tires on all the way around and this was the
first time I've had XJS up in the air for about 2 years.
Wow, I freaked out at the really ugly picture presented by the rusted
members and exhaust area. I know the exhaust will be rusty or least
brown looking. Then there are some components of the rear suspension
that really concerned me.
So, is sand/bead/soda blasting the way to go with cleaning all this up?
Or is it the use of wire brushes?
Most of the crud comes from the fact that this car spent about 3 - 4 years
up in the Detroit Michigan area and before that it was down in Miami.
Salt air in Miami and then road salt in Michigan to spice things up a little.
I've attached some photos of the underside rear suspension.

Then I noticed that the tire shop DID NOT use the front jack points
to support the front of the car! They did get the rear jack points.

 

WOW

with that photo evidence i would be right back at that shop looking for compensation for stuffing up your floorpans at the front , no excuse what so ever for doing this , they have supported the car on a non structural point


as for the rust, elbow grease and some underseal should bring things back to black


BB

 

Going by the photos:

She doesn't look that bad, though seems she could certainly do with a new Exhaust System.

After Power Washing/Steam Cleaning the underside of the Chassis.

But NOT! NOT! NOT! The Engine! As this would reak havoc and probably cost a fortune in both time and money to get her running again.

The tool I would use to clean her up would be Wire Cup brushes of various sizes to go on the end of one of those small angle grinders.

Together with a Wire brush on an Air die grinder for those hard to get to places.

Having had some experience of Sand Blasting, I can tell you that the dust gets everywhere and if it gets into the engine, then it will be Toast!

Although it does have its uses but well away from the Car.

Photo (5) is the perfect illustration of why many of us prefer to do as much as we are able to do ourselves, rather than to take her into

a Garage/Shop for maintnance or repairs.

If they even attempted to jack my Car up in that way! There would be no second chances, I would be out of there!

It looks as though they have damaged the underside of the Chassis and may have even torn a hole in it.

In which case I would have them pay to repair it, or at least insist I got those Tyres/Tires for Free!

And what is more you've got the photos to prove it.

I would really freak out, if they did that to my Car!

One of the reasons, I never take the Car to a Garage/Shop to have any new Tyres/Tires fitted.

I just take the Wheel along and always buy the Tyres/Tires from a supplier.

 

and to be honest, they missed the rear jacking points to.....

the car is supported on the rear radius arm mounts which is next to the jacking point stud

though this is not such a bad place to jack from

BB

 

Scarbro201,

I'm with BB on this. Jacking on the non-structural floopan looks from the photo to have distorted it. I would take it straight away to someone very knowledgeable about XJS and get an assessment on the issue. Then get back to the tyre people with your compensation claim.

..and don't take a car there ever again, as they clearly have no idea how to deal with classic cars!

Good luck with the claim.

Paul

 

I have avoided going to N##t##l Tire and B$$$y for the longest time because of their sales tactics.
Now I have another reason. Oddly enough the floor pan did not seem to be dented any significant amount despite the 2000+lbs of weight on that area.
I will be returning to the store about this. I really didn't see the lift faux-paux
until I was going over the pics for this post.
I saw a small handheld sandblaster at Harbor Freight that I thought I would try.
It has its own pump and costs about $40.00. I am wary of using one those commercial
rigs that use several hundred pounds of pressure and blow out a sandstorm.
The handheld unit looks to be quite directional and maybe easy to contain
the output of the blasting material.

 

you do realize that the sand will get into every nook and cranny, and you will find many pin holes in the rusted metals.

lotsa work, but doable,ask me how i know, my car came from UK,where they salt winter roads with pool acids(maybe not but close).

 

RONBROS, pinholes? As in you gotta replace it type of pinholes?
I also noticed that some of the small pipelines (fuel? brake?) have rust on them as well.
I've read a lot of posts in this forum and others about the fuel lines being a typical
replacement item for the XJS. I read an article in Jaguar World a few issues back
on replacing the fuel lines in a XJS project car. Boy, they like using BFH (hammers)
a lot on that car. Hopefully, that will not be an issue with the '94 XJS.

 

I wouldn't Sand Blast her if I were you, the dust goes all over the place and you only need a few microns of dust to get sucked into the air intakes when you start her up, to completely ruin the engine.

If there is a weakness in the metal, then the Sand Blaster will find it and as already has been said, could leave your chassis full of tiny microscopic holes, or bigger holes that might need welding up.

Apart from that very rusty exhaust, She doesn't look that bad and even if you went round her with a hand held wire brush, I doubt if it would take you more than a day, which would include applying a coating of your choice.

If you still want to give sand blasting a go, then spend a bit more money on a sandblasting cabinet, for which no doubt you are likely to find a multitude of stuff you can clean up.