@macboots

Looking forward to seeing the pics ! You have had a great month. Sadly, I am going backwards..... after fitting the twin fans I am still overheating, so there's nothing else for it but to put in a new radiator. I went for the super duty cat cooler radiator, so let's see how that goes.....

 

And she's back!

Got there and they were still removing some of the rubbing compound:



At home in the driveway:



The good:

The overall paint job is really quite good with a nice clearcoat all around. The old paint job was not nearly this good. Oscar (the owner) said to give it about 6 weeks and then have it buffed to make it sparkle more. Passes my '5 foot' test with ease. There are only a few imperfections on the entire car. To prove that I am an idiot, I did manage to already put a small chip in the area where the boot hits the body... the area will contact on my car if you don't shut it gently. Will have to watch that in the future and hopefully find some way to cushion it... but it sucks to start looking for touch-up paint already.

They also removed, sandblasted, and repainted the windshield washer cover. I wasn't really expecting that, and it was a nice touch as it was chipped up.

They fixed the weather seal on the driver's window that had popped out some at the top and was binding the window the last 1/5 of travel. I'd tried to fix it before myself without much luck... I hadn't mentioned this at all, but good to see someone was paying attention and corrected the issue (there's no reason this would have come out for the paint job so it couldn't have been fixed in the process).

The bad:

Looks like someone couldn't figure out how to close the bonnet properly, as the passenger side retaining rod was a bit scratched up and it wouldn't close all the way on that side. Easily fixed at the shop.

Two overspray spots inside. One on the driver's handle, which I noticed before I left and they quickly removed. The other I didn't notice until I was gone and is on the vinyl by the left windshield pillar. It came off almost entirely with a little soap and water, still a bit of light blue there if you look closely; I'm pretty confident I can get it removed without too much effort.

They forgot to reinstall the rubber liner that goes between the front bumper and the body. I can get it in there myself with the bumper in place with some fiddling, and in any case it's probably good to have it out until the car is buffed. They were sitting in the luggage area (where the rear passenger seats would be in the coupe).

On the entire car, there is only one paint run:



Photobucket isn't cooperating right now or I'd circle it to make it easier to see. If you look bottom center in the photo, you can see a few white specks of leftover rubbing compound just above the bumper. Just to the right of these specks you can see the paint run. According to Oscar, this is the clearcoat and it will buff out. In any case, you have to get within 3 feet to notice it.

The ugly (updated):

Both these items are unrelated to the work at the shop and have to do with pre-existing issues...

I have a brakelight issue which is unrelated to this job, but I will start a new thread on.

Then my other problem. A rain shower came through for about 20 minutes after I got home and while the car was still in the driveway. After the rain left, got into the car to troubleshoot my brakelight problem, and noticed water dripping on the driver's floormat. Now I've had issues in the past with water getting into the cabin area, I though this was from a blocked up condensate drain and windshield washer drain. Initially I thought the gasket had been damaged, but after further investigation (i.e. me sitting out there pouring water on various locations of my windshield with a garden hose) I'm now convinced it is from the driver side A pillar caused by water leaking coming around the chrome windshield trim and draining into the cabin.

Ordinarily the right thing to do here would be to drill out the rivets, remove the chrome trim, clean that area out, ensure the drain is working properly, apply sealant to the gasket, and reinstall the trim with stainless screws. But the previous paint job touched on the trim, so of course Oscar went right over where that is now. So now at the bottom of the trim there is a sealant type area covered with paint. I talked to Oscar, and he said he is concerned if I pull that piece of chrome trim, the sealant with the paint on it may peel. So now I'm going to try and caulk the trim with some clear silicone to keep water from getting in there. On the coupe I think this would not be a very good solution, as the drain is there for runoff from the roof. But on the convertible water from the roof can't flow off there, so while it's not an ideal solution I don't think it is as bad.

Overall very happy with the job. Not a 100% perfect paint job, but a very good one. $1800 and change for a color change and body repair is hard to beat.

Cheers,

Will

 

@howlinowl

I've moved quite a bit around the country in the military, and can safely say that Jacksonville has very low cost of living compared to most places around. I also think Oscar's shop is a very good deal. You do have to pay some attention to the job though... I'm not sure what would have happened had I not stopped by and pointed out to Oscar the bumpers were still on. Also they painted the inside of the hood even though I didn't want it messed with as I figured there would be problems with the insulation (there is not) or the decals (which are now painted over).

That said for $1800 and change it's a great deal and overall is quality work. There was no way I was going to pay over $2000 for paint on this car, and my expectations were exceeded overall.

The shop is:
Oscar's Paint & Body Shop
2949 West Beaver Street, Jacksonville, FL
(904) 388-0852 ‎

Cheers,

- Will

 

Looks great. I really like the color choice. Seems like a good deal for the price, especially given the extra body work and the color change.

 

That looks like a very nice paint job! ...I know its hard to judge from pictures but it looks as good as mine...and I had the car stripped to bare metal, my bumpers, doors, fenders, trunk and hood where all removed and done individually and then it was wet sanded in between the last few coats of paint.

Its very difficult to get dark colors right, but this looks very good! Is there any orange peel?

I am very jealous that you seem to have the same quality of product for only 2k dollars lol.

Congratulations....she looks show from the pictures

 

The car looks great and you're happy. Can't ask for more than that, can we?

Cheers
DD

 

It does look good in the pics.
Hopefully you can get the leak sorted without too much trouble.

 

Okay so a couple of updates. One is neither good nor bad and one pretty bad.

Regarding the windshield gasket, prior to going over to Oscar's I dumped water on the area of concern to verify that was the leak. No water into the cabin. Hmmm...

Took a pitcher of water and started pouring around various places on the gasket. No water getting into the cabin. Hmm...

Got sick of refilling the pitcher so grabbed the garden hose and started pouring water around the windshield in various places. My neighbors must think I'm very odd. Finally sprayed some water into the top of the chrome trim. Water now leaking into the cabin at the bottom driver side corner of the windshield. Aha.

If I had figured this out a week ago, I would have removed the trim pieces from both sides, cleaned out the areas, and left them off for the paint job. Problem is the green paint job just barely touched these areas. Now the blue paint job just barely touches them. Talked to Oscar about it, he thinks pulling the trim pieces off now is a bad idea and I should just silicone them up.

The other news...

I was expecting my British Autowood delivery mid-week. Anxiously wanting to get my car buttoned up, I contacted Saul today to get the tracking number so I could see when it was due to arrive. There's a car meet this weekend and I thought it would be great to have everything buttoned up spic and span.

Saul gave me the tracking number. Tracking number says it was delivered on Wednesday shortly after noon... Verified the address was my address... Not good.... Now I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I got home from work that day, I had noticed the gate to my porch was slightly ajar. My wife and I live in the city, so there are people around all day. But we get packages all the time and have never had any issues. I have no idea why someone would pick this particularly day to nab a package off my porch, but they definitely picked the wrong freaking package! A package of wood for an H&E XJS is of value to only a few hundred people in the entire world!

Saul put in a claim with UPS and they are doing an investigation. Also contacted the local police. Hopefully it is a big mix up and UPS has my wood in a warehouse somewhere. If not, I have a major problem as there aren't too many H&E ski slopes out there...

Cheers,

- Will

 

@spikepaga

The only place there is anything like orange peel is on the inside rear of the driver's door. Completely invisible from either the interior or exterior when the doors are shut, so not a factor. I really can't remember what that area looked like before.

 

A couple times I've thought parcels were stolen but it turned out that the UPS guy was very creative by hiding them in the giant shrubs next to my front door or behind the trash cans at the side of the house.

Take a really hard look around your property :-)

Cheers
DD

 

@DD

Already done... and checked with neighbors in case it went to the wrong address...

I have a gated front porch and the drivers always put the items behind the gate (and usually hidden by one of my porch chairs or potted plants). Wednesday morning my wife left for a business trip. When I got home that afternoon I noted the gate was slightly ajar and we had no mail... Concerned me because the delivery drivers and mailmen always, always, always leave that gate completely shut, so I thought the mailmen came and someone took our mail. Called the wife to find the mail had come before she left, but didn't have the sense at the time to think that a package would have been stolen...

 

Looks very good and excellent value for money.

Graham

 

Things move fast around here...

I was just out in the driveway reinstalling the luggage liner on the
XJS (which had been out for the bodywork), and two of Jacksonville's finest came up and asked if I was missing an expected delivery. I
told them yes, I was missing some woodwork, and they said "we've got
it."

The owner of a vacant house found it in their back yard yesterday. The box was
opened, the ski slope was lying next to it in the dirt. The dash
pieces were all in their wrapping. A quick inventory shows the door
pieces are missing. I went with them over to the site and there was
some bubblewrap and paper shreds around, but no more pieces.



Good news though... everything looks in pretty decent shape, and thank goodness the ski slope was there.

Cheers,

- Will

 

That is awful. I hope the package was insured so you can get the missing pieces

 

Going back to your earlier post about water getting into the cabin once the chrome trim was wetted.

I am not clear exactly which particular bit of chrome trim (out of all the lot around the screen) you mean, but I think you might be well advised to take off the chrome and see what is underneath it, if anything! I realise it is a pain now the paint job is done, but I feel you might find a huge rusty hole under there. If it is not treated and fixed, it will only get worse and worse.

If water is getting into the cabin, and not through the door seals or fan units, there is a hole, it could be just that the screen rubber to body join needs resealing, but sadly, it could mean the metal under the chrome surround has disappeared.

Just my thoughts...

Greg

 

There are also a couple of other areas I found that were leaking. The panel under the scuttle had rust and water which allowed water to drip on the drivers feet.

 

@Greg
Tried to remove the passenger side as a trial, as there wasn't any real overlap there. Could not get it all the way off and it was very traumatic to the windshield gasket...

@Warjon
Where is the scuttle? I'll definitely look in that area as well.

 

[QUOTE=macboots;553199]@Greg
Tried to remove the passenger side as a trial, as there wasn't any real overlap there. Could not get it all the way off and it was very traumatic to the windshield gasket...

Assuming the trim is the same as the HE coupes, this is the drill:

Start with the A pilllar vertical trim. Open door, pull back the door seal, under it there are two screws holding the vertical trim on. Undo these, ease off the trim carefully outwards (away from the pillar sideways) disengaging at the bottom.

Maybe this helps?

Greg

 

Greg-

Did that but it would not ease out. There's some sort of serious adhesive sticking it at the bottom, and the top corner would not release either. I used a fair amount of force until it looked like it was going to deform, then gave up. The gasket itself did not like the trauma either. In any case, that experience led me to believe that the driver side door will cause even more serious issues.

Someday it's possible the window gasket will give up the ghost, or I will need a new windshield. At that time the trim will come out. But until then I think removing the trim will cause more issues than anything under there.

Cheers,

Will

 

@Will

The car looks great, congrats !!

I'm wondering what a blue roof would look like...... :-) It never ends

Sorry to hear about the wood...... At least these parts are available, and it sounds like your wood shop is a good one so they should be able to match the door pieces to the rest