L992RVC Moroccan xjr

[ChrisW]

Being half term holidays I finally got around to starting work on the XJR, and I thought I would share it with you !

There are 4 main areas i want to sort out:

1. water in the drivers footwell
2. more water leaking in around the sunroof
3. smoking on startup
4. rust in the bulkhead

I think it will be a while before its back on the road, my aim is to have it ready in time for next years meeting.

Starting with 1.
My plan was to remove the drivers side front wing and take it from there. And for those that havent seen xj40 rust before, or who find it strangely arousing, here are some pics.



Wing probably beyond saving.



Think this is where the water was getting in. it seems to run down the screen, under the top of the wing and through this rust hole.



A lot missing from the footwell, and there was a lot of seam sealer holding the rust together, but the sills themselves were very sound. Maybe the body kit protects them ? the dark staining is due to treatment with Kurust. Dont know if it does any good but it at least it gets rid of the iron oxide colour.



The following are after some patches have been welded in, coated with zinc primer and hammerite. I also sprayed inside the box sections with waxoyl.





Its a pit patchwork quiltish, but at least feels solid now if you hit it with a hammer. Also, pleased to note no more water in the footwell after the last bit of rain.

Of course as soon as I started working on the xjr, the sovereign daily driver had a fit of jealousy and spurted her power steering fluid onto the road. But I treated her to a shiney new hose and she seems to have forgiven me.

[Rory]

They do seem to get jealous!
Not sure holder ever got over the arrival of the Daimler

Rory

[ChrisW]

In between rain and normal life Ive managed to do a bit more the last couple of days.

Fixed this hole in the drivers side floor


And after undersealing everything, I but on a spare wing which i'd bought years ago for a long since gone 3.2 Sovereign. I had to chop out a slightly bigger hole for the later side lamp repeater.



Now my attention has switched to the passenger side.

the original wing looks OKish, but I have another rust free one I took from a breaker a couple of years back. This is it being prepped in the garage, and yes it is leaning on a telescope.


And the bumper's getting the treatment too.



Underneath the wing, again I'm very luck as the sill is solid with very little rust, but a lot at the front of the wheel arch


And there must have been a problem with water ingress at some point as there was a huge amount of underseal plastered around the cable entry points.



there doesnt seem to be any underseal applied to the original wings, and only one of my spare wings has what looks like factory applied underseal. And..... I spoke too soon about curing the water leak into the drivers footwell. After last nights heavy rain I had a wee puddle this morning, but then i know the bulkhead is rusty. And.....my sovereign daily driver has again had an attack of jealosy and developed a leak on the passenger side footwell. I will get there in the end.

[naki_k]

good work chris. those welds looks solid enough, and wont be seen as you say, so dont need to be perfectly smoothed out.
am surprised there is not much underseal under your wings/ corner bulkhead. mine lot so far did have some, though it wasn't enough to stop them rust anyhow.
i would be inclined to clean back all the old patches of underseal back either way, to make sure there are no small patches of rust hiding under there. also, clear off the old seam sealer, where its visible in the pix. yet another place that rust starts and grows out from there (moisture trap)

funny those ares of the front arch dont usually go as bad as that?
certainly have to deal with the full bulkhead to try and eradicate all water leaks.

keep up the good work, and its great to see you finally getting around to this. i remember seeing the pix of this car, over year ago, and it looked worth saving for sure.

are you going to spray the wings yourself? are they brand new, as the underside looks impossibly rust free?

[Equinoxstudios]

...the original wing looks OKish, but I have another rust free one I took from a breaker a couple of years back. This is it being prepped in the garage, and yes it is leaning on a telescope...

A telescope eh? Things are looking up then.

[ChrisW]

A telescope eh? Things are looking up then.

Yes, but all I'm seeing are black holes

are you going to spray the wings yourself? are they brand new, as the underside looks impossibly rust free?

[

No, any large panel spraying I give to a guy that runs a one man bodyshop in Hildenborough. He likes the old cars and is very sympathetic to details like re-instating original coachlines. They arent brand new and it is surprising how rust free they are. I have no explanation. I took one of them off a 93 3.2 that I bought for spares, maybe it was recently replaced after an accident.

My welding isnt great. I think the gasless mig doesnt help so I'm going to try using disposable co2 gas connected up to the plastic tube on the back of my welder.

[Aidan]

Hi Chris,

Is that Hildenborough in Kent? I might need a body-shop like that to get some small metalwork and re-spraying done on my X300. I'm in East Surrey, so it's good to have options for competitive pricing that come with recommendations from a like-minded enthusiast.

Would you mind giving me his contact details if you think he'd be interested in that kind of work? It's rear wheelarch rust removal on a '95 X300, just at the junction with the cill.

By the way, I love Moroccan red and Magnolia with red piping. It's worth fixing just for the colour scheme alone (wish I'd kept my Moroccan Red and Magnolia XJ Sport... eternal regrets)

Regards,

[ChrisW]

Hi Aidan. I use Weald Coachworks in Hildenborough Kent, tel 01732 463428 and ask for Dave.

Here are some more black holes. I had to unbolt several items from the other side of the wheel arch to save them from the angle grinder.



And here are the holes in the passenger side floor. Pretty scary angle grinding that close to the wiring loom.



Incredibly lucky again with the sills, they seem rock solid.

[Aidan]

Thanks for the contact info Chris.

Cheers,

[naki_k]

chris. i think the car looks very manageable. as you say, the patches of rust look isolated, as opposed to small bits (and large bits) developing everywhere. nice to have some parts with no rust at all.
i think it will be worth trying to get some dinitrol inside the sill sections too to try and keep them looking good?
a job i am still to do too.

when i have welded the floor pan and toes boardd, i found it better to unfix all the wiring loom, to get it well out of the way. as you knwo the surround metal gets very hot, and depending quite how close the wiring is, it could still suffer heat damage. judging from the photo, i would be inclioned to move the loom, just a bit to make sure. really not worth risking loom damage!
good tip, is to use cable ties, to suspend the loom well out of the way. undo all the clips/ ties, and fix it up near the knee bolster/ under dash area.