1991 Jaguar XJ-S
Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus
Problem#28-Paint issues
My touchup kit arrived today, and I spent an hour fixing my mistakes from last week and touching up a few other edges. I also did a little more polishing. The best approach appears to be wet sanding with 1500 and then using polishing compound. At this point, the couple of spots that I originally described as failing the 10-foot test are now passing down to about 5 feet. It looks a lot better. There are still a few other spots that I think could clean up better. This will be an ongoing effort. My results are satisfying me. I am no longer contemplating taking this to a pro. I do need to attack the rust spots, one on the passenger door, one on the passenger wheel well, and the underneath edges of the trunk lid. For that, I will need to get some spray touchup, but prep and priming will be the first steps.
Re: 1991 Jaguar XJ-S
I have a squeak that repeats proportional to vehicle speed. It sounds a little like a cricket. The squeak vanishes with just the lightest touch of the brake pedal. It isn’t always there, but it is annoying when it shows up. Yesterday, I pulled each front and inspected the brakes because I thought the sound was coming from the front. It is all good there. I then jacked up the rear, put the car in neutral, and rotated the wheels. I could hear a squeak, but I couldn’t really isolate it. I can’t seem to identify where the sound is coming from. I thought it might be one of the u-joint covers on the axle shafts, but playing with those didn’t change anything. It is probably just one of the new brake pads, but it is annoying. I will probably need to crawl under further to find the culprit which will require putting the car on stands.
I have also continued trying to fix up the paint. I now think I understand what has been touched up, what has been re-sprayed, and what is original. I also have figured out how to reduce the appearance of the seams of the touchup spots. The driver quarter has been re-sprayed with a blend line at the top of the c-pillar buttress. It left an edge of what I think was clear coat, but I was able to sand that off and then polish the seam so that it looks a lot better (far from perfect). There was also a touchup right behind the driver’s door that I sanded and polished which better hid the seams. The original paint has some imperfections that look like water spots, but those don’t seem to come out no matter how much I polish. I keep flirting with disaster with wet sanding and polishing, but so far I haven’t gone through the color, other than my overly aggressive effort a couple weeks ago. With the touchup paint, I am really learning the importance of thickness. If I get the primer too thick, when I try to even out the color, I burn through the color. It seems to be an iterative process. At some point I just need to stop as it will never be perfect, but it is an amusing way to pass time in the garage with my car.
I continue to drive it regularly. I am just a few miles from 48K so I will have to watch to see if my odometer makes the turn this thousand. Since the IRS went back in, my last couple tanks of gas seemed to deliver better mileage, but my data isn’t precise enough to be sure as I never fill the tank. It looks like the last two tanks were pretty close to 15mpg, bringing my total ownership up to 13.7 mpg. With the fuel tank back to its target three quarter full, I also measured the rear bumper height, and it hasn’t changed at all, still 22.5”. Prior to pumping gas the other day, it had actually climbed over a quarter inch due to the low tank level. This means that I could use bumper height as a fuel gauge.
I have also continued trying to fix up the paint. I now think I understand what has been touched up, what has been re-sprayed, and what is original. I also have figured out how to reduce the appearance of the seams of the touchup spots. The driver quarter has been re-sprayed with a blend line at the top of the c-pillar buttress. It left an edge of what I think was clear coat, but I was able to sand that off and then polish the seam so that it looks a lot better (far from perfect). There was also a touchup right behind the driver’s door that I sanded and polished which better hid the seams. The original paint has some imperfections that look like water spots, but those don’t seem to come out no matter how much I polish. I keep flirting with disaster with wet sanding and polishing, but so far I haven’t gone through the color, other than my overly aggressive effort a couple weeks ago. With the touchup paint, I am really learning the importance of thickness. If I get the primer too thick, when I try to even out the color, I burn through the color. It seems to be an iterative process. At some point I just need to stop as it will never be perfect, but it is an amusing way to pass time in the garage with my car.
I continue to drive it regularly. I am just a few miles from 48K so I will have to watch to see if my odometer makes the turn this thousand. Since the IRS went back in, my last couple tanks of gas seemed to deliver better mileage, but my data isn’t precise enough to be sure as I never fill the tank. It looks like the last two tanks were pretty close to 15mpg, bringing my total ownership up to 13.7 mpg. With the fuel tank back to its target three quarter full, I also measured the rear bumper height, and it hasn’t changed at all, still 22.5”. Prior to pumping gas the other day, it had actually climbed over a quarter inch due to the low tank level. This means that I could use bumper height as a fuel gauge.