Thanks for the comments guys. I don't have enough of the history to say that the car hasn't been in a salty area, but yes it is rather extreme rust. I can't believe it is now about a year since I had the time to work on this as other projects and now getting ready for a house move are all getting in...

Mike,

Welcome and good luck with your search.

From personal experience I would suggest checking the underneath for rust, especially the sills. See my forum post elsewhere for a bad example. Nonetheless, I like the car so much I am trying to save it.

Regards,
Steve

The front axle mounting point needed to come off. I carefully drilled out the spot welds and after a bit of extra cutting with the angle grinder I got this small section of chassis off the car. The photo below possibly makes the rust here look worse than it really is, but at least I now had good acc...

It got to the stage where I decided the rear axle needed to come off to improve my access. Having already removed the fuel tank, exhaust and prop this was an easy job. Disconnect the brake hose and electrical connector for each wheel then undo the 4 long bolts and slowly lower the whole axle. Before...

To help work out how much rust was hidden I took this photo inside the sill looking towards the back. As you can see the join area at the bottom is very rusty, but there is mostly surface rust elsewhere. IMG_20180804_134851.jpg After cutting more away working towards the back I came across this piec...

A few more images to show the extent of the rust under the car. This was the front nearside just behind the wheel. While this is not a jacking point in original condition it might have been possible to jack and/or support the car here. As you can see this wouldn't have been possible on my car. IMG_2...

Dave, A great decision. Last year I took a bit of a career break and did some trade plate driving for a few months. In that time I drove almost every BMW on the market, including their Mini brand, several Mercs and quite a few vans. In my view none of them come close to the performance matched with ...

Having got the interior of my S Type R out of the car to repair the sills on both sides I can confirm that there is significant wiring that runs along the top of the each sill inside the passenger compartment. I have removed the interior to ensure I can see both sides of the areas I'll be welding so...

You might want to check out this website as there have a lot of detail about the climate control system in the S Type. http://jaguarclimatecontrol.com/ If I ever get my car into a roadworthy state I'll be following their diagnosis on my system as I've had it repaired before at great expense. Regards...

Doug, I'd put the post in the general section as I think there will be more than just bodywork information in the thread, assuming I can keep it updated. As the moderator I will defer to your judgement. Mileage at the failed MOT is 112,792. I've had quite a bit done to the car during my ownership an...

I will try to document here how I am trying to rescue my S Type R from it's rust problem. Earlier this year it failed the MOT because of rusty sills, but having investigated further it was more than just the sills that have rusted. My initial reaction was that I could not personally save this car An...

I think Mike's point about manufacturers not being interested in vehicles having a long life is the salient point here. Governments are backing this up with scrappage schemes, which in my view are bad for the environment. Surely there is less environmental impact in making products that can last and...

Doug, I would love to keep this car, but as my circumstances have changed in the last 18 months my priorities have to focus elsewhere now. I have 2 vehicles undergoing refurbishment at the moment, one of which is a major job and has been ongoing for 8 years now (scary that it's been off the road for...

It is with much regret and a heavy heart that I must put my beloved S Type R up for sale. Having failed the MOT on rear brake disks and rusted rear silencer, plus advisories on the rusted sills, I have inspected the rust myself and feel it requires work to be used on the road again. The chassis arou...

Indeed a very sad day. When compared to the M3 and M5 you are getting so much car for your money, the performance is very comparable, but I would guess the comfort is so much better. They are getting to be rare cars, however my other 3 interesting cars all have chassis numbers under 100. Thankfully ...