Painted coachlines -1994.75 model

[Jaguar5993]

Hello,
I am doing a bit of research on my painted coach lines on my 1995 XJS 6.0 coupe, so I can take my car to a prospective resprayer in January, prior to taking it off the road and tell them what I would like.
I think my original ones look like they were applied before the final factory clear coat. This has been confused by, as often, my front wing and other parts had been resprayed in the late 90's and someone just painted new lines over it. I can chip the line off with my finger.

I think the coach lines really suit the XJS, but I see a lot of resprayed cars opting not have them after, even though most models (don't think the Jaguar XJR-S did) had them applied from the factory.

I see that some independent sellers do repro style, stick on lines that look of a good quality for £90.
These are advertised for the Celebration model.
I really would prefer to have them as original, as the whole car will be having a bare metal respray.

Jaguar Classic Parts have the low tack masking tape (JLM11829) for my model year Vin.195734,but not too sure if they are my late model coach line, thickness spec.
My body colour is Flamenco Red.
Top thick line is 3mm -red (but what code is that red ?)
Gap of 4.25mm
Bottom thin line is only 1.5mm white(?)
I have heard that these coloured lines, with the 'said' stencil, should actually be airbrushed on. Is that correct?

Any extra info would be great.

Have the best Christmas you can!

Kind regards.

[AndyF]

Hi Nick

It is great to hear that you are planning on some TLC for your car - I have always thought that Flamenco Red is brilliant on the XJS.

Your post prompted me to go and have a more detailed look at my own car, a 1994 MY 6.0 V12 coupe (silver frost metallic). I believe that it has its original coachlines - while the paint is not concours, and it may have had some paint locally here and there, it generally looks original(ish)! As it was originally a Jaguar UK management car, I presume the coachlines it has are as it left the factory.

Like yours, the coachlines appear to be on top of the clear coat - but their style and layout are very different to yours.

For comparison, I took the image below just now:

It shows a thin red line ~1.5mm, 2.5mm gap, 4.5mm grey thick lower line, plus a distinct finishing detail at the front. I compared both left and right wings and they are the same.

Having looked carefully at the lines, I am pretty confident that they are painted, rather than tape. This seems logical to me, as that is how we did coachlines when I worked at Bentley, and in many respects the mid 90's XJS matches up as a "junior" version of the Continental R which we built at the same time.

If it were down to me, I would try to pin down the exact spec for your car (UK, 1994.75MY etc) and get it included in the respray. I made the mistake of typing in "coachlines" into a US forum and found lots and lots of discussion about them, esp when it came to judging for concours events.... perhaps it can all go a bit too far!

Good luck with the research and the body / paint work. Please share the picture and story of how it goes - I think we all enjoy seeing how these projects progress!

AF

[AndyF]

One last point - the chart attached from the JagLovers forum - has many of the paint codes for our cars on them.

It may be a good starting point to track down the codes for your paint lines.

AF

[AndyF]

Better resolution image with a link

https://forums.jag-lovers.com/t/exterio ... ide/359399

AF

[Jaguar5993]

Hi Andy,
Thanks for the reply and that is the sort of info I like.
Thanks for the colour code chart.
There really was a lot of Jag colours over the years. Funny how trends change from the mid 1990s to the popular grey, silver and blacks of today. It will not be too long before there is a mobile App, that you can use to change the colour of your electric car, daily !

As I have car OCD,I really want to get the coachlines correct. I have seen your style before and it looks like the right ones.
Yes... the 1994.75 were correct for mine and together with the 20 spoke turbine wheels ,I still marvel over it.

I guess I need to find out if that JLM11829 (approx. £40) really is for my car.
It should be all worth it in the end.
I have a busy car resto year ahead.
Cheers

[AndyF]

One further thought Nick (it is amazing what pops out of my head over a cup of tea!)

Maybe you could get the definitive colour and trim / paint guide from the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust for the XJS for 1995 for the UK market? They may hold this type of document in the archives.

The JDHT were extremely helpful to me when I was researching the evolution of the XJS braking system earlier in the year. Best use the contact details for the Archive team via the JDHT webpage. Having rechecked the website, they have a specific section for paint codes ... see extract below:

https://www.jaguarheritage.com/archive- ... int-codes/

Embrace the car OCD!!!! (I suffer from this too... how did you guess??)

AF

[AndyF]

Nick

The fact that you have found a part number for a coachline tape made me doubt my assertion that they were painted lines. While putting the car back into the garage this evening, I found out that, yes, they really are tape!

Next to the front LH wheel arch, there is a tiny section where the tape has delaminated, leaving the adhesive on the clear coat, but the colour upper layer having come off. So - tape is the answer, at least on my car.

And for completeness, here is how the coachlines terminate at the rear of the car.

AF

[Jaguar5993]

Always good to discover new things about our cars.
JLM11829 (I think?) is not the actual line tape,but masking tape stencil ,to then get sprayed or hand painted/rolled over.
Now I need to ask if a Resprayer can actually apply this well.
Thanks for your input Andy.

[davidr]

Here are a few pictures of the painted coach lines on my 1996 car. They are quite different from the stick on kind as you can see

[Jaguar5993]

That’s great David,thanks.
They look like my size.
I just need to find the correct colours.
I guess any good resprayer should be able to match them up.
All the best.

[almcl]

Possibly too late to be of help now but may be useful in future, but my reading of the parts catalogue is that coachline tapes were used up to vehicle no 194774 and painted ones thereafter.

Amazingly some of the colours of tape and the masking tape for the painted versions are still available from Jaguar.

[Jaguar5993]

Hi,
Not too late...as its research for a respray in August/Sept. 2021.
I'm taking my car off the road in Jan. to start scuttle and seat belt point repairs, then all suspension etc.
Yes...as mine is vin. 195734....painted it is then.
I guess that JLM11829 is correct and available.
I heard back from the chap on eBay selling coloured tape (the Celebration tape looks spot-on.)
He actually said he can produce my thin tape in my colours, but sort of still prefer my original painted ones.
Its nice to have the choice of a possible, neater option though.
Thanks

[ptjs1]

I wonder if part of the reason that they stopped tape coachlines at 194774 is that this represents the introduction of the AJ16 engine.

At that point, the 4 litre cars had body-coloured headlight surrounds and door mirrors and no coachlines, representing a sportier look that differentiated them from the 6 litre cars. As the bulk of XJS sold at that time were 4 litre cars, it perhaps didn't make sense to have coachline tape produced any more just for the few 6 litre cars that were sold?

And once the cars were designated Celebration a year later, perhaps it was then more cost-effective to paint the lines on the cars?

Paul

[Jaguar5993]

Just to wrap up my points.
In the grand scheme of things in the world at the moment ,this is trivial.
I guess the dilemma I have is whether to choose the good Ebay sellers neater,easier to apply and difficult to tell any difference from painted lines(2k clear lacquered over),or sticking to painted ones as per factory and relieing on a resprayer to get it right (oh dear! my ocd is bad)
Paul’s last post makes perfect sense,so Jaguar might of kept the stick on coach lines for 6.0s(?)
What would you do?
Thanks to everyone for making this a great forum .
All the best!

[ptjs1]

Nick,

I know of an original late 6.0 litre car and I'll find out for you what is on that car, if that helps (or confuses!) your decision!

Personally? I'd probably get them sprayed. It won't be difficult for a sprayer to do. You could do it yourself! The most difficult bit will be applying the tape accurately.

Cheers

Paul