Windscreen scuttle repair

[CoXJS]

A few months back I was preparing my 1994 4.0l Coupe for the MOT. I was aware of some rust and previous owner bodges that needed addressed. This has turned into a bit of a restoration.

I have owned the ar for about 9 years and have applied the never poke anything unless you are willing to get the welder out principle.

Where did I start, there is some rust on the inner wing near the brake hose mount, this had a huge wedge of filler in it. Both front inner wings need some repairs. Floor pans have suffered due to water ingress and a few pieces where the where the floor meets the sill. Both leading edges of the sill need repaired.

The water ingress had been an issue for a while and there was signs of corrosion and previous repairs around the screen. The time had come to start poking.

I got the drivers wing off and was quite happy.

The screen trim was starting to reveal some clues into how bad it was rusted. The drivers side scuttle had an obvious rust blister so I cut it open to see the extent of the rust.

There was a lot of fibreglass and filler below the paint. I broke the screen whilst probing. There was sections where the bond was not stuck to the surround as rust had crept along it.

Probably not much worse than most 30 year old XJS that have not been garaged.

What was a bit of a shock was the rear diff cage which had split and twisted.

[CoXJS]

I have a bit of a puzzle regarding the Plenum chamber drain.

Where the hose connects the scuttle the hole is a few mm higher than the bottom of the scuttle. Water hs been sitting and corroded on mine.



Is this just a poor design? how is water supposed to get out? and is there a modification? I was thinking of filling it with some resin so the water can flow out rather than sitting in the scuttle.

This is one of the bits I will be tackling once I have figured out how I will do the repair. I current have the dashboard out and would like to pull the HVAC out so I can remove the foam sound deadening to avoid fires. I could do with a how to guide on getting the HVAC out or even pulling it forward a bit.

[CoXJS]

I have managed to pull the blower motor and the sound deadening from under the scuttle so will be able to get welding around the plenum.




Under the passenger side scuttle.










The Roof is the area giving me sleepless nights at the moment. I want to cut as much rust out as I can but have basic tools so repairs could be challanging.

[davidr]

Well done - you’ve certainly gone off the deep end! Keep us posted as we’d like to see how this turns out

[PaulGover]

I too had rust over the windscreen aperture, and took it to a local non-Jaguar bodywork expert. He called me a bit later to ask if I wanted to replace the clips for the gutter trim that he thought I'd added (those nasty bits of bent metal pop-rivetted on). I explained it wasn't me, it was Jaguar, so he replaced them.

In retrospect, he was right to query them, as the mix of metals must be bad for corrosion. I should have asked him to weld them on. You might like to do that.

[ptjs1]

CoXJS,

Well done! Good start!

As you've found out, it's scary how far the rust can spread from the screen flange or plenum chamber to the scuttle, inner wing and even A-post.

Good luck with the repairs. Keep up the photos!

Cheers

Paul