windscreen upper stainless trim

[CliveRothwell]

Hi

1991 early Facelift 4.0
Can anybody tell me how this trim is fitted please? And....once removed, can it be successfully be replaced or does it need some new parts eg clips or something?
The roof needs a re-paint.
The garage I am hoping will do the job seem to think they can prise it away sufficently to get enough paint under it. Given that they are doing the roof back to bare metal I have my doubts and think that the trim should be removed.

Any thoughts please?

Cheers
Clive

[XjRestorations]

Hi Clive,

Peel back the forward edge of the door rubber - and the srews holding in the side screen chromes will be clear. Undo these and remove the side trims. This will reveal a fixing screw at each end of the upper chrome. Undo these and teh chrome will pull out of the rubber.
They can be a nightmare to refit - as they change shape very easily!
If it is prised away - it will never sit neatly against the roof again - as they change shape so easily!

Kind regards,
Keith

[dhdove]

Clive

Out of curiosity do you have corrosion under the paint at the very forward part of the roof adjacent to the trim in question?

I've noticed this on a couple of cars, one in my ownership where there was no corrosion elsewhere and I've wondered as to it's cause. It seems to take a long time to develop and it never looks really serious, perhaps some form of electro-galvanic corrosion from dissimilar materials?

Good luck with your trim, as previously stated I think you'll be lucky to get it off and back on satisfactorily , are they still available?

Regards
TonyS

[CliveRothwell]

Thanks for the replies. The bubbling is in the centre of the roof and as far as I am aware, there is no corrosion under the trim. The trim is not available. So, given your comments above, I really am in a quandry as to what to do for the best. I do want the car painting properly but I don't want the top trim wrecking! Looking closely at it, is doesn't sit too well at present, most likely due to the screen being refitted a nomber of years ago. Maybe this is the opportunity to get it back on correctly. As I understand your comments, the trim is held in place by 2 screws and is then a push fit into the screen rubber - right?

[PaulGover]

Clive
Out of curiosity do you have corrosion under the paint at the very forward part of the roof adjacent to the trim in question?

I've noticed this on a couple of cars, one in my ownership where there was no corrosion elsewhere and I've wondered as to it's cause. It seems to take a long time to develop and it never looks really serious, perhaps some form of electro-galvanic corrosion from dissimilar materials?
...

Snap!

I'm pretty sure it's caused by the pop rivets holding the metal retaining plates for the trim. I'm not sure if it's due to dissimilar metals (aluminium pop rivets, steel body, chromed steel trim) or just that there's the inevitable thin gap between the retaining plate and the roof. Whatever, my XJS has bubbling paint over all three of the plates.

[dhdove]

Paul

Thanks for that, it's something thats's puzzled me over the years. Some cars have it, some don't. It never seems to develop to the point where it's a threat but does look unsightly, of course it's location means it goes untreated.
Your diagnosis of cause due to trim plates sounds spot-on given that you've got it in all three locations.
Regards
TonyS

[J44EAG]

Tony will be familiar with the evil Duralac barium based zinc chromate paste, used in the aircraft and marine industries as a galvanic isolator compound used to control dissimilar metal corrosion.

I`ve removed high carbon steel bolts from 7000 series aluminium structures that have been assembled with Duralac twenty years earlier. The bolts just slipped out with no corrosion issues at all.

IT ESSENTIAL TO WEAR RUBBER GLOVES WHEN HANDLING DURALAC COMPOUND. BEING RADIOACTIVE, THE MATERIAL IS A KNOWN CARCINOGENIC.

It strikes me that this compound might be useful with the corrosion issues described above.

Mike

[stuarthardy]

A product well known to motorcyclists for protecting aluminium parts from corrosion is Optimoly. This is also recommended for use on wheel studs and spacers to prevent corrosion between the aluminium and steel and is preferable to using copper grease.

Duralac is easily available and may be of a different formulation to the days when Mike used it because there are no references to any form of radioactive or carcinogenic properties on the current safety sheet.

Either product would perform well against corrosion in dissimilar metal joints involving aluminium alloys.

Regards

[J44EAG]

Interesting Stuart.

Many products we now use appear to be dummed down versions of the original mixes. Perhaps not surprising in view of health and safety awareness.

The tube of Duralac I have here, most certainly does contain barium. But then it has been in my stock for over twenty years.

At aviation college in the mid 1990`s, our instructors went to great lengths to stress how nasty a mixture Duralac was. Non use of protective gloves would get you banned from the workshop for a month as punishment. The story was that the manufacturers had experienced several instances of employee cancers developing. Perhaps embellished, although we never bothered to find out if true, there was a story that some employees had even expired early in life due to coming into contact with substances during production.

Thanks for the heads up about Optimoly. Nice to know that there is something a little more friendly around than the zinc chromate based products.

Mike

[PaulGover]

Thanks for the tip about Duralac - looks really good, I must get a tube. According to the safety leaflet on the maker's web site, it's Barium Chromate in White Spirit plus some other stuff (presumably a paint-like binder). All the safety worries appear to be with the white spirit - I guess the "radioactive" and other scares are a bit OTT. As it's supposed to form a passive layer, it's not likely to react with skin, or anything else, much.

[stuarthardy]

Still best to wear gloves though. It would ruin your manicure!

[CliveRothwell]

Well, back to the original topic of this thread: the upper stainless trim!

The car is now back from the main dealer body shop and it looks absolutely stunning. Including a front wing respray as well as the roof, the bill came to £978. Costly! £60 went on the coachline which they made up from 4 separate parts as the front section is no longer available. You can't tell it was made up by hand. Essentially, they chickened out and did not remove the upper trim using their skill to paint "under" the trim without moving it. Time will tell if it was the right action.

Was it well spent? Well, what was a great looking car now looks even better with other very minor issues successfully eradicated. So it was neccessary expenditure. Was it worth all that money? Just!

[J44EAG]

Any pictures yet, Clive?

I`m sure we would all love to see the result.

Mike

[CliveRothwell]

I'll wash and photo it tomorrow weather permitting. As for uploading pictures, hey, I'm not that clever but I will try!