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In an effort to check the state of the underside of the car I wanted to get it up on ramps.
Now my old ramps plus extensively welded extensions are really getting past it and although a two poster would be a great addition to the workshop its probably not going to happen soon.

Mate of mine is building a new garage extension and wanted somewhere to put a set of CJ autos hydraulic ramps to make room... now why would I refuse to look after them !

So this afternoon in the lovely sunshine up she went.



The nose of the car is almost in the ground, height of the ramps is 16" plus the ride height too so really good access.

Here is the result.




Mostly surface corrosion, with the odd place lifting but no holes and solid underneath.







A good brush down and a little pick here and there then a Bilt Hamber UB coating to keep the rust down until I can get a proper go at it in the summer

I'm not sure those jacks look too safe on gravel

I'm not sure those jacks look too safe on gravel

Actually they, the ramps, seem to be very sturdy, very heavy and wide (wider than the Jag tyres!) and the limestone chips is only a couple of stones thick on a compacted under surface.

I am well impressed with these CJ autos ramps and had the car on again this afternoon doing some more work

I wouldn't use a jack though, on this surface, but thanks for the concern.

Unfortunately, as cars have got lower, it's not so easy to buy a set of 'ordinary' ramps from Halford's or the like and simply drive up them. Many are too short to use without first driving onto pieces of timber or similar to avoid damaging the front spoiler. To get round the problem without using pieces of timber, ramps that increase in height are one answer if you haven't the luxury of a full lift of some description. Some vertically extending ramps use bottle jacks to raise the ramps to full height, one ramp at a time, rather than the more sophisticated (expensive?) approach shown in the pics. For some years, I have used a set of the former bought at the NEC Classic car show one year and, from memory, sold or manufactured by a company called Reay. Mike.

Now the Jaguar is back on the road as of 1st September I decided that I ought to get around to doing the arches before the onset of winter (!!) The average temperature, recently, has been around a couple of degrees lower than this time over the last two years... Global warming? Pah, give me some more Super unleaded.. and while your at it, throw some coal on the fire...

Oops, losing the plot.......... anyway here is the rear offside arch after a scrub down blow out and vacuuming.



The rust has started in various areas but is not serious and confirms the MoT mans thoughts that this is a good car...
Here is the rear end without the panel/come mudflap thingy.



This bit doesn't look great but its all superficial and the mount points are perfect;but just look at the chassis above the brake pipe on the left.. corrosion is setting in and lifting the folded metal joint.

Here is the upper arch, at the top of the curve, reasonable with minimal surface rust.



This is the arsenal in use today. Bilt Hambers finest.


Here is the start of the derusting process, again you can see where the chassis folds have started corroding, (no holes / soft spots ) these have been cleaned out and hydrate 80 rust proofer forced in. Zinc paint on top then Dynax underbody injected. Once that lot has gone off more Dynax UB will be forced in/covered over the metal stop any further deterioration.

The start of the rust clearance at the rear end.


Further on and in this pic you can see a rubber bung on the right with something running down from it... this was another job, pull bung and force Dynax S80, Bilt Hamber again, chassis wax into the sill. The probe was only long enough to reach the centre of the car so when the front arches get the treatment the S80 will go in from that end too!.



Whilst all that was drying I took the opportunity to give the inside of the wheel a clean up,

This is another Bilt Hamber product, Autowheel cleaner, smells weird but works well!




End of first session, difficult shifting 13 years of poop ! so anther go at will be required although there is definitely underseal spray from a previous owners efforts stuck to the rim.

Here is a very wet looking underbody seal hopefully going to dry off





Not really much to see, its all black under there! forced well into its crevices (ooh, errr)

So, one done, three to go, to strip and clean, derust, zinc paint, underbody seal and reassemble just ONE wheel arch took just short of four hours, probably an hours drying time (brew up!) for the rust proof/zinc paint.

I won't bore you with the other rear arch but the front should be interesting, if anyone's interested / considering doing theirs..

A mucky job but one it's well worth doing before the cold weather arrives! Thanks for the pics. Mike.

Well here is the front arch effort.

Remove the three "10mm" plastic nuts, the t30 screw on the arch and two lower clips at the front end of the inner arch plus the two push fit crosshead clips on the outer arch and the inner lining comes away.

Here is the state of play under the arch, not too bad really but looks to be the first time off the car since it was built.

However, here is the bad bit, well not so bad really but this was the worst of the two front wheel arches.



Plenty of mud down here

On with the various potions and lotions, Bilt Hamber underbody clear preservative you can see down the sides, various parts under the wing got a lashing too. Minimal surface rust is evident despite the lack of anti-corrosion fluid or similar.. were these cars zinc plated before painting?

The rubber bung at the end of the sill was removed....
to discover, with the aid of a slim torch that the inside of the sill was intact with only minor rusting at the base seam,,, it got a good dose of Bilt Hamber chassis anti-corrosion treatment, Dynax, forced in along the length of the front sill. This hopefully will marry up with the injection through the rear sill bung done in the previous rear arch session.



Bung back in and more anti corrosion wax lashed on.

So that's it, the photos refer to the nearside and the offside was in much better condition but got the same treatment just the same.

The car is now pretty much complete with various broken bits, from years earlier, either fixed or replaced... however the multi cd player seems to have given up now...

hmm, shouldn't have said that, just getting a CD error code on radio screen and I can't remove the cd cassette from the boot mech.. oh well, something for me to do over the weekend.............