So....how bad is your "Brown Chrome"?

[Sheepy]

If the register is to be believed, most of the owners on here have top condition kittys. This thread is for all of you with something a little less shiney!!

I'm slowly returing mine to a more metal-based structure after finding the integrity of large parts owed more to messers Fibre and Glass c/o a pervious owner.

Thus far, I've rebuilt the following:
Offside rear wheelarch
Nearside rear sill-end (last 12" section)
Nearside front sill-end (last 12" section) and jacking point/box section

Fortunately I've taken to Mig like a duck to water (my local MOT garage offered me a job as a welder after I did the rear!). I've done all of this by making up patches and small panels from sheet metal rather than buying replacement panels (which in my experience can be poor quality and fit).

I think eventually I will need to replace both sills completely, but for now patching seems OK.

Anyone else spend more time welding than driving?

Sheepy

[poprivet]

Anyone else spend more time welding than driving?
Strange you say that! I've just realised I can visualise every inch of the rear cage, gearbox, underside of the floor etc, but can hardly remember what colour the headlining of carpets are 0 I keep telling myself that its all part of the enjoyment!
Pop

[Sheepy]

The damage to the offside rear can now be seen on the link in my profile.

Didn't photograph the damage on the nearside as it was too depressing

Sheepy

[Fiatson]

It sounds like the most obvious advice but it's always better to buy a minter and a tin of polish than save a couple of grand buying a car needing a little work. Little being the relative term in the seller's description.
As I was always reminded whem I was in the trade You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
I speak from experience I didn't get my nickname working on rust free motors back in the 80's!


Fiatson

[Sheepy]

Hi Fiatson,

<warning, longish post!!>

Oh my car looked mint. It belonged to someone I trusted to be truthful about the car, he'd been looking after my MGB for a couple of years, and just before he retired (and moved to the south of France), he told me about this XJS he'd bought off a customer. He told me that he knew it was sound because he'd done all of the work on it for five or six years, but then he decided that having a RHD car in France would be too much of a pain, so he was looking to get rid of it. I fell for this hook, line and sinker!

It looked really really sound underneath, freshly undersealed. On top it was nicely polished with no obvious signs of what really lurked behind the shiney facade.

Three months after buying it, I decided to check and change the brake pads (as a prelude to a new mot). Found out why the rear made a slight grinding noise: One piston was seized, and the pad had worn through to the backing plate, and this plate was eating the disk. The remnants of grease on the disk showed how the noise had been eliminated for when I first had the car.

As I struggled to remove the pads, I became more and more frustrated. Eventually in a fit of anger I punched the wheelarch. Rather worryingly, rather than a clonking noise and some bruised knuckles, I punched a hole right through the arch! After a bit of screwdriver investigation, I had a huge hole from about a third of the way up the wheelarch right down and round to the jacking point. This can be seen in the picture on my profile. All of this was made of fibreglass (with bits of metal embedded into it, which is why my magnet never found it).

I was left with a choice of repair/rebuild or scrap, and I couldn't bring myself to scrap such a lovely car.

What I have learned from this is that there's only one person I can trust with the condition of a car that I'm considering buying: Me!

Sheepy

[poprivet]

Many of these lovely cars have been scrapped because the 'repair' costs would have exceeded their current value. But how many other cars do you see on the road, 20 years or more old that still turn heads like ours do? I will admit, to buy one in poor condition and fully restore would be madness, but given some talant and effort, to cherish and enjoy one with a modest annual budget which will preserve and gradually improve it is quite achievable, possibly at a much lower cost then the depreciation of a newer car!
Many times I have been tempted by an XJ8, S type or XK8, but I doubt I would be happier in the long run.
Pop

[jonc3725]

I will admit, to buy one in poor condition and fully restore would be madness,

HMM,
I THOUGHT I WAS MAD Trouble is unless your cat is galvanised (and thats no guarantee!), because of the design the tin worm will be in there. Your only hope is to get one that has been fully preserved in every box section and void and has been kept in a garage all it's life. I know they are out there but whats the fun in polishing and leaving it in a garage! cars were made to be driven, not boxed up in four walls and a roof

[Brakebuster]

My 1989 V12 only cost me £300 from my brother-in-law who emigrated to Oz 3 years ago, it was stood on his mothers drive till i decided ( with permision from the bank manager ) to buy her from him,
when he left he was asking £1500 for her but only had tyre kickers,

i knew most of the problems with her, and the good things like the engine and the underside of the car were sound, i also knew that the doors . wings and other bits like all the bumpers needed to be replaced ,

to me this was a project right from the start, yes i should have spent upto £4k on a ' minter ' but this wasnt what i was after or could afford , and i was looking for a resto project anyway

so far my XJS has cost me £0 ( as in nothing ) , yes you read right, the purchase price and everything i have spent to date ( around £1500 ) has all come for free from selling Ford and Vauxhall used parts on ebay that i get from my local breakers, the money raised buys me NOS or as good as new parts from ebay again or other sites that break these increasingly rare cars,

i think that if you want to buy an XJS and jump into it to drive and enjoy from day 1 then you should spend as much as you can to get as good as you can, but if like me you want to revive something that will end up on the scrap heap for the sake of a few ( hundred ) hours work which i enjoy then if you know what ur buying you should go for it, at the worst you buy one that you can break to use as spares for possibly a better condition poject

and at the end of the day ( well....few years ) i know every inch of the car i have rebuilt and know what needs looking after , but more importantly i know it wont break in half in an accident ,

BB