Rust

The word that instills fear into any classic car owner.

The coupe had been described as having minor “surface rust”, and there was very light evidence of rust on the left rocker panel and on the quarter panel above the left rear wheel. 

In 2001 I took the car for a rust evaluation to a shop that specialized in restoring British cars.  He poked and prodded all the dark areas under the car and came back with the following prognosis.  There were prior body putty repairs at the visible rust areas, but the floors and other areas on the car were solid and rust free.  He quoted me as much as I had originally paid for the car to make the repairs.  It felt like this cost would just be a down payment on an expected full restoration project…..so I passed. 

He also strongly recommended removing the carpet and foam insulation strips on the floors and protecting from future rust by coating with POR 15.  I took his advice and removed the seats, carpeting and insulation and then treated the floors.  With this preventative measure in place, I did not take any further action until 2008.

I got to know the owner of a shop specializing in XJ’s and was impressed with the body and paint work he had done on his personal XJ12.  I asked him to do the work on my car and was very happy with the results.

Here is what was visible by this time.

And here is what I could not see…lurking below the surface

He removed both the  outer and inner rocker and used the original piece as a template to form a new outer panel

Then completed the repairs with the new parts

The rockers on these coupes are notorious for collecting water and rusting, so he treated the inside of the new rockers with a rustproof coating. 

I now had a car free of rust, and even though the rest of the paint was old, the entire car looked great after a fresh wax.  After this point, I started taking the Jag to car shows.  These have been great places to meet other people with the same crazy obsession with old cars.  The first show we attended was the British car show in Oakville, Ontario.  There were about 1,000 British cars in one place.  I highly recommend attending this show if you can.  The Jag took second place in its class in a popular vote and I was all smiles when accepting my plaque.