Looked at XJ-S for sale, suspicious underseal or not?
Discussion
Having owned 2 XJ-S V12 coupes in my life I have started to get the hots for another one. Always did my own service and repairs and know quite a bit about what to look for on one.
Anyway yesterday I looked at a 1989 V12 coupe which apparently had come close to winning a Jaguar Concours event under previous ownership.
Car was bodily probably as good a car as I have ever seen, interior immaculate, chrome and trim perfect, electrics working (no sticking windows!), smooth, good oil pressure, stayed cool, braked evenly...
Good history with all bills and no doubt correct mileage at around 56k.
Body: all good, no rust at rear wing/body seam, slight trace at bottom of front wing edges, nothing visible behind headlights or wheelarches, floors all good, front & rear and boot floor, bonnet and boot edges perfect, sills look solid all along, front and rear valances excellent too.
Engine super smooth with a slightly uneven tickover, will need an exhaust soon, faintest signs of small blisters at bottom of front wings, no other rust visible.
Anyway here's the bit that bothered me: just before the current owner took delivery the car had been undersealed (2010) and the underside of the car is caked in underseal: you can make out the floor looks ok underneath (certainly is ok lifting the carpets inside) but the subframes and even the brake lines are hardly discernible with the amount of underseal under there.
So I can't see the metal of the subframes or more importantly where they join the body. Knowing that rotten underbody where the subframes meet the body is pretty much the end of the world, could this fact make it a "walk away from it" proposition? There is a bit where the underseal hasn't stuck and you can see some surface rust but I'd expect that anyway on a 22 year old car.
I know the previous owner could have done it to tidy up the underside in all innocence though the underseal itself was £40 plus a lot of labour and was done just before the car was sold.
I would rather see metal with some surface rust TBH.
Anyway of telling for sure? Car gets MoT'd this week but I know a tester can only tell so much without prodding the hell out of it!
Car was not a cheapie, I don't look at the banger end of the market...
Thanks
Anyway yesterday I looked at a 1989 V12 coupe which apparently had come close to winning a Jaguar Concours event under previous ownership.
Car was bodily probably as good a car as I have ever seen, interior immaculate, chrome and trim perfect, electrics working (no sticking windows!), smooth, good oil pressure, stayed cool, braked evenly...
Good history with all bills and no doubt correct mileage at around 56k.
Body: all good, no rust at rear wing/body seam, slight trace at bottom of front wing edges, nothing visible behind headlights or wheelarches, floors all good, front & rear and boot floor, bonnet and boot edges perfect, sills look solid all along, front and rear valances excellent too.
Engine super smooth with a slightly uneven tickover, will need an exhaust soon, faintest signs of small blisters at bottom of front wings, no other rust visible.
Anyway here's the bit that bothered me: just before the current owner took delivery the car had been undersealed (2010) and the underside of the car is caked in underseal: you can make out the floor looks ok underneath (certainly is ok lifting the carpets inside) but the subframes and even the brake lines are hardly discernible with the amount of underseal under there.
So I can't see the metal of the subframes or more importantly where they join the body. Knowing that rotten underbody where the subframes meet the body is pretty much the end of the world, could this fact make it a "walk away from it" proposition? There is a bit where the underseal hasn't stuck and you can see some surface rust but I'd expect that anyway on a 22 year old car.
I know the previous owner could have done it to tidy up the underside in all innocence though the underseal itself was £40 plus a lot of labour and was done just before the car was sold.
I would rather see metal with some surface rust TBH.
Anyway of telling for sure? Car gets MoT'd this week but I know a tester can only tell so much without prodding the hell out of it!
Car was not a cheapie, I don't look at the banger end of the market...
Thanks
Edited by malc350 on Sunday 30th September 14:24
underseal can always be scraped back to see what is under there, then sealed back over.
i dont see what the problem is?
i prefer having underseal/ wax than loads of horrible brown rusting flaking cack everywhere.
areas like sills that can be bodged with filler (especially on xjs's), the best thing to do is lightly tap the surface. metal has a different noise to filler, so an easy way to tell.
i dont see what the problem is?
i prefer having underseal/ wax than loads of horrible brown rusting flaking cack everywhere.
areas like sills that can be bodged with filler (especially on xjs's), the best thing to do is lightly tap the surface. metal has a different noise to filler, so an easy way to tell.
naki said:
underseal can always be scraped back to see what is under there, then sealed back over.
i dont see what the problem is?
i prefer having underseal/ wax than loads of horrible brown rusting flaking cack everywhere.
areas like sills that can be bodged with filler (especially on xjs's), the best thing to do is lightly tap the surface. metal has a different noise to filler, so an easy way to tell.
Thanks for your reply: problem is: underseal doesn't mean that there isn't flaking rust everwhere that has just been covered up. that fact that it's everwhere means it's unrealistic to scrape it off.i dont see what the problem is?
i prefer having underseal/ wax than loads of horrible brown rusting flaking cack everywhere.
areas like sills that can be bodged with filler (especially on xjs's), the best thing to do is lightly tap the surface. metal has a different noise to filler, so an easy way to tell.
What would be nice to see is the subframes and where they meet the body to make sure they are still attched soundly...
you dont have to scrape all of it off. just get a screw driver and scrap a small line. if you see brown, it means rust, if you see powder coat/ clean metal= good! if you see white= filler/ bad!!!!
these cars only get into such a state because they were no where near adequately protected to begin with
these cars only get into such a state because they were no where near adequately protected to begin with
Edited by naki on Wednesday 3rd October 10:44
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