Another Jaguar X-Type Sill Repair

[98_Martin]

Had a section to repair at the bottom of the front wing, no surprise as it butts up quite tight to the sill and traps moisture and dirt in the gap. When I first took the wing off I put it to the side and thought that a wire wheel and some rust converter would do the job but it was too pitted and the rust would come back in a months time so took the decision to cut the lower part off.

Fabricating the replacement piece wasn't to tricky as it's mainly just 90 degree bends and measuring out the hole centres.

Some body colour painting will be required but the rattle can won't arrive for a week so may delay the car going back on the road unless I live with it in primer for a few weeks until it's through it's MOT which is most likely the way it will go. It isn't terribly visible as most of it lives below the plastic sill cover but a corner will be evident. As for the mounts I am yet to drill I am thinking of going down the route of using rivnuts in place of the original welded captive nuts on the back of the sill for simplicity's sake.

 

[98_Martin]

Seam sealed and cavity wax injected the sills today ahead of the underseal going over it tomorrow which will finally mean I can bolt everything together again for the last time. I went for Dinitrol ML with a 600mm lance that got me into every orifice within the sill and should give it some proper protection for years ahead on top of the Bilt Hamber Electrox.

I also installed a couple of Rivnuts for the front wing lower mounting point just because I think they are a better more modern alternative to welding captive nuts and can always be replaced if needs be very easily.

 

[eternal optimist]

That’s a lovely job there.

 

[GRW]

. Looks like fantastic work and effort to me. I wish I had your dedication and indeed talent.
I've got into welding mainly to keep my old Camper LDV Convoy operational.

Given that the LDV is worth very little, widely regarded to be very Fugly, and it's clearly built just to function & to hell with styling & frills - I've taken a very "just weld it up and make it strong" approach - and not spent hours and effort trying to reproduce exact replacement aesthetics .

(I just cut out rot, cut bits of metal, bend and bash into a shape that fits and glue it in )

 

[minimutly]

Seam sealed and cavity wax injected the sills today ahead of the underseal going over it tomorrow which will finally mean I can bolt everything together again for the last time. I went for Dinitrol ML with a 600mm lance that got me into every orifice within the sill and should give it some proper protection for years ahead on top of the Bilt Hamber Electrox.

View attachment 355728View attachment 355729

I also installed a couple of Rivnuts for the front wing lower mounting point just because I think they are a better more modern alternative to welding captive nuts and can always be replaced if needs be very easily.

View attachment 355732

Lovely job again. Re the dinitrol sparaying - did you pull the seatbelt out or is it far enough away not to get hit? BTDT..

 

[98_Martin]

That’s a lovely job there.

Thanks, time consuming but worth it in the end.

. Looks like fantastic work and effort to me. I wish I had your dedication and indeed talent.
I've got into welding mainly to keep my old Camper LDV Convoy operational.

Given that the LDV is worth very little, widely regarded to be very Fugly, and it's clearly built just to function & to hell with styling & frills - I've taken a very "just weld it up and make it strong" approach - and not spent hours and effort trying to reproduce exact replacement aesthetics .

(I just cut out rot, cut bits of metal, bend and bash into a shape that fits and glue it in )

Thanks GRW, I appreciate the kind words. Welding is a great skill to learn and is really priceless for ownership of older cars nowadays as it seems a decent body shop that will entertain rust repairs is pretty slim not to mention the cost.

Lovely job again. Re the dinitrol sparaying - did you pull the seatbelt out or is it far enough away not to get hit? BTDT..

Now that's a question on a subject I didn't think about... I didn't see the seatbelt at all when I was working under there so I imagine it's on the inside of the car. I'll pull out the seatbelt when I get home and if it's covered in an oily substance then I have my answer...

 

[minimutly]

Thanks, time consuming but worth it in the end.


Thanks GRW, I appreciate the kind words. Welding is a great skill to learn and is really priceless for ownership of older cars nowadays as it seems a decent body shop that will entertain rust repairs is pretty slim not to mention the cost.


Now that's a question on a subject I didn't think about... I didn't see the seatbelt at all when I was working under there so I imagine it's on the inside of the car. I'll pull out the seatbelt when I get home and if it's covered in an oily substance then I have my answer...

Fingers crossed for you.
On the subject of the ldv 200, that van went back to the 70's, only Leyland (and some soviet block builders) would have persisted so long... there was a rotten one in the garden next door 20 years ago, used to be owned by the nuilder of our house. Not sure if it was b seies or o series engine. Long since melted down.

 

[GRW]

Fingers crossed for you.
On the subject of the ldv 200, that van went back to the 70's, only Leyland (and some soviet block builders) would have persisted so long... there was a rotten one in the garden next door 20 years ago, used to be owned by the nuilder of our house. Not sure if it was b seies or o series engine. Long since melted down.

Mine's the one after the 400 (Convoy) , so not the next-gen Sherpa that is the 200, but not a lot different in terms of being modernised.
That said - its agricultural manners are accompanied by a simple, robust agricultural build - so no ECU, Electronics, DPF, DMF, Lambda Sensors, any Sensors in fact.
I'll take that trade-off, even when you add in water ingress, draughts, noise and the "approximate direction device" that is the steering (till you get used to it). Oh yes, and the corrosion
A decade of ownership this autumn, and it wasn't a lot to buy, hadn't cost a lot to run, and is probably worth more than I paid for it. It'll also do 34mpg on a long M-way run, is a comfy warm camper, within ought space for 2 MTB's in the rear storage.
It'll do me

 

[minimutly]

Mine's the one after the 400 (Convoy) , so not the next-gen Sherpa that is the 200, but not a lot different in terms of being modernised.
That said - its agricultural manners are accompanied by a simple, robust agricultural build - so no ECU, Electronics, DPF, DMF, Lambda Sensors, any Sensors in fact.
I'll take that trade-off, even when you add in water ingress, draughts, noise and the "approximate direction device" that is the steering (till you get used to it). Oh yes, and the corrosion
A decade of ownership this autumn, and it wasn't a lot to buy, hadn't cost a lot to run, and is probably worth more than I paid for it. It'll also do 34mpg on a long M-way run, is a comfy warm camper, within ought space for 2 MTB's in the rear storage.
It'll do me

I had arms like popeye when I took ownership of a new ldv 200. Then the steering box wore a bit and you could drive with two fingers.

 

[98_Martin]

That's it the cars all back together again.... for now. With the passenger side still to do and the MOT fast approaching I'm not sure how things are going to go, whether that side is still structurally sound enough with the intension of fixing it ASAP. I've been a bit handy with the Rivnuts after first using them so gotten rid of the original plastic arch liner clips and replaced with M6 Rivnuts for a much more secure and easy fit setup.

All the fasteners for the front bumper are also brand new including the undertray that was a pain to remove because of all the rusty bolts and spire nuts. I bought the spire nuts from eBay for a cost of £13 for a pack of 25 which I almost finished with the amount holding the front end together, a significant saving over buying them from Jaguar but no surprises there. The three rearmost bolts that hold on the undertray broke when I tried to remove them so I drilled out the bolts and original captive nuts from the lower radiator support to 11mm to totally remove them and then fitted M8 Rivnuts. The originals are only M6 fasteners but I think it's a worthwhile upgrade and there is plenty of metal on the brackets to play with so no problems.

With everything back together here is a picture of the new sill as seen from below. You'll notice that I left the outer panel in primer, it's non porous zinc primer so it won't let moisture through but I may come back to this area and paint it body colour so I didn't want to slap on the heavy underseal that would be time consuming to remove again if I wanted too.

So that's it for now until I see how the pre MOT goes. While I was in the arches I also fitted a full set of optional mudguards which may make a difference to the dirt and stones thrown up the side of the car.

 

[98_Martin]

Thought I should come back to update the thread as it has been a while since the last post. I did give the car to my mechanic for a pre-MOT back in the beginning of August and it did indeed need a repair to the passenger side also so out came the grinder with an increasingly familiar sight.

What previously took me 6 weeks to complete on the driver's side I managed to do in 3. This was mainly down to doing the driver's side over evenings and weekends while taking time between the internal layers to get them fabricated. However, on this side I got all the panels made up prior to starting, took a week off work and of course had the benefit of knowing what to do. I expected this side to be more solid from the outset but Sod's law it ended up being worse so the internal repairs had to go up slightly higher than initially planned for in my fabrications which meant some modifications had to be made to some panels for them to fit, just some 6mm filler strips that gave me twice the distance to weld... not ideal but I had to work with what I had as it was the last of the metal I had to hand.

After that it was much like the other side with the same drain design and all the same welding joints.

And that was that! MOT went well and the mention of any structural corrosion should hopefully not rear its head again for this vehicle anytime soon. Treated the paintwork to a full clay bar, machine polish and wax treatment after it's many weeks in the workshop which left it noticeably less itself.

Of course, Jags being Jags I'm sure this won't be the last big job, but it's been a great learning experience and although I'm glad it's finished I feel I can look back on it as a job well done.

 

[eternal optimist]

Lovely work there.

 

[Danez]

properly impressed with that nice one!

I was looking at those x type estates before i got my v8 s type a couple of months ago, proper nice looking cars, practical too

First job I got done on my jag was to get the under side dinitrol'd!

 

[98_Martin]

Thanks guys! That is a very clean looking S-Type, prevention is always better than the cure as they say. I have found myself looking at them since buying the X-Type, but I just can't do without the practicality and the economy is bad enough with the V6

 

[stuvy]

properly impressed with that nice one!

I was looking at those x type estates before i got my v8 s type a couple of months ago, proper nice looking cars, practical too

First job I got done on my jag was to get the under side dinitrol'd!

View attachment 368803
View attachment 368807

Where’s your balance pipe?

 

[bricol]

Where’s your balance pipe?

Where are the cut -outs ?!!

 

[stuvy]

Where are the cut -outs ?!!

Does the exhaust only go from one bank out and not pass into the other side of the system?

 

[Danez]

Thanks guys! That is a very clean looking S-Type, prevention is always better than the cure as they say. I have found myself looking at them since buying the X-Type, but I just can't do without the practicality and the economy is bad enough with the V6

cheers and exactly, after hearing all the sill horror stories I thought I'd do that first, luckily the previous owner from new kept it in a garage

Where’s your balance pipe?

dunno, never heard of a balance pipe before

 

[RWD3M]

Thought I should come back to update the thread as it has been a while since the last post. I did give the car to my mechanic for a pre-MOT back in the beginning of August and it did indeed need a repair to the passenger side also so out came the grinder with an increasingly familiar sight.

View attachment 368778
View attachment 368779
View attachment 368781

What previously took me 6 weeks to complete on the driver's side I managed to do in 3. This was mainly down to doing the driver's side over evenings and weekends while taking time between the internal layers to get them fabricated. However, on this side I got all the panels made up prior to starting, took a week off work and of course had the benefit of knowing what to do. I expected this side to be more solid from the outset but Sod's law it ended up being worse so the internal repairs had to go up slightly higher than initially planned for in my fabrications which meant some modifications had to be made to some panels for them to fit, just some 6mm filler strips that gave me twice the distance to weld... not ideal but I had to work with what I had as it was the last of the metal I had to hand.

View attachment 368780

After that it was much like the other side with the same drain design and all the same welding joints.

View attachment 368782
View attachment 368784
View attachment 368783
View attachment 368785

And that was that! MOT went well and the mention of any structural corrosion should hopefully not rear its head again for this vehicle anytime soon. Treated the paintwork to a full clay bar, machine polish and wax treatment after it's many weeks in the workshop which left it noticeably less itself.

View attachment 368788

Of course, Jags being Jags I'm sure this won't be the last big job, but it's been a great learning experience and although I'm glad it's finished I feel I can look back on it as a job well done.

Cracking job there Martin!

I had a 2007 X Type from new but unfortunately didn't get as far as sill replacements as it was murdered by a Nissan Juke after 12 years and 240k pretty faultless miles. IMO X Types are very underrated and I'd have another one over my 2017 XE in a heartbeat.

BTW, are you on Jaguarforum.com ?

 

[98_Martin]

Cracking job there Martin!

I had a 2007 X Type from new but unfortunately didn't get as far as sill replacements as it was murdered by a Nissan Juke after 12 years and 240k pretty faultless miles. IMO X Types are very underrated and I'd have another one over my 2017 XE in a heartbeat.

BTW, are you on Jaguarforum.com ?

Thanks RWD3M!

That's a considerable milage, I assume diesel? I couldn't agree more, perhaps as the years go by they will continue to gain some respect.

I am indeed, on both the UK and US forum which I have to say has a greater wealth of knowledge regarding the 2.5 and 3.0 engined cars with the AWD drivetrain being the only cars offered stateside.