Painting the XJS

Once the rust was repaired it was time to strip it to bare metal repair anything else that was hiding under the paint and re-paint in original Signal Red. I ended up removing quite a bit of bog (Bondo) from the body.

The body was repaired where needed lead filled in places where I could not get in to repair the dents, so now there is minimal body filler.

Stripping the car was PITA job lots of paint stripper, this is still not complete, every bit of paint was removed from the outside, around the edges were sanded.

Finally in 2 pack epoxy primer. Many coats and sanding to ensure the body was as smooth and free of irregularities as possible.

2 pack ISO free from HI-Chem, looks great straight off the gun, there is some bits in the paint and a small amount of orange peel, so I will have to wet sand.

I am very disappointed in the Hi Chem paint I would never use it again. The paint looks good and the quality of the finish is excellent, but the paint changes shade when left in the sun, it gets blotchy dark spots that disappear after a couple of days in the garage.

Here is a link to a video of the shading. This was the first time using Hi Chem red and clear. It's nowhere near as bad as this now as I used a different clear coat.

Video of the Hi Chem paint issue


I am not going to re-paint it now this will have to wait a while. The finish is very good these pics show the shine, and this is with only a wet sand and initial buff. I still have to finish the buffing and swirl removal.