1974 Jaguar E-Type

[tersplat]

I was contacted to do a detail on this '74 E-Type by a friend of a friend. He had a full restoration done on it, and the painter had left the paint looking TERRIBLE!

I originally inspected the car, and within about 15 seconds of walking up to it, found a spot where the painter has used an orbital sander on the door, and had sanded right through MULTIPLE layers of paint where the rounded shape of the door meets the vertical surface of the door, right underneath the chrome molding. He had taken the edge of the sander too close to the edge, and sanded through the paint over about a 6" length of the door, and left it that way. The painter had retired 4 days before I arrived for inspection, but the painter was called, and fixed it with no issues, and did a great job fixing it, but he isn't off the hook yet.

Upon further inspection, I found sanding DA pigtails and swirls over the whole car which really needed to be gone to allow this car to be at it's full potential.


Here, I did a test spot, which shows more of the sanding marks, and the correction I was able to achieve. This was with FG400 on an Orange pad for correction.
flat pad, on a PC7424XP.


The door had been repainted after finding the spot that had been sanded through, so I expected to find overspray, and overspray I found. Overspray was removed using a Nanoskin fine grade sponge and glide 7:1 for lube.





But wait, there's more!

After doing my test spot, and being almost happy with the results, I began taping off the car( may be out of order, but it is how I do it)

upon getting to the first body panel edge(trunk), I found that there was paint missing on every edge I went to. Every edge looked like this:



After seeing that, I decided to have a closer look at the car, and re-think my ideas on moving forward. I found 1 more spot where he had sanded through a layer of paint on one of the body panels, and I stopped, and talked to the owner, who I hadn't been able to give any good news to up to this point, and I gave a few options:

1, Most cost effective, and least frustrating, ditch the effort to correct the paint at this point in time, and settle for a glaze and sealant.

2, him sign a liability release form, and I go ahead with the 2 step correction get all of the sanding marks out, and bring the car to a flawless finish, but risk going through the paint. This option, I highly recommended against.

3, get the car repainted by a competent painter, and I come back after that work was done for a 2nd evaluation.

He chose option 1, so I went ahead with it.

I started with an IPA wipedown, then Blackfire Gloss Enhancing "Polish", which is really a glaze, as the back of the bottle says, it "hides minor swirls and scratches" on a white LC Flat pad.

once done, I sealed it with Blackfire Wet Diamond. No, it was not perfect, not even close, but He was satisfied, and is now able to drive it around with pride. Here is the final result.







And the obligatory V12 shot.



Sorry for being long winded, I just felt the need to share my story, and how I dealt with the issues I had on this beauty. Thank you for reading.

[Max Luster Auto]

Very cool, thanks for sharing the thought process too - interesting to hear how other guys deal with unique situations like that.

[haris300]

Nice work. I love those cars.

[davey g-force]

Nicely done, and props for being honest and up-front with your customer.

[jamesboyy]

Outstanding work on that vintage Jag you really put life into that very delicate paintwork/color

[dcjredline]

Not a bad set of options you gave him there!!! Quality work there fine sir.

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Car looks nice, and the customer is happy. What more can we ask for?

Perchance, did you have access to paint thickness gauge just to see what you were working with?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tersplat]

Thanks Everyone, It was nice working on such a beautiful classic, but neither I, nor the customer were "happy", but rather content with the results given the situation. I don't have a paint thickness gauge, yet, but judging by the thin spots I saw, and the spots where I could see darker paint underneath, I know the results would be upsetting.

[Dr_Pain]

ooooooohhhh, my favorite! Thanks for sharing

[Desertnate]

Great job considering the obstacles you had to overcome. The E-Type is on my personal list of all-time best looking cars.

Too bad that owner had such a bad experience trying to get it repainted.