Sills, Worse case scenario cost

[Claws]

Hi All

If possible just wanted an idea of likely cost / time to replace? I used one of those telescopic mirror gismos the other day, and could just about make out the seams between the outer sill cover and the protective tray under the body, it looked pretty bad! I can't really get down there and investigate more, dodgy arthritic knees I'm afraid, and don't have the kit nor a place to get her up off the ground safely while having a good rummage around.

So like I say, worse case scenario, what cost should I expect? (Supply / fit / paint / seal etc) and a rough idea of how long she'll be off the road for

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions

Regards

Steve

[Old Peter]

Hi Steve,

 

I understand about arthritic knees.  Getting under a car for me too is a bit difficult, and getting up again s a bit worse.

 

I could not hazard a guess on cost without getting a good look, but if you can find a good body shop it might be worth getting a quote.  Getting the plastic covers off the sills will give a good idea of any rust problems.  It could be mostly a welding job, and those with the expertise should be able to give you indication of the cat.

 

Regards,

 

Peter.

[Skelly]

Hi Steve Ive the same as you mate i am part paralysed and ive just found out mine is very bad,its hard to find a garage to take it on,one garage to me to scrap it, and its mint apart from the underside mind you thats quiet important,so if theres someone out there near Burton on Trent and wants to earn some pocket money let me know i dont mind paying just not robbing,Thanks Skelly

[Claws]

Hi Peter, Skelly, thanks for your replies.

I think I have given up trying to find a recommend Indy garage / workshop near me. I'm going to consider local dealerships, we have a Citren and Vauxhall both in walking distance and a Ford a little further away, I will also start searching for accident repair centres, I'm leaning more towards the dealerships because of the size of the organisations (I know that's not a guarantee of good workmanship) my MOT isn't due till July so might also consider getting her to Hellfords, oops sorry Halfords to get her up off the ground for a check in advance, hopefully they will let me into the workshop to take photos

Do you think the Ford dealership would make more sense? It would appear some smaller places think because you own a Jaguar, your clearly loaded! My logic is Ford bits are quite reasonable in price

[Skelly]

Hello mate,I know its not of great help but my x is the worse rust case ive ever seen its that bad you can see all the internal structure of the inner sills at both ends and both sides but like you i was at my wits end but i have a mechanic here who looks after both my cars and he told me under no circumstances scrap the car its just a case of finding someone who thinks more about keeping a good car on the road and not just how much money they want to fix it,dont give up theres someone out there.

[Wessex]

Well, if you are prepared to travel there is Hollygrove Jaguars near Ringwood/Verwood.

 

They are a very very long established independent garage. They have just done some underbody welding for me.

I was quoted £800 from another Jaguar/Porsche/Aston Martin indy outfit but felt ripped off.

 

Hollygrove charged £480 and did it in two days. £60/hr as opposed to £80 at the other place.

[Skelly]

Thanks for that Peter luckily i have found an old friend who fabricates auto parts up here and has agreed to do mine and i ve said i will give him that price,i think thats very fair price,theres no way i was going to scrap it,i hope the other fella might be able to travel to Ringwood and save his car,Thanks again for the information.regards Paul

[Claws]

Thanks Peter (Wessex)

If £480 is the sort of benchmark I'm looking at, then that's not as bad as I thought, I looked at the David Manners group website, and priced up the parts, again I made the assumption it was worse case scenario. The price I came up with was £600 + for inner / middle / outer for both sides, you then of course have the rest on top. However the mileage to Devon, train back home, then back again etc would be more effort than I would consider. I would much prefer something closer to home, but I do appreciate the information. You have given me an idea of cost (although I would expect prices to be higher were I am) and an idea of time to do the work.

Next step I suppose is get her into Halfords for a proper look, thankfully I have several months to get stuff done on her, no matter what happens she won't get scrapped, as Skelly said about his car, above ground (so to speak) she is in pretty good nick, and only has 85k on the clock, so she's going nowhere. Who knows it may not be as bad as I'm assuming, if I can get some pics I'll post them on here

Thanks again guys for your comments

Steve

[Wessex]

Hi Steve,

Hollygrove Jaguar is just outside Ringwood on the west side of the New Forest. That's Hampshire about 5 miles fro. Verwood which is the Hants/Dorset border. About 85 miles from London. A lot nearer than you thought.

He actually has an E-Type in at present belonging to a guy in Spain. That's how good his reputation is. National Express runs from Bournemouth to London and stops off in Ringwood en route.

Not on commission Steve just thought I'd mention it as it's not Devon but perhaps half the distance your were thinking of. ;)

Regards,

Peter

[Claws]

Hi Peter (Wessex)

Apologies, how I missed you reply I don't know.

Thanks again for the info, I would happily give a "drink" to anyone that introduced me to a quality mechanic, I want to know my 'My Little Girlie' (That's what I call her, and yes I do give her a little pat on the dash when I get out after my journey ) I want to know she is in good hands.

It looks like there may be a niche market where I am, so any mechanics out there, come and setup shop, l know of at least 3 S types and a couple XF's in my vicinity

Thanks again guys for your comments (Skelley, let us know how you get on with your sills)

Steve

[Wessex]

You're welcome Steve

[Skelly]

Hi all, Mines in now for the work ive had a clear look and theres not a lot left, you can see all the structure in the car from below its a major job and a half,the guy doing the job is a fantastic fabricator, and he is not the sort to just weld over the internal parts to make it look good,i will up date as it goes on,and if possible some pictures,but in regards to scrapping cars because its to badly rusted in a word b---ox,you could not get one this bad, and it can be return to a safe and lasting repair,and not for the price of selling a kidney to pay for it. :)

[Wessex]

When I took mine in initially for a service I asked for an underside report. It would appear that all is well in general. Apart from the bits that needed doing (and was subsequently done by Hollygrove Jaguars) everything else is sound.

 

Mind you, I still want the sills and other box sections blasting internally with Waxoyl or similar. I've heard Waxoyl dries out and cracks. Well, if it was treated every year or so then that shouldn't be a problem. In order to beat the rust bug it's something I'm prepared to do.

 

Now this might seem paranoid setting in but until last night I never bothered about driving on freshly gritted roads but for some reason I wish I wasn't on the road with my Cat last night. The sight of that salted grit on the road gave me the hebee gebees. :(

 

Seems like you're in for the long haul Paul. Be interested in seeing the before and after pictures. Save your kidneys; Cats can survive without them, you can't   :)

[Claws]

Hi Paul

I second Peter's comment, would love to see some pics if you can get them. It sounds like you have to replace the lot, would you mind if I asked what your being charged? I presume it's the full works your getting done, I.e. Parts / Labour / sprayed / treated etc? And how long will she be off the road for?

Definitely keep us up to date on how things are progressing

Steve

[Skelly]

B a pleasure i have requested some pictures before starting,i will pop down on Thursday to see the progress,I am getting feed up driving my Rover,mind you with the weather changing up here its having the wheels powder coated then its off to bed for the winter,

[Claws]

Bless her

[Claws]

Hi All

Update! Took her to a body shop today. Man said, cleanest he's seen for her age, has seen younger with worse! Photos are naff by the way, he took them for me, these guys were recommend by a jag main dealer, they also do work for another main Jaguar dealer in Sevenoaks.  Three XF's out side and an Aston inside. 

The rusty bit on the photos is the chassis he said not a problem only minor, but you can just about make out the actual sills, he said still silver paint Visible! On one of the other photos, you can see the sill cover at the bottom of the photo, (bright silver) and can compare to the original bodywork. In the other you can actually look through the chassis hole and see the bodywork is still clean and silver.

Happy, Happy days!!

 

 

[Simjag]

This is the sills on my last S which was a late 2002 (pictures were taken mid 2014) -

Thanks.

[Simjag]

 

10 hours ago, Claws said:

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Claws said:

 

That's good news, no point in removing the covers if you don't need to. (don't know what happened to above).

[Claws]

Firstly rather than hijack Derek's post, and a big thanks by the way, to Derek, and Paul (Raistin) for giving me the kick up the backside I needed to actually have a look 

I thought I would update my original post.

What a performance that was! So here is my recap of the things I found. Firstly when a body shop tells you "it's one of the cleanest he's seen" double check yourself! 

Well about an hour and a half later the sill cover is back on (that's just the passenger side) I had to drill the recessed screws underneath (Scrivets) as they were just spinning whilst trying to unscrew, trying to pull them out with pliers just didn't work, I couldn't get a grip on them, which meant having to jack her up, to accommodate the length of the drill and bit. 

Popped off the the top of the covers gently, the green fixings (as in the photo) mostly came out from the body work with the cover, the ones that remained in the car body work, had to be destroyed to get them out. 

The white fixings (for the top, to replace the green) I bought as advised by a parts supplier, are clearly different, but had no choice but to use in the end. 

The sill does have rust, but no where near as bad as some I've seen. The photo towards the front wheel shows were the sill is crumbling, under which the green fixing. I tapped gently with my knuckle and its rotten under the paint. Anyhow I used a stiff bristled brush to remove loose debris, and gave it a liberal squirt of WD40 along the length. Absolutely didn't prepare myself for any remedial work, more fool me! 

Pushed in the new scrivets they come in two halves the base piece for the car and then the screw. some would not stay in the body, now I'm really panicking, so got in as many as I could that would stay, approx 4 (not really enough for my liking) inserted the White fixings into the top of the sill cover, don't do what I did and pop them into the car first, they must go into the cover first. Put the cover back to the car and eventually got the top popped in, now underneath! Yet again the scrivets just started to spin, as I put the screw in, had to use one of the white fixings at the very front by the wheel, but then had to drill that a little to except a normal screw, with a washer, and you guessed it, it started to spin, anyhow, its on by the skin of it's teeth! Didn't even bother with drivers side.

Don't let this update put you off if you want have a go, some may get a lot easier time than me, as did Derek (link above) but if you do want to have a go, get yourself prepared for the "What now?" Moment.

picture of the green fixing is of the part number before destroying it (H24R381B1) I think they have been superseded now, the sill cover shows very little crud gathered, which I presume is a good thing. 

But all in all, glad I did it, I'm presuming drivers side is in similar condition, it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to fix, the only question is do I spend more on her than I already have? Especially as I fancy an S type 'R'

Photos attached 

[david moore]

steve well done you for going for it!, and having a go :-)    just shows how much that plastic sill cover hides unless you can do an inspection each year to keep a check on things.  ive just brought a tin of hamerite rust beater to paint behind my front arches on both sides that is when i get me car back from the body shop.    good luck when it comes to drivers side.  steve when i went to fit my sill covers i placed the plastic rivets on the plastic sill first then washing up liquid on the ends then line up and push on, worked for me fine on both sides too.

[david moore]

just a heads up on how the clips sit inside the sills.  gives us an idea what they look like inside when pushed in...

[Claws]

Cheers David

good to see what goes on in those hidden spaces 

Steve