Time for the cosmetics. Stripes do take a while, and it’s nerve-wracking, because painting it on to your car means the time you took to get the last coat right could be undone if you screw this one up. Three days before a show is no time to mess up the paint. The one thing I have learned about stripes, however, is that putting them on slowly, using the big gun like an airbrush, works wonderfully. It avoids that build up of paint at the edges that gives such a big step in the paint when you unmask.
The real issue is getting them straight. The XJS is big and flat and angular until you try to spray straight lines on it, and then it’s a swoopy curved car without a straight line on it. Seriously, take a good look at any XJS panel and find a simple straight line on it. I can see why a lot of cars opt to paint the 6-pot power bulge, it’s the only definite, crisp, straight line on the car.
No matter how carefully you measure, the fact you paint ¾ of the car panels off the car does mean you can expect some stripe alignment issues. Front skirt to bonnet is OK because of the grill. Bonnet to wiper panel is critical, and bootlid to rear bumper is so easy to mess up. The ready-painted rain light also dictates caution be used. In the end, to be sure, the boot has to be fitted to the car and the thing painted in situ to make sure the lines meet each other.
Dean arrives to do the stickers, and as usual he makes it look so easy that we hate him a little bit. The young lady this car is named after is essentially a human magpie, so once again we’re going back to the old chrome livery the car used to wear back in 2008. Now that the paint is that bit darker and more glossy it might work. It doesn’t have the contrast of the white, but it does catch the sun so very well. It’s a bit monochrome, but I want that, tone down the old look a bit, which was “every sticker ever from everywhere.”
Deano’s guidance leaves us with a mix of chrome and white, and he is right, it does work. Having the text in lowercase lettering, again, he is irritatingly correct about. Only on the sunstrip does he make an error, because saloon and XJS dimensions here are hugely different. The width of the screen top is many inches less on the S, which does explain why when I get into a saloon I always remark on the visibility you get with one, they are vast cathedrals of glass.
A couple of the stickers that sneak in are purely for my own amusement. And one, well, one is pure vanity. The car did awfully well as a JEC series car, and it has to be recorded somewhere, however boastful it might appear. Well, she did it, she deserves to shout about it. 24 tiny chequered flags appear like the kills on a warplane’s cockpit, one for each class win.
Boastful, but the lesson we have learned is that there is no place for modesty in motorsport, where everyone celebrates the tiniest victory howsoever achieved. The end result of Studio Signs' efforts - and Dean works so fast and cleanly that it's hard not to hate him - is something far more elegant and shiny than her previous incarnation.
The car is heading off for Weston Park tomorrow morning, which leaves a few jobs to be done urgently.
The bonnet got rained on before fully set. The boot spoiler went awry, the rain light has to be wired in, and she really does need a serious cleanup in the boot, where many footprints have been.
The interior is not quite there either. The door cards have rivets rather than rivnuts, and rivnuts and bolts are mandatory here, nothing should be assembled in such a way that it cannot come apart and be replaced without power tools. Because most circuits don't give you power to use.
We are very close to completion, but we are, however, three months beyond my original deadline. That deadline was set when I expected to be banger racing in class F again. The plan has changed somewhat since then, and I think that what we’ve produced here shows the additional time and care that has been spent. There is nothing that hasn’t been looked at again, considered, and retouched, save for the engine, and even that’s coming out again shortly for a refresh and downsize.
She could not, however, race tomorrow. She’s not done. There are loose ends to tidy. I only remember that the grille wants fitting at midnight, and having broken all the small drills the headlight surrounds are repaired with tape and a prayer. They look right, but they really aren’t. I really don't want to lose that feeling of the car being properly screwed together at the very end. A lot of cars fall to bits every time you slam the doors. Not this one. Not after all this.
Front bumper is only held on with two bolts. It needs eight. The infill trim is merely stuck on, the last few hours are a swift cosmetic snow job to make it look finished.
When she gets back from Weston Park I shall finish tidying the loose ends, then we’ll test her, and then it’s time to develop her into whatever it is she’s going to evolve into.
We pronounce her done with 5 whole hours to go. It's a new record. Usually it's 5 hours after we get there. Moving her out of the garage reminds me that the gear surround isn't fastened in and the old gearknob is really not up to the job now that the gearshift itself now works peoperly. The snag list grows with each minute, but that is half the point to having imposed this deadline, it is time to get her out and into action or I'll polish it forever and never use it.
The Bear has got very good at these 5am departures. He hardly ever falls asleep at the wheel now.
Unloading at the show is the first time I get to see her in daylight. She's pretty. We're almost surprised that we did it.
Part XIV to follow. Finishing school!
Helen: resurrection
JAGUAR XJS RACING
New 888s.
50 profiles fill the arches a little better, but the car is sitting high on the front end.
Time for the stripes.
I was going to do this by laser, but the laser is Officer David's, and I'd probably have painted it.
It's going all white at this point.
I'm sorry, I just can't seem to stop saying things like that.
Painting late at night. Must be a deadline looming.
Vinyl would have been easier, but they do look better this way.
Dean gets to work.
He really does make this look so very easy.
Everything custom-made to order at short notice. He's a handy man to know.
Chromed!
We took our guidance on font, size, everything, from the sign man, on the basis that he's in the business, so why should we second-guess him?
Peeling back the covers like some sort of bizarre peep show.
Shiny, let's be bad guys.
Finished. Sort of.
Boot was fitted in the traditional manner. I got inside and Bear lifted it on, lined it up, and I did up the bolts...
Loading up in the dead of night.
We had planned to be there by now, but better to be done than to be early.
This is our version of the morning after.
Except she looks better in daylight, and mostly there was no alcohol involved.