Last of the painting!

With all the major work in the engine bay completed, it was time to paint and fit the bonnet, plus paint the lower splash panels.
 A trial fit confirmed all my careful work kept the engine under the bonnet line (only just!) so it was out with the heat gun, sharp scraper and elbow grease:

 The heat gun makes easy work of the old body deadener. As you can see, Jaguar put the deadener directly over bare metal, works well enough, but doesn't stop corrosion long term...
 Then it was onto the wire wheel and sander. I had to remove the rear longitudinal strut under the bonnet for intake manifold clearance, it was JUST touching when pushing down on the bonnet:

 A couple of coats of epoxy primer, then bond the bonnet frame to the skin as Jaguar should've done, for added strength and stability:

Topcoat underside of bonnet:

Then it was on to stripping the paint off the outside of the bonnet. I love chemical stripper, so easy, clean and dust free, especially when dealing with lots of old paint:

 Filling and fairing the bonnet. The XJS bonnet seems to be a fairly poor stamping, lots of shallow waves and not too crisp lines:

 Epoxy primer, high fill primer:

 And topcoat. To say I am pleased with the finish would be an understatement!

 Whilst I was painting the bonnet, I also dug out the boot plinth and restored, prepared and painted it and all it's bits and pieces. Surprisingly large amount of work in it too, but it does look spectacular!

 And in preparation for installing window glass and interior pieces, I painted the door glass frames whilst I was in the mood to paint: