Jaguar E-Type Restoration
The excerpts below have been copied with permission from http://www.xkevocation.com.
General consensus and rule of thumb dictates that if the claims for a ‘new’ product are too good to be true, they probably are - particularly so when the generalisations add up to what appears to be a miracle cure.
I would have dismissed the claims for RX5 and its stable mate group of anti-rust products with healthy scepticism had it not been for two salient facts.
A good friend of mine and a highly respected UK classic car restorer had managed to acquire a ‘magical brew’ which had originally been created in very small batches in Holland quite a few years ago.
It was available only in the Netherlands, and as it was originally cooked up in the kitchen of its inventor, the brew was limited to a recognised cognoscente of class car dealers. By hook or by crook, my friend had managed to acquire a small tin but expressed extreme reluctance in allowing me to beg, borrow or steal some. Naturally, its ingredients were a closely guarded secret.
The fact that it was Dutch was the second attraction. As the homeland of the world’s greatest water engineers, where else would you be more likely to find a product that finally put an end to the corrosive onslaught of rust.
Imagine my surprise when an Internet search revealed that the product had just come on to the European market and was now available to anyone. I would like to bet I was only the second Englishman to ever use RX 5 and to steal someone else’s well known slogan: “It does exactly what it says on the tin.”
Apparently the anti-rust products now being marketed by Devon based Caprotech Ltd. are based on a natural oil ingredient which has an extraordinary capillary action to pull itself through the minute gaps left when two layers of steel are spot welded together and seal them for life. My challenge was to totally restore the body of an historic 1963 E-type Jaguar and ensure that it would in future enjoy a rust free existence – something sadly lacking in the original factory build.
RX 5 and the other range of specific-use rust proofing products were the answer. One of the great advantages of RX 5 is that it works better on a surface that has a mild degree of rust damage. It sticks better to a slightly damaged surface than it does to clean bright metal.
Although my E-type shell had been sand blasted to bare metal by a professional, there was no way I could ever ensure that inaccessible interiors of the bulkhead of indeed any spot welded joint would not eventually succumb to water invasion and inevitable rust.
RX 5, applied with a brush or an even handier aerosol can, ensured that every joint was sealed before I applied the first base coat of primer. Don’t take my word for it. Just part coat a piece of scrap bare steel with RX 5 and leave it out in the British weather for a few days. The coated part, which dries within 24 hours to what looks like pale wood varnish, will not show the slightest sign of rust damage. The uncoated metal will be well on its way to the scrapyard in less than a week.
Peter Reece www.xkevocation.com/main/e-type/ (for more words and pictures of the E-type rebuild)
This Example Uses RX 5
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RX 5: Anti Rust Primer 400cc Aerosol Can
£14.69 -
RX 5: Anti Rust Primer Tins
Starting at: £13.65
2 Item(s)
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