You crack me up Janusz!
But don’t break Paul’s heart, he might take you seriously.
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My convertible is also a 94 built in 93. I agree 1000% with what everyone is saying as far as the mechanicals go. Do that first, and don’t be afraid to drive it before it’s perfect. It’ll still get looks from people, not to mention the great feeling! 
As for the windshield, I used Safelite and they just had to wait a couple of days to get it in. It’s not a factory one, but it’s clear. As for the emergency brake, it depends on the vin wether or not you have outboard brakes or not. Mine still has inboard brakes, missing the change by 7 units lol. Oh well! Good luck with it, and to say, from the pics your clear coat looks better than mine. Looking forward to getting it resprayed before too long. Yes I did my windshield before the paint, but driving towards the sun was down right scary at times!
Thanks Jason. One of the rear wheel hub studs is missing on the passenger side, so I have a new one on order and will have the wheel off on Saturday to repair, at which point, the brakes will reveal themselves! Paint is the only thing I have tried at home and miserably failed at, so I think this one will be done by a professional. I am going to dig in to see if there is any way to refresh the clear only, since the base coat looks great, but I think it’s just wishful thinking.
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Yeah my wife figured I would just spray mine myself since I have a compressor. Lol. I told her it’s more involved than that. She didn’t like the shops quotes I’ve gotten so far. Smh! My dad used to do autobody and has done some spray jobs, so maybe I’ll end up getting his help. My original plan was to buy cheap like you did, new paint, new top (mine has some stains but otherwise pretty good except that the rear window leaked when I got it, and new interior. Figured after everything (figuring a basic 3500-4000 paint job and doing most of the stuff myself) I’d have about 7000 in the car including new tires and everything. Long story short, wife fell and broke her elbow and all my “spare” money went bye bye. Smh. Oh well. Oh and I never plan on it being a concourse car while I own it. Just mine
Oh yes…
But of course it depends of how good you want your car to look.
If you look through the rear wheel and you see a big great void then you have inboard brakes.
And studently the handbrake job becomes a very different kettle of fish.
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Well lucky me, there is a great big disk brake (rotor) on the other side of the wheel. Something had to go right at some point, so hopefully this is a trend! I wonder if the hand brake is the reason the soft top mechanism doesn’t fire up when the button is pressed? Discussion for another weekend…after all the safety stuff is dealt with.
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My rule of thumb: Get at least four or five quotes on body work. Then throw the quotes away and take the car to the guy that impressed you as knowing WTF he’s doing. In the long run, he’ll probably be the cheapest option anyway.
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Mine has inboard brakes. I get to enjoy less unsprung weight bouncing over bumps! At least that’s what i believe.
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There is no way to just do clearcoat, but it is also not necessary to strip completely. Strip the horizontal surfaces by sanding only to OE primer, sand sides to ensure good adhesion. Then seal and finish. If you do it yourself, there are wet on wet products by a number of paint manufacturers.
You might call around to a number of body shops and ask whether they are familiar with peeling clearcoat. Avoid any that say they must strip completely ($$$$) or don’t seem interested. All of the OE brands have had the issue from time to time.
Just my .02…how I did my own.
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I like that response Kirby, in fact I don’t think you’re that far off the mark!
Very nice - reminds me of Superblue, although she’s not a ragtop. 
btw, me and Paul #2 have dibs on the name Paul, so you’ll have to come up with another one on here … (j/k 
) Welcome to the forum …
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Now wait, Kingdude 
I thought we went through all this earlier (i.e. clear coat coming off on horizontal surfaces) with Superblue … ? Consensus was that you cannot just restore the clearcoat, but have to repaint the entire car, basecoat included (but on this repaint I would make sure there are TWO coats of clear, per factory standards 
). Even my trusted body shop guy told me that over the phone (unless he was just wanting to make big $$ off me ? 
). In the meantime, I don’t know which has worse “eczema”, me or Superblue … 
I know this sounds bad, but I told him I almost wish I had that stuff inside me (i.e. cancer) then see that deterioration on one of my Jags. 
btw, do you have any pics of your redo?
Oh, and btw, don’t forget our MYs have the painted bumpers … I now notice clear coming off on her rear bumper (i.e. vertical surface) … ugh! 
Well, as to the (4) rear shocks, be careful … Don’t forget that the incorporated springs (coils) are a bastid size … So compressing them in order to separate them from their shock requires some “special technique” (specified elsewhere already in the archives), unless you intend installing new springs + shocks as units. 
You cannot just restore clearcoat; it will require complete refinishing. My point was you do not have to strip entire car, only to factory prime on the peeling areas only.
After prep, seal entire car, followed by whatever refinish product you choose. Basecoat/clearcoat is the most common, especially for metallic colors, but a single stage urethane is an option. All will require multiple coats of each step of the product chosen.
Aristides beat me to the Kirby Palm book. definitely, a must for the XJS owner. There is another tome. Trouble is the author’s name escapes me. Jeff ? He disects the car in slices from front to rear.
Look up everydayxj, David boger. Used and NOs [arts. XJS stuff included and the XJ series cars share a lot of parts.
Jaguar Heaven is in Stocton,CA. good reputation. never did any business with them.
Little did I know how close to their place I was when my car suffered a major engine failure. hadda I known>>>
Contact me off list . I have bunches of parts you can use . I’m sure we can deal.
Paul,
I’ll paint your car for food and supplies. You can drop second-hand AR15 rifle to be used as a gearstick.
Forget about all those pro-jobs and know-how described above, you won’t restore your bodywork without stripping it to the bare shell. Unless you like pots and bubbles on your multi-grand investment one year later.
I’ve got 10 years of experience in the workshop… where cars were stripped to the bare chassis which later on was found in the woods, later reclaimed by the owner and sold back to me as accidentally I was having a collection of matching parts. After insurance payout of course…
You cannot effectively paint the Volvo without stripping. Now imagine yourself British sheet-metal-cheese, welded to form XJS, by people going on strike each time quality assurance deparment prints the graph showing drop in ‘right-first-time’ - against Swedish steel and self-discipline…
This is the only valid way forward, roller gives decent effect, especially with industrial 2k etch primer for bridge steel.
Understood, and nice job w. your car, btw … 
btw, what do you mean by “seal”? 
That’s why i bought a Thatcher-era XJ-S !
Sealer is a barrier product similar to primer- that is the white in one of the pictures. I did basecoat/clearcoat after that in a wet on wet on wet process.