Same thing happens with my 120. Doors too! The fridge magnet test is a good one otherwise, except over body solder, of which there is quite a bit in Es and XKs.
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True ā¦on 420G tooā¦as long as its where you expect it to be
I have no doubts such an astute craftsman as yourself would have pictured all that to the complete satisfaction of a shrewd buyer.
I have inspected vehicles like that, you feel very confident, its a pleasure
its refreshing when people are honest too, sometimes you come across that.
My cars have some good and not as good aspects, in the case of my Jaguars,
I would mention them to a potential buyer
Given the specific gravity of body solder is a 10x multiple of bondoās (lead 11.35, bondo 1.14) any place on a restored autobody where thereās a 1/16ā application of solder as filler, like over butt welds joining patch panels, will not attract the magnet, whereas a 1/8ā skim of bondo will attract it somewhat. My perspective is a sixteenth inch of body solder, though considerable, will still present a longer lasting repair than an eighth inch of bondo. Still, the fridge magnet test works well. Did it myself recently when scoping out an S2 basket case for a fellow J-Ler. Lots of bondo in the rear left wing, confirmed by the body man who did the work. Price adjusted accordingly.
There is a more sensitive (TOO sensitive?) test.
When I bought my first E over here, before actually arriving (kindly stored by Mark Gordon) I couldnāt handle the idea of fitting a front plate after nothing but UK stick-ons.
So when I got my new tags I took them to a vinyl graphics place to copy the front. They had a minimum charge of fifty bucks, for which they were happy to supply two vinyl at 100%, two at 90% and a flexible magnetic plate. This would only just stick to single curvatures like the door skin but flew off at low speed from the bonnet, so I used the 90% stick-on. I still have it as a tester but itās pointless on the D and revealed nothing on my ex-Paul Spurlock coupe.
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Well, I saw a piece on You tube. Rusted out floor āfixedā by screwing on a street sign!!!
Carl
I advise anyone inspecting a MKX to rap the spot welded seam joining the toeboard with inner wheel well (just behind the front wheel)ā¦its easily hidden with black underbody sealant and road dirtā¦if you knock out pieces of rustā¦time to start negotiating
this area is probably suspect on E as well, a pick hammer is bestā¦doesnt damage one that is good
In my original tub which I since cut in halves and threw away it was lots of tinfoil and bondo. No mesh no newspapers.
Besides, do you know the cheapest concrete reinforcement you can buy ? When I was erecting my car lift, a neighbour said āgo to Aldi, put 1 Euro into one of their shopping carts, take it with ya, cut it in pieces and drop it into the concreteā. Thats about a dollar and a nickel for some 2 square metres of fine chromed (!) reinforcement mat, and even better, the meshes are very small, so its waaay better then the 10 inch mesh sizesā¦
Carsten
P.S. - donāt remember the system in the US, but hereover you must drop a 1 ā¬ coin into the shopping cart, its fixed with a chain to its next sibling which then releases and sets it free. Its a deposit scheme so youāll bring them back from your car to the collection point. Must be the same ?
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excellentā¦i have a small amount of concreting to do, needs good reo
they also make excellent diff rebuilding carts, have one trimmed to accommodate a D44 for rebuild
Their is a houso estate not far from my local shopping centreā¦they leave the carts abandoned by the roadsideā¦so free recycling!
I believe Iāve mentioned this before, but the left sill on my S3 was constructed out of expanding insulation foam, cut to shape and covered in Bondo. Would not have passed the magnet test, but sounded almost right. Mind you, I bought it on the interweb, unseen. 
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A refrigerator magnet will fall off a steel panel when placed over a relatively thin application of fill material. It will tell you thereās at least a sixteenth inch of filler over the panel but not if thereās a quarter inch. I prefer a somewhat stronger magnet as you can gauge the thickness of the paint job by how strongly or otherwise it sticks to the panel.
Any high end restoration paint job will have some filler material involved. A little is ok. A lot isnāt. Itās a matter of degree. The problem with bondo is and always has been how very easy it is to lather heavily onto a quickie repair, sand smooth and paint so it looks good for a few years. Until it doesnāt.
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I guess they figured it would never rust? 
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Nope. Over here, thereās no deposit system for shopping carts here because that would inhibit the slovenly from taking their cart loaded with their goods to the parking lot and then after unloading them into their car, leaving the cart in the closest unoccupied parking space, perhaps rolling into someone elseās car.
And yet, Ole, you still ended up with one of the most beautiful and well thought out restorations Iāve ever seen. It just shows what a master can accomplish, given enough time (and maybe money?).
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Thank you For the kind words Mark. Sure thereās money 
spent, but my 1600 hours were free. It did put some strain on the marriage 
but thatās all forgotten now we can enjoy it together 
Well, considering there was seemingly the odd bit of āspƦndingā over the spending - Pam is always very kind and welcoming to your āpartners in crimeā.
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Officially - yes. During the restoration I have heard questions about insurance in case of fire and theft 
BTW, only I have the password to the spread sheet with all expenses and time spent logged.
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I and a buddy went to look at a ārust freeā MGB and when I lifted uptake drivers floor mat there was a piece of plywood. I said to my friend, āWhat do you suppose is under the plywoodā to which he replied the driveway, and he was right!
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If the word ācoprolithā didnāt already exist , you could have invented it for thatā¦
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I had to look that up ā¦
coprolith : ( fÄākÄ-lith ), A hard mass consisting of inspissated feces. Synonym(s): coprolith , stercolith [L. faeces, feces, + G. lithos, stone]
and now I have to look up inspissated