Paragon

Every XKR and some XK8's (X100) have an oil cooler, this is what happens when the pipe blows, in this instance the inference would be the pipe has rubbed on a pulley but the damage is at 90 degrees to the pulley so this is not the case, either way the damage weakened the connection on the hose which then blew. Every big end seized on to the crank, the mains bearings were fine, just to show bank 2 all the shells were "welded" to the crank and had to be chiselled off, some had ...spun in the caps. Another strange occurrence was the breaking off of 2 exhaust valves even though the camshafts were fine and so were the timing chains, I must admit I did not look at the engine timing before we dismantled the engine but I can only assume the exhaust cam spun on its sprocket to cause this and the engine had not even done 1 revolution when this happened as there was just the slightest mark on the piston and the valve heads looked untouched...... We had to disassemble the engine just to remove the torque converter as we have a replacement engine going into this XK.... Be alert and check your oil hose connections if this was to happen at speed you would probably not have enough time to slow down and stop the engine before this damage has occurred.... A good time to order one of our oil cooler upgrades :)
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We are closing for a couple weeks but we will still be available via Facebook and email..... Back to normal on October 1st 👍..

What we would call a sympathetic engine detail 👍

Valley hoses....! Arrrggghhhh....!

Making up some strut cap tops, a good improvement particularly for the post 2003 X100s that had nothing 👍

The nasty front subframe we put up a week or so ago...? Well it took some cleaning up, every bush was buggered, every ball joint, rust scale on every arm, it was not pretty.... But it is now, all cleaned up, polybushed, new springs almost new everything and now back in the car along with the typical rust repair that occurs behind the front frame all done...!

XKR in for various repairs one of which was the common corrosion area behind the front subframe..... Hmmmm leaving that aside the condition of the subframe components themselves are something to be desired, nothing unusual about the rear Vee Mounts falling apart but the front mounts were shot too, the anti-roll bar mounts we don't think have ever been changed and the lower shock bush, not sure I have ever seen one that far off centre before either...... Quite a mess....! 🤔
Did I mention the road spring broken into 4 pieces 🤨

We have been a bit quiet lately as we have been in the process of taking over the unit next door to us..... A customers XKR waiting to go in what will be our new prep/paint shop 👍

I don't mind this, Mr Matsushima Takuya has done a bit of a redesign on some of our panels..... Looks Good (Y)

A lot of work went into this 4.2 XK8, however another satisfied customer.... Happy days....

Footwell Repair Panels
Paragon has supplied a few customers now with a repair front footwell section, a very simple panel folded to match the original floor and then tapered out at the front edge. We obviously fit these on a regular basis and have decided to make these officially available to the X100 owner or repair shop...... Competitively priced at £50 each, they come in zinc phosphate coating, contact us here or email sales@paragondesignuk.com for more information...

Brembo Brakes (Real ones) If you have Brembos we would very much advise clearing the drilled holes in the disc at least once a month (depending how often you use your XK). If you do not the holes block up and cause the disc to groove badly, all you need to do is run a 3mm (1/8) drill through the whole disc. When you replace your discs smear a thin layer of grease between the mating faces, this stop the disc "welding" itself to the hub. Clean the pins and spring plate, this keeps everything in tip top condition, you can see on the pics this was not done and how much the pins have corroded, even though they are stainless the mixture of water and brake dust creates a corrosive acid which will bite in over time...

BRAKES...... Someone in their wisdom fitted these brake covers, not really "our bag" here at Paragon, yes I understand why, but there are certain levels of bullshit you should not go to. The main problem with these is not only did they fit them them to the caliper via copious amounts of "goop" (god knows what that stuff was...!) and wired but they had also glued them to the carrier, how they thought that was a good idea is beyond me as one is fixed and one moves, I am sure this did not impede the operation of the brakes but you can clearly see the cover splitting and twisting as the pads wear..... Best thing to do, rip them off, pull the calipers apart give them a good clean and paint them, in this case red was the desired choice.... Much better...!

Front sill sections...... Something else dare I say becoming "popular"..... These normally corrode from the inside out, the sealant fails below where the inner arch liner bolts in which is also the fixing screw for the mudflap if you have them and the bond from the sill to the end cap. Water gets inside and starts rotting metal away.... We take a slightly different approach, there is (or should be) quite a thick piece of metal which the sill end bonds to, we extend this to go under the screw location and rather than seal we weld this up. This way water can not get in so easy, the sill end cap is quite substantial and is cleaned back thoroughly, treated with rust remedy and painted with zinc primer, the new sill end is made in house bonded and welded in place, ready for stonechip and paint...

As many know the X100 suffers with rot in the rear arches and thankfully there are replacement sections. However I wish they made them a bit better....! The lower section where it meets the sill does not meet up very well and basically we cut it off and make our own as very often the corrosion goes a lot further than the 3+ inches your are supplied..... We are not for one minute saying not to use these panels, unless you are an accomplished panel maker these repair sections are a very good start, just be prepared is all we are saying for some additional work....

X100 Rear bumpers for quite some time have had a bad reputation regarding the mounts, they corrode due to galvanic reaction with dissimilar metals, this normally results also with the bumper bolts corroded in to the brass ferrule within the beam. Paragon is now offering replacement ferrules in Stainless Steel at £20 a pair plus shipping, just drop us a message or email sales@paragondesignuk.com

REAR SUBFRAMES
We have done quite a few of these now and this one is typical of the issues. They do seem to rust in pretty much the same place....? As you can see this frame has rusted through, the whole subframe was removed, dismantled, rusty box section cut out to expose the inside, shotblasted and etch primed. The complete rot was then cut out, a piece of 2mm plate was welded in and a rather thick (just happened to use what we had laying around) box section was cut and sha...ped to a taper to match up with the original and then welded in. This frame will be etched again before being painted in gloss black 2K, all bushes will be replaced with Powerflex where possible and reassembled...
This frame was savable but many are not, we are currently looking into fabricating these to a slightly different design but essentially will do the same job just better...!
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