1952 Jaguar XK120 restoration

What an exciting step! Testament to the hard work put in thus far. Looks great

That must be a huge mojo boost! Looking great!

Ah, the joys of perfectionism

Good bodywork always demands huge amounts of prep time.

....As I said before - this is better than Jaguar ever made! Well Done!

Something was needed to make painting the rear guards easier. They’re fairly big and quite floppy. And they have to be painted on both sides.
So I thought a mini rotisserie might work.
I have a couple of engine stands, so that’s a fair bit of the construction sorted.
Basically a piece of pipe (or something) between the two engine stands with some brackets welded on to hold the guards. This is how it turned out.








Small brackets circled, so you know it’s supported at four points.









Once the guards were mounted on this they were a lot easier to work on. So I gave them a final once over and got them ready fo primer. This meant a detail sandblast then treatment with a metal conditioner.
Same with the fuel tank support and inner valences.
Bonnet and doors are aluminium and only needed a light scuff with 80 grit and a wire brush in the corners etc.
Some bits needed masking and then it was into the booth for epoxy primer.
















After primer, I gave it a few hours and then skimmed some body filler over the places that I knew were too deep for the high build primer to fix.










We’re expecting rain for the next 3 or 4 days, so I wanted to get the body filler sealed. I gave it a couple of hours to set and then gave it all a coat of high build.













So that’s the state of play at the moment. They can have a few days to cure and the it’s sanding time again.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers Darren

I can’t answer that with a simple yes or no.

My aim, just like every restorer, is that there is no difference from the original.

Once it is painted it will be very difficult to pick from an original car. Mind you, I doubt there are many original cars left.

However if you were to take it back to bare metal it would be another story.

Most of the pieces that have been replaced are folded sheet metal. These would be pretty much identical to original. However the welds would give it away. The original was spot welded, where my replacement pieces have been rosette welded. No real practical difference, but there is a slight visual one.

Easier to pick would be the front guard and the ‘legs’ of the tonneau. Originals would not have the same welds as mine. They were made of fewer pieces and therefore fewer joins.
There are people that have the skill to make to make the joins undetectable - unfortunately I’m not one of them.

I had no idea the car needed this amount of work - I wouldn’t have bought it if I did. That said, I don’t regret it. If it was priced a bit more according to the condition, that would have been good. But I was always going to restore it, so that’s spilt milk. It’s not like there were a dozen to pick from either, it was the only one for sale at the time.

My first real restoration was the Healey I did prior to this. It had a few small rust repairs, just enough to give me a taste for metalwork.
When I discovered how bad this car was, it was too late to do anything other than get stuck in. And the Healey gave me the confidence to do it. I made the terrible mistake of joking that after the Healey, I could fix anything. Boy did that come back to bite me!

And while I would love to be able to make that guard so it was undetectable even in bare metal, I’m happy if it’s undetectable when painted. That will pass most inspections it’s likely to get. I will probably be it’s toughest critic.

Whew, talk about a drawn out response. I hope it is an answer.

If I need a boost I have a look at some of the before photos. Cheers me up quick smart. Even though all these particular areas will be hidden, I know they are now pretty nice. And I know that the bones of the car are sound.














Thanks for the interest and pushing me to get these thoughts recorded.

Garry

Don’t know how I missed it before, but there is a spot on the guard ( my guard! ) that stood out like dog’s goolies. I suppose the primer made it more obvious. The curve needed a bit of massaging.









A piece of scrap 50 x 6mm, with the correct curve cut into it made a good dolly.










It needed a bit more mass, so I welded this chunk to it.
















It was pretty easy to get the curve right. Would have been just as easy before the primer, but there’s still plenty of prime/sand cycles to do so it won’t make much difference.

It looks like we are going to have a flood, so I covered the exposed metal with some spray can black to keep any rust at bay. Once the weather improves, I will get back to the epoxy.

That’s one big disadvantage of 2 pack paint - small amounts are a nuisance.












Also painted a few of the bits around the bonnet latch area. The paint used, Bill Hirsch chassis, actually dries quicker with high humidity. The bits had to be blasted first.









Then a brush coat, followed by a wet spray coat a few hours later.












We had a warm sunny day yesterday, so I took the opportunity to get some primer on the two gearbox tunnels and the inner splash shields.

The main gearbox cover was a bit rusty  along one bottom edge.












The marks on the welding table are so there was a better chance of getting the mounting holes in the right place. As are the lines on the tunnel itself. A bit of belt and braces!

I cut the manky piece off, going just high enough to miss the small holes. I didn’t want to have to replace those factory holes.











Folded up a piece of 20# and drilled/filed the elongated holes.














Partly tacked in place.









Fully tacked with the mig, ready to be cleaned up and run the tig along the other side.













Tigged and sanded, ready for primer.












That’s all, got the primer on but forgot to take a photo.

Comments, suggestions and queries welcome.

Cheers.

Gravity gun.
It’s probably more the cleaning up. Single pack stuff, you can leave in the gun.
I usually wait till I have enough to paint to justify the cleanup.

Yep, as much as I dislike cleaning sprayguns, I dislike the thought of hardened two pack in one even more.