1952 Jaguar XK120 restoration

Too much work to duplicate it in hardwood. 
Really the car would have to be upside down in a ditch for it to get wet. At that point wet mdf will be the least of my worries! 

I did say where practical

MDF has a habit of absorbing damp though. As Jimi says above, as long as it's well sealed with paint or varnish it will be fine.

These crash ( d ) rolls are quite a job.

Part of it is the rubber d section itself. The ends are distorted, mostly I suppose because they’re 70 years old.

There were short pieces glued onto the end of a few of them.









Maybe the original had shrunk ( in length ) and the little bit was added when the car was retrimmed in the past.

The ends were mostly flared out, and needed to be brought back to shape.
I used Soudal TRex to build up the ends so they could be lengthened and reshaped.









They could then be shaped with a scotchbrite pad on the die grinder.











They were then covered in fabric.














The beading and the leather were glued to form the corner before being screwed onto the door.













Then the covered d roll is glued in place.













And the ends trimmed and plug pushed in.









This post is already too long, more exciting trimming soon!

That’s all for now. Etc.
Cheers

That's why I wont buy anything too modern until I'm forced to
I feel your pain.

Very relatable. Most of the front of an Audi A3 removed to change a bloody headlight bulb!

Bonnet looks great

Windscreen is fitted.

The glass is in beautiful condition, barely a mark on it. The chrome surround and central post also cleaned up well enough.
The aluminium side posts needed a little work. There were a couple of excess holes in each that I welded up. A few scratches and other patina were sanded out and then they were buffed.









Like many things on this car, it fought me all the way.
Each post is fixed to the bulkhead behind the dash, two 1/2 inch bolts per side. The bolts go through the posts into a threaded plate.










This is one of the plates.









One of the threaded plates was original, with 2 original bolts. The other not, with 2 different bolts.
So someone went to the trouble of making a new plate for some reason, but then couldn’t get 2 bolts the same? One bolt is UNC, the other maybe metric. The threads in the plate both UNC. Go figure.

And the original plate decided it wanted to play silly buggers. The thread picked up as I was doing it up. So it had to be retapped. I stuffed that up and ended up with the threads in the plate not parallel. So the bolt wouldn’t start. I heated the plate with the oxy and put a slight twist in it to bring the threads back to parallel.

Anyway got that all sorted and the screens in place. I’m not totally happy with the fit of the right hand post.










It was like this before I pulled it apart, but it won’t be left like it. A bit of die grinder work on the mounting holes should see it right.

The left hand one is fine.










Turns out that when I enlarged the mounting holes, there was too big a gap here. That I didn’t take a photo of. This is after it was sorted.










Added some weld along the edge.









Ground back.









After a bit of extra weld and grinding ,it was just a matter of sanding and polishing to get it across the finish line.

That’s all for now.

Thanks, yes the light at the end of the tunnel is there (and hopefully not a train).
Lots of ends to be tied up but an engine start is not far off.
The dash, a major part of the wiring, is almost complete.




Cheers.

We have lights. Well most lights. High and low beam, taillights, number plate lights, boot light, instrument lights, high beam indicator.









No brake lights - haven’t investigated that yet. Nor wipers, though they worked earlier before the rest of the harness was in. Maybe the switch.
Blinkers aren’t yet hooked up.
And floors are partially fixed in place.








That’s all for now, etc.
Cheers

Still drowsy unfortunately.

Of course the floor had to come back out so I could fit the handbrake lever.








Then the passenger side floorboard needed a relief cut around the handbrake lever, as did the driveshaft tunnel. So plenty of fettling.
But finally both floors and tunnels are bolted in.









Sorted out the wiring. The wipers and brake lights simply needed a fuse in the regulator.
Of course its not as simple as that.
One brake light refused to work even though the contact inside had power. So I pulled it out of the housing, moved the contacts a bit, sprayed some WD40 in there. Still wouldn’t work with a bulb that tested ok.
So I went through all that again.
Eventually it just started working.
It was like I’d finally bled all the stale electrons out.
Or that I’d put in enough time, and it decided to reward me. Whatever, it was working.

The headlights, which I thought were ok, weren’t. My wife pointed out that they didn’t change when I dipped them. They sort of flickered but didn’t actually change.
I’d installed LED bulbs to save putting relays in the light circuits ( to lessen the current through the switch).
LEDs are strange.
I thought I’d cured it when I found that the driver’s side wasn’t actually earthed. Put in an earth wire, no change.
Then I read a note in the box they came in, that said it would need the high beam indicator bulb to be replaced with an LED or they may not dip. So that’s still on the to do list.

And the radiator is in. Ready to be filled tomorrow. Other than the bottom hose, which is a design disaster, that was pretty straightforward. Pleasant change.







Just waiting on some battery lead clamps now. When batteries are hooked up, it’s ready for a start.


That’s all for now.
Thanks