XK120 OTS 660368
This early numbers matching XK120 roadster came to us from South Australia in April 2008 for a full restoration. The car will be returned to it's original black paintwork with biscuit and red interior and fawn hood.
Dismantling begins. All components are labeled, boxed and stored away.
All is revealed! The body and panels were all dipped to remove all paint, filler and rust to leave a nice clean body to assess. The body will need new sills and shut faces, and repairs to boot floor and front guards. The doors and bootlid are not feasible to restore and will be replaced. The bonnet and rear guards are good. Although it needs a lot of repair, it is in far better shape that a lot of others we have restored.
The chassis was bead blasted and primed then we performed a chassis drop test to check that the chassis was true, which it was, so we then turned to repairing minor dents and damage ready to set up and refit the body. The engine ran well but required overhauling. With the cylinder head off we could see that the bore is standard and the head has never been skimmed, surely a rare find 58 years after it was assembled in Browns Lane!
We started at the rear of the body, a new upper boot floor was fabricated along with new boot channeling and lower sections of the rear quarter panels.
The rear guards were excellent and required only minor repairs and file finishing. The rear tonneau had a number of additional holes that required welding up.
The front guards had rust under the headlight pods and rust in the pods themselves.
The passenger side front guard was the worst area of the car, requiring a new side and repair sections at the front.
New parts to be fitted including grille, doors and new windscreen pillars.
With the new doors fitted and aligned we could then progress with replacing the sides of the front guards.