1954 Jaguar XK120’B’
Bought as a bereavement sale and in the main stripped of its components this XK120 had an excellent chassis and a body that required extensive welding and restoration.
It was decided to put the body to one side and concentrate on restoring the rest up to a rolling chassis
The 3.4 engine was sent away to Coltec Racing for a full rebuild and upgraded where necessary to give longevity and sensible power upgrade.
Flat top pistons, reprofiled cam, upgraded oil piump was just some of the subtle mods to raise the torque whilst being minfull that it is an old 3.4 engine that needs to remain trouble free for years to come.
Back axle, diff and manual gearbox were totally rebuilt by last transmissions.
The chassis was sand blasted and repaired as necessary.
Every component to rebuild the chassis was either renewed or restored and the steering box was fully rebuilt to remove any play.
What we ended up with was a chassis with its rebuilt engine, gearbox, axle, steering box with brand new aluminium radiator and associated parts ready for a freshly rebuilt body to be installed.
This is when reality struck.
The body was very bad and would need extensive work to build the car to the standards we work to.
You can buy new body’s but they favour the convertible as the roof shape is very hard to replicate and most builders like to graft their existing roof to a new body but our roof just wasn’t good enough.
The other problem was that what we paid for the car, the rebuilding of engine, gearbox, back axle and all other parts means we have already made this a very expensive build.
The price of Jaguars has fell and there are lots for sale now making this a very unviable project.
I had always wanted to build a special but what is also needed is a master metalworker and that is where Clinton Holdsworth came in.
Discussing the way forward raised much excitement but with the realisation that some work we had already done would need to be undone.
Clinton embarked on a body build of massive proportion. It wanted a boatail, 2 seats of fairly generous proportion, sleek, chrome, exquisite badging to make this a very special one off build.
The aluminium radiator had to go and Sheldrake and Wells have designed and built a radiator that fits with the same water volume of the original.
The steering box has gone and been replaced with a Jaguar XK140 steering column and rack.
The drum brakes where upgrader to disks and the whole car is shod in Blockey Tyres on 19″ wire wheels.
Using all the existing XK120 dials with Avro Lancaster switches add to that period feel.
As far as we can everything lends itself to its XK120 origin other that a completely redesigned body and a few user friendly upgrades.
Where do you stop well the truth is we haven’t and we won’t until complete. The new XKB chrome and ceramic badging in the style of its SS100 ancestor and its new registration number that is “XKB”
Totally a one of and a what looks to be a very fast 1930’s style racer with all of its Jaguar Heritage. The aim was for people to know its a Jaguar, a Jaguar that Jaguar wishes it had built.
The car will begin its process into colour in the next few months, if commissioned – the new owner will have the chance to pick the colour/trim that the team will finish the car in.
