I pulled the boot floorboards out of my XK120 DHC. (LHD, Built June 1953). I’m pretty sure the ones taken out were the original floorboards. They were looking a bit ratty and I think it is best to put them in the cupboard with the other original parts from the car that are better kept in storage.
See photo attached of one of the floorboards and the new piece of exterior glue 9mm Baltic Birch that will become the new floorboard. I did have a question about the color. You can see the floorboard that came out is quite dark, almost black. It also appeared in Urs Schmid’s books on the boot, that the floorboards were very dark or black.
I wondered if anyone might have some definitive information on the right color for these.
Mine are black, on both sides. It may have been some sort of early version of water repellant.
The red splotches are not my doing, they are from a previous repaint in the 1950s or 60s.
the original ones I have and seen early 120 late 120 have always been thin coat black pain.
can we got p[hoto of the matching half both top and bottom of both
thanks
Thinking about this, I would be willing to bet that these floorboards were coated with creosote. This was a widely used wood preservative in the '50’s. Even though the data shows crest not to problematic from environment nor health perspectives, it does not seem to be PC enough to be available for sale here in the States, but is in the UK. You can get it here for industrial use, but not for the general public.
I remember we had the stuff around the house when I was a growing up. Dad would use it for various things and it made a finish that would be pretty much what you see on the floorboards.
Wanted to get any thoughts.
Here are the photos. Incidentally, if anyone needs a new set of floorboards, I have two extra sets of blanks. These are 9mm 7 ply Baltic Birch with exterior glue & not easy to find. Happy to trace out the pattern. Cost would be $39 plus the freight.
Ask yourself what would the factory have at hand, methinks chassis black or black cellulose,
perhaps the same thing. I use either black cellulose or smoth black Hammerite diluted with cellulose thinners.
Creosote NO !!
Peter B
The factory certainly would have had creosote. The stuff can be formulated with different properties, so what is used on telephone poles and rail-road ties would not necessarily be the right blend of components for this application. Looking at some of these various parts when they delaminate, the coating material is pervasive into the material like it is infused. It is more than a surface coating. I don’t think that a paint coating material would behave that way.
I can’t imagine creosote would have been used , the smell is overpowering for ages and also takes ages to dry the colour would rub off to anything it touches My guess would be a highly thinned cellulose which I think would soak in a little .
I ordered a gallon of modern replacement for creosote. It is called CreoCoat. It is a water based wood preservative treatment made by RPM Industries (Rust-Oleum). I will treat a scrap and set it out in the sun for a few days to cure. Be interesting to see what that looks like.
I’m with Jim on this - in 45 years of playing with British cars I have never come across creosote being used by a manufacturer. Disgusting stuff, OK on a shed, I suppose…
The original floorboard is on the left. The new one is on the right. It is my understanding that the floorboards out of the factory were basically black, so that color was the target.
The floorboard on the right is 7 ply, ⅜" thick Baltic Birch, with exterior glue. To make the finish, I started with a coat of CreoCoat, black. This coat was applied with a rag, not a brush. CreoCoat is a water based wood preservative coating from RPM Industries (Rust-Oleum). The coating is intended to replace petroleum creosote. After the first coat, I applied a marine epoxy to all the edges, then sanded off the epoxy flashing on the top and bottom surfaces. Then I applied two more coats of CreoCoat, again with a rag, not a brush, and let it all dry thoroughly, Once dry for a few days, I set it out in the weather for a week or so on each side with rain, occasional snow and sun. This exposure mellowed the coating and did demonstrate the wood preservative properties of it.
The CreoCoat has a mild odor when applied. After drying and a couple of weeks of weathering, there is no discernible odor remaining.
All-in-all, I was extremely pleased with the finish. It looks very authentic, has good wood preservative properties and should not delaminate, even if the car were to see some significant use in nasty conditions (which it is not likely to).
I would recommend this finish technique for anyone doing floorboards for the XK’s.
