Nick I painted mine in Mist Grey which I find a very attractive colour with a red interior… I had a MkIX many years ago in that colour and always loved it… BUT you are stuck with the black interior… which can make it somewhat limiting… when it comes to exterior colours… I have seen an XJ220 done the other way around metallic black exterior with a sand interior… it is quite a striking combo… so thought the other way around might be equally attractive. It is also a classic art deco combination.
It’s at least a little mercenary. Thinking if we decide to enjoy the car for only a couple years then decide to sell it, maybe after a high concours score to up its market attraction, a non-standard colour might limit options. We’ve definitely ruled out poiple.
Why I like the idea of silver/black.
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On an XK?
So would I! I do not think it would work on those shapes.
Black interior—with white piping— would look good with Cotswold Blue.
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if you are proposing to flog it… resale red… hate it myself… makes it look like it is a pimps car… but if attracting some guy to buy it to inflate his ego and your bank account… or attract younger women… go for it… and don’t forget the wide whites!
Wasn’t Mediterranean Blue a single year 140 color?
Or am I thinking pacfic blue?
If it’s the deep almost black blue it’s drop dead gorgeous in person.
But then again I’m driving a Pastel Green Metallic 120😄
Possibly. The car listed with that current colour - 679661 - doesn’t include an entry under original colour so possibly, even likely, was changed.
http://www.xkdata.com/cars/detail/?car=679661
I like Pastel Green Metallic but would prefer silver, both ostensibly not offered for the 1954 model year. Then again, no metallics were standard offerings from December 1952 to August 1954, though there was this from Rob Reilly in another recent thread:
This xkdata entry, for a 1954 XK120SE OTS whose chassis number precedes mine by 26 cars, is interesting
http://www.xkdata.com/cars/detail/?car=S674406
It lists Silver as the original colour, gold as the new one. Also mentioned is the availability of a JDHT certificate for the car but there’s no scan of the certificate so likely an error.
I’m having similar internal struggles over my 140 DHC. It was originally Carmen Red with black interior, both of which I’m not keen on and which have been firmly rejected by management. I’ve got to Pearl Grey with dark blue trim and blue hood, or Birch Grey with dark red trim and black hood.
Still, with the chassis going for blasting next week and the body cut in half awaiting the chassis to jig it on, there’s no real rush over colour.
There is this possible help…
admittedly I am biased but the grey/red/black is the combo I used … and still like the best.
The statement that brings me back down to earth. The combination you like best is always the wise choice. And this too
The first leather interior I experienced was a days-from-the-showroom new 1965 E-type in black, so therein lies my love of the same Jaguar black interiors others despise. All a matter of taste. But as Wigs points out different models wear colours differently and there are few colours that mate well with black when one considers the complexity of the XK120 shape v. say an E-type. Leaning heavily toward silver and keeping the car till I die (Jerry).
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Cars speak to me in what colors look best on them, these 120 XK’s scream silver.
Practical as well, next to impossible to get those flat sides ripple free perfect, so light colors are best. If you’re painting it yourself, better get your skills dialed in with silver metallic, got to know what your doing to not get texture, mottling or striping in your paint job. Silver shows all that probably worse than any other metallic paint. I recommend Axalta Chromabase, nothing but trouble with PPG with all those mentioned problems. Guys are digging Mercedes silver these days, very fine particles in the mixture.
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You’re right, Monte. Getting those slab sides right is the single greatest challenge of XK bodywork. I’d say more than half the effort I’ve put in over the years has been directed at that particular objective and I’m satisfied the car can wear a dark colour successfully. The main reason I canned my original intention to paint it OEW is because it would do nothing to accent the straightness of the bodywork.
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Silver is a very popular concept car color, I assume designers use it to showcase their handiwork.
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See? SEE??
Jaguar and Wolseley, right togetter!!
I’ve got a theory that’s borne out by the XK120 in my shop. I think Jaguar factory bodywork was variable and only the straightest cars were finished in dark colours. Panel fits in my case were not great. In a couple of places gaps that were too close were mashed in with a body hammer and filled with lead and there were a lot of other places where gaps and elevations were very uneven. I’ve corrected those issues but as the car was being finished at the factory pastel green was definitely a better colour choice than, say, black or BRG.
Whilst it has to be the colour you want it, I still think it should be a colour that was available in period - which rules out silver for a 140, in my case. Pearl Grey is my light colour of choice, but Birch is right up there too.
It’s a shame that we are now at levels of restoration (not just Jaguars) where restorers are pretty much building all-new bodyshells out of fresh metal. I truly believe that the more original metal that can be preserved, the better - even if that means less-than-perfect gaps or alignment. Something’s wrong when a car transported through time directly from the production line couldn’t get close to winning a concours d’etat.
*[quote=“Nickolas, post:23, topic:373018”]
I’ve got a theory that’s borne out by the XK120 in my shop. I think Jaguar factory bodywork was variable and only the straightest cars were finished in dark colours. Panel fits in my case were not great.
[/quote]
Not a theory: that’s a fact.
In Jaguar’s defense—such as they may need— these cars were manufactured in the wreckage of WWII, with tools that were, even by the standards of the day, fairly crude, and, to a price, a job that, in that day, was astonishingly cheap, for the performance delivered.
Kudos for them having done so, and for having survived and thrived. This obsession with perfect panel gaps, wasnt even a thing… till the Japanese showed us how it’s done.
Good onya, for working so hard at it, and no broadside intended towards your labors.
That said, I think your thoughts on the difficulty of getting the slab sides good enough for dark colors, might be correct.
Correcting factory bodywork flaws doesn’t necessarily involve a whole lot of new metal. The metal around my bonnet and bootlid was quite solid though the gaps were uneven. What’s required is judicious cutting and rewelding, subtracting or adding very small amounts of metal, usually confined to filler rod. Lots of labour, almost zero material. The time and effort required would be prohibitive on an assembly line. Uneven elevations the same. An overly proud crown can be shrunk down to correct profile and one that’s “below grade” can be lifted with either hammer/dolly or slapper/dolly while retaining the original atoms. While I understand the attraction of keeping things as they were when it left the factory it makes little sense to me not to replicate the bodywork of the better cars that left the factory.
Colours are another thing. There are those for whom only the original factory colour Is acceptable, even if they don’t particularly like it. That, fortunately, doesn’t include me, otherwise I would not have bought this particular car and have spent thousands of hours on its total restoration to glory.
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I think the work you went to, to correct the headlight nacelle shapes, so they’d match, was masterful.
OMG - head spinning…
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