While rebuilding my XK 140 I quickly realized it is almost impossible to keep a car completely original and, in some cases, not even desirable. The classic “full nut and bolt restoration,” for example, is an outright admission that the car is no longer original. The original bolts have distinctive markings and are no longer available, at least in the US, and the old lock nuts and washers are less safe than nyloc nuts. I mistakenly ordered replacement nut and bolt kits from several of the usual suppliers only to get yellow, zinc plated bolts or Grade 5 bolts when Grade 8s were clearly required. I opted for unplated Grade 8 bolts which look original, but are not, and will be less rust resistant than plated. It was a compromise, but it has the right balance of performance and optics for me.
I also opted for a Wilwood disc brake conversion for the front brakes. I plan to drive this car and don’t mind pushing hard on the brake pedal, but I want something to happen when I do. It can all be converted back to original if someone wants, and I might have made a different choice if it could not, but drum brakes in a performance car were just a little too vintage for me. Similarly, I put on Dayton 60 spoke wire wheels. The originals were 54 spoke, but who wants a wheel to fail? On the other hand, 72 spoke wheels were just too obviously non-original for me. Once again, it was that conundrum between originality and a better, modern replacement. I want the car to look original, but I also want it to perform, be safe and reliable.
On the flip side, I just spent considerable extra dollars to get the radiator rebuilt with an original style core. If I can, I want to make the original cooling system functional without resorting to modern upgrades like electric fans. The XKs display their radiators front and center and an electric fan just screams out to me that the car is not original. The same could be said for aluminum radiators.
I opted to rebuild an original close ratio transmission with overdrive rather than replace it with a modern five-speed. Again, would the five-speed be easier to drive and more reliable? Yes. But is that the full answer? Not for me. I like the feel of the Laycock de Normanville overdrive. It is unlike anything in a modern car and part of the special experience of driving a vintage 140. I would say the same for keeping the original style steering wheel. It is the part of the car you see and touch the most, so why opt for a non-original replacement? Yet, non-original wheels of all styles and sizes are common.
Lest I come off as holier than thou, full disclosure requires that I admit to stainless steel brake lines, powder coating the chassis and all suspension parts, modern shocks, upgraded bushings, sway and torsion bars, radial tires, and a limited slip differential. And the list will undoubtedly grow as the project advances.
The point is, there are decisions, large and small, to be made on originality at every stage of restoration with a newer, better alternative singing its siren song. Sometimes I have resisted that song, other times not. It is a constant battle all of us face. I am not too enamored with concours standards as they often strike me as too anal, too focused on minutia and show, with only a passing interest in drivability. Others will strongly disagree. I also like to see some patina on a car attesting to its use and history, but one man’s patina is another’s defect. I like seeing where my father’s thumb wore through the markings on the mechanical choke plate on his E-Type. I bought a replacement, but have no plans to use it. In my mind, the original tells a richer story than the replacement.
Where do you draw the line on originality and why?
