My 1948 MK IV SE (one of the last 1 1/2 litre cars to leave the factory) has some lower window chrome strips - has anyone seen these before? They were on the car when I came to restore it, so I had them re-chromed and refitted without giving them a second thought. They are definitely professional machine shop produced with perfect matching profiles to the car doors, front quarter lights, clean rolled edges, etc. I know that the car has factory extras in the SE model, and mine has what looks like some optional extras like twin horns, badge bar, etc.
These are the backs of the 4 bottom window chrome strips after I had removed the weather seals from them and before being sent off for re-chrome plating.
I’ve seen a lot of MkIVs of all varieties but I’ve never seen chrome in that location before. I do know that the outer weather strip at that point is very poor at preventing rain water from entering the door so a previous owner may have tried to improve it.
I cheated with my SS and fitted a modern strip that wipes the glass and overlaps the outer metalwork. (Ignore the brass offcut photo that was there to show how I made the chrome strips.)
Mine are definately engineered and acturately made metalwork designed to fit perfectly and profile every curve and recess for left and right, front and back doors - in effect a full set of 4 different parts. The rolled edges point to them probably been made on a press machine (not a hand made job), so I doubt them being a “one off” as there were no raw edges and totally chrome plated, so not a “cut to length” weather seal. I had to find the right weather seal to refit within these chrome strips before reinstalling them. If the original window seals have a bad reputation for letting water in (and the uk gets prity wet weather) perhaps Jaguar or another company made this retro-fit set of after sales parts for the dealers or owners to fit. Judging that this window chrome work was in a similar and poor condition to my other exterior chromework before I started restoration work then I suspect it is all of similar age.
Here is a pic of the seal on a MK IV DHC , The standard Paul Beck single side[ not U shape] has a bright strip on one side but as MK IVs didn’t have this , it can be installed bright side down.
The bailey channel in the pivoting uprights is just their standard non flexible channel
