No diagonal bracing strap in OTS doors, Roger. Are DHC doors steel?
The flatness is an optical illusion. There is actually a crown across the side of the body, about a quarter inch across a six foot span, biased toward the middle of the door.
Good thing, too: had you made them dead flat, they wouldāve appeared slightly concave.
Rolls-Royce used the slightly-crowned technique, on the tops of the radiator shells, as did VW, with the āflatā windshield.
1 Like
140DHC doors are steel skins on a wooden frame, with a diagonal tensioning bar to tuck the lower rear corner in. Or let it out.
I have zero experience with steel over wood frame bodywork. Seems to me the time to fine tune that diagonal tensioner would be ahead of any paint prep then leave it there, assuming the wood frame remains completely stable, then do the high-build and polyester glaze blocking to bring the door to level. If that lower rear corner is tweaked after levelling it can only introduce a ripple into the panel.
Probably a more challenging proposition than OTS doors.
Right you are. Youāll remember pics of GTJoeyās recent XK120 acquisition where the spats are evidently dead flat because they appear to be concave. The concavity is another optical illusion.
1 Like
We luv ya Terry, but its brass.
Here is one from 681114 between a copper tube and a piece of brass flat stock.
They often look the same when they get weathered.
But to be pedantic, common brass is 67% copper and 33% zinc, though there are many variations or alloys.
Props Nick. Well done.
Iād like to build on this topic if I may. Iām looking at a car that had the bead removed years ago (along with itās original wire wheels and a hub change) because the owner liked the look of spats better. The conversion was nicely done and the paint on the car is excellent. Soā¦
Would it be possible to remove the spats and replace the bead without repainting the whole car?
Assuming no problems with the existing paint - chips, damage, fading etc. - I donāt see why not. A bit of careful masking should mean you are only painting the bead.
Thank you Roger.
Can anyone say more about the brazing on the bead; where and how it is done?
Iāve checked several references, but canāt find any information on it. I was surprised that Viart makes no mention of it, though he does show differences between spats on aluminium as steel bodied cars on page 398 in his excellent work. Nor does Clausager in Jaguar XK120 in Detail.
Porter states āOn wire wheel cars, the lip on the wing where the spat located was covered by āDā section brass bead.ā (page 13 in the 1988 edition) If anyone has his 3rd edition, Iād be curious to know if he says anything more.
The bead is flattened at both ends as it takes 90-degree bends and tucks under the rear fender. I expect this is done before screwing or riveting the bead to the fender flange - that is the bead is fitted to the fender flange, including bending and flattening the ends before being fixed in place. From there I expect the ends were clamped down and brazed, though I canāt see why silver soldering wouldāt do the job about as well with a lot less heat.
Nick, Thank you. That makes the prospect of putting the car back to original much more appealing. Just need to deal with the hubs.
Mine have solid rivets (not pop-rivets) where it tucks under the bottom. I presume this was to hold it while the guy did the brazing.
As a side-line to this post, I just came across this FHC for sale on an auction site that has the fender bead chromedā¦
1957-jaguar-xk-150-fhc-1958
Iām not purporting this to be original, nor something that I would do but it is interesting to see what some folks do. It;s also got reflectors on the tail-lights, but thatās a discussion for another dayā¦
I have replace one if mine, I have taken some video I will upload. I think it would be difficult to do with the ring on the car.
just seen this great photo
where you note Aluminiun is this correct?
and I am still going to go for bead being copper I will polish up a bit of an original one ! 
Yup. OTS doors are aluminum. Post a pic of your polished bead ā¦ maybe yours is copper! 