I am with you on upgrades, but in this case it not so easy, cause the guage is a dual gauge and occupies one spot in the dash.
the oil gauge is mechanical and reliable
the coolant temp will be reliable if repairable, and imo, is fairly integral to the old world feel of the car.
Having said that, I have replaced my 420G oil pressure gauge with a digital unit…I could have used a mechanical Smiths, but my loathing of the oil pressure sender on those cars was so intense that I wanted to make a point of it (and 1/4 the cost)
Totally agree. I’d maintain the old gauge as well, absolutely.
It would require some fiddling, but doable.
But sure, sure…just chatting…
Excuse me, there was recent thread within the XK forum on this.
May wanna search Kenneth.
There is a great deal of info of all sorts in the archives and within those forums too, don’t forget.
Invaluable resources available here…and the people (such as “tony” above) blow me away and humble the hell out of me.
Anyway, all the best to you and I’m excited for you once again.
You’ll love it.
Hmm…I’ll look around. That’s gonna be tricky to source.
Not what I had in mind.
I think it could be funny the variety of situations such a lens would be found.
Some old bathroom appliance from the 40s etc
A possible resource for you. At very least, someone to speak to.
I will have a look, but please do not hold your breath, been meaning to go thru my MKVII spares…you would be very lucky, I suspect I sold one to the previous individual
Worcester Classic Spares Ltd are specialists in the big saloons up to and including the Mk9. They don’t do MK2 or Xk stuff, just big saloons, both pre and post war.
Unfortunately the proprietor Simon Whitworth, who took over the business from his father, died two years ago and he knew everything there was to know.
Fortunately the business is still up and running and they have lots of stuff. They also break cars for spares, so might have the rear interior lens you require. I don’t think these items are handed.
You will be needing Workshop manuals which sell for about 25 pounds for the proper factory one. A Hayes MK2 one can be useful for some of the mechanical stuff. The Autobooks one is basically reprinted from the factory one, not many of these around.
Sweden had left hand side traffic until 1967. Although they knew for a long time that it’s going to change and thus many swedes bought LHD cars already in the early 1950’s like MKV’s and MKVII’s.
But many original cars sold in Sweden were RHD, including the very first E-type in Scandinavia #860019 IIRC.
Hard to say much about the paint problems. Bondo (filler) and paint can lift due to many things, most common is rust.
In my MKV DHC it was more severe as the door frames in the DHC (and XK’s) are made of wood.
The Saloons however have all-steel bodies. IMO all paint and bondo must come off as otherwise that problem can happen again somewhere else on the body.
These are nice cars, 18” steering wheel is ok as long as you have narrow tyres and enough tyre pressure.
