Why is there a hole here? There was nothing running through it. It looks like the hole in the bulkhead and the relief cut in the pate were done for a specific reason.
I had a similar hole in mine a bit lower down and figured that a PO had fitted a hand throttle. There was also an extension on the rear of the throttle linkage and the remains of a spindle attached to the dash below the glove box. Needless to say I stripped it all off, but the data plate is still there with it’s hole.
That’s a challenge for you, to solder in a patch piece.
I recall seeing an alloy car in an XK specialist shop for a complete restoration, and it had a heater installed by an amateur who cut a big hole for a hose right in the middle of the data plate.
Could be worse, data plate missing, removed and scrapped by a DPO because it had the SS Cars logo on it.
My data plate also has a hole drilled by some idiot to attach a bracket for pipes to a remote brake servo, Servo now removed, discs replaced by original type drums, but the hole is still there!!
The title if this thread maybe should have been “there is a hole on my bucket” !
What goes through there is the brass T piece for the washers so single hole out going to washer bottle and the top of T inside going to the 2 jets
The only scenario I can think of is this… The hole was drilled in the wrong place. The hose was fitted and when it came time to fit the plate someone improvised a fix.
The initial plate showed a blank box for Price’s recommendation for Wheel Hubs lubrication (as you can also see on your example).This was corrected with a temporary solution by riveting an “add-on” plate over the bottom two rows, now showing BELMOLINE H.M.P. on the empty space. But also the description of the other “wheel hub greases” had changed. This version lasted for about 6 months from March to August 1952. Your March/April 1952 chassis number fits perfectly in this time frame.