VIDEO... More paint stripping, bonnet

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Concidence Jim, I’m just about to do mine - it’s the last panel left to strip. I’m using Synstrip which is very effective. My biggest concern is how to get under the bracing bars on the underside, as the back one in particular is very close to the main outer skin, can’t get a scraper under there easily. I guess you just have to work the stripper under there as best you can, then rinse out with a powerful hose.

The Poweforce stripper worked well on all paints . The Barrettine would not really touch the red and white top coats , but it was amazing on the grey primer and just washed the paint off immediately .

Jim,

Until watching you strip the paint off your bonnet, I have never noticed before that some XK140s have a raised section in centre of the bonnet and others do not. Yours has, mine hasn’t. I now know, because I have done some research, that it was only early cars that had this feature but I haven’t found definitively, whether it was all cars or just the fixed heads nor have I found the exact change point. I’m still working on that.

Just to add, the earliest DHC on XKdata has a smooth top bonnet.

Eric, my April '55 DHC has a smooth bonnet top, but I’m sure that doesn’t change anything!

My 140 FHC does have the strip mentioned, built in Oct, 1955. IIRC, the strip was hidden by being blended smooth with the rest of the hood using filler.

FHC short bonnets only, perhaps?

That’s what I was thinking but I haven’t had time to check the OTS’s. It makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?

Viart shows an open two seater with the center strip. Porter shows an early 140 FHC with the center strip chromed

Pictures on XKdata show that 800001 and 800004 do not have the centre section in the bonnet. I think I remember reading 800001 started life as an XK120 OTS and was the factory 140 prototype but have a health warning with that. Anyway, it appears that early OTS do not have the raised middle bonnet which strengthens my view that it was only the fixed heads. If that turns out to be true, it’s a very minor mistake in Viart but I think Roger Payne said that one or two crept in.

Jim, I am about to undertake this unpleasant task myself. I’m curious. Did you use a metal or plastic scraper? Was that a brass or steel brush you used. And it is hard to tell from the high speed video, but did you use any power tools? Finally, when you moved over to the left rear of the hood, the work seemed to go much faster. What do you attribute that to? Anyone else have any suggestions?

Hi Bob
I used a plastic filler spreader as a scraper. The wire brush was a fine steel. It didn’t really leave any marks and there are far far more factory gouges in the surface. On the Right side I used Barrenttine brand stripper which was useless on the top coats but brilliant on the primmer . One tip I have is on the underside of the bonnet you could could remove the felt strip and tape up the gap at the rear to stop a load of debris falling down into the void .

Does anyone know if the felt strip between the bottom of the bonnet and the transverse brace is supposed to be painted body colour, or was the strip jammed in there after the bonnet was painted ?

The inside of my bonnet is sprayed black - sort of. No etch or primer has been used and the paint is flaking off in strips - you can pull it off with your hand. No body colour that I can see. The felt strips look black too, but that may be 65 years of crud. It will not be felt strips that go back - probably closed-cell adhesive neoprene, not sure yet.

My felt also looked black and the same flakey paint on un keyed aluminium.