Agree with your (tentative?) conclusion, but then why keep the “chromed” screws for the Dovetail parts? Is this possibly a heritage of the early Alloys or even early Saloons?
Had a closer look at what Urs Schmid mentioned on the subject in his books. Nothing explicit but some interesting pictures.
Volume 1:
Page 50 shows a Lavender Grey OTS (I assume # 673029) with an unpainted chrome Door Lock Striker on the B pillar and the Dovetail Buffer seems unpainted as well (with a “brass” appearance).
Page 51 shows the same late 1952 steel OTS with an unpainted Dovetail Striker on the door.
There’s another picture on page 51 of an OTS (I assume # 660651 of early 1951) with both the Dovetail Buffer and Chrome Door Lock Striker painted, but this is very difficult to see.
Volume 2:
Page 52: is this steel OTS # 673029 of 1954? (colour is misleading). Painted chrome Door Lock Striker and painted Dovetail Buffer.
Page 61: same (?) 1954 steel OTS with what seems an unpainted Dovetail Striker on the door(?)
Page 117: same 1954 steel OTS (?) with Urs’ confirmation of conclusion of page 52 that Door Lock Striker and Dovetail Buffer were both painted.
Can somebody confirm that the Dovetail Striker is steel and the Dovetail Buffer is made of brass? See picture below together with the modern aluminium replacements.
I bought some alloy aftermarket dovetail sets, but the mounting bolt centres are different to the original steel ones on the doors. Does anyone sell the steel ones? The originals were pretty rough castings! I believe that the steel door strikers were painted body colour.
My aluminium replacement Dovetails fortunately have the same bolt centre distance as the original ones. See also my earlier picture with the original and replacement Dovetails.
Mike,
Thanks for this. So I have one original and one replacement Dovetail set. See also picture of the brass Dovetail Buffer fitted on B-post. I will paint the brass Buffer in the original colour Old English White but will keep the chrome of the Lock Striker, just because I like it. Even if it means 2 penalty points…
I agree with your choice of keeping the chrome bits unpainted. In fact on my car, a previous owner (around 50 years ago) chose to have the brass dovetails on the B-Posts chromed as well. Looks nice!
Great Mike, clearly painted Dovetails as I lean to as being more probably correct, including the mounting screws, as per Robs factory paint shop pics, I agree all the door fit alignment was set up before the paint shop, and not after… But wasn’t expecting to see paint over the lock catch, so wonder whether typical, a one off, or an earlier paint touch up… Although grouping all XK120 and XK140 from 1949-57 may well be a stretch, assuming no changed painting procedures over this 8 year period… I have an agenda buying into this, as mu own 1955 XK140MC OTS goes into the paint shop ‘soon’, and I am in process of preparing detailed instructions over what is to be painted body colour and what is not… so although I have my current opinions of a few debatable areas, I thought best to appeal to the collective expertise on this site… But my current feeling is the male and female dovetails are screwed in place, then painted over including the setscrews. But I don’t think - for XK140 at least - that the Lock Striker is affixed until after the doors/B-post is painted, thus remain bright chrome, including the setscrews. I really struggle with the thought that Jaguar would paint over chrome…, as apart from poor paint adhesion, it’s a waste of money to chrome plate fittings that will get painted over… And you don’t need the Lock Striker in position, to set up door alignment properly, before painting… But still looking for additional pics/evidence, I still have a few weeks to make my final decisions… Shame these Dovetails and Lock Strikers are so rarely photographed…
Hard to say Jason, - both doors have certainly seen better days…and different colours…
But I do lean more towards both Dovetails being painted, the trouble is the rubbing of the Dovetail Joint does scrape paint off, but not the screw head…
The second door looks like it has had a patch pop-riveted over original shut-face, so you would have to remove the patch to find out why…maybe slightly reposition Dovetail, or damage on original shutface…
