Can someone please advise if the 120 FHC had wooden wedges under the seat runners?
Phil,
I just looked at the DHC original parts book and I didn’t see anything there in terms of any piece of wood under the seats, The FHC, which I have too, should be the same. However, from experience I seem to remember that there should be some kind of a distance piece between the seat runners and the floor, otherwise the sharp angles of the runners, especially with the weight of a body on the seat risk to catch the carpet pile and over time damage it.
Bernard
XK120-11-Body-DHC.pdf (1.7 MB)
Thankyou. I agree that common sense suggest there needs to be something.
With best regards
I am quite sure unlike 140 3/8 thick non tapered and 150 tapered spacers that there aren’t any spacers on the XK120 except maybe for some alloy packing pieces about 1.4 mm thick to level seat to match up back height etc. these were used on 140 and 150 as well
They are on p11 SPC BD6113 packing 4 required but is this timber or the alloy strips?
my trimmer has installed something very similar to these.
I have made these BD.6113 Packing for Seat Slides (4).
I made them out of 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood, 1-1/2" x 15".
They are found on page 8 of the FHC supplement and page 11 of the DHC supplement, under Floor Panels, not Seats incidentally.
So the question is, what was used to cover them?
Moquette, rexine, leather?
Is there definitive evidence, did it vary from year to year, or is it just trimmer’s opinions or owner’s preferences?
Urs Schmid and Bernard Viart do not mention these.
My Mark V had similar seat packings covered in moquette to match the carpeting, which I am quite certain was original.
Rob,
Don’t know whether this helps, but the “Packing assembly under seat runners BD.10912” for the XK 140 FHC were originally covered in Rexine (trim colour) in my car. Also note that these wooden strips are not flat, but tapered in case of the 140 FHC: sliding the seat forward will increase its height.
Bob K.
When I removed my badly encrusted seat slides from what was left of my original floors after my Aug 52 FHC car sat outside in Worcester, MA for 50 years, I found bits of rug but no wood spacers. Based on my brother’s XK-120 DHC driving experience and recommendation, I had tapered wooden wedges made from hardwood that tilt the seats back so the tops now touch the rear parcel shelf. This maximizes the amount of space between the driver and the steering wheel, very important for 6’ or taller drivers. Of course, the seat position needs to be moved to its most rearward position. The tapered wedges are about 3/4" in the front and taper to about 1/8" at the rear and run under the entire length of the seat slide. Longer screws are required on the front of the slides. This makes a noticeable improvement in driver comfort, and I also installed the wedges under the passenger seat so as to match the angle of the seat back. It is my intention to cover these with Rexine, as later XK’s used on their factory supplied tapered wedges.
Hello Rob,
in the German edition of Urs Schmid’s book, vol. 2, in the chapter where the seat frames are described is written, that in DHC and FHC rexine covered wooden distance pieces were installed between seat runners and carpet to assure the movability of the seat adjustment.
Joerg
Thanks Bob and Tom, I hadn’t thought about them as wedges, but my cushions are higher in the front and I haven’t noticed any discomfort in driving position, so perhaps that’s related to later seats or an owner preference kind of thing.
And vielen dank, Joerg. I did not find this in the English version. Rexine it shall be.
bob on all the XK140 roadsters and FHC I have had/worked on including very original one owner car the spacers under the seats have always been a piece of 3/8 inch plywood not tapered. trimmed in rexine
All the XK150’s I have had/worked on the spacers have been solid wood and tapered. trimmed in rexine
In both cases there are thin bits of alluminiun to pack seats up to match each other
The reason I had always thought they were fitted was to raise the front of the seat over the east west strengthening rib across the front of the rear metal floor which the top of lines up with the top level of front plywood floor you need to chamfer the underside of this to sit properly down and on the one 140 held down by 3 round head set screws with large flat washers and on some 140’s a square metal clip into which an 8/10 guage self tapper goes.
Thanks for that Terry. So mine must have been replaced by the later XK 150 ones. I think that a tapered construction (that raises the seat when moving forward) seems more logical as “when your legs are shorter your body is short as well” (exceptions excluded of course…).
Bob
I covered my packing strips in black leather, came out fine, matches my gearbox dipstick hole cover.
The seat runners were full of carpet fuzz, needed a good cleaning, so these packings should help keep that down.
I screwed them to a pallet so I could run them back and forth while spraying with the cleaner; the eye bolt is a handle.
Nice to have seats that move easily now.
I noticed the seat runners are stamped:
Manufactured by
Hallam, Sleigh
& Cheston
Birmingham
No. 20308-16
Presumably the 16 means they are 16" long.
They started in 1886 in the horse harness trade, switched to auto parts, and are still in business, but now called Widney.
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WOW I have seen a lot of seat runners never seen anything stamped into them can we get a photo of the stamping thanks terry
Rob,
That’s correct. Hallam was also Jaguar’s supplier of (early) interior mirrors and ashtrays. They operated under the brandname Widney. See this ad.
Bob K.
I wondered what on earth the photo was initially!
thanks
All of you who have dealt with or are dealing with the runners under the seat frame:
I have the fixed head coupe (FHC) model of the XK120 679526. When I removed the seats the metal frame was mounted on top of the carpet and fastened to the floor directly. I wish to put the runners under the metal frame before I install the seats.
I understand that the dimensions are 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood, 1-1/2" x 15" my question is are these tapered from 3/8ths to 3/4" or straight across 3/8" with no taper keeping with the 1-1/2"x15" measurements.
Thank you for any reply.
Maddy
In addition, are the screw holes to mount the wooden runners the same in all four runners and if so what is the center measure of each hole. Do the metal seat frames have different holes in which to mount to the wooden runners? If so what is the center measure for these?
Over the years the owner’s modifications may render the standard measurements null and if this is the case do I place the wooden runners over the holes in the floor and mark the hole placement that way? How closely are the backside of the runners placed to the battery box?
Maddy