[xk] Spat update

XK
1

In an effort to learn something about sheet metal working, I have
been re-reading a few books on sheet metal and bodywork. During the
past few weeks I have been working on trying to make a spat to fit
my 140.
Probably have about 25 hours of effort into it so far, including
some time head scratching and wondering what to do next, as well as
some time making up some wooden forms. This spat is easily
identifiable as a non-authentic version, because, among other
reasons, the inwardly facing flange around the edge is not made
from a separate piece. And after it gets painted, perhaps the fit
will not seem to appear so good. However, for a first attempt at
making a spat, this one is coming out much better than the dented,
wrinkled piece of sheet metal slathered with bondo which I
partially expected to end up with. From a distance it doesnt look
to bad at all, or maybe my standards are sort of low

Anyhow, the edge of the wheel opening in the wing has been all re-
formed and smoothed out to accept a spat. A po had flattened out
the edge of the opening, probably when the original spats were
discarded back in the mid 1960s. I have previously contacted the
second owner of the car, and he doesnt have any XK140 spats, and
doesnt recall what happened to the original set

I had to make a mounting peg to attach the front of the spat to the
wing, and the rear original peg is still there. I used a repro
latch mechanism and chrome lid

Anyhow, this spat is now pretty much all completed, as far as
metalworking goes, with no bondo used (yet) ! I will probably use a
skim of bondo in a few places to smooth out some file marks before
painting, and then hopefully this spat may be good enough to
actually use on the car. The spat fits nicely in the wing opening
and has ended up being slightly curved so its surface lines up
pretty good with the wing surface. The gap betwen the spat and the
wing actually doesnt look too bad, as the edge of the spat is
leaded and can be filed to have almost any shape

Soon I will be starting to make the right hand spat, and will try a
new method, making the inwardly facing flange out of a separate
piece, so that one may possibly end up being somewhat more
realistic in appearance. Maybe not, though, as the inward facing
flange seems to be important in creating and maintaing the actual
shape of the whole spat

On this first spat, the inwardly facing flange has been made by
making pie cuts all along the edge, folding the edge over 180
degrees on itself over a wooden form, then bending back inward 90
degrees against another form, then welding up and smoothing out all
the little pie cuts. By luck, the steps of drawing the pie cut
edges together and welding them seems to have created a nice
curvature in the outer surface of the spat which allows it to
almost match the curvature of the wing surface.

Anyhow here are some pictures of how this first spat looks at this
stage.

http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap_view.php3?id=1201455112--
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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1 Like
2

In reply to a message from Gary Grant sent Mon 28 Jan 2008:

Gary,

For a first try - rather remarkable really ; how much are you going
to charge for a pair with hardware ?

Karl–
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3

Gary G;
Nothing like taking on the most difficult shape/item to begin learning
on… Looks like you are doing a helluva job…
I do have to ask, however, what the hell is all that white stuff on the
“floor” around your “work area”? ;-}
Don’t you know that when the temps and conditions are not conducive to
working outside, that one simply moves all tools and parts into the living
room?? I’ve readjusted the valves on my DHC’s head on the coffee table,
I’ve even “built” complete race bikes in the living room… just move the
coffee table out of the way… Just tell you wife I said it was okay…
she’ll understand… ;-}
Charles #677556.----- Original Message -----
From: “Gary Grant”

In an effort to learn something about sheet metal working, I have
been re-reading a few books on sheet metal and bodywork. During the
past few weeks I have been working on trying to make a spat to fit
my 140.

Snipped<<<<<<<<.

Anyhow here are some pictures of how this first spat looks at this
stage.

http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap_view.php3?id=1201455112

Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada

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4

In reply to a message from BISHOP13 sent Mon 28 Jan 2008:

Karl, I should load my truck up with tools and sheet metal and
become a travelling tinker and spat maker. Spats-R-Us ?
And Charles, its full fleged wintertime around here just about now.
That isnt beach sand on the ground. Whatever happened to global
warming? That day when making the lower edge bend, it was colder
INside the garage than outside ! so I ended up playing in the snow.
I like it when my wife makes her annual trip Down East to visit
relatives, then the inside of the house becomes a lovely workspace
for a whole week. As long as I get it mostly all cleared out before
she gets back, Im safe.–
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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5

In reply to a message from Gary Grant sent Mon 28 Jan 2008:

Gary, I can’t even imagine trying what you are doing, the spat
looks great. You get a double at-a-boy from me. Be sure and get
the car parts out of the dishwasher before the wife gets home. Mac–
Clew65
Port Angeles, WA, United States
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6

In reply to a message from Clew65 sent Tue 29 Jan 2008:

Hi Clew/Jim?
Yes, I also almost cant imagine that I am really doing what
I am trying to do. Its slowly dawning on me that a spat
installation is going to be a pretty much irreversible step.
I always have liked the open rear wheel appearance, with the
wheel opening shape being a nice curve around the outside of
the tire. I guess that is why the po flattened out the lip
around the wheel opening, so it would look smooth and finished.
After reforming the wheel opening lips (luckily the po didnt
trim them off) it will now look not so smooth when spats are
not installed. It will take me a while to get used to the
new appearance.
As far as appearance goes, I wont really be able to tell how
well the spats fit or dont fit, until I get them all painted
and then be able to view reflections in the paint all along
the side of the car. Now I think theres almost too much
curvature in this first spat. Oh well, time will tell.

One huge bonus is that this provides a supreme excuse (and I
dont need much of an excuse) to spend time just looking at
the lines of the car. No ‘design by committee’ car styling
back then.–
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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7

Gary G;
The only difference in the wheel opening between the “open wheel” Jags
vs. the “Spatted” Jag is the Brass Finisher that was fitted in the “lip” of
the wheel opening of the wing… So, in a sense, there should be no
disruption of any styling lines between the two versions… hardly an
“irreversable” step… You don’t want spats?? Take em off! You want
spats?? Put em on… the wire wheel cars do not have this “luxury” ;-}
Charles #677556.

Its slowly dawning on me that a spat----- Original Message -----
From: “Gary Grant”

installation is going to be a pretty much irreversible step.

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8

In reply to a message from Gary Grant sent Mon 28 Jan 2008:

Good Morning Gary,

What a great job, especially the first time at it!

Was the previous owner of your 140 from the Ottawa area? I love the
colour scheme!!!:>)) I own a project 1960-61 XK150 FHC 3.8 that was
once owned by a TV or Radio ‘‘celeb’’ from Ottawa and it was painted
a weird metallic green…I’m just wondering whether or not this is
an ‘‘Ottawa’’ thing… the weird colours.

I wish I had the capabilities to make something like your spats,
I’m really impresssed.

Congrats and best regards

Marcel–
marcelxke
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9

In reply to a message from marcelxke sent Wed 30 Jan 2008:

Hi Charles
Thanks for the reassurance…I just seem to have always prefered
the ‘spatless’ look, as the wheel openings front and rear are
similar and expose the tires nicely, resulting in a sporty look,
although I am now starting to like the look of spats a little more.

And Marcel, thanks for the compliment. I havent finished these
spats yet so there is still a big chance that I could screw up and
ruin everything. I think I got very lucky forming the shape of this
first spat. I hope to start on the second spat tomorrow evening.
And no, this car came from the east coast, Halifax (Nova Scotia)
area where I used to live until 1998. The first owner was a
football coach at SMU (Saint Marys University), the second owner a
geologist, the third owner a personal friend, and I am the fourth
owner. As far as I can determine, the car spent its whole life in
N.S. until I brought it up here in 2002.
Yes the colour scheme is unusual, although the car was originally
plain battleship gray. The present colours were selected a long
time ago by a former potential girlfriend, who I was desperately
trying to impress. She first selected the light brown colour for
the whole car, and then later, after the bonnet tore off one day
while running down the highway and became damaged, she decided a
dark brown bonnet and middle of the car would look nice. I, in
return, thought that she looked very nice herself, and happily went
along with her ideas.–
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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10

In reply to a message from Gary Grant sent Wed 30 Jan 2008:

Gary,

Actually, there is a moddle ground: notched spats which have a
teardrop cutout and permit one to retain the wire wheels whilst
having some of the look of spats. Not strictly original as they
were probably a dealer installed option.

Karl–
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11

Gary,

It looks like you’re doing a great job on the spats. I’m envious of your
metal working abilities. I hate to see you go to all the work of painting
them to find any imperfections though. An old clay modeling trick is to
stretch some clear plastic wrap over the surface, the kind used to wrap food
for storage. It probably won’t be wide enough to cover the whole spat but
you can do sections. If it’s reluctant to stick in your cold climate you can
spray the surface lightly with water which should help, Then smooth it out
with a squeegee or credit car and sight down the side of the car with a
light source at the other end positioned to get a good reflection. Another
way is to run some strips of dark tape vertically over the surfaces spaced
an inch or so apart and sight down the side to compare sections, or
horizontal stripes viewed from above.

Good luck,
Bill Borden
670168

“As far as appearance goes, I wont really be able to tell how well the spats
fit or dont fit, until I get them all painted and then be able to view
reflections in the paint all along the side of the car. Now I think theres
almost too much curvature in this first spat. Oh well, time will tell.”

12

In reply to a message from karl sent Wed 30 Jan 2008:

Gary,

Here is a little trick:

Make a stiff batten of white pine, that requires some pressure to
force to fit the surface; the longer the span you are checking, the
stiffer the batten. For a spat I imagine something like 3/8 square
to start and about 4 feet long to bridge the longest gaps.

Rub a red lumber crayon on one side of the batten to coat it with
the red wax.

Slide the batten back and forth on the surface and you will see the
high spots pick up a red hue from the contact with the batten.
Proceed to ‘‘lower’’ the high spots and ‘‘raise’’ the low spots,
repeating as necessary.

When you are all done, be SURE to remove all of the wax with
repeated rinses of solvent.

Another tool you can buy commercially are ‘‘long boards’’, various
stiffnesses with sandpaper faces and handles like a jack plane
available from marine supply sources and used to fair up fiberglass
boat hulls. Good once you get to the filler and primer stage.

Karl–
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13

In reply to a message from karl sent Wed 30 Jan 2008:

Hi Karl and Bill
Wow, thanks for the nice tips on how to determine surface
irregularities.
Im so glad you have made those suggestions. I was thinking of
slopping some OIL on the bare metal spat surface to make it shine
somewhat. No wonder I used to get fisheyes in my painting attempts.

Will try those most helpful suggestions this evening.–
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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14

In reply to a message from Gary Grant sent Mon 28 Jan 2008:

Gary,
Nice job. Have you checked tire sidewall clearance against
your new spats. This shouldn’t be an issue with 6:00x16 bias-ply,
but do some measuring before you purchase wider radials. I have
205R65x16’’ Kumhos on my spatted XK120 with no problem.

                                       Adrian Curtis, NH
                                       '53 XK120 DHC
                                       '55 MVIIM--

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15

In reply to a message from asc sent Thu 31 Jan 2008:

Hi Adrian
Yes, luckily I have been checking clearances with the tire
as I go along. These tires are skinny 6.00s, and so far so
good, but what I should do is jack one end of the axle up
and down, to see if the tire tilts very much, perhaps then
getting closer to the spat.
I still have to trim a bit off the inwardly pointing flange,
on this left spat, as it is still a bit too long in some
places.That will give even more clearance to the tire. You
can see in one of the pictures where that flange hasnt yet
been trimmed down to the black ink line marked on the metal
in some places.
I am a bit concerned about the front mounting peg (attached
to the inside of the wing on the left side) though, as the
old one was pretty much mostly missing, and I now am not
exactly sure if I have the recreated peg in the proper
position or not. I now think the recreated front peg is a
little bit too long. The rear peg on the left side is still
perfectly intact, and it has always cleared the tire by a
couple of inches, but the end of the recreated front peg now
sits maybe at the most an inch and a half from the tire,
which seems pretty close to me, and it makes the tire more
difficult to install/remove now. I can still trim it off a
little, although if I trim off too much of the peg I will
end up repositioning the mounting fork on the front of the spat.
Has anyone looked at, or measured, clearance between front
peg (or whatever that 5/16’’ diameter bar holding up the
front of the spat is called) and tire lately? And would you
think the clearance would be pretty much the same for 120s
and 140s?

Interestingly, I tried fitting the cardboard pattern (made
to closely fit the shape of the wheel opening in the left
wing) into the opening in the right wing, hoping to be able
to also use it as a pattern for marking out the right hand
spat onto sheet metal. On this car anyway, the opening in
the right wing has somehow ended up being about 1/4 inch
longer than the opening on the left wing.–
Gary Grant S818919DN
Ottawa, Canada
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16

I know this is reaching back almost a decade, BUT, WHAT HAPPENED WITH THIS SPATS PROJECT???
Looking to make (or buy cheaper) some spats for our XK140.

Thanks.

17

jaginfrontofhouse
jaginfrontofhouse.jpg800×600 89.9 KB

Hi Baloo,

Believe it or not, my XK with the home made spats is still here (and so am I ).

The spats actually got finished years ago, but perhaps I had forgotten to submit any pictures of the finished spats, so take a look at this pic of my XK with the spats all completed, and the whole car painted in a simulation of its original Battleship Grey colour.

And please don’t ask if I can make any more of these spats, this was a one time project which turned out much better than I had expected !
It would not be cost effective, for me anyway, to make any more spats, especially without direct access to the actual vehicle itself.
On my XK, one wheel opening is slightly longer than the other wheel opening. This XK originally was fitted with spats, so some of the attachment points ( short horizontal metal rods welded to the front and rear of each rear wheel opening, and a plate attached to the top-inside of each rear wheel opening) were still intact. I bought the two chrome plated latches from Moss Motors.

The link to pictures, mentioned in the very first post on this topic 10 years ago, still functions and will allow you to see some pictures of the spat fabrication steps.

Anyhow, please tell us something about your XK.

I’m finally becoming used to the look of spats, the spats have become more acceptable (for me to look at) if I think of them as aerodynamic devices, which reduce drag by smoothing out airflow around the vehicle ( which seems to be an actual valid reason the have spats installed).

2 Likes
18

Gary,
that is an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL car!!
I think we will also paint our XK140 FHC the Battleship Grey. Did you use any metallic flake with it to give it that lustre?
Can you give me some particulars about your paint? I think we are sufficiently geographically separated that our two cars will not be in the same ballroom at the same time (ha).

Regarding the spats… Ours is a wire wheel model, but I love the spatty-look.
So, we will retain the wires on the front, and put whatever is needed on the rear in order to accommodate the spats.
Possibly maybe even working a set of spats to accommodate octagonal spinners, if necessary.
HOWEVER, we are not at that point yet, although I am collecting all needed parts now.

Tomorrow, the car goes for an engine/transmission fitting, and then paint.
THEN AC installation, installing a couple seats, power windows, all glass, and then down to Houston, TX, to the son to finish at his leisure. The door panels, wood trim, carpeting, etc, will have to wait.

Because the son has very limited free time, I agreed to get the car to the point of being driveable and licensed – and since everything is stripped from the car, might as well have it painted.

I will check out your other posted pix.

steve (Baloo)

19

The spinners stick out too far for normal spats to work.
Back in the day there were a few who either put wire wheels on spat cars and cut clearance curves in the spats or rigged up cutaway spats on wire wheel cars.
Here are a couple of ways it was done.
jagspat1

dscn4742
dscn4742.jpg1000×721 190 KB

If you advertise you might find some of these on the used parts market.

20

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the nice words. And thanks for telling us about your XK, sounds like it will be real nice.

This paint job was done in 2010, and the paint is an inexpensive single stage (ie. no clearcoat) Dupont Nason .
The old fashioned shine is a result of wet sanding the entire surface with 1000, then 1500, then 2000 then 2500 grit sandpaper, then polishing the sanded surface with Evercoat, coarse, then medium, then fine, polish.
This cutting and polishing of the paint by hand is very time consuming, and can be avoided by using a two stage basecoat clearcoat type of paint instead of the single stage type of paint. The basecoat clearcoat style of paint seems to result in a super glossy modern candy-apple style of shine.

This actual colour is an attempt at duplicating the Battleship Grey colour the car was originally painted when new.
I had taken the car to a paint supplier who electronically scanned the remains of the original paint inside the boot area, then they mixed up the paint as close as they could. However, under certain conditions, especially under fluorescent light, the paint looks a little bit too green. Oh well.

If you wish to find out the actual paint code of this actual paint, you can find it in the archives. At the time, I thought I was looking for the “Birch Grey” paint code, but I subsequently found out that this car was originally the darker “Battleship Grey”.

Just enter the search terms “new paint job” in the searching box (the magnifying glass icon at the top of this JagLovers page). When you get the results, select the result from October 2010. This should reconstruct the “new paint job” conversation thread in which I think I recorded the actual Dupont paint code…which is not recommended to use unless you like a greenish tinge to the grey colour…
At the time, the real paint code for use with modern paint was apparently unknown, but since that time the real paint code for Battleship Gray might have been discovered. Hopefully someone else might know for sure.

I have just noticed that some of the original “new paint job” thread from 2010 has just appeared at the beginning of this “spat update” thread… Don’t know how this happened . Possibly, Andrew has been migrating the information from the old J-L site to this new J-L site.
In any event, many thanks to Andrew for all the work you have done to save and preserve J-L.

Anyhow, here is a recent picture of my XK running down Bank Street on the way home from a car show in June.

And don’t forget, as Rob has mentioned, you can place a parts wanted advertisement on this Jag-Lovers site (for free) to try to find the parts you want.

jagonbankstreet
jagonbankstreet.jpg3886×2622 2.04 MB