Whilst I am not necessarily advocating the conversion of FHC to DHC
interestingly from some of the early Fixed Head Coupes I have seen, my
belief is early in production the factory actually turned roadster bodies or
parts thereoff into FHC’s certainly the rear body sections show signs that
they had the complete roadster deck which had then been chopped out for roof
section and also firewalls with both upper and lower sets of holes for
clutch and brake pedals with patches over them. The similarities are close
enogh that several roadsters had FHC rooves attached including a well known
rally car LOE409 or somthing without looking it up
regardsSubject: RE: [xk] XK 120 Coup conversion into a roadster
An FHC without a roof isn’t the same as an OTS or DHC (the open top
ones), there are numerous differences
---- Original Message ----
To: xk@jag-lovers.org
From: “Gael” ggriette@wanadoo.fr
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:06:24 +1000
Subject: [xk] XK 120 Coup conversion into a roadster
I may have access to a XK 120 Coup to be rebuilt completely for a
reasonable price. The one I like is the XK 120 roadster but prices
are not within my means. I guess it is possible to convert a coup
into a roadster. Has it been done already? What is involved?
You might notice that the door to body on the hinge pillar of the steel
roadster is at an angle in that the pillar face is not perpindicular to
the sill as the FHC and DHC. This means that the wing to hinge pillar
sheets are probably different lengths too and need to be fitted expertly
after fitting the proper doors and strike pillars. The coupe doors with
the window mechanics need to be severely altered to remove the gear
works, and the upper “alloy covered wooden shoulder extension” to at
least appear to look correct. The latch works are not interchangable and
need to be lanyard operated from the inside only. Altering “square
doors” so that they function with the proper “angle set”, is IMHO not for
a novice. There are rather large differences in the tenneau panel size
and where the petrol fill locates. The tanks are there different from
the roadster to the DHC etc etc…
If however, all things considered, if there should be little original
body good enough to restore, and you have a better donor body or more of
it from a roadrster then your coupe, then go for it!
IMHO it is far better to have an example of any XK120 on the road even if
not quite correct, than a pile of rust in the garage that never sees
daylight!
But like the other folks here, I too think it’d be better to put every
effort into keeping it as it is, (FHC or DHC) and using it (proceeds) to
eventually get your roadster (OTS).