Dick,
Remember the 1000 mile alloy car in Calif? It has sealed beams. I’m sure
we’ve all seen the photos of a batch of new 120’s without headlights
destined for export. No doubt you have already looked at p84 of the XK120
parts catalogue.
Service Bulletin 112 dated Oct '52 says there was a conversion kit #553962
from Messrs Joseph Lucas Ltd. (presumably of England) to convert British
headlamps to sealed beams, and that the kits would also be obtainable from
Lucas Electrical Services of Los Angeles and New York. It sort of implies
that the UK owners were converting theirs, but why would NY and LA parts
depots have the kits at all, except to convert cars arriving used from
elsewhere?
On p87 of the Mark V parts catalogue it lists the following parts for
USA/CDN cars:
553620 Rim Assembly, Outer
553614 Rim, Inner
553724 Adaptor
Notably absent is the statement about “reflector not supplied”, but there is
a picture in Skilleter’s “Jaguar Saloon Cars” of a row of new Mark V’s
without headlights being loaded onto a ship. My USA spec Hoffman NY delivery
Mark V has sealed beams and the adaptors to plug into them, and I have every
reason to believe they are original to the car.
In the Mark VII parts book there is similar info for rim 553972 and adapter
553724 for USA/CDN and it
says “… light unit not supplied”. Service Bulletin 116 dated Dec '52
covers the Lucas conversion kit for MkVII.
Note the spelling change on the word adapter from MkV to MkVII. One gets the
impression that these books were hastily written and not double checked all
that carefully.
I surfed the web and learned from Cadillac and Lincoln enthusiasts that
sealed beams came along pretty much across the board on all US built cars in
1940; also that they were invented by the father of the inventor of the
plastic Frisbee. I was not able to find a law requiring them, but lighting
laws may have varied widely among our (at that time) 48 states.
Some Mark IV’s in the USA had their P100’s converted to sealed beams. Here
is a site with some old photos of cars with and without the conversion on a
used car lot. Perhaps it was an owner preference thing. http://home.att.net/~berliner-ultrasonics/ssjags-1.html#oldphoto
Being in the final stages of restoration of my XK120 FHC, I am
getting confused about the headlamps that should be mounted.
Several sources indicate that the original headlamps will not
enable me getting the car approved by the dutch authorities (RDW)
since these do not bear the so-called E-mark. Possibly experiences,
indicating how to proceed are available from previous (dutch?)
projects.
Hi Math,
I am also in Holland and had my car ( also FHC 120) thru the RDW with just
the headlamps of a mini. Even the chrome was not fitted . They know that you
will put others in afterwards.
You also need rear reflectors. I had mine with me and they asked were they
were. In front of them I sticked them on. After wards I took them off in
their sight. They did not care. Normally they get to do reimnported opels
with LGP gas installations. So to see a jag properly done is a treat to
them. Off course you need to have te import papers. Mine was imported back
in 85 so when I got the RDW papers I had to get back to customs and got a
not expected refund! Important is that the brakes are working porperly and
are close to eachtother. On another car one wheel was a bit behind, but they
accepted my explanation that everything was just to new. In general, you
hear many arkward stories, but if you are nice to them, accept their
bureaucracy, make a few jokes, you will not have to many problems. But to
begin with: your car needs to be in pretty good shape in general.
Where do you need to go? ( wre do you live?) Ahh that reminds me. I told
them ( when I phoned) that I needed the car for my wedding ( which was
true). The normal waiting time of approx 6 weeks was then reduced to a
couple of days. They planned me at a small extra site far in the country.
This was a small outlet that is basically a normal workshop that helps them.
This also made things smooth.
BTW I borrowed the mini head lamps. ( I presume that you also go for the PF
700 headlamps.)
reagards
Duco Jan Avis
XK 120 FHC SE, S681221 ( aug 53)
PS A general greeting to the rest of the group. I have been reading the
mails, but did not find time to write. Now one of my exhaust valves is
ticking which I do not really like. On they way back from the workshop We
helped out a guy I met on the dutck XK tour. He had a waterpipe problem
which happened again after some 20 miles. Luckily We had follwed him.----- Original Message -----
From: “math jennekens” math.jennekens@wxs.nl
To: xk@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 12:45 PM
Subject: [xk] XK120 headlamps
Being in the final stages of restoration of my XK120 FHC, I am
getting confused about the headlamps that should be mounted.
Several sources indicate that the original headlamps will not
enable me getting the car approved by the dutch authorities (RDW)
since these do not bear the so-called E-mark. Possibly experiences,
indicating how to proceed are available from previous (dutch?)
projects.