XK120 soft top anchor bar (aka rear floating hood stick)

The subject piece is p/n BD8567 and looks like this:

I need one. All but one of the usuals I’m dealing with don’t list it as available, and the one that does has it at US$200. I could be OK with that but shipping to Canada from California on top of brokerage fees and import taxes more than doubles the cost - for a simple hunk of steel.

Nuh-uh.

This will be a straightforward fabrication from 1/8” bar stock, but I need a pattern, something like what I posted here for the XK120 cow horn

Yeah, I know it’s a big ask but if one of you fine fellow XK120 OTS restorers happens to have one sitting loose and would be willing to do a tracing on graph paper for posting here it would be very much appreciated - and also a great addition to the archive.

Cheers!

Alternatively, these 7 measurements would suffice.

Hi Nick. I don’t recall where in Canada you live, but if you are close to a US border crossing there are methods to relieve the financial pain of buying XK parts from the US. I live in the Metro Vancouver area and Point Roberts, WA is only a 40 minute drive from home. I have an account there with a mail drop, which holds my couriered packages for pick up. Antique auto (more than 25 years old) parts can be imported duty free. I have the US supplier label the freight manifest “Antique Auto Parts”, and on this basis, I have never been charged an import duty. In addition, because I am carrying them across the border myself, there is also no brokerage fee. They will ding you for the applicable GST though.

Check out this article for more details on the process…How To: Duty-Free Shipping of Classic Car Parts for Canadians

Cheers,
Rob Carne

Nick,

To add to Rob’s post, I use US Address, a drop site close to us, 5 minutes from Hwy 405 border.
3909 Witmer Rd, Niagara Falls, NY 14305,
Have the business send the part there, with your contact and phone number on it. They’ll call, and you can pick it up. There’s a $5-10 fee.
Import yourself.
Rob

Nick:

To echo Rob’s comment below, I have a friend who has a similar set up with I believe a UPS outlet in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He has the stuff he orders sent there, they hold it and he picks it up and brings it across. He is in Grimsby (a tad closer to the border than me) and used to also take extra containers and get cheap gas while he was over! The brokerage charged now has always forced me to go the U.S. postal route as it is invariably cheaper, albeit sometimes longer.

Chris.

Thanks, guys. I have used a mail dropoff in Niagara Falls NY several times, though only once over the past couple of years with border closures and covid complications. I guess it’s time to resume. There’s no duty on antique car parts anymore but you still get dinged for the 13% HST at the border, plus California has a reciprocal agreement with New York on collecting sales taxes, which adds another 6%, which is added to the taxable amount. Tax on tax. Still worth it, if only to avoid the courier differential.

It’s the UPS and FedEx brokerage fees that irk me (also taxed, as is the shipping cost). They’re exorbitant, but only when crossing the US-Canada border it seems. I have just purchased four new chrome wire wheels from SC Parts in the UK, which were shipped UPS out of Germany and arrived in four days. The shipping charge was £120, or US$160, but the brokerage fee was only C$15, with no tax assessed on the shipping cost. I thought I’d pack up my extra set of four silver painted XK wire wheels in tje boxes the new ones came in and offer them here on J-L but when I plugged in the package details into the UPS shipping calculator for US addresses the estimated charge came out to a minimum of C$170 and about triple that for their two-day service.

Yeah. Time to start crossing the border again … but I’d still prefer to fab this piece myself, if only for the fun of it.

Hi Nick, I can trace one of mine & mail it to you.
regards Harold Lang

Just on a point of information, does the tonneau also use p/n BD8567 to fix to the two two teardrops, or are there a couple shorter pieces? Thanks.

That would be fabulous, Harold … what will that be? The third time you’ve come to my rescue?

How’s life in the west coast?

No, the tonneau cover doesn’t feature the steel bar but two pockets that slip over and hook into the teardrops.

Thanks Nick. I’ve kept a spare BD8567 (with chrome peeling) in case I needed it for a tonneau.

You may not be aware that UPS got sued big time for over charging brokerage fees.
I got dinged mulitple times over the years, but one day I got a letter saying a company has been hired to look through UPS invoices and pay back over charged fees.
About 6 months later I got a check!
Places like Rock Auto have all the fees nailed down now…no BS.
I think the over charging is finally over.
Rob

I was not aware of that, Rob. Good. I have many UPS invoices in my restoration file. Maybe I should make a claim :sunglasses:.

Following up, I used Harold’s tracing to cut a mockup out of 3mm baltic birch and used it to fabricate the piece out of 3/16” x 1” mild steel flatbar custom fitted to my OTS. It’s a fairly straightforward process if you know how to weld but it took close to six hours to pull it off. Fun, though, and no concerns about how well a repro will fit.

Poured myself a celebratory glass of pinot at the end of the day

The fit on the tonneau - it floats above the body a little less than 1/4” (is that why it’s called a “floating hood stick”?)

If anyone wants the detail on process chime in.

And here I thought it was because they made it out of wood. :wink:
Anyway well done. I love to make Jag parts.

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so next is how to protect the paint finish from the chafing of the hood material across the deck…I have seen for some other cars a plastic cling strip…not a sticky surface…just cling like saran wrap but thicker. Or maybe some microfiber or ?? The top (hood) when up WILL leave marks.
Nick

If my 40-year E-type OTS ownership is any indication the soft top will be raised but rarely. I had intended for much of the (very long) time I’ve been restoring this XK120 to forgo installing the windshields in preference for Brooklands racing screens, doing without a soft top entirely, but have changed my mind. It’s bordering on absurd to spend the time, money and effort remaining to refurbish and reupholster the soft top and side curtain frames since they’ll inevitably spend 99% of the time stowed but having come this far I want the car to be complete and 100% functional in all repects.

Good point, though. I use low tack masking tape on the rear deck of my E-type while the hardtop’s on to protect the paint. Works well and is entirely invisible. Seems to me it might be a practical solution for the 120 as well.

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On my car there’s just a few square inches near the chrome tear drops where the top rubs (slightly) on the paint. The use of masking tape is an excellent idea.

The cost to correctly restore all the weather equipment, including pin beading, is a major factor on any XK. I occasionally use the top in the Spring and Fall, but never the side curtains.

I used the tonneau cover just yesterday, which is far more convenient than erecting the top.

Nick,

Working on my soft top (hood) and in need of the “floating hood stick” BD.8567.
They are available here in Europe (or better UK) but shipment + taxes make it rather expensive.

I understand from your report that you used an original part from Harold Lang to make your template in plywood. Did you by any chance took the dimensions and wrote them down somewhere?

Would be of great help.

Cheers,

Bob K.

Hey there, Bob. It’s Harold’s @1365_WK template that you need. I kept it for the opportunity to pay it forward to the first person who needs it. PM me your address and I’ll get it in the mail for you (and it will be your turn to keep it for the next guy),

Use the template and carbon paper to trace the outline onto heavy card stock, fibre board or thin plywood and carefully cut it out for your mock up. It should fit like this:

the tape is to protect the paint while you proceed with the fabrication and test fits.

You’ll need a suitable length of 3/16" x 1" mild steel flatbar

mark the exact centre of the mockup and then work out where you will cut the flat bar to each side to effect the curvature -

Cut 3/4" slits into the flat bar, leaving a 1/4" hinge on the inner radius, and using the mock up bend precisely at the hinges and tack weld the edges.


then set your welder good and hot and complete the welds on both sides

next steps fairly obvious. Fab and weld in the two triangular tangs, grind the welds flush and custom bend the piece to fit the tonneau (before you take the tape off )…

image

Edit: you could of course start out with a piece of 6” x 43” x 1/8” flat bar and cut the shape out directly.

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