1958 XK150 roadster (LV) Cosmetic restoration

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Specification (briefly) for this project is as follows: Strip the car to bare metal, repair bodywork issues, repaint in original cream colour, replace or replate brightwork, service (but not restore) mechanicals

Almost there......

I'm glad you bought this and not me....

I am pleased to report that your car is now in the trim room in David's safe and caring hands. You might just be driving the old car again within the next couple of weeks!

Almost finished at the front....	New screen installed - Dave managed to save all your old badging....
Going back with the dash.....	Glove box reinstalled.....

What a difference a week makes! Great to have you visit with us to personally check on our progress.

Leon supervising our man Lawrence!

Installing the rubber seals ready for boot and......	door installation.....
Notice the Wurth bodywax being sprayed inside all cavities	Installing the right door...
Installing the left door......	Check out the panel gaps....
Installing the boot	This picture was supposed to demonstrate how straight and wave free the car is down the sides....difficult to capture on film
Installing the headlamps....	Rear license plate chrome and lamps
Installing door latching mechanism	Gas filler cap installed

Finally getting some white paint laid down for you! Apologise for the delay in posting pictures - it's been even more hectic than usual around here!

We need to tidy up under the bonnet....	.....especially on the firewall

Unfortunately I must have accidentally pressed a strange button on my digital camera when I took these photographs for you on Friday afternoon. As a result, the following pictures have a very period look to them.....in other words they are in black and white!

Almost finished with the bodywork - or at least the panel replacement. As you can see from the following photographs, Lawrence and Cosme have both been busy and have entered the all important blocking stage.

The new grill put up something of a fight during the trial fit, although I believe Lawrence got everything to line up in the end.

All in all, huge progress since our last update on this project.

Trial fitting rear wing - it will have to be removed for the blocking process	Everything starting to line up rather nicely
Lead, lead.......	and more lead....
Trial fitting bonnet and removing rear wings for blocking	Boot lid fit should be a tad better when Cosme is through....
Fine tuning lead loaded panel gaps	Bonnet a little tight in corners....
So Lawrence removed excess lead with his file	New grill isn't a great fit
Grill must be properly fit before we can even think about priming and painting the bonnet

Almost finished with the panel repair and replacement. This week you will see Lawrence lead loading all of his bodywork and beginning the priming and blocking process. Almost there!

The rear panel is entirely new, courtesy of Lawrence and his English Wheel	Initial lead loading done, much more to follow
New inner wing and boot side wall	Cowl welded back in place, awaits lead loading of seam

The following photographs show Lawrence slowly progressing up the right hand side of the car, front to rear. He has now finished reconstruction of the B pillar/shut face panel, repaired the underside of the right rear wing, and is about to replace the corroded metal on the inner wing/boot side wall panel (as he did a week or so ago on the other side of the car).

These pictures were taken Wednesday evening and I will try to take more pictures for you tonight (4/11) as I believe you will find the next batch of images extremely encouraging. We are bang on estimate for the body repairs currently in hand.

A view from the rear of the RH B pillar/shut face panel	The upper/inner lip in this picture is all new metal
Notice the exposed boot hinge	RH door goes into place

Some significent progress on the right side of the car yesterday (4/4). Soon Lawrence will have no choice but to hand the car over to Cosme! Lawrence actually took the day off today so the following photographs bring the project bang up to date.

New RH rocker panel and lower hinge	Lawrence made you a new right front wing
The inside of the new right front wing	The bottom of the original
Inside the original	New panel going back into place

The left rear inner and outer wing repair has now been completed and as you can see from the photographs below, Lawrence has now moved to the right hand side of the car where he is repairing the inner A post area and installing the new sill/rocker panel.

Considering we are doing much more work than we had originally anticipated, I think you will agree that we are making excellent progress.

Inner sheet metal replaced	New panel inside boot
Reinstalling repair LR wing
Moving to the RH side of the car	Repairing inner A post section
New battery box prepped and primed

The part of my job that I dislike the most is giving people bad news about the condition of their beloved classic car. As you know by now, at Classic Jaguar we leave no stone unturned and therefore tend to find corrosion and damage where it might have gone undetected by others. Unfortunately, the fact that we tend to be the frequent bearer of bad news is merely evidence of how thoroughly we carry out our work.

The following sequence of some thirty photographs show extensive damage we have found to both rear wings and also to the rear deck/cowling. They also show how we have had to completely rebuild the B pillars, including the area behind the shut face pillars. The inner panels behind the shut face panel were absorbed into the time we had already allowed and estimated for replacing the sill and the shut face panel. Unfortunately, however, the additional damage to the rear wings and the rear deck is going to require approximately 25 hours per side additional labour to repair.

As if that isn't bad enough, you will also see photographs of the inner wing where it rests on top of the rear chassis legs. The bottom line is that a bunch of corrossion was lurking beneath a thick layer of undercoating material. Clearly this has to be dealt with. Given the extensive cutting and welding such repair entails, the first thing to do was to drop the gas tank, which of course we have already done. Safety first, as the saying goes.

The last few photographs in this update show this repair already underway. Although very difficult to estimate accurately, I believe that Lawrence's work rectifying this latest sad discovery will amount to about 25 hours per side. Whilst I am very sorry to be the bearer of this unfortunate update, I hope you will see from the following photographs that we are only doing what you commissioned us to do....identify and repair any and all rust, then carry out a bare metal repaint.

Installing the new driver's door
Notice the new sill and the door now installed	Lead will be used to fine  tune the door gaps
With zero filler or lead the car is already pretty straight	Repairing the rear decking
Done!	New driver's B pillar is fabricated
	Checking door shut on new B pillar and shut face panel
	Tops of rear wings worse than first thought
We will fabricate new facing panels for both rear wings	Damage on rear decking
The underside edges of the rear decking will also be replaced	New LH battery box required
Underseal hides a multitude of sins on this LR inner fender	Removing the underseal to reveal.....
What was under the underseal	It is the same on the RH side
RH inner wing with underseal scraped away	Gas tank has to be removed....
Rotten metal cut out...	Removing the corroded metal - I know this is bad news but we couldn't ignore our find
Fabricating a new inner wing panel	Not much left of the LR of the car right now...
If you ever need to convince anyone that this car is 100% rust free, have them check out these photographs and have them call me!	Moisture and road grime gets between the  chassis legs and the inner wing, causing the corrossion damage vividly depicted above

Big progress to report today. The following pictures show the new LH sill going into place, as well as the repairs and fabricating work Lawrence has been doing to the driver's footwell and inner wing. The yellow stuff is Wurth bodywax which is designed to make sure you never see rust in this area of the car again.

Only a very brief update today! Here is a photograph of the new rocker/sill panels that Lawrence has fabricated for your car. If I get a chance later today, I will give show you some of the other things he has been up to!

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As you can see from the following photographs, we have made tremendous progress since your last update. You will also see that we decided to fabricate a new front/left wing rather than try to rectify all the previous body repairs in the old wing. With the new door Lawrence has already made, most of the metal down the left hand side of the car will have been replaced!

My thanks to Andy McCreadie for taking the photographs during my week-long absense from CJ.

Front left wing removed	Left hand rocker panel removed
There really was very little holding the back edge of this wing in place	Shut face panel removed - Lawrence will fabricate a replacement
Corrosion on the left rear wing will need attention	This is the driver's footwell side panel - turn your head to the left.....
Lawrence explains why he wants the go ahead to make a new front wing...	How could we refuse.....
Fabulous craftsmanship	The completed new driver's door
Another view of the driver's door	Cutting and hammering the new front wing into shape
The rear edge of the wing forms the A post or hinge pillar - spot welded just like they did at the factory 44 years ago	Fabricating the new rocker panels

Bad news today, I'm afraid. Both sills (rocker panels) are rotten and need to be replaced. The photographs below pretty much speak for themselves.

We have found a lot of rust in the forward  section of the rocker panel	A close up of the same problem area
The back edge of the front left wing has been cut away	The left edge of the rear cowl is particularly bad
A strange view up inside the RH rocker panel	Another view of the RH rocker panel from underneath the car

The following photographs show your 'new' doors taking shape.

Always fun to watch Lawrence at work	View from the front of the LH door
RH door takes shape

Well, the good news is that we have made tremendous progress with your car. The bad news is that we have opened something of a Pandora's box with regard to corroded sheet metal and incredible amounts of bondo. Fortunately, your car is in the right place to have all the issues taken care of properly - and permanently.

Bondo everywhere	Incredibly thick bondo, at that....
Check out the depth...	A novel method of paint stripping......
More gunbattle scars....
Clearly some serious accident damage in the distant past
Lawrence sets about making new doors
First he makes cardboard templates	All that's left of one door...
New panels taking shape....	Nobody loves a smart arse, Lawrence.....
	A huge patch was onviously welded into the front left wing at one time
Removal of the wings reveals lots of rust  repairs along the top edges	The same on both wings.....
Rust holes in the inner rocker panel will need Lawrence's attention	A 150 would make a great basis for a hotrod, don't you think?

The following photographs show Cosme stripping your car by hand. He is using a product known as aircraft stripper - which is quite possibly the most unpleasant chemical we have to use in the restoration industry. Notice how he is wearing a proper ventilator mask and does much of the work outside, in the fresh air.

So far, the majority of the bodywork looks to be in fine condition. The doors, on the other hand, are an entirely different story! Both door skins appear to have been in a (losing) gunfight at some stage in their lives, the driver's door being particularly bad. In reality, a proper repair calls for the replacement of the doors skins. This is something I will chat to Lawrence about and report back to you regarding additional costs involved, etc.

I sent you paint samples for both Cream and Old English White (UPS delivery 2/25). Although it is not for me to influence your choice in any way, I do believe you should know that Cosme has threatened his resignation if you choose cream....just kidding....
 

It's a nasty job, but somebody has to do it..	Years of bondo, paints and primers are literally scraped away
We will strip the body one panel at a time	All chrome and brightwork removed
The doors were both full of bondo and pretty badly beaten up	These photos don't do justice to the uneven surface we uncovered
The driver's door was particularly bad...	Bootlid stripped, cleaned and primed - no problems here
Starting to strip the rear apron	Bonnet removed ready for stripping
Passenger door doesn't look bad from this angle....	But it has been crudely repaired...
Bonnet totally stripped - everything looked fine under the paint	A different view of the passenger door shows the uneven surface more clearly
Stripping the left rear wing	Right rear wing virtually finished -  and looking in great condition
	You won't see a better B pillar and rear wing than this on an XK 150.....

I am pleased to introduce a lovely old car that needs not so much a full restoration as a brief visit to Classic Jaguar's version of the fountain of youth!

This first series of photographs shows Cosme and David carefully removing all the chrome, the convertible top and the interior trim. David is removing just enough of the interior to allow the Team CJ Coachworks guys access to all the areas they need to strip prior to carrying out their bodywork and the eventual repaint.

Thanks for entrusting this important project with us, Leon.

Cosme sets about removing hardware	He takes a careful note of the condition of the wooden boot lid frame after having problems with the 140
David removes door trim	Coming apart at an satisying rate!
License plate chrome is fairly ornate on the 150	Damaged screen removed
Driver's door top chrome is nasty	Door pockets carefully removed
Some chrome will be replaced, some  replated - this stuff looks pretty decent	Lovely view of a 150 - a very imposing frontal aspect
Off with those lights!	Remarkably sound inside the lamp  pods - which are notorious rust traps