RESTORATION
Tim de la Fosse has gone to great lengths to use original parts when he spent almost five years of spare time restoring his XK 120, but he has also subtly updated it
AS WE walk around the early steel-bodied 1950 XK 120 open two-seater seen here, owner Tim de la Fosse points out the many features that have taken him countless hours to source as original parts and restore, or the parts that he’s keen to preserve in their original condition.
Take the bumpers, which he found in America and were original stock, but were heavily corroded and in need of de-rusting, then coating in copper and nickel before they could be rechromed. At the rear, he points out the slight imperfections in the chrome-plated rear light units but is keen to hang on to their originality. The same attitude is adopted in the cockpit where the genuine horn push in the centre of the steering wheel has a few scratches, but is an original rather than a reproduction.
That’s not to say that Tim wants nothing but originality throughout for his XK 120. Those aforementioned rear lights have LEDs inside them (in fact, all the exterior lighting uses LEDs), allowing them to be operated as taillights, brakelights and even orange indicators. Even the rear numberplate light doubles up as a third brakelight – one of many modern adaptations from Better Car Lighting.
Some features were incredibly hard to re-create, such as the front grille, which, unlike later XK 120s, would have had a raised ridge on the front of each vane. “It took a local craftsman some time to press vanes with that ridge on them and then to have them silver soldered into the grille surround and chromed,” explains Tim.
One of the main reasons for going to such great lengths to restore this Jaguar is because Tim regards the XK 120 as his ultimate car. He tells the story of how he was 14 years old when he saw a photo of an XK 120 on the cover of a magazine and fell in love with the shape. He then bought a copy of any magazine he saw with an XK 120 on the front of it. After serving in the Navy as a pilot and then taking a job with British Airways as a commercial pilot, family life and work got in the way of him pursuing his dream of owning an XK 120, until 2006, when he found the one seen here for sale in a magazine whilst he was staying in Nice and had time to kill before flying off again for work. He jokes that he bought the car whilst sitting on the promenade in Nice, calling the owner to agree the sale.
The XK 120 had been found in 1980, derelict behind a cafe in Yorkshire, by its previous owner who then restored it when the availability of parts wasn’t as good as it is now. That owner/restorer had clearly done a good job because 25 years later in 2006 the Jaguar was driveable but in a tired condition when Tim bought it.
Over the next eight years, Tim and his wi
