• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

was this XK 150 FHC a good ebay deal ?

Share this page

beaulieu

beaulieu

Jedi Warrior
Offline
I found this on Ebay
https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jaguar-XK...111600646QQrdZ1

the price seems low to me compared to the price guides , but I know nothing about early Jag XKs

I found another one and was wondering if this Ebay price is what they are worth , or a slow day on ebay ?

The other car is a fixed head coupe in a southern California garage for 20 years,

Anyway would love to hear your thoughts

Thanks

Beaulieu
 
Yes, that was a very good deal I'd say! The XK150 is the car I learned to drive in and 've always pined after having one someday - but wife would kill me if I even thought of another "project" until I get my EType done!\
 
Ok.....a little update...I just talked to the owner

the Jag ia a 1954 XK 120 , Fixed head coupe
its been off the road for 30 years
wire wheels

sounds pretty much like the one that was on Ebay except its a XK 120

was there much difference between a XK120 or a 150 ?

I hope to go see it on the weekend....

Beaulieu
 
A solid 120 FHC is worth more than a 150 FHC, but both are great cars. The 120 is nowhere near as refined as the 150, in fact it drives a bit like a truck, but still great fun and a definite head turner. But be warned, restoration costs for a 120 are not for the faint of heart (or wallet). I restored a 54 120FHC when I was in college (when I was supposed to be studying /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif ) They both have the wonderful XK engine (DOHC). If the one you are looking at happens to have been a New Mexico car at one time let me know – who knows, it may be my old 120 FHC!
 
yes -lots of differences- the 120 was the first XK in 1952 -the original XK.

Then came the 140, (there was never a 130, curious ehh?)

Then came the 150, it was the last XK before the E-type. The 150 was 'shrunked' (smaller) - the 120 is a huge, massive car compared to the 150.

You are talking major restoration and expense for a car that has sat for 30 years. But if you gots the dough, by all means. You can get all parts needed. Just remember you will spend years restoring it and many many thousands of dollars on it, (on top of what you pay for it) and you will not recover the expense if you decide to sell. Be realistic. Most people start a project like that and give up. It's a very expensive proposition.

lets' say you have $25 grand to spend, my advice is to find a nice car that's already done, because your 30-year-sitting-in-a-shed XK-120 is going to cost you $60 grand to restore. ask anybody around here.

The engine rebuild will be around $6 grand by itself, then the transmission, front and rear brakes and suspensions, rear axle, chassis, you're already at around $30 grand and the body and interior is still a rust bucket. Then comes sheetmetal, chrome, leather interior, wood, and you're right at $60 grand and the car is still not done.

Way too much money in my opinion, because you can get a real nice one for under $30 grand. Just be patient, you'll find it, rushing won't get you a good Jaguar.

I spent 9 years looking for a 'choice' 1960's Jaguar S type, I found it on the 10th year.

Annd my last advice: Don't Break the Golden Rule of Old Car Buying: "Never Buy Any Car Sight Unseen". Always inspect in person. Sellers exagerate. Pictures lie.

Good luck and take your time!
Ex
 
Hi

thanks for your thoughts ,

are you saying that now a decent driver not rusty XK 120 maybe an older restoration is buyable at $25K ?

Seems pretty cheap to me for what I have seen,,,,

Beaulieu
 
beaulieu said:
are you saying that now a decent driver not rusty XK 120 maybe an older restoration is buyable at $25K ?

Seems pretty cheap to me for what I have seen,,,,

Beaulieu
Click to expand...

If you can find a 120 that is solid and complete for only $25k, buy it!
 
Don't overlook the XK140. I think the XK140 is the most attractive of the XK's, & I notice that it's most often represented in non-enthusiast coffee table books & calendars.

The XK140 is an easier car than the 120, both for design & operation. It's got rack & pinion steering (but all XK's still handle like a modern truck that's lost its power steering backing up at high speed, the long hood requires strategy when turning, the 16" wheels are heay, & the XK's have these HUGE ladder frames made out of I-beams, when the battery dies park it on a hill because you'll need another truck to push it).

Engine access in the 120 & 140 is a little narrow (look at how the bonnet opens), & adjusting the jets on the bottoms of the carbs is an ESP-like operation done without looking, standing against the fender, both arms down the front of the carbs twisting while staring straight ahead).

The front suspensions are torsion bar type & no problem at all, but the rears can be problematic. These cars are HEAVY, & the leaf springs over each rear wheel sag over time. Replacement springs can be expensive, &re-arching the springs is not easy: you've got to find a place that doesn't just clamp them in a press & bend them (because they'll quickly fatigue again), they have to be correctly re-arched in the time-honored blacksmith way of heating the leaves & banging on them.

Electrics & wiring are on the same par with any car of the same era. Originally they had cotton-covered rubber wires (the harnesses looked like they were made from the cords that went to old clothes irons). The cotton rots, the rubber cracks, etc. A new harness can be expensive. Behind the dash wiring is typical for cars of the era - looks like a rats' nest, but modern zip ties sort that out neatly now.

I enjoyed my XK140, but I bought it as a 2nd car for when I needed a trunk or was running to the store to get parts for the GT6. I never really became attached to it like the GT6, but its biggest problem was I couldn't park the [censored] thing anywhere without coming back & finding people poking at it or even sitting in it touching things, often with a finger on the starter button.
 
Thanks guys,,,,,,

Is there a "watch list" of things to look for on it ?

Where are the common rust spots ?
are the fenders alloy ?
and do they react to the steel body ?

Also are there any cheap 16 inch tires to put on it ,
if its got flat tires I will need to get it to roll to push it on the trailer , its not going to be light /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Beaulieu

I have an old Glenn Mitchell Foreign car "collision" book,
its for body shops to estimate repairs ,
great for the drawings of repair parts , and this one is old enough to have xk-120s in it /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
ok, sorry, 1948 it is, I was thinking of my 1952 Franklin Mint 1:24 scale XK-120 model. Has anyone ever seen that model? I mean it even has a working suspension and removable Spats!

Go for a 140 or 150, you already saw one on eBay, there's others being sold all the time, keep watching. Go to your MyEbay Membership page and add XK-140 and XK-150 to your Favorites List so that you get daily e-mails from eBay telling you about any item with those tags. Type it in different ways and do one Favorite per tag, for example, XK-140, XK140, XK-150, XK150.

The XK-120 is great for a Museum Piece in the Dinosaour Section or to watch Clark Gable in a 1950's movie. But to drive it? It's a munster, like driving a Duesenberg at 80 mph, you need to be Charles Atlas to steer and brake that mamoth.
 
beaulieu said:
Is there a "watch list" of things to look for on it ?
Click to expand...

Missing trim pieces & little things like mirrors, turns signal switches, license plate lamps, shift knobs, escutcheons, ashtrays, window winder handles, etc. all seem to be the most expensive & add up quickly. Missing battery box door. Carpet may not be cheap either. Missing floorboards or floorboards replaced w/sheetmetal. Missing wood capping from the doors, or incomplete dashboard. Engine is easy if it's all there. Sagging doors are inevitable as they're very heavy, but still a pain to fix up.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Where are the common rust spots ?[/QUOTE]
Inner fenders in engine compartment, battery box in fender, along the bottoms of the doors, spare tire compartment floor under trunk (often gone).

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]are the fenders alloy ? [/QUOTE]
I think there were some very early alloy-bodied & alloy-doored 120's. Otherwise, the 120's & 140's had alloy bonnets & bootlids.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Also are there any cheap 16 inch tires to put on it ,
if its got flat tires I will need to get it to roll to push it on the trailer , its not going to be light /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/QUOTE]

Original tire spec is 6.00 x 16, tires w/tubes inside the wire wheels. Tire Rack's conversion chart doesn't go up to 6.00 x 16, so you may need to call a couple of local tire places to find out what an equivalent size would be.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/45_conversionchart.html
 
Back
Top