Restoration of the Year for famous Jaguar

This once-off car won the Restoration of the Year 2017 award at the Octane Awards, which are considered the most prestigious in the industry, recognising the elite in the international historic motoring world. They received this achievement only a few months after being unveiled as an award-winner at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California, USA in August.

Nigel Woodward, managing director at Classic Motor Cars said, “The car is no stranger to being the centre of attention. It turned heads when it was unveiled at the 1955 Geneva Motor Show, and at its second unveiling at Pebble Beach.”

Unlike any other XK120, Chassis S675360 features unique bodywork by famed Italian design house Pininfarina. It was first delivered to Automotive Hall of Fame inductee Max Hoffman, an Austrian-born, New York-based importer of luxury European automobiles into the United States, who inspired the production and refinement of several vehicles.

It is believed that Hoffman inspired Pininfarina to reinterpret the shapes of the XK and then unveiled it at the 1955 Geneva Motor Show.

Woodward said, “The car’s life is a bit of a mystery, as there is not much information about its whereabouts after it was last seen in 1955. CMC purchased it in 2015 from a German gentleman who had bought it in the USA in 1978 with the intention of restoring it, but never got round to it. We took on the challenge of restoring it and an epic 6 725-hour journey then began.”

“This was one of the most challenging restorations ever undertaken by CMC,” he added. “We managed to restore every aspect of it, from the unique body and structure through to paint, trim and mechanical elements, while saving as much of the original car as possible.”

During the pre-restoration forensic inspection it was found that Pininfarina had used the original XK body as the basis, and that a previous owner had painted the exterior in Burgundy, covered the seats with tan leather and changed various other aspects.

The technicians also had to scan the front and rear end of the car in order to make mock-ups of the lights, which were then scanned and reproduced. Smaller missing items were also produced in-house.

The rear window was missing and 3D scanning technology was used on the window aperture and utilised to make a new rear screen.

There were no signs of the original paint colour, but when the front screen was removed, a small section of original paint was discovered and used as a colour match by CMC’s paint specialist.

The interior trim door cards were missing, along with the carpets and the original trim colour. A small sample of original leather was discovered when stripping the car down. The colour was matched, as well as the original leather type, and the original ochre tan was recreated. The shape and pattern of the door cards were produced by looking at similar Pininfarina-designed cars from the period.

CMC is the only company to have won the Restoration of the Year Award twice, having done so previously in 2011 with the restoration of the Lindner-Nocker Lightweight, a legendary Jaguar that many thought to be beyond repair.

Source: Newspress