An XK for regular use

[a8hex]

Before going any further, No I'm not thinking of it as a daily driver.

I'm hoping to be buying an XK150 roadster which is in part way through a restoration. It needs taking back to bare metal and starting again from there. Which hopefully gives me more scope for doing things the way I want. So one chain of thought is to try and make rather more use of the car than I have done of late with the FHC.
I've not decided on whether to run radials or cross plies yet.
It will be on a Moss Box, I feel the Moss box is an integral part of the XK's character.
I'd switch to an alternator and probably negative earth. The car is a US import that's been converted from LHD to RHD and isn't a matching numbers car (3.8 in place of 3.4) (expect in the sense someone touted recently that is has a matching number of wheels so it must be a matching numbers car) so ultimate originality isn't the over riding concern.
I may well consider trying a 123 ignition again, it didn't work with my last engine, that had rather "different" characteristics when profiled. I believe they do a fully programmable one now anyway.
I'm thinking more in lines of body work protection.
It won't be coming out to play if there is any likelihood of the roads being salty.
So any suggestions anyone?

[Huntsman]

I'm not sure how good the 123 dizzy's are, but I have used the pertronix ignitor in several old cars and found it to be excellent.

Fuel pump with the transistors rather than points?

Ceramic coat the exhaust manifolds and wrap the down pipes?

[427James]

Shame - I thought this was about use as a daily driver! I am using mine every day during the winter here while I can - stock distributor, stock brakes, stock rad and waterpump. If anything I think that a waterpump upgrade, with possibly an auxilary electric pump, a bigger core radiator and some disc brakes would be whats required to make it truly fit in with modern traffic...

[a8hex]

427James said:

Shame - I thought this was about use as a daily driver! I am using mine every day during the winter here while I can - stock distributor, stock brakes, stock rad and waterpump. If anything I think that a waterpump upgrade, with possibly an auxilary electric pump, a bigger core radiator and some disc brakes would be whats required to make it truly fit in with modern traffic...

It's the salty winter roads that scare me, Mrs B8 had a noughties Merc so I know all about rust, but MB were happy to take that back in regularly and swap out all the bits with tin worm whereas I'd be footing the bill on the XK150.

I never had a problem with the waterpump in the current 150, even on the track it didn't have any issues, a 150's engine bay is less cramped than your 120's and I think the cooling is supposed to be better. An electric auxiliary fan will happen, if it doesn't have one yet (I don't know), the current 150 ended up with just the electric fan as the mechanical one was removed to make space for the oil cooler when an interesting 4.2 was dropped in in place of the original 3.4 lump.
The XK150 has disc brakes anyway, so braking shouldn't be a problem, the original brakes on my current one would lock up all 4 wheels if you tried. Even on the track you could go far closer to the Woodcote corner while running flat out, than your road brain believed was the last moment before you were definitely going to die.
I see a lot of complaints about the quality of available sets of points. This was the main reason looking for something electronic, I've used a Petronix Ignitor in the original 3.4 engine and ended up with an equivalent device with the 4.2 engine on my FHC.

Any suggestions on body treatments?

[jith]

a8hex said:

427James said:

Shame - I thought this was about use as a daily driver! I am using mine every day during the winter here while I can - stock distributor, stock brakes, stock rad and waterpump. If anything I think that a waterpump upgrade, with possibly an auxilary electric pump, a bigger core radiator and some disc brakes would be whats required to make it truly fit in with modern traffic...

It's the salty winter roads that scare me, Mrs B8 had a noughties Merc so I know all about rust, but MB were happy to take that back in regularly and swap out all the bits with tin worm whereas I'd be footing the bill on the XK150.

I never had a problem with the waterpump in the current 150, even on the track it didn't have any issues, a 150's engine bay is less cramped than your 120's and I think the cooling is supposed to be better. An electric auxiliary fan will happen, if it doesn't have one yet (I don't know), the current 150 ended up with just the electric fan as the mechanical one was removed to make space for the oil cooler when an interesting 4.2 was dropped in in place of the original 3.4 lump.
The XK150 has disc brakes anyway, so braking shouldn't be a problem, the original brakes on my current one would lock up all 4 wheels if you tried. Even on the track you could go far closer to the Woodcote corner while running flat out, than your road brain believed was the last moment before you were definitely going to die.
I see a lot of complaints about the quality of available sets of points. This was the main reason looking for something electronic, I've used a Petronix Ignitor in the original 3.4 engine and ended up with an equivalent device with the 4.2 engine on my FHC.

Any suggestions on body treatments?

Really busy a8, but I'll come back on with some suggestions later. In the meantime, the best aftermarket ignition in the world bar none is Lumenition. It is used in competition and is one of the oldest and best developed systems. It is also one of the most expensive, but worth every penny. I have never had one back under warranty, (touching wooden heid as he types!)

J