Door Paint (inside surfaces)

Can anyone tell me what color should be the lower inside surface of the doors of my XK120 FHC? I mean the aluminum panel notch not covered by the door panel. Is it body color, or the color of the panel? I will tell you why I am confused -- as I removed paint on my door I found a roughly sprayed dark blue which matched the interior door panel color on the vertical face, which I took to have been sprayed on by a PO because the color did not extend to the horizontal surface of the "notch." Underneath I found the original body color, a light pastel blue in my case. I thought that would have been the color that showed originally, but maybe someone took exception to the contrast between the light blue and the dark blue showing on the opened door and sprayed it to match. So now I turn to you experts who have near-original cars to open your doors and take a look at that notch -- does it match the interior or the exterior? Thanks. - Carl Hanson, '51 XK120 FHC

Carl: My vote is for body color. I think it's fairly safe to say that, with perhaps the exception of some red brake drums, the only two "finishing" paint colors used on 120s were the body color and black. - Dick Cavicke, 120 FHC & OTS

Carl, my lower inner panel on the doors seems to have the original pastel green under all the resprays. But since the original leather was suede green, it already matched, so perhaps this is not a definitive example. I recently saw an early steel 120 OTS with an apparently original medium grey master cylinder. Is this another exception to Dick's color rule, or does anyone have a comment? - Rob Reilly

If you have any questions or comments send e-mail to: ted@jag-lovers.org
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