restored one-off jaguar XK120 by pininfarina unveiled at pebble beach

after its world debut in geneva, the jaguar ‘XK’ appeared at the autocar show later in april that year and australian magazine modern motor reported that it was due to be exhibited at the turin motor show in 1956, but the automobile never arrived due to the owner wanting to take delivery of it.

david barzilay, chairman of classic motor car’s operating board, comments, ‘there is little trace of the car’s history, but we are certain that hoffman was the supplying dealer, then first owner of the car and that there was only one XK120 by pininfarina produced, which makes this one of the rarest jaguars in existence.’

all images © CMC classic cars

in 2015, classic motor cars purchased the jaguar ‘XK120’ by pininfarina from a german gentleman who had bought it in the USA in 1978 with the intention of restoring it. unfortunately, he never got round to it and eventually decided to sell. CMC took on the challenge and have restored every nut and bolt of the vehicle. the team of specialists faced a number of challenges during the restoration, from finding the original paint color to remaking the bumpers and rear window screen.

some of the original parts were impossible to find so CMC remade items such as the bumpers and chrome work by hand from photographs. it had to scan the front and rear end of the car and make mock ups of the lights, which were then scanned and 3D printed. smaller missing parts were also 3D printed in-house. the rear jaguar’s window was missing so it also had to scan the window aperture and have a new rear screen made from the scan data. 

during the pre-restoration inspection it was found that pininfarina had used the original ‘XK’ body as a basis, and that, at some point in its life, the car was painted burgundy and had the seats covered with tan leather. there were no signs of the car’s original paint color, and it all came down to the last nut and bolt. when the front screen was removed, it discovered a tiny section of original paint and used it as a color match.

the interior trim door cards were missing, along with the carpets and the original color of the trim, but we discovered a small sample of original ochre-tan leather when it stripped the car down. this was colour matched and the original type and color leather was used to recreate the interior. the shape and pattern of the door cards were created by analyzing similar pininfarina designed cars from the 1950’s.