Bumper Overriders, 150

I am restoring an XK150 1958 roadster, please could anyone give me the distance between the centres of the rear over-riders. Do these over-riders bend to the right & left on both sides, or when looking fro the rear are they straight on. Would apprreciate any help. Thanks – John Jackson

34 inches center to center. Slightly curve out on both sides is the norm. – HK

Steven, According to a Swiss XK expert named Urs Schmidt, there was a change in October 1958. The rear bumper horns were mounted further apart on all of the FHC’s beginning with Chassis No. 824607 (RHD) / 835745 (LHD), all of the DHC’s beginning with No. 827209 (RHD) / 837662 (LHD) and all of the Roadsters beginning with No. 820001 (RHD) / 831250 (LHD). I suppose he got his info from the parts catalogues, hope someone can give you more specifics. – Rob Reilly

My 1958 OTS has the late Tail lights and distance between centres is 71.5 cm (28.15 in) still a very slight curve outwards. The over riders were moved inwards on the later cars to clear the lower part of the larger late tail lights with separate flasher lenses and reflectors. – Colin Haywood

Does Urs Schmidt have it wrong way around? I looked in a couple of books and it looks like the rear bumper horns were mounted further apart on the earlier cars, not the later. The reference was Jaguar Tribune Nr. 33 Folge 10 Seite 12 Hintere StoBstangenho”rner weiter auseinander montiert….bei sa”mtlichen FHC ab Chassis Nr. 824607…usw. Have I translated this correctly? Arno, Zoran? – Rob Reilly

The overriders on my 1958 OTS are 34.5 inches apart (center to center). – Paul Patek, XK150 OTS

Definitely has things in reverse. On early XK150’s (mine is a 1958) with the small tail lights the distance between the bumber overriders is 34 inches center to center. They do slightly curve outward when viewed straight on. – HK

Hello Rob, Urs Schmidt’s German sentence you mention in your e-mail : means: “From Chassis# 824607 rear overriders are installed further apart.” – Arno Wahl

To add another slant to this topic, in addition to two types of rear bumper overriders, there were also two different rear bumpers for these cars. Same configuration but different part numbers all due to the drillings in the bumper bar to mount the overriders. Others have reported on the affected chassis numbers for rear overrider changes. So, there are four different overriders and two different bumpers on 150 cars. Usually, you can say small tailights and closely spaced rear bumper overriders go together, that is, these are the “early” production run cars. But as we all know on this list, there always exceptions to generalizations about XK Jaguars. The list sharpshooters repeatedly bear this out. Anyway, some small taillight 150 cars were fitted with the later, more widely spaced overriders. My 150 FHC I am currently restoring was equipped with small taillights but the widely spaced overriders. On the other hand, my two 150 roadsters have small taillights but the narrow spaced overriders. (Researchers of the list know they can find commencing chassis number for the introduction of the small/large taillights and the introduction of the rear bumper/overriders which will show different periods when these changes occurred.) – Bob Oates