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I wanted to share this with y'all! I've barely driven her in the 3 months that I've owned her. That's because it spent one of those months getting the rear bumper replaced and the front bumper and hood re-painted. Too much paint damage for my OCD mind to accept, so I had to fix it.
A little before going to the body shop, and a few weeks after returning, I managed to do some other minor modifications that suited my personal tastes. Here's the list... with pics!
1. Video in motion module installed.
2. Illuminated door sills (front only)
3. Signature light hack, using the detailed instructions provided in the forum
3. Red grille badge
4. Rear boot spoiler (Mina Gallery) - after purchasing this, the body shop had to do a lot of prep to the fiberglass piece as it wasn't consistent thickness and didn't sit flush to the boot lid. In retrospect, I would have rather bought the OEM spoiler for $100 more.
5. LLumar Air 80 tint all around - why, you ask? Here in Texas, I wanted the benefit of the heat reduction allowed into the cabin without losing ANY visibility ... i.e., no light reduction. This film produces a very small tint change, but its barely noticable. In fact, if you look at the pics, you would never guess it has any tint on it at all. I must say, however, it was pricey, but it really really works on blocking the brutal sun and its heat.
6. Jaguar accessory rotary knob with leather topper
7. Steering wheel swap. I don't know if anyone else who owns an oyster colored steering wheel, but my wheel was CLEARLY showing the wiring for the heated feature. I was going to have the wheel re-furbished with new leather, and in the meantime, I purchased a black wheel on ebay for $90 as an interim wheel and allow me to drive it during the repair. Well, after installing the black, I found I ACTUALLY like the contrast, so I'm keeping this wheel on permanently!
Old wheel -
The black wheel installed-
8. Red wheel caps, spacers from Motorsports Tech (26mm rear) and jaguar's Selena wheels, with new Hancook Ventus Evo 2 tires. The front Selena wheels from the XF/XK are the same 49mm offset as the XJ. The rear however, were 66mm vs the XJ's 46mm. As such, I needed at least a 20mm spacer, and I chose the extra 6mm to compensate for the extra 0.25 in the loss in wheel width. Also, I didn't like the way the 9in and 10in OEM aluetian wheels 'pushed' the bead of the tires outward. Anyone else notice this?
9. Ceramic brake pads front and rear to control the brake dust. Akebono Euro for the rear, Centric on the front. I also needed new rotors on the rear as the wear showed a huge lip on the outside edge. As such, I purchased R1 Concept rotors to install. See the pic above.
10. I painted front calipers and brackets gloss black; rear brackets I only painted the brackets as I liked the contrast with the silver caliper.
11. The old floor mats, though cleaned a million times to try to 'freshen' them up, were letting the interior down. I purchased new OEM floor mats from the UK, of all places, for about $100. The nterior looks like new, now.
Here are the exterior photos. I'm really pleased with the new ebony paint on the front and the rear. I haven't had a black vehicle in over 20 years. Yes, it gets dirty really easily...but it looks really slick when freshly detailed.
Oh, and this car looks sooooooo much better w/o a front license plate!
Last edited by H20boy; 09-06-2015 at 03:59 PM.
Reason: replaced a photo with a nicer one
@allen, I've coordinated a few meetups in the past for the DFW members, and they were a success, in my opinion. The largest number I've had show up have been 4 others, not including myself. The best time to have another one of these will be in the cooler months in the fall, as we often spend most of our time looking over and talking about our cars outside. I think my favorite so far was when we met at Hooters in Grapevine. We had a good variety of models show up. I would like to include a short drive through the countryside too, maybe find a scenic route where we can enjoy the view and drive our cars a little differently than we would 'in town'. Which road, or the destination, still eludes me as I'm not familiar with many routes beyond tarrant county. Perhaps you or another DFW member who would like to attend can help choose a short (<30 minute) route to add. We haven't had a meetup in a while...it certainly is time we had another one. Perhaps late September, early October?
Looks great! I love the choice of wheels - one of my favorite OEM styles.
Is the grill badge simple to install? I've been meaning to do it, just wasn't sure if you'd need access to the back of the grill (meaning take the bumper off, etc).
The Grill badge is held on by a double stick tape, If you gently use a heat gun and then gently pry off the old one it's easy. Then press in the new badge that should come with the double stick tape. Although there have been a member or two that has used model plane paint by Testors and just painted in the red.
Before buying a new replacement grille badge, use XJsss's method to remove yours, and its easy to separate into three (3) pieces. Just paint the background piece using a glossy red of your choice from Home Depot, add a layer of laquer, and you won't spend $5 to improve your front end. I ended up buying an ebay badge because for some reason, I goofed mine and my paint job kept cracking (too thick, I think)
Oh boy, (pun intended), you ride is loookin' goood! You're right - no other color comes close to black when it's freshly detailed and looks like a mirror! You've done a lot of mods, but there are a few others that you might want to consider:
Thanks for the ideas Stuart, and the exhaust tip offer! You know, I really miss seeing the leaper looking down the bonnet, and I'll miss my old 2005 XJ...but unfortunately, I do believe that iconic emblem belongs on the smooth lined nose of that previous body style.
Outstanding job! Great feature on the headlight hack! You are missed badly on the XJ8 side for your inspirational ideas and flawless great looking upgrade ideas.
09-05-2015, 08:45 PM
Finally finished personalizing my XJ
at the bottom right.