Well,.....first of all, I am 57 years old, and my wifey and I own seven vehicles. The "Kitty" is just one of them. I owned 1989 XJS back in the day, and I sold it in 2006. It was a great car, and I put a lot of love in it. Why am I telling you this? So the statements I'll make from now on, can be better understood.

Since this "Kitty" (my wife named it obviously!) joined the family, we are "arguing" who will take it out! We are no kids, mind you. So I find myself looking for an "excuse" to go somewhere, just to drive it. Such is the lure of the Jag. We have much newer cars (06 S430, 08 X5 for example), but this old Jag is special. She has few cosmetic issues though.

First of all,.....with 81K on the clock, she should look better, and it very soon will. I will have the seats completely reupholstered by some leather artisans here in SoCal, but I wanted to ask you guys about the ideas on the door pockets.

The pockets were covered with some kind of "cheese cloth", and are badly disintegrating. What to do with them? Have them recovered in leather, or any other ideas? I don't know what the previous owners did with this car, but looks like it saw very little garage time, which shows on the paint, and leather.

We plan to keep this thing forever, and no money will be spared to have it completely redone. Newer body stlye Jags don't do anything for us, and at the time we decided to buy one, no low mileage 2003s were available. This is the exact body style we wanted, and it had 80K on the odometer (got it for a song!). As I said, ...the plan is to completely refurbish EVERYTHING that needs refurbishing, and keeping the car for the next 20 years or so, until I kick the bucket (wife is much younger, so I'll definitely go first).

So in retrospective,......any ideas on the interior upgrades, materials, etc. are welcome, and sorry for the long post

 

Hope you get the help you need and deserve Danielsand

Have you checked out the interiors section for ideas too?

 

My vote would be to purchase good or great condition OEM interior stuff, it can be had for not much $. If you are in or around LA/OC I can point you in a few directions.

 

The first thing you should check is the secondary tensioners. They are a known problem area. There are many threads on what to do about changing them as a preventative measure because if they go, the engine can be toast. So, ensuring that they are not the plastic versions is a mandatory step for anyone wanting to keep the engine safe.

Also disregard any suggestions that anything is "sealed for life". Change all fluids including the differential and automatic transmission.

How about relining the door pockets in ultrasuede? Your shop should be able to handle that easily.

 

Please do! I live in Palm Springs area (a bit West of it), but I drive to OC often.

And of course the tensioners will be done first (before the cosmetics). Trust me, this thing will be as new when I'm done with it. I did not find the "interior" section of the forum. I apologize if my questions are redundant, need to find time to fully explore this forum.

 

No need to apologize- we are all friends here Keep the questions coming.

Give RPM auto in Costa Mesa a call for the tensioners- I think he quoted me $75-$79.

 

First, I'd like to congratulate you on your Young Wife!
Second, Welcome! And, believe me, this forum will be invaluable to you going forward.

 

Thank you. I like them young!

The ammount of information on the Internet in general, and this forum in particular, is trully invaluable. I remember working on my XJS in the early nineties, and NO info available. The internet era is a godsend for us DIY people. And it's not only money (at least not with me). I'm a kind of a guy that NEEDS to take everything he owns appart, and learn what makes it "tick". It was a big problem when I was a kid. I took radios, TVs, watches, clocks, guns,.....anything appart. Parents were less than understanding most of the time, especially after I ruined few heirlooms as a young boy.

Later in life, I stuck with guns, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, and watches. Found out that electronics are not my cup of tea, but ANYTHING mechanical, and I'm game!

And back to the topic,.......looked EVERYWHERE, but NED (Ivory) pieces are hard to find. I think I'll just take the pockets out, and give them to the upholstery people to recover with something more forgiving (not white!), and durable. Shame,....the whole door panel can be had on Ebay for 50 bucks or so, and recovering of the pockets will be at least double.