I have never done one of these for any project I have ever done. Felt like sharing with you guys the trials and tribulations of working on a British car... Haha. This will probably take most of the winter as i get time and money here and there with the other things in my life that take priority.

First thing was first, the XJR didnt come with the nice burlwood that the XJ8 and Vanden Plas did. It came with a dark green sort of wood that I personally found hideous. It had to go. I had 6 yards of black suede left from a previous project so i figured I would take care of a black headliner while I was at it. Pics will come soon of that. But I felt like doing a little more than not with this interior so the tops of the door cars and the dash were getting the suede treatment too.

Picture of the original door card.



Since I am also going to be doing my girls A4 interior trim in black gucci and couldnt think of anything else to redo the wood in, I ordered a couple extra yards to take care of my wood grain.

Picture of one rear door that is finished. Window switch trim is also recovered.



Word of advice if you arent a fan of headaches. Dont remove a dash from your x308... My mk4 GTI dash was cake and this thing made me want to stab kittens.

Dash out.

 

And as i took more time to look at the suspension of the x308, I realized that my idea for building a custom air suspension would be much more of a hassle than I wanted to deal with.

Solution... custom hydraulic suspension. I ordered a 1 pump 6 dump setup that will be using 1 battery. A minimalist approach since the suspension is being built as a way to drive extremely low as I like to and be able to navigate driveways and speedbumps with ease. I will be using 325 psi nitrogen accumulators to provide the suspension aspect to the hydraulic cylinders, essentially giving me the ride quality of a set of coilovers at lower heights and a near factory quality at higher heights.







The rear spring covers the entire length of the shock. I have no idea how a bag would be mounted back there... Replacing it with a cylinder will be much easier.

Suspension is en route to me at the moment.

 

This is interesting. I am not familiar with the suspension changes that you are making and am not too sure as to just what you are trying the achieve. (some sort of low rider)?

I presume that you are planning on keeping the car for a long time because I imagine that this modification would significantly lower its value, to the level that you will never recover the cost (I hope I am wrong).

Please keep posting the build pictures as you go along. This is obviously a "meaty" project.

Best wishes,

 

I got the car from a client for less than half book value and have been looking for a new long term project for a while and have lover the x300/308 chassis forever. And if i ever do sell the car it will only appeal to a very small crowd, but they are willing to pay for a quality product.

Yes the suspension will be very low, for an idea, this xjr was one of my favorites.

 

Wow, you are a brave man!

Keep us posted on how it turns out.

Personally, I think the (original) black interior trim doesn't do all those nice curves justice.