Hello,

ever since I bought my XJ8 (MY 99) two years ago I was thinking of a replacement of the standard cassette radio with something more modern without distracting the factory look.

Today, finally, I have a Becker aftermarket Radio installed with a custom made fascia/face plate. The Becker Cascade Pro 7941 unit offers Radio, CD, MP3 (SD and CF Card), satellite navigation, bluetooth handsfree, iPod connectivity and control and can be voice controlled. Becker has just stopped production, though.

It offers a rather "classic" look and fits the interior quite well. The custom fascia was hand made by a specialist near Vienna/Austia. Not cheap, but I do like the looks. We might change the foil to a more matte looking finish ...

I would appreciate your comments,

regards
George

 

wow .thats as stock as i've seen em look.Thats a real nice job.that custom face plate looks amazing ,bet people have trouble noticing the mod..Until u turn er up that is lol.

 

That looks great! Very well done, and smooth how those complex shapes blend. Excellent!!

You must have cut a lot of stuff back behind the panel to get it up like that based on what I see. It will be worth all the effort!

 

That is a top job! I really like that! I bet the sound from that unit sounds good too!

 

Thank you for your kind comments!

In fact, nothing has been cut in behind, everything is stock.

This is about the maximum height you can achieve without any major changes. Only the angle is a bit steeper, which improves readability a lot.

The specialist put about 12 hours of work in it, which includes wiring (with speed pulse, mic, sat antenna). Great job.

 

Could you give me a ballpark figure of cost, i was thinking of doing something like this but just dont know where to go or how much it would cost very nice look though!!

 

Wow... That's impressive. I'm normally over in the XK8 forum and I don't really know what the interior of an XJ8 is supposed to look like. I saw the pics and I was trying to figure out what was modified. I really had to study the pics to realize that the entire radio/trim piece wasn't stock!

 

That looks great!!

I'm guessing this is not a facia plate that is available for others to be able to purchase and was created as a one-off? If thats the case, do you know what it was fabricated from, is it fibre glass?

Thanks!

NC

 

It is a beautiful piece of work. As good as the factory might have put in.

Hopefully the fabricator pulled a mold and is getting ready to sell them. An ashtray in the bottom section would be a really nice option

Are the radio controls integrated with the factory steering wheel controls?

And what about that chrome surround for the J gate? Where is that from?

 

Nice stuff, you can't say it's aftermarket

 

Doesn't get any better than this. Great job. I'd bee interested in buying a fascia like that...

 

@Beanoir:
correct, this is a one-off piece which was fabricated from fibre glass. A original Jaguar radio frame surround was used to start with and a single din frame was fitted in. As I only got the final piece I have no further details on the building process. Since the effort is quite high, approximately 10 hours, no production of this item is planned

@Plumsauce:
Unfortunatelly you cannot connect the steeing wheel remote to a Becker radio, it would have been no problem with Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, ... Steering wheel remote adators are available e.g. at Nexxia UK. This is no big deal since the unit offers a knob for volume and can be voice controlled (e.g. "next title", "next station", "navigate to ..", "call ..." which works remarkably well.

I bought the chrome surround for the J gate at adamesh in the UK.

 

Thanks for all the great info.

The original may have taken 10 hours, but once a mold is available, the time can be cut down considerably. For the strength required of this piece, air blown chopped fiberglass would be sufficient. Still, it would be a limited market, so it is understandable that it might be unattractive to pursue.

Just seeing the finished product has been very helpful to those who might want to try it themselves.

 

Looks good.

 

Fantastic job George! I am also looking at upgrading to an aftermarket stereo with bluetooth handsfree and navigation system.

Can you (or anyone else on the forum) tell me if you have encountered any car running/electronic issues since installing an aftermarket unit.

I saw on a different post from 2010 that after they installed it, the car wouldn't start and they kept getting lots of error codes? Can't find that post now unfortunately, so cannot link to it.

Thanks in advance.

Beaky.

 

Hallo Beaky,

thank you!

After six month I have not faced a single electronic problem related to the radio installation. In fact, there was no problem at all.

The unit works very well, since Becker has stopped producing these units on the downside the will be no updates available.

Regards,
George

 

Thanks George. Good to know it can be swapped out without upsetting any of the cars many electrical monitoring devices.

Thanks again for the response.

Regards,
Beaky

 

Awesome! You need to mass produce! I'm sure there are lots of takers!

 

Very nice. If your fabricator is willing to make more of these up, I am definitely interested in one.

 

Very, very sharp. Please keep us posted if any plans are made to manufacture the fascia.