One of the more satisfying aspects of owning an older XJ is the ubiquitous application of veneers, so it annoys me that the most often observed interior surface is artificial…so much so that I intend to break into the instrument cluster and replace the plastic surround of the gauges with genuine veneer. Anyone care to share your insights?

 

Hi purpleporsche,

I never did anything about it in my XJ40s but it did bother me. I wish they had simply made those surrounds black or some other neutral background rather than juxtapose the faux wood against the real wood veneers. The X300 uses the same type of faux wood. Some have said the look is very "Ford," but it was designed by Jaguar or its supplier before the purchase by Ford.

Jaguar simplified the instrument clusters in the X100 and X308 so the use of real wood veneer was easier (fewer openings in the trim, all of them round).

I'll be anxious to see if you can find some veneer that closely matches your car and modify your cluster.

Cheers,

Don

 

It's matte black in the X306 XJR, correct?

 

I picked up a used instrument pod on eBay to use as practice on getting in, and then as a template for cutting the veneer once I find a decent match. My opinion is it doesn’t need to be a perfect match…the plastic doesn’t match the faded veneers anyway. It gets delivered tomorrow…I’ll document the project in pictures or a video.


BEFORE