Has anyone come up with a clean/flush mounted HUD display on the dash of your XJ-S machine?......haven't been into the dash below the instrument cluster....could a hole be cut through the dash pad behind the I.C. and a HUD camera?..GPS/Speed/Tacho unit mounted that sits flush with the dash pad?
Reflective film on windscreen............??
Any thoughts and ideas appreciated, best, JW

 

Why would you want one? Is the speedo too small? The classic dash lines would be ruined with one of them HUDs...

 

Flush mounted behind the Instrument cluster...buried in the dash pad....not sticking up..am very aware of the classic line of the dash..can't see the tach/spedo at speed ....If MBZ n Bmr can do it why not us?? best, JW

 

I bought one of the generic hud units to try on another car. Unfortunately, unless you have a very flat windshield, the image is so distorted that I didn't bother experimenting further. It would have worked "ok" in the center of the dash, but that defeats the purpose of a hud. A car manufacturer can add optics to take care of distortion for a particular curved windshield, not something that is done in generic units.

The second problem is the generic units that I'm familiar with all use an OBD II port to get the displayed data, something we don't have. You might be able to rig up something on the later XJS', but I'm not familiar with diagnostics interfaces on those cars, or if any data they might provide is remotely compatible with the generic hud units.

 

Tidbit:

In the late 80s Hughes Radar (part of Hughes Aircraft) was working with GM in the development of HUD displays for automotive use. I was working at an Olds dealer in Culver City, California at the time. The Hughes engineering guys bought dashboards, instrument clusters, wiring harnesses, etc from us to use in their mock-ups.

https://www.google.com/patents/US3885095

Cheers
DD