Very cool site!! Thank goodness my wallet has a limit!
Joking about LV (although it actually looks great with the wood dash!)
I've tried a sample of red piping with black suede on door, hate it with wood. Now if carbon or piano black dash, stunning! Did find some silver metallic leather for piping, not sure yet. I should probably just do suede piping and keep it simple. Not in my nature!!

 

I think red on black will look sharp. If you can incorporate red stitching (preferably French Stitching), it will look even better. I know you probably will think I'm nuts, but what if you did your roof lining in red as well (suede or alcantara)? It won't be visible from the outside, but it sure will look demonic from behind the wheel.

 

I thought it would too but not so much. It really clashed with the classic wood dash. If I could find a carbon dash or piano black, I'd get it but the left hand drive dashes just aren't available. But I've found several right hand drive on ebay UK. And I don't like carbon wrap against black leather.

 

I'm not crazy about the Jaguar Carbon fiber dash - the color looks faded out and IMO, makes it looks cheap. Consider taking the wood out and having it professionally sprayed in a piano black laquer finish. On the passenger side air bag dash, ad a tiny Jaguar leaper in Gold leaf (1" or 2") across. Then spray the whole thing in clear - to protect the finish from scratching and to ad gloss. Combination of black suede and contrasting shiny piano black dash would definitely create a sharp contrast that will be unique to your vehicle. The only negative factor is that piano black finish attracts finger prints, so you'd have to wipe it down often.

 

I found a company that actually does aftermarket carbon fiber dashes. You have to,pay a core fee until you send back our wood dash. It looked more modern than the factory carbon. But $$$$$$!!
You're right about the color, I think Jaguar, back then, tried to warm up the mod fiber look with a tinted finish. It does look too warm, not modern. Maybe they thought it was a step away from wood tone.
My only real issue with all of this is the steering wheel. I'd like to not have to find a leather wrapped wheel and I CAN't leave it wood if I have it carbon fiber dashed.
I've given in and ordered some samples of the carbon wrapped. There's a new metallic color that looks interesting. It's a hyper graphite, supposed to look more like actual fiber.
As for black, if I can find a used complete dash cheep, I'd do it but I'd rather not ruin my perfect set I have now.

 

I hear you about not taking chances with painting the dash black. You know what they say: "once you go black, you can never go back" (lol. Sorry, I couldn't resist).
As far as your wheel, you're 100% correct - you can't leave the original wood wheel in there - it will not match anything else in the car. Leather being one option, have you considered covering the wheel with alcantara? I've seen it done quite a bit in high end aftermarket applications and it looks rather good. The only question is whether you like the feel of suede-like alcantara or prefer the smooth feel of the leather.

 

What's this alcantara stuff. Is it basically what we used to call naugahyde in the good old days but alcantara sounds more exotic?


Doug

 

Close! It's actually a man made suede.

 

Hey Doug,
Alcantara is a brand name for a specific polyester suede fabric. Here in Los Angeles you can find a very similar product downtown in any of 100 or so shops on 9th street for well under $10/running yard (60" width) under the brand name of Passion Suede. I have used thousands of yards of this fabric (available in about 100 colors) over the years for upholstery, pillows, shades...for customers, and find it even more serviceable than Ultrasuede which costs approximately 10 times the price. It is also completely machine washable and does not pill as does original Ultrasuede. Let me know if you want some and I can pick it up for you in the $6-7 range.

 

Hey Ted--I assume this stuff is reasonably rugged? If so it would look good to do the inserts of the seats as well as maybe some areas of the door panels.

Doug

 

+1 on the Passion Suede.

I just recovered a door panel insert with some and it looks great! Inexpensive and easy to work with too, it took all of about 10 minutes to recover the insert... once I got it out... which took a bit more than 10 minutes.

 

Just did my inserts and speaker covers. Very subtle but much more custom looking. Here's a pic of door. The insert is really weird rubbery finish over A Masonite board. I used spray glue on front and hot glue on back.
FYI, the drivers door I took off the whole card only to find out the insert is simply stuck on by means of melted tabs on the back. And the speaker cover has two exposed screws underneath and tabs on the upper part.
The passenger door,I removed the panels without taking card off and simply used heavy duty double stick to put insert back on. Way easier!!

 

Here's the same material I just had my miata seats inserts customized in with blue piping.
It looks amazing! And VERY strong.
Doing the same thing to my XK8 seats. I'm still thinking about a piping detail on the doors and seats. Just can't figure out what color. The wood dash really fights every color.

 

Already did the back suede a pillars and sprayed sained convertible headliner with black fabric spray. It even looks like suede.

 

I may rethink the red detail. This vintage Mercedes looks stunning with the red piping and wood.

 

The XJ100 special edition came with red piping on black. You might find some pictures in the X308 section.

 

The picture in your other thread has a wider shot of the door insert. It shows a red strap (purse strap?) hanging over the seat. That red with the back looks pretty good to me and doesn't clash with the wood IMHO.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...5-00-image-jpg

 

The blue piping is stunning! Nice job.

 

You need to break up the ALL BLACK theme a bit. It does look sharp as is, but trust me, you need to introduce little bit of RED in there. Just a few accents: stitching or piping on the seats... Perhaps RED break calipers to tie in the interior use of red to the exterior. I assure you, the effect will be dramatic (in a good way.)
As far as your door panel inserts: are you claiming that you did this on your own? From the pic it looks fantastic. What about your Miata, who did the stitching, piping and fitting?

 

Have red calipers. And badging.
That red over the seat back is red leather cording I made to one on doors.
I did the door panels on both cars and I looked the blue too. It's a pisser little car so I got the blue real carbon dash kit and electric blue piping.
I'm def doing the red. I'll post pics tomorrow. Once I'm sure about the red, I'll takeoff seat skins and have my trim guy change inserts to lack suede with red stitching and piping like the miata.