Car is in the shop over an hour away. Been pouring over the pix I took. One thing I noticed the day I first saw it was the arm rest.

It has been suggested to place a warm moist towel over it. Frankly looks like it was wet or over humidified to get to this state so I'm not sure that is the right call.

Car spent first 10+ years of it's life in Winter Garden FL. No other apparent hurricane related issues so I'm discounting that lovely thought. Car has sat since 2012 based on inspection sticker and limited paperwork in glovebox.

I've looked at dozens of these cars and have never seen this....but then again they were all NY cars.

Any clues as to why and possible fix to get rid of the wrinkles??? First stop was ebay but no luck on a replacement

Grazi!

EDIT: Boy I can't wait to get this home so I can spend the next three months spiffing up this interior!

 

This is a common issue. What I did was to remove the leather cover, place several layers of relatively thin flexible foam insulation underneath it, then reinstall the cover using a good-quality upholstery glue spray can (from 3M I believe). The extra layers of foam insulation took up enough space underneath the leather cover to smooth it out. It has been nearly ten years since I did this job....

 

Thank you...Makes sense that the "foam" padding has probably deteriorated over the years.

Seems like a perfect winter project I can do removing the cover and putzing with it indoors, (unheated garage).

On a somewhat related topic, my A pillar is just a tiny bit loose. I'll remove that and reattach in the spring.

EDIT: Just peeked at a few pix of replacement units om ebay for visual guidance. It looks like the entire lid is some type of semi solid rigid foam. Did you have any issues removing the leather cover? Looks to be glued in place from the factory.

 

I do not recall any issues removing the leather cover but hell, it was nearly ten years ago. I probably used my trusty X-Acto knife to cut through the factory glue seams....

 

Look on ebay under this heading

Console Lid Armrest Cover Leather for Jaguar XK XK8 XKR 1997-2006 AGD Oatmeal

I recovered mine with this and it looks great
Fairly easy to do

 

@vmaxie Was yours puckered like mine? My leather seems to be in fine shape but as pointed out the substrate seems to have deteriorated. The new cover seems to be an easy solution if it would cover the surface issues.

 

Yes it was

 

Dang, what a deal ! Might be worth it just for the cup holder. Oh wait, it just includes the leather cover. Still I would buy one if they came in cashmere, SDZ.

 

I purchased a cover from eBay. The color wasn't exact, but very close. Couldn't really expect it to be much better. All together you can't tell. The problem was the way it was stitched is different. The old one had stitching on each side going front to back. The new one had one row of stitching starting at front of one side, curving at the rear on top , and back to the front. So there were 2 pieces stitched together instead of 3. Because of this it didn't fit quite right . They offered to refund my money. However I already removed the old. Needed something on there. I tried everywhere to find the correct one. Was only one place I could verify it was correct. The price was like 4 times as much. And there's still the chance that I screw it up installing it. It does require cutting. So I figured I'd use the cheap one for practice. With alot of stretching and pulling, I got it on. Turned out decent. If someone didn't know to look, they likely wouldn't notice. Noticed the one front corner by the cup holder is coming loose. The way it's made there's not much to hold it in that spot. I guess that fits a cup holder with not much use in having. Best use I've found for it is getting in the way. If you want to use it as intended, you might as well just throw your cup on the floor and get it over with. That's where it's going to end up anyway. Ohh the cover.... It looks much better than it did. Everyone had told me it looks great. A little glue would probably fix the loose spot. Would be nice if it was actually leather as the original was. None of the places I contacted had real leather. For the price I paid, I can't really complain.

 

The factory used some small plastic peg like things to hold while glue dried. Can't reuse them. Don't remember exactly why. But can't use them. A bag of assorted paperclips. The black ones with the wing like levers that flip out to open the clip And some weatherstrip adhesive is what I used.

 

Diving in tonight.....Will take pix as I go.

 

Hope things went well. Since I left my last comment I went a different route. The armrest I recovered with the new cover from ebay didn't turn out bad But you could tell it wasn't right. The stitching for one reason. The color was real close. Maybe if I didn't know it was fake leather it would have looked better. I had another one that was very cracked and stuffed up. Had some leather filler and dye left over from my seats. So I gave it a try. And I swapped the broken cup holder with the recoverd one. What I ended up with was much more pleasing.
I also came across another possibility. I'm not sure it it will work. I've found some information leaning towards it working. And I'd love to do away with the useless cup holder. Apparently the armrest from an earlier model XJ is the same without a cup holder. Have yet to find a definite answer. But sounds great to me.

 

That looks fantastic. Was it in as bad shape as mine?

I've only gotten as far as removing it from the car and cleaning the goo and gunk from the insides of the cupholder and lubing the slider. There was an incredible amount of dried coffee and schmutz.

Where did you buy the filler and dye? I may try that route.

 

Found all sort of nasty too. You may have already found out. But be careful with the little gears on each side of the cup holder. They like to fall off at random. Was searching a couple times. Luckily I found them. Don't know where someone would find a replacement.
The dye and filler I got from Seat Doctors. I looked around and appeared most places sold the same stuff. Looked like the same bottles with different labels. Chose this one because it was close. I was pleased with the transaction. He matches the color from your vin. When I received it I found it was slightly different. I contacted him and he sent me some pigment to add with no additional cost for it or shipping. I received it 2 or 3 days later. Adding a few drops made it perfect.

 

It looked much worse in person. Had some rather deep gouges .
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WOW!! Nice job!

I have the left side bolster on the drivers side wear which ain't too bad. I'll order some up and try it.

Thanks.

Oh check out my thread of old beater interiors!

 

I covered restoring the leather of my XK8 here in my working thread.. Lots of good pics and info.

 

BLKLSTD

Is this what you had in mind? From an XJ (flat top). Padded and covered in matching leather. Still needs to be a little deeper for tall cups but 100% better than OEM.

 

The one I saw looked about like that . But without the stainless pieces. I assume you added those? The one I saw was on ebay I saved it. But when I went back, it's not saved. And I can't find the listing. All the xj armrests I find now have cup holder and look same as the xk. What year xj has the armrest without cup holder?

 

Looks good. The product I got worked a bit different, unless I misread something. What I got after cleaning , you apply filler which seems like some sort of silicone sort of substance. After it's cured and everything is flat, you apply the color. Then there is the clear. They had option of gloss or matte. I chose matte.