Last night I painted the wooden parts with paint that I had mixed at the local hardware store to match the interior.

Partly for moisture-proofing and partly to better visualize what it will look like in vinyl. First pic shows the back-plane and the second the top view of the platform. I haven't attached the cap-rail to the back-plane yet. Waiting to talk with the upholstery shop to see if I need to adjust the width and fit.

Similarly, I have attached the assemblies with screws, but not glue yet just in case I need to change something at the last minute.

The third pic shows the underside of the platform. One of the four aft piers is circled in green. The outboard piers in white and the end of the hold-down columns in orange. The portion of the aprons that will just barely rest on the tunnel is in blue.

Note the gap for the wiring harness. The aprons do not drop all the way to the floor ... if they did I would have no way to put a nut on the lag-bolts.

The fourth pic shows the area in the car where the platform will be located. Matching colored ovals have been added. You can also see where I had to cut some of the foam away from where the aft piers will sit for better clearance.

I will need to cut part of the tab for the hold-down away, making it a fork rather than a closed tab. Otherwise the lag-bolts won't fit right.

The fifth pic shows the underside of the cap-rail and you can see the pocket I had to make to clear the iron hoop.

In the last pic you can see the rounded corner of the cap-rail that matches the stock seat belt guides and helps position the convertible top cover.

Now after seeing the XJS insert from a few posts above, I'm thinking about a front rail (like a towel bracket). Any idea where I can find a decent looking one?

 

Ikea. They have very plain simple chrome ones. I have them in my bathroom. Also check out their fit hen cabinet pulls. They have a brushed nickel one in several long sizes.

 

Next I'll start working on the luggage strips. I bought some 4ft pieces of aluminum flat stock at the local hardware store. I would have liked stainless, but we don't have any in our little town. The hippies and tree-huggers have succeeded in keeping the big box stores from "spoiling" our ambiance, so I have to work with what I can get. I'll polish and clear-coat the aluminum. Then fasten them down to the platform, through the vinyl or carpet (still on the fence about the choice) and add stick-on rubber strips on top to finish them off.

 

You are in no way high-jacking. My point was simply when I tried to fit the XJS parcel box we found it was quite a bit wider & overall totally unusable. My hope was to at least use the lid as I really like idea of a stowage area. It was just to big.

Is your back panel leaning back or is it perpendicular with the bottom? I like how you are able to make your lower panel so low. We notched my lower panel at the back & installed nutserts in the lip to bolt it down so I am higher up. My back panel is one piece with dowels on the bottom going into holes. The back is then screwed in from the backside thru the carpet in the convt top stowage area. You have more space but I have the roll bar behind as well as speakers mounted on the panel.

If you are interested in adding speakers the harness in your car has the factory rear speaker wires, you just need to find them in the harness that is on the floor.

 

My back panel leans back about an inch at the top. The platform is essentially flat horizontal. The luggage strips in the photo are the cardboard fakes ... haven't made the metal/rubber ones yet.
The photo shows what it would look like in all vinyl.

 

Thanks for the tip from above .... IKEA has two sizes of rack, but at only $3.99 for the 39" one, I wonder how good they are?
Tried to mock up a rail with a curtain rod we had laying around. It's a bit too thick (and even thicker would begin to look like a casket handle), but I like the concept.

 

Home Depot or Lowes both sell a wide range of towel bars and rods. If you want more elegant (and expensive) Restoration Hardware has some really nice ones. Certainly fit for a Jag.

 

Hmmmm, Restoration Hardware, my wife's favorite catalog. this could get expensive.

 

Why not locate an actual luggage rack like those used on fox body notch back mustangs and convertables or many cars in the 70's sold by JC Whitney? The bottom rails would be perfect OR get the side protectors like the add on's to the XJ6 Series III with the plastic inserts and end caps? You can even paint the inserts to match your interior color or just leave black for contrast. Just a thought.

Body Side Molding, Truck Molding, Car Molding, Vinyl Trim

Or maybe something like this?
Classic Look Car Trunk Deck Lid Universal Luggage Rack Cargo Carrier Adjustable | eBay

 

Hey. Looking good . Glad to see someone following on from my project (my Xkr is now a 2 seater) I think you will be happy with the luggage strips as I remarked before in our PMs the s/s would be better but the aluminium strip with the 3M body side moulding looks good, infact I had my car in for service at the jaguar shop and they all thought it was OEM.I would like to make one sujestion , you cannot see it in my photos but part of the floor lifts up, there is lots of room for tools etc, as your floor frame is wood it would be easy for you to do it now,mine is 3/4 aluminium sq tube, so it would have been harder as an after thought .BL

 

Have you considered Hafele as a source for the hardware? We source Hafele for cabinet hardware at my office, so I've seen a lot of their catalog. They make some really nice decorative stainless steel products

 

Wow, I really appreciate all the great suggestions! Those rivet-on side moulding channels with the vinyl insert are exactly what I had envisioned. Until I priced them .... those nice little finishers on the ends cost a fortune. To do seven luggage strips I would have twice as much invested as the whole project has cost so far. And being a cheap ba$tard, I'm looking at alternatives.
There is a company in the UK that sells cast luggage strips, but they are too long. I've sent them a note to see if they are solid so I can cut them down and re-drill one of the holes.
Or, I'll go with my original plan of home-made strips.

 

You do know the best luggage straps tie downs could be made from a few leather belts. Or the webbed belts as well

 

Having looked at the rivet on strips if I had seen these first I would have used these, I might even go for them yet, yes they are expensive but so are our cars and deserve the best. after all it only hurts for a little while. BL.

 

I found the little brackets that attach the straps (if I add them). They are called footman loops. Learn something every day.

 

When I visited my local upholstery shop a few days ago we went through his catalog of samples. For a 2004 Jaguar, the sample that looked like a perfect match was called "sand", not "cashmere".
Was sand also used, and is in fact not the right color to match cashmere? Or is this just a case of the supplier using their own name?

Ken

 

Wow, that looks very professionally done sherbercars + krswen. Nice job!

 

krswen,

Our experience has been that the color names at the upholstery shops are essentially meaningless. Every supplier has their own name, and there can be dozens of suppliers. When I offered to recover my wife's wrinkled XK8 A-pillars early last year, she studied at least 30 different beige fabrics to find the best match at our preferred auto upholstery shop (her XK8 interior is also "cashmere"). The product name did not matter, only the matched color did. She took each fabric sample outside into natural daylight, compared them inside the car's cabin, made her final decision, purchased the fabric (I have no idea what the name was), and it did not matter. Once I recovered her A-pillars, the match was dead-on perfect. You would think it came that way from the factory....

 

Any updates...

 

subscribed! Thinking now of this as a spring project, what I have in mind... remove the side speaker surrounds and speakers, raise the platform to house new speakers/big sub and include storage (cavity left behind from speakers would be really handy). The deck would come up halfway, and finish the top as described with rails/bars. I am thinking fibreglass sides/back with OEM carpeted deck/front.