Hey Guys,

So here are the first of my upgrades to the Arden Xk8.

I added:

Arden polished aluminum shift knob.

Polished Shifter bezel - Big thanks to Reverend Sam for his video which showed me how to remove the plastic one without breaking it!

Polished Stainless Gauge Rings

Polished Stainless Pedals

I think it compliments the interior well giving it a richer and sportier feel simultaneously.

Here's before:



And a couple crappy iphone shots of after (my camera was dead!)





Let me know your thoughts!

Take care,

George

 

I like it, it is possible to have too much wood!

 

Lol I say that every time I see a car at the auction that has one of those fake wood kits added to the dash... Especially if the car had factory wood. Then they add the a/c controls, the stereo, around the vents etc etc down the line.

I think the polished aluminum breaks it up a bit, and gives it another dimension.

Take care,

George

 

Looks very refined, George. Nice touch....

 

Sweet!

 

Looks nice with the touch of metal. After a few Arden trinkets I assume you needed to mortgage your house?

There was some aftermarket provider (Adamesh?) offering some polished metal trim for around the air vents that I thought about for a while but resisted since there is a fine line between refined and cheesy.

Doug

 

I like everything except the aluminium gear shift knob but that's just a minor personal preference.

It's very well done.

A little worried about you carrying all those wrenches around on the driver's floor. We may need to work on your self confidence and reliability issues.

Graham

 

Looks very sweet. Very tastefully done.

But that black plastic box under the gauges needs to go .

 

My car has everything Arden had to offer at the time on it. Full Aero kit, suspension, exhaust w/cats, rear wing etc... All done in Germany at the Arden factory when the car was brand new. It also has custom staggered 20" polished 3pc HRE 540 wheels, that cost 1700 a wheel! Thankfully I let the original owner pay off the home equity line of credit on it. (Original sticker @110k). I MAY have to check out that vent trim. I think In my application it MAY just work...

I got the shift knob from John Shirtz at Wheel Center Tampa. He has a bunch of new old stock Arden bits from when he used to be an Arden dealer he's clearing out.

LOL... Would it make you feel better if I told you I want your gauge setup too... AND your remote convertible top. It's all on the bucket list. The next upgrade is audio.

As far as the shift knob, I think it works because the car has all the Arden stuff on it.

For those who don't know what my car looks like:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...how-car-74557/


Take care,

George

 

looks nice. that gear select bezel really does make a difference.

 

Beautiful and then beautifuler!