This will be just a quick idea for beautification of the "bare" hole in the centre console, which remained after removing the "newest technical gem" from 1998/99:
An inbuild mobile car flip-phone and it's huge module underneath in the centre console. It left absolutely no usable space in the centre console and that mobile phone was obviously now also without any use...


I used an over 100 year old red gum tree board salvaged from a left-over board of an old house. I tinted it a bit darker and applied real bee wax with a heat gun.


Those are the backsides (which will not be seen in the car).


This is the questionable beauty after removing the useless space-grabbing old mobile phone.


As you may see, I used 6 little bits of wood more than originally planned to make it perfect. I also created those 2 tiny wood inserts in the front of it, replacing the original plastic there. The wooden bits are not attached to each other - just stuck in there. I only used a little bit of double sided sticky tape here and there..


With the remaining parts installed, it looks like it had always been that way - plus it is a colour-match with the rest of the wood-veneer in the XJ8.

 

when I grow up, I would like to be like Peter

 

Just a quick hint. There are different compartment boxes available from Jaguar. This is from an X308 without phone. The X300 without phone will also fit an X308.

 

Thanks, bforsik, I did not know that, but I am happy with my solution...
a.) I would not know, if such a special part of a Jag, more than 20 years old, would be really available still.
b.) I like the wood better (I even replaced the little black plastic part (which I had) in front of the tray with wood.
c.) I think my solution actually gives me a little bit more usable space in the centre console

And on another note: I think something had been spilled onto your tray in the picture. I had that (even worse) on my '04 S-Type, which I just restored. I first cleaned the tray the best I could (e.g. with laundry washing liquid under water), but it was still not perfect, so I bought gray felt in a craft shop and I cut out a new bottom for the tray. Looks great.

 

I like your solution with the wood. I just wanted to point out that there were also closed inserts available. The picture is borrowed from an eBay listing. I still have the Motorola flip phone in use, and it works fine even in 2022. If you remove it from the car during wintertime, the display will be saved.

 

I don't know much about mobile phones, but I would not have expected that that technology would still work. Good to know. I will try to find it (I put it somewhere some time ago), and see, if it can still be saved - but I think it was damaged by the leaking battery... "Wintertime" is never a problem is Australia... More though the summertime in Australia, where the phone display would get baked in the car...

PS: Where I live there was not even one moment in the last 21 years, where the temperature was below 0°C.
On the other hand, many cars here have paint damage on the roof and bonnet due to extreme sunlight - but then again, the cars are not corroded, because no one here throws salt onto the roads...

 

I suspect one could jazz up the interior of the console compartment, however you could jazz up the
glove box as well and with about as much appreciation as it is seldom seen. For that matter you
might velvet line the trunk compartment if that is what suits you.

I guess it comes down to the "beauty in the eye of the beholder".

 

Over 100 year old and rare red-gum wood-board (with personal sentimental value polished up to perfection) beats a worse-for-wear coffee stained old felt insert with insufficient space inside any time... One just needs an eye for detail to recognize, where even Jaguar did a less-than-optimal design - and since I could not leave the bare hole in the console as it was anyway (I assume you did understand, that I did not cut a hole in the felt insert, but that is how it was after I removed the mobile phone, which consumed the whole space inside), I don't see how your talk about unnecessarily jazzing up anything can be applied.. My glovebox and trunk are just fine as Jaguar made them. No need to be insulting.