Awhile back someone had replacement center console with 2 cupholders in place of the ash trays. Anyone know the source of this?? Still available??
Thomas,
Attached is a picture of the one that I got for my wife’s 1990 XJ-S convertible on eBay from Saul Chaplin at British Autowood in Florida. My wife is very happy with this as the ash trays were useless to us and plastic cup holders hanging on the doors weren’t practical when opening and closing the doors.
I have no affiliation with Saul other than as a satisfied customer for several items including the wood shifter and all the interior carpathian birdseye elm on this car that he restored.
Paul
2 Likes
Yep… exactly what I’m looking for. Looks good.
That console is gorgeous. The shifter knob is a bit much IMHO, though.
As this comes up from time to time I thought I would share my economy version.
A while back I decided I wanted a cup holder but didn’t want to change the interior look too much so I put together a quick prototype using one of the existing ashtray inserts and a little wooden block as a spacer. Whenever I need it I just flip open the ashtray and plug it in. With original insert acting as a keel it is incredibly stable.
Downside is that the beverage sits up a bit higher, but the upside is it’s cheap and can be returned to normal in seconds. As you can see from the scratches my temporary prototype has now been in use for several years! But one day I will create a neater more polished version.
Kirby,
That first picture might have given the impression that the shifter knob was larger than it really is due to the angle that it was taken. Here are two more pictures that might help. The first shows three kinds of prefacelift XJ-S shifter knobs. The one on the right and circled in blue is the normal XJ-S knob. The one on the left and circled in red is the larger leather one that comes on the Classic Collection trim package. The third is the wooden aftermarket shifter knob that I got from British Autowood in Florida. The wood one is larger than the leather one, but not that much larger.
The second picture gives a better perspective of the size of the wood shifter knob and how nicely the color matches the rest of the birdseye Carpathian Elm wood of the dash.
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and my wife prefers the wood shifter knob. So that is that. 
Paul
Did you have to replace the lever itself to fit this round knob? The original knob screws into an opening through the lever from left to right.
Years ago someone posted an aftermarket knob that was just like the OEM XJ-S knob except that it was made of elm burl, thereby matching the rest of the wood in the interior. That’s the one I would prefer. But, as you said, if the boss prefers the round one, that’s all we need to know.
Kirby,
No, I didn’t have to replace the selector lever. The prefacelift cars with the Classic Collection trim package got a different lever with a threaded rod on top for their larger leather knob. I just unscrewed that leather knob and replaced it with the aftermarket wood one.
Attached are pictures showing three different “T” shaped selector lever knobs in my XJ6s and XJ12. These are the same basic shape knobs that prefacelift XJ-S have. The first shows the black OEM plastic one in my 1984 XJ6 Vanden Plas. The second shows an aftermarket dark wood one in my former 1987 XJ6 Vanden Plas that I sold last year. The third shows a burl walnut aftermarket one that I got almost 20 years ago as installed in my 1990 V12 Vanden Plas. It was much darker when I got it but it has lightened up quite a bit. I temporarily installed it in this car but the color was such a mismatch that I put the original plastic one back on.
Paul
