1991 Jaguar XJ-S

[MostMint]

While we're voting, if you hadn't shown the before pic I probably wouldn't notice.

Everything you touch in the interior is black so now the shifter joins the group.

Why did the factory make the shifter handle beige?

[Basement Paul]

I'm with the "fix the beige one" group. You can do it!

-BP

[AKROVER]

Thanks to the input and thanks to the fact that I was finding the new shift knob too tall, I did some research and ordered a beige leather refinishing kit. It came with three shades. The medium one was pretty close. I poured a small amount on a piece of cardboard and then poured a smaller amount of the lighter shade next to it. The size of the puddles was probably 3:1 or 4:1, but as I started blending, it lightened up pretty quickly. I only used a small amount of the lighter color, maybe a quarter of what I poured, so maybe closer to 12:1 (medium to light).



I only added the refinishing compound on the top above the chrome ring so it looks like I got the shade matched nicely. It now needs to sit for 48 hours before I can put some typical leather treatment on it. I hadn't thought about changing this to a black knob before the discussion here, but that is my backup plan if I find color matching to be problematic. I still am not a huge fan of this original shift knob, but the "Classic Collection" cars all had these leather knobs matched to the seat color. The other cars had wood knobs.

[Basement Paul]

It looks dead-on-balls accurate. It's an industry term...

Nice job!

-BP

[GMJohnny]

Looks mint! I’d be tempted to purchase a wood one also, so you can
refinish it and then be able to switch them back and forth depending on
your mood!

GM