www.jec.org.uk

Ok everyone it's brain picking time.

1970s XJS V12 Black with Red leather/vinyl - black vinyl trim interior.

What colour would the headlining have been ???????

Most people might have a piece to get a rough idea from but the previous owner of my XJS decided to rip it all out and cover it all with what looks like white sack cloth ?????????

YUCK

So any ideas ??

No one on here got a 70s XJS????????????

Am I the only one???????????

Mr Ian

Sorry, can't help with the original headlining colour, but I would guess it was a fairly uninspiring dirty light brown colour - like they all seem to be.

When I had my headlining re-trimmed years ago I chose a very pale fawn material, looks great but the plus side , it REALLY lightens up the inside of the car which always seems a bit dark. I loved it, OK not original, but I think that if you get to the stage where you're worried about people sticking their heads inside, looking at the headlining and being critical because it's not an original Jaguar colour perhaps things have gone a bit far.............

Best Wishes
Tony

Cheers Tony.
I was only after a pointer towards the original colour out of interest mainly, just wanted to know if it would have been a white, grey or beige.
I had some headlining samples sent to me (not that i'm at the stage of doing the job yet) and the best looking one was a light grey colour. I might get a small amount of the material and do the rear 1/4s to see what it looks like.

Not that it helps directly, but the headlining colours available for the saloon at that period were:

ADH - Fawn
or
MDA - Silver

Pictures I've seen from the time show a fawn type lining with beige seats, so perhaps the 'silver' went with black and other dark colours. The red used on the saloons (CDB Russet) was paired with this according to my SII XJ parts cat.

the HE was introduced with a head linning of ' Lime-Stone '

BB

I have one of the very early Left hand drive cars, total survivor, never messed with, so it's all original, Silver on black leather, the headlining is a pale grey. I believe the early cars, (mine is Sept.75 prod.), only had the grey to start with, and then by late '76, the beige was finally installed as well.
I have changed the headlinings on lots of XJ-S cars over the years,and it's a bit daunting to start with, but relatively easy, in the final analysis.
Good Luck!
(BTW your car sounds very much like a car that I sold, a couple of years ago.It was red/black,with a very period black vinyl roof,covering incuding the buttresses!)1976 or 77,on an R plate I think.

(BTW your car sounds very much like a car that I sold, a couple of years ago.It was red/black,with a very period black vinyl roof,covering incuding the buttresses!)1976 or 77,on an R plate I think.

Are there any pictures of your early car? They are so rare now.

Yes sounds similar, my XJS is a registered 1/78 on an S (obviously built earlier) V12 black with (early) red interior, the (seats have the dimpled leather centre sections, later were just plain) black centre console (later were interior trim colour) and yes it had a vinyl roof covering the butresses down to the boot and rear window. It's got the earlier chrome 'B' post finishers and the infill on the rear lights is black.

I feel the 'silver/grey' headlining will be the one to go for and hopefully this year i'll be at that stage.

I have just searched through my removable harddrive, that's where I keep all my pictures of cars, after the last crash, I invested in the removable harddrive, but alas, it seems that the pictures are no more. I also had a very early April 1976 production, RHD XJ-S in old English white, with black interior, that was one of the first RHD produced cars. That car was also sold at about the same time. It had been an overseas delivery, to a Squadron leader stationed in Germany. By the time I bought it, it had acquired a personal number plate SLO 655. I brought it to Stoneleigh, in the spring of 2006 or 7,(memory fails me these days), and was trying to sell it there. Eventually I sold it on eBay, but I did replace the tacky personal plate with a 'P' plate, that was age-related, before selling it. Both these cars were fitted with the period 70s vinyl roof, both cars had the Radio/cassette/recorder units,(MOTOROLA?).
I will continue to search for some pics of these cars, I was more interested in them going to an enthusiast,rather than selling them for any real money. I think I got £500 for the red one, with no MoT or tax, and £1000 for the white one with a year's MoT & tax. Not so very much for what are, IMHO the best versions of the XJ-S.
I bought my 1975 car, here in Canada,(actually from upstate NY), last year, it has 51000 original miles, was the first retail delivered car in the northeast, and was 1st registered to Bruce Springsteen! The only thing needed for the MoT in Canada, was a set of tyres. The car had the original tyres on it! Fabulous cars, much better than the later HE. I have owned literally dozens of XJ-S cars over the years, including many 3.6 manual equipped cars,(including a TWR 3.6 manual car,now here in Canada), and a 5.3V12 TWR auto,also in Canada. Although I do confess to having a weakness for the early cars. They're the best!