Jaguar XJ6 – production of faicia plate, installation of new audio system
The owner of a 2002 Jaguar XJ6 approached us with the following task – he wanted to install a modern multimedia device in the car (the emphasis was on the Apple CarPlay interface) and build a budget, but well-playing audio system to replace the factory one. It must be said that the car is in perfect condition, one of those options when the owner pampers and cherishes his car. And does not drive it every day. And despite this, the owner of the Jaguar was ready for significant changes in the audio system.
We started our work, of course, with replacing the factory head unit. The factory radio of a 2002 car does not have modern functions, even if it is a premium car. Below are two photos. The first one shows the dashboard with the factory radio, followed by a photo of the already installed Kenwood DDX7017BTS car radio in the adapter frame we made. The difference is obvious. But the most important thing that worried us most was whether we would be able to perfectly fit the non-native radio into the laconic interior of the Jaguar XJ6, given that the adapter frame would not be made in the factory way.
In our opinion, it turned out great. How did we work on making the transition frame? We took the ready-made Connects2 CT24JG01 frame as a basis and slightly expanded it (we found a donor frame, cut strips of the required number of millimeters wide from it and soldered them to the main transition frame on the sides), puttyed, sanded, brought to perfection and gave it to professionals for pasting with film, having previously selected the right shade of black. A few photos of this process:
We specially took several photos to show the thoroughness of the work performed. The cracks are uniform along the entire perimeter. The frame does not look like a non-original element of the dashboard. Of course, ideally it was necessary to give the transition frame for painting, but with the consent of the car owner, we decided that a good film is a good solution in terms of price/quality.
As for the audio system. In the factory configuration, the signal from the car radio was transmitted via the optical output to an external amplifier. When replacing the standard radio, the factory amplifier stopped working. In such cases, there are usually two options – either keep the factory audio system working using an adapter that can make friends with the factory optical MOST bus, or replace the factory amplifier with a new one. Of course, there are no adapters for the Jaguar XJ6 (how many of these cars were released …), so we had to go for the second option. We chose a RockFord Fosgate amplifier, Morel speakers, TchernovAudio wires. The speakers were installed in their standard places. The amplifier was also secured in the place where the factory one stood.
