New Dash Pieces, Part 2

[johnssi]

I have just finished making new dash pieces for my '81 Spider. The veneer I used came to me from my brother in law who used to work for Rolls Royce Motors. I have had it for more than 30 years but forgot that I had it until it turned up while cleaning my shop up. So the veneer came from Rolls Royce when they would send their veneer guy, once a year, to Italy to buy 2 walnut trees worth of veneer for their dashes. So that makes it Italian Walnut burl veneer, somewhat appropriate! So here are a couple of pictures of the finished pieces.








Great project.. next up...Seat recover!

[DocGraphics]

WOW that some pretty wood, nice job!

I like where you put the oil pressure gauge too, doesn't look upside down compared to the others there, looks right!

Your car is the color mine was stock or real close, brown anyways, looks great!

[azygoustoyou]

That's one nice looking dash. Great job!

[sptcoupe]

Just plain gorgeous! Nice work!

[So Cal Mark]

very nice work!

[azruss]

Copycat! my wood came from an 1890's english piano.
Nothin' like that old english look in an italian sports car.

[whiterabbit]

NICE! I was looking at veneering the wifes dash but WOW the price of veneer has went way up!
What type adhesive did you use? Automotive clear coat? Was looking at some Burl that had adhesive already on it (Vandykes) but wonder if it would stand up to the elements. Sorry about all the questions but that's a sharp dash!

[Fiat88]

Wow that looks great! Both.

[azruss]

On mine, I used sections of the piano that were already the right thickness, so had no veneer gluing to worry about. A piece of trivia. The wood you see was actually the backside of the panels. I did 4 coats of rattle can Urethane Spar varnish, sanding with 400 w/d between coats. In retrospect, i should have used a 2 part automotive urethane clear. I'm on the hunt for a solid piece of burl to make a gearshift knob.

[johnssi]

Thanks everybody for the great comments and feedback on the dash! Great group we have here. the veneer I used was 1/64th of an inch in thickness and therefore had to be glued to a plywood substrate. Incidentally I also veneered the back side of the pieces to keep them from warping. I use a single part "cold veneer" glue and a vacuum press that a friend of mine was kind enough to lend me. Over all the veneering part was a piece of cake. Like Azruss said I too used a spar urethane in my cup gun and wound up with probably 8 coats on and sanding and steel wool in between and then finished off with medium compound. I also turned a new shift knob out of black walnut, not burl though, and wound up having to use a gel walnut stain on it to get it as dark as the veneer.

[Rain1950]

Outstanding! I was looking at the dash on mine and thinking about how to spruce it up. Now I have the idea; thanx