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Ok chaps, heres the walk through for the DIY dash
Got 22 consecutive leaves of walnut burr for £2.70 from ebay. 4 leaves of laminate were soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, then each leave was sandwiched between two sheets of newspaper and dried /flattened in a press comprising of two bits of plywood and a breeze block!
The next stage was to cut a paper template for the reqiured shape. I found the best way was with heavy brown parcel paper traced in situ with a stanley blade. Once I had the template, I spray glued it to a piece of 0.5mm alluminium (pic 2) then set about freehand cutting it with a dremmel. An hour later and a pile of worn out cutting discs later, I had the final shape cut out which was offerd up and fettled with a fine file until I was happy (pic 3) . The paper and glue were stripped off with panel wipe, and the alluminium profile was then formed and bent by hand to follow the contours and curves of the dash (pic 4)
Using contact glue, the laminate was then stuck to the profile and all the air expelled by rolling with the round plastic foot fron an old settee. The wood was fixed in place while still slightly damp to avoid it splitting. When It was dry (a few hours in the house was enough) and all shrinkade had taken place, the surplus wood was carefully trimmed away round the edges, and the surface treated to a thorough sanding with 1000 wet and dry used dry (pic 5)
Its had two coats of 1k spray out acrylic laquer, which have been left to flash off overnight, the another sanding down followed by 6 more coats.
Once this is dried and cured,then compounded and polished back, the rear will be covered with very thin high adhesion double sided tape. The plastic dash will get a good cleaning with panel wipe to remove any silicones from previous cleaning then the wooden dash can be stuck in place.
I'll do the rest of tha dash as time permits, plus the centre panel between the seats. Now that Ive finally figured out how to post the pics, Ill post one of the finished job when Ive done the rest.
Ok chaps, heres the walk through for the DIY dash
Got 22 consecutive leaves of walnut burr for £2.70 from ebay. 4 leaves of laminate were soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, then each leave was sandwiched between two sheets of newspaper and dried /flattened in a press comprising of two bits of plywood and a breeze block!
The next stage was to cut a paper template for the reqiured shape. I found the best way was with heavy brown parcel paper traced in situ with a stanley blade. Once I had the template, I spray glued it to a piece of 0.5mm alluminium (pic 2) then set about freehand cutting it with a dremmel. An hour later and a pile of worn out cutting discs later, I had the final shape cut out which was offerd up and fettled with a fine file until I was happy (pic 3) . The paper and glue were stripped off with panel wipe, and the alluminium profile was then formed and bent by hand to follow the contours and curves of the dash (pic 4)
Using contact glue, the laminate was then stuck to the profile and all the air expelled by rolling with the round plastic foot fron an old settee. The wood was fixed in place while still slightly damp to avoid it splitting. When It was dry (a few hours in the house was enough) and all shrinkade had taken place, the surplus wood was carefully trimmed away round the edges, and the surface treated to a thorough sanding with 1000 wet and dry used dry (pic 5)
Its had two coats of 1k spray out acrylic laquer, which have been left to flash off overnight, the another sanding down followed by 6 more coats.
Once this is dried and cured,then compounded and polished back, the rear will be covered with very thin high adhesion double sided tape. The plastic dash will get a good cleaning with panel wipe to remove any silicones from previous cleaning then the wooden dash can be stuck in place.
I'll do the rest of tha dash as time permits, plus the centre panel between the seats. Now that Ive finally figured out how to post the pics, Ill post one of the finished job when Ive done the rest.