Wood dash question

[Jdav]

For those of you who have done a wood dash, what brand and color of stain have you found to best match the steering wheel?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Planning updates already, eh? The stain color will vary greatly depending on the wood species; i.e.; the same stain will be different on red oak, white oak, maple, poplar, pine, etc. You'll need to select your wood then do some sampling to make a match. Also keep in mind that sun exposure will change the color so it will need to be topped with a UV resistant clear finish---note that the term is "UV resistant" so don't expect it to stop 100% of the change that comes with long term exposure.

Jeff

[SingleMaltWSKY]

The stain color will vary greatly depending on the wood species; i.e.; the same stain will be different on red oak, white oak, maple, poplar, pine, etc. You'll need to select your wood then do some sampling to make a match.

Jeff

Can confirm. We had LOTS of sampling before we made a choice on the type of wood as well as the stains/finishes. The good news is that depending on your local wood supply the samples will either be free or super cheap, so it's mostly time.

Also, we chose to go with a wood veneer over an aluminum sheet to avoid cracking due to weather/temp changes.

[Jdav]

Planning updates already, eh? The stain color will vary greatly depending on the wood species; i.e.; the same stain will be different on red oak, white oak, maple, poplar, pine, etc. You'll need to select your wood then do some sampling to make a match. Also keep in mind that sun exposure will change the color so it will need to be topped with a UV resistant clear finish---note that the term is "UV resistant" so don't expect it to stop 100% of the change that comes with long term exposure.

Jeff

Sort of
Dash is staying as is, but I am attempting to do a wood overlay on the door sills instead of carpet. My initial work has been done in red oak.

[10LCobra]

Ours turned out to match very well. I used a walnut veneer from Constantine’s, then purchased three different sample size stains from Hone Depot and produced several small samples on circular pieces of aluminum. I put resin over all three in order to know exactly what the finished product would look like and how closely I could match the steering wheel. I believe it was minwax “honey” or something like that. Once I did the dash it only took three tries to get the resin perfect... but I persisted because my wife really wanted the wood dash. In the end, it turned out beautifully.

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