Wood Dash

[Mbufford]

After months of working on this dash, I finally finished it! This was my first time working with varnish, and it is very temperamental. I had to completely strip it once because I didn’t know how temperamental varnish was with humidity, and I brushed a coat on while it was raining outside. FML….

Anyway, it’s a waterfall bubinga veneer with 7 coats of Captain’s Varnish. Once it cured for long enough, I cut it down to a satin finish with 0000 steel wool and Bowling Alley paste wax. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I’ll also be doing the trans tunnel cover, but not until after I have the trans in, just in case I end up relocating the shifter hole.

IMG_1252.jpgIMG_1251.jpg

Not dash related, but in collaboration with Mike Bray, I got my custom steering wheel
Hub done, and it looks awesome. But, since the only thing I want to be shiny on my car is the body, we’re working on an alternative design.

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[David Hodgkins]

Man that dash looks awesome! Great job! Wood dashes were a big thing back in about the MKIII days.. I haven’t seen one in a whil; yours came out fantastic!
Congratulations!

[JJK]

That is beautiful, good job.

[Lidodrip]

Great job, can't wait to see everything come together!

[ProfessorB]

Beautiful! I once had a TR6 and put a rosewood dash in it. I always miss having a wood dash. Your's is awesome.

[CraigS]

Very, very nice. Car color will be???????

[maclonchas]

Great looking dash. You are true artisan.

[Mbufford]

Very, very nice. Car color will be???????

Kind of hard to explain that part. But I basically want to do what is in this picture: IMG_0729.png

[jeskam]

Did you plumb fresh (front) air into both foot boxes or will that be for AC?

[D Stand]

Great looking dash!

[Mbufford]

Did you plumb fresh (front) air into both foot boxes or will that be for AC?

Yeah, it’s just foot box vents. More info in my build thread, but I used electric valves with the fans and wired it to one button for each side—on opens the valve and starts the fan, and off closes the valve and stops the fan. IMG_1060.jpgIMG_1059.jpg

[nashuanuke]

Nice, mine are still in progress. I'm going to attempt this pour on once the weather warms up a little more.

dash and console.jpgpour on.jpg

[Mbufford]

Is that an epoxy resin? I’ve played with those recently as well. Just like any other gloss coating, dust nibs will be a big problem. Wasn’t much of an issue for me, since I sanded and rubbed it to a satin finish. But for anything high-gloss, you need to have an absolutely dust-free environment to do it. The other option is to painstakingly sand out the nibs, then polish and buff your finish back to high gloss.

I don’t have any shots of it, and my dash is currently covered with plastic for the body-work phase. But, I was able to get my veneer all the way around the bottom without any cracking. Granted, I was surprised I pulled this off—I think it was mostly due to the species I used being more flexible.

Good luck, can’t wait to see pictures!

[phileas_fogg]

If you cover your dash with epoxy, you'll need to protect the epoxy from UV degradation, else after a few years the finish will become cloudy. I'm not aware of any UV-resistant epoxies. Most boat guys cover their epoxy with spar varnish (which is somewhat sensitive to humidity when applying). Rust-Oleum 207008-6PK Marine Spar Varnish holds up better than most, according to several marine application studies...


John

[nashuanuke]

my edge on the lower dash is pretty flush with the bottom lip, I'm pleased with that. The tunnel cover is a bit of a wreck and I don't know if I have a simple solution to make it look good in the transition to the carpet on the sides. I'm considering using some sort of bathroom tile trim on the edges: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Schluter-Sy...rim/1000674199.

[nashuanuke]

If you cover your dash with epoxy, you'll need to protect the epoxy from UV degradation, else after a few years the finish will become cloudy. I'm not aware of any UV-resistant epoxies. Most boat guys cover their epoxy with spar varnish (which is somewhat sensitive to humidity when applying). Rust-Oleum 207008-6PK Marine Spar Varnish holds up better than most, according to several marine application studies...


John

Honestly looking at the spar varnish, I may go with that. I'll have to do some more research.

[Mbufford]

Honestly looking at the spar varnish, I may go with that. I'll have to do some more research.

Yeah, varnish is the premium and longest lasting option. I used the Pettit Captain’s Varnish because all the marine folks recommended it, and those guys know varnish. It’s just such a pain to apply because it attracts dust so much. It took me a few coats before I finally set up a dust-free booth with drop cloth plastic, and air filter, and a fan. Even then, I quickly learned I needed to spray the entire inside of the booth with water before moving the project inside for a coating. If you do those things, it’s manageable.

Also, worth mentioning is that, in the end, I found the spray-can varnish to be much easier. Brushing layers on is tough because if you lay it on too thick, it’ll wrinkle and not cure with a smooth surface. Spraying gives thinner layers, but much easier to control.