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Any woodworkers out there?

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impster

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Greetings all!

I am preparing to build a new dash for my series III Sunbeam Rapier. The original dash was a veneered plywood which is now beyond salvaging as the plywood has warped and begun to delaminate. I have previously built new dashes using high quality marine grade plywood made with a greater number of layers than the stuff you buy at Home Depot. However, given the shape of the Sunbeam's dash and my lack of work space, I was wondering if a piece of quality hardwood could be used instead of plywood? If so, what type of wood would work best? Oak, Birch, Walnut, etc? Will verneers work better on one type of hardwood than on another? I'm thinking that a fine grain wood would be better than a coarse grain in terms of being able to make fine cuts. And what about warping? Will a hardwood be able to withstand the temperature extremes as well as a plywood?

Any and all suggestions and thoughts on the subject are welcome.

Thanks,
Tony Fontaine
 
I built a dash for my Lotus Europa out of a solid piece of Brazilian Rosewood once. I chose it because of the looks of course and because it was an extremely dense hardwood. I had no problems with warpage and it's probably still part of that car --- wherever it is! Whatever you use, make sure it's a good hardwood -- birch may not be dense enough. Things like teak, ebony, rosewood, zebrawood and walnut can be obtained easily from fine woodworking shops. You can change the coloring slightly by using a stain. A piece wide enough to make my dash in one piece--including the console- would have been too expensive so I chose to make a glued, doweled splice at the console edge which really couldn't be noticed. I planed and finished the wood after the splice was made so it blended together.

Veneer will not last unless you coat it with a polyurethane but then the polyurethane will need refinishing over time.

As far as fine cutting, I used the blade with the most teeth for rough cuts and a jigsaw and sander for the odd cuts. My rosewood was finished with multiple applications of teak oil.
 
I'm not a woodworker myself, beyond construction and framing, but my father has done quite a bit of furniture and cabinetry over the years. I was thinking of making a nice hardwood dash for my TR6, and he suggested Teak. They use it on boats and in other marine applications (the decks of battleships used to be teak), so it's very resistant to moisture and warpage. Some of the more rare south american hardwoods are really pretty, like cocobollo (spelling?) and extremely dense, but I'm sure they are very expensive for a piece that large. My father thought a tiger maple dash would look really nice also.
 
I made a dash for my Mini a couple of years ago.
I used marine plywood with Tiger Maple veneer topped with polyurethane. So far the veneer has held up well. ( I am told ) The car is in Ontario, unheated storage.
If you like the way a violin looks, you'd like Tiger Maple.
 
I have been woodworking most of my life and I would advise the use of walnut or cherry. Both are very nice to work with and beautiful also. The veneer route would be the next best thing. I would stay away from teak if you are not familiar with the wood, it is very oily and can be a pain to work with. Although if you take your time and do it right it will last forever. If you go to a lumber yard or a woodcraft store, they will occasionally have leftover pieces at a very reasonable price. Good luck.
 
Hi Tony,
I went with veneer/ Baltic Birch plywood. I think Baltic Birch would be more ridged than marine plywood, a ½” thick piece has nine layers. My center consol was originally vinyl over sheet metal, so it was much easier to veneer than make a new wooden one. The veneer in the photo is Lacewood with a slight reddish stain. I made the steering wheel and gearshift to match out of solid Lacewood.
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Can you tell us about making the steering wheel?
 
As a general rule you don’t want to use solid hardwoods in the automotive environment. They’re prone to warping, checking and splitting when subjected to extremes variations in temperature and humidity.

If you do use hardwood, stick with woods that are known to perform in severe environments. As the others mentioned, Teak has a long history in shipbuilding and outdoor furniture. Other dense, high oil and/or silica content woods like Bubinga, Ipe, Lignum Vitae, Mahogany, Rosewood (CraigFL, where’d you find a slab of Brazillian Rosewood?) and some others are also candidates.

Most US domestic hardwoods, like Maple, Cherry, Oak, Pine and Hickory are poor choices.


PC.
 
Hi John,
Well, it was a fair amount of work. It has 6 pieces in the front and 6 in the back. Once I burned the original grip off, I had a 3/8” steel hoop left. I took a plank of Lacewood and marked off arcs of 60° for each piece. I routed each piece for the hoop first, then cut them from the plank. Sanded the ends for a tight fit and glued it all together. Using a ¼ round router bit, I made the general shape. Next was making the finger grips. Figured out the spacing and depth and set up a jig. Lots of sanding by Dremel and hand. Stain and coat.
 

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GregW said:
Hi PC,
If you are near Torrance, you should check out Eisenbrand Exotic Hardwoods. It’s a candy store of wood.

Eisenbrand
Click to expand...

I drove past their address once and couldn’t even tell they were there. Then one of the guys at work managed to find it hiding round the back.

Eek, $89/bdft for Brazilian Rosewood. I think I’ll stick with Teak for a while.


PC.
 
I notice no one has mentioned the importance of sealing the back of the dash as well.Even baltic plywood can warp unless all is sealed.
 
thegoodbeamer said:
I notice no one has mentioned the importance of sealing the back of the dash as well.Even baltic plywood can warp unless all is sealed.
Click to expand...
my thoughts exactly. IMHO it really doesn't matter what wood you use because the dash isn't wide enough to really make warpage an issue - though I suppose you could cut a board into two or three and glue it back together for laminated strength. Mostly though, because we are talking about our pride & joy cars, we're not going to leave them in the elements or in the circumstances which would cause warping. As much as warping is caused by moisture, the real culprit is neglect. My 2 cents says as long as you finish front & back, use what you want.
 
GregW said:
Hi John,
Well, it was a fair amount of work.
Click to expand...
thank you - massive project but so worth it - it looks gorgeous! thanks for sharing
 
thegoodbeamer said:
I notice no one has mentioned the importance of sealing the back of the dash as well.Even baltic plywood can warp unless all is sealed.
Click to expand...
True that. I used polyurethane for the back and edges and a surface leveling resin for the finished face. The kind of stuff you find on bars (for drinking). It can be sanded and then polished if need be. I have heard good feedback from a finish called Envirotech also.

I should add that my 40 year old dash never warped though it looked untreated in the back. The plywood was de-laminating and the front finish was cracking, but it was still straight. Guess I was just lucky with that. The rest of the wood in the car was rotted away.
 
honestly, i would opt for a solid piece of wood, quarter sawn (much more stable than plane sawn), and sealed with a thinned epoxy process call "cpes".this process is from boat building, an area i have had a few years experience in. the epoxy used in wooden boat building is real epoxy, not the polyester stuff you see on the shelves at fleet farm or paint stores, that stuff is not moisture-proof at all and is the base vehicle for all body fillers. west systems brand is a good choice and the originators of the cpes process. after sealing with cpes, a few coats of a good UV resistant urethane marine varnish will keep the dash looking great, as epoxy will break down from UV rays. the process i just described is the standard method used for the brightwork (all the nice varnished teak and mohagany)you see on boats. you can google west systems and find all sorts of information on making wood weatherproof.
the choice of solid wood is given because of the difficulties in laminating a veneer to a substrate that will tend to move around with the weather. ply will not wrap easily but it will expand and contract with temp and humidity at a different rate than the veneer. that will cause the veneer to eventually delaminate.
as for the species of wood , there is a reason the wood dashes you see are usually made of walnut, the same reason gun stocks are made of it... stability. teak, ipe, rose bubinga, and most of the other mentioned exotics aren't any more stable, they are just more rot resistant. that is of utmost importance in boat building, but i wouldn'nt ultimate rot resistance is much of an issue with a car where it will be kept under a roof when the weather is bad.
 
PC said:
As a general rule you <span style="font-style: italic">don’t</span> want to use solid hardwoods in the automotive environment. They’re prone to warping, checking and splitting when subjected to extremes variations in temperature and humidity.

If you do use hardwood, stick with woods that are known to perform in severe environments. As the others mentioned, Teak has a long history in shipbuilding and outdoor furniture. Other dense, high oil and/or silica content woods like Bubinga, Ipe, Lignum Vitae, Mahogany, Rosewood (CraigFL, where’d you find a slab of Brazillian Rosewood?) and some others are also candidates.

Most US domestic hardwoods, like Maple, Cherry, Oak, Pine and Hickory are poor choices.


PC.
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First time I've heard anyone mention Lignum-Vitae wood in many years. In Cuba, it was once used for the sugar cane railroad ties. The Cubans nicknamed it Iron Wood! I would think a piece of it large enough to make a dash out of would probably weigh 40 pounds. It's the most dense wood I've ever encountered. It's beautiful in color. The Cuban version being a deep burgundy when finished. It's so hard, it has to be cut with a hack saw. Not something the average wood tinkerer would want to tackle.
 
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