What Siain for Dash Wood

[Nitrate]

I have a 1981 2000. I don't care for the wood used in the dash and other areas. I can get Beechwood finished in Oak Stain or Beechwood finished in the original factory color. These are avaliable from Allison Fiat. An informal survey: Which do members prefer? Thanks, RB.

[Frog2Spider]

Natural mahogany, with a satin spar varnish finish. No stain!

I did mine this past winter, and it turned out great! I used 1/4" plywood for the new dash base, and covered it with a natural mahogany veneer. All the materials, except the spar varnish, came from veneersupply.com.

The red mahogany looks so much more 'rich' than the beechwood, in my opinion.

Dave.

[70spider]

When I did my dash I made it myself and used solid wood from http://ocoochhardwoods.com/scroll_saw_lumber.php. I like the choices of different types available, plus I didn't want to mess with gluing veneers. Here is how it turned out:

note: if you make your own be sure to poly both sides otherwise the wood will warp. Good luck

[So Cal Mark]

the beech is very close to the color the early Spiders used.

[davery]

I have a 1981 2000. I don't care for the wood used in the dash and other areas. I can get Beechwood finished in Oak Stain or Beechwood finished in the original factory color. These are avaliable from Allison Fiat. An informal survey: Which do members prefer? Thanks, RB.

I just ordered the Madrone Burl veneer for my dash. I can't wait to get started.

[RRoller123]

That is what I used, love the look of it. Standard on the Pantera back in the day.

Pete

[DieselSpider]

My personal preference in what I consider harsh areas such as wood veneer in a automobile is to use door skins and not woodcrafter's veneers.

http://www.birchwoodbest.com/doorskins.php

Before suffering a crippling injury I maintained, designed and built the equipment used in a series of 3 architectural mill-work facilities in New England that made Doors and Windows along with just about any Custom Trim or Furnishing one could imagine and was spoiled with all the Exotic cut-off Door Skin pieces one could dig out of the dumpsters and make use of in small personal projects. Door Skins have a much thicker surface than a veneer since they are intended for years of use in high traffic situations so they hold up better on dashboards, armrests and console tops than a veneer that's only a few mills thick. On some the surface veneer is almost a full 1/8 inch thick.

[davery]

My personal preference in what I consider harsh areas such as wood veneer in a automobile is to use door skins and not woodcrafter's veneers.

http://www.birchwoodbest.com/doorskins.php

Before suffering a crippling injury I maintained, designed and built the equipment used in a series of 3 architectural mill-work facilities in New England that made Doors and Windows along with just about any Custom Trim or Furnishing one could imagine and was spoiled with all the Exotic cut-off Door Skin pieces one could dig out of the dumpsters and make use of in small personal projects. Door Skins have a much thicker surface than a veneer since they are intended for years of use in high traffic situations so they hold up better on dashboards, armrests and console tops than a veneer that's only a few mills thick. On some the surface veneer is almost a full 1/8 inch thick.

It's funny you mentioned door skins. I am using door skins to make the curved dash pieces on my 85. Originally I was just going to stain the birch ebony, but now I am going to attach Madrone Burl veneer.