WTB: Wooden grab rail

ccr2002

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seriously considering trying to get a wooden tab rail fabricated and installed in a lhd CS. Anyone have one for sale that i can try to use as s template?
 

Koopman

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What part is the tabrail? The long scalloped bar that goes horizontally across the dash?
If so I have a perfect one.
 

Bmachine

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As discussed privately I started to replicate these and worked on a system to adapt them to lhd cars. It is definitely not a trivial project. There is a lot of modification to be made to the grab bar dash piece and, (short of getting a new grab bar,) it is not reversible. I have been side tracked by a few other things but I hope to continue this project in a few months.
 

rsporsche

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what i am most curious about is how the wood grab rail is attached on the RHD coupes or the 2000cs. i would be happy to try to help detail how to build it / install it.
 

Bmachine

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On the 2000cs the rail itself screws onto the flat wooden deck. So it is pretty straight forward. On the lhd coupes the vinyl covered rail is all one part with the lower section. So you have to butcher that and then create a way to secure the wooden rail with the lower section. Not trivial.
 

ccr2002

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05887970-5146-4240-96F8-C279C33C2603.jpeg
Is the vinyl grab rail on the rhd coupes just a wood one (like rhd) but covered in vinyl? Like this photo shows?

This is reportedly stock from a lhd car.
 

Stevehose

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It loos like the usa dash piece would have to be hacked in half lengthwise then the wood attached and the seam covered by trim. Imho the only detail missing on the usa cars that would make the interior even more beautiful is this wood piece instead of vinyl
 

Koopman

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Hi Steve. Is the grab bar on the E9 the same as the 2000cs,except covered in vinyl?
I have a bare wood bar from a 2000cs,actually I have two. If so than by taken off the top half horizontally all that wood have to be done wood be to scallop the top. Am I correct?
 
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Rek

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It is certainly a nice feature on RHD cars. I have just had the fun of re-veneering this piece with its compound curves. As I am a beginning to working with wood, it was an interesting day. By 'interesting' read inter alia, frustrating, demoralising, problem solving and finally, alcohol inducing. I will post some pictures once completed.

One solution for a LHD car might be to strip the vinyl from the top half of the piece, then treat the exposed wood underneath. It will achieve the look and feel without the fixing problems. As there is a strip along the front, there is latitude for errors to be covered up. Just a thought.
 

Stevehose

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I am not sure, perhaps others can comment

Hi Steve. Is the grab bar on the E9 the same as the 2000cs,except covered in vinyl?
I have a bare wood bar from a 2000cs,actually I have two. If so than by taken off the top half horizontally all that wood have to be done wood be to scallop the top. Am I correct?
 

Koopman

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I would also put a narrow slice the with of a skill saw blade to be able to stuff in the edge of the vinyl or leather for a nice finished look.
Ave done some fancy redos on car interiors and furniture and sometimes a simple idea makes the look professional.
 

Markos

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One solution for a LHD car might be to strip the vinyl from the top half of the piece, then treat the exposed wood underneath. It will achieve the look and feel without the fixing problems. As there is a strip along the front, there is latitude for errors to be covered up. Just a thought.

I believe the underside is hard foam on a steel base, not wood.
 

rsporsche

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Hi Steve. Is the grab bar on the E9 the same as the 2000cs,except covered in vinyl?
I have a bare wood bar from a 2000cs,actually I have two. If so than by taken off the top half horizontally all that wood have to be done wood be to scallop the top. Am I correct?
Harry,
the grab rail on the e9 is foam that is covered in vinyl ... like the upper dash pad. it is held on by screws that go through the pad that screw into the edge of the dash (which is covered by the metal trim) ... the ends of the grabrail are longer screws that go into the A pillar.

since there are 2 styles of metal trim (continuous or 2 piece), you would need to verify which would work better under the wood trim. the placement of the wood trim (vertically) would need to be sorted out and whether it butts up to the bottom of the wood grab rail or whether it overlaps.
 

Bmachine

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Is the vinyl grab rail on the rhd coupes just a wood one (like rhd) but covered in vinyl? Like this photo shows?

This is reportedly stock from a lhd car.
No it is not. As mentioned by others, it is a completely different piece. There is a steel frame covered by foam, and the whole thing covered with vinyl.
 

Bmachine

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It loos like the usa dash piece would have to be hacked in half lengthwise then the wood attached and the seam covered by trim. Imho the only detail missing on the usa cars that would make the interior even more beautiful is this wood piece instead of vinyl
That is correct. The problem is that the internal steel frame does not lend itself to adding the wood rail to it. You have to use a router to carve a channel inside the wood rail. Because of the compound curves involved, it is not an easy task.
 
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