jmackro
Well-Known Member
I just got my dash and side panel wood back from Madera Concepts, and was very pleased with the result. My coupe wood showed obvious water and sun damage - I knew it would need attention, but when I disassembled the dash, I realized the problem was larger than I had anticipated. The two curved dash sections were delaminating and rotted at their outer ends, while the horizontal tray (piece covered with black vinyl) was basicly just held together by the vinyl. Clearly these three pieces needed to be re-made.
Originally I had thought that I could just have a local furniture shop re-veneer my existing wood. But, with the need to re-make some pieces, I did a web search, asked around, and found Madera Concepts of Goleta, CA ( http://www.maderaconcepts.com/NewSite/VehiclePages/bmw_vehicles.html ). Studied their website, called and spoke with Tony, and shipped off my pieces (the gauge panel, and the four side strips were sound, just needing re-veneer, and the three little shelf dividers just needed re-finishing).
Tony told me it would take about 3 weeks, and he met his expected schedule. I chose to delete the radio speaker grille in the center panel, though Madera can also keep this detail as original. I also chose to stick to the original French Walnut with a satin finish, though they can do all sorts of "birdseye" and gloss finishes.
How much did it cost? Well, let's just say that if you are restoring a Coupe, and buying parts from BMW, Madera's prices won't surprise you. For the amount of work that they did, I thought the price was very fair. Plus, short of buying $100,000 in woodworking equipment, and spending a decade learning the trade, I'm not sure what other alternatives I had!
Originally I had thought that I could just have a local furniture shop re-veneer my existing wood. But, with the need to re-make some pieces, I did a web search, asked around, and found Madera Concepts of Goleta, CA ( http://www.maderaconcepts.com/NewSite/VehiclePages/bmw_vehicles.html ). Studied their website, called and spoke with Tony, and shipped off my pieces (the gauge panel, and the four side strips were sound, just needing re-veneer, and the three little shelf dividers just needed re-finishing).
Tony told me it would take about 3 weeks, and he met his expected schedule. I chose to delete the radio speaker grille in the center panel, though Madera can also keep this detail as original. I also chose to stick to the original French Walnut with a satin finish, though they can do all sorts of "birdseye" and gloss finishes.
How much did it cost? Well, let's just say that if you are restoring a Coupe, and buying parts from BMW, Madera's prices won't surprise you. For the amount of work that they did, I thought the price was very fair. Plus, short of buying $100,000 in woodworking equipment, and spending a decade learning the trade, I'm not sure what other alternatives I had!
