Wood Trim question Make my own?

[dhanna]

Why is the wood trim in the E9 made with a plywood substrate under a thin Walnut (i think) veneer?
Why isn't it made entirely of solid hard wood? I realized that most new cars with wood trim use the same approach.

Is this done for ease / economy of repair?
What if the plywood substrate is warped? (Mine is warped)

I'm pretty handy with some basic wood working skills and I know where I can get some book matched billets of walnut or other woods (Possibly even a Burl?) rough cut CLOSE to a final shape that I could file and finish sand to final shape
The reason I'm asking is two fold:

1. I've called one place in Santa Barbara already and gotten a quote. It's definitely a very fair price but wahahahahahaaaay out of my current budget and I don't expect other places to vary too much in their quotes. (I'll still be checking this week)
2. I will need something to do while the bare shell is in paint and body so why not do the wood myself

 

[HB Chris]

At less than half their price you can use Bela on this Forum, do a search, many happy customers.

 

[Markos]

Solid wood has a tendancy to crack as it dries out over time, especially in a sunbaked interior. The plywood really only delaminates when it gets wet. Also, it is common to bend plywood to meet the contour requirements of your application. Think of all the different bent plywood MCM chairs of the sale era.

 

[WISE9UY]

The laminated approach as I have heard is to better cope with expansion and contraction as the temperature in the car changes.

 

[Honolulu]

Make your own wood trims from your choice of woods. You can get nice scraps free from some cabinet shops. Door trims are not a difficult profile, and will need only modest tools to accurately reproduce. Heck, make your first set from something easy like redwood, pine or fir. Point is that you get a blank piece with straight not curly grain and most definitely not burl.

You can get fancy by laminating contrasting color woods but beware that the devil lurks in too much imagination. Keep such things subtle.

(Good) wood finishing takes a little more time, many coats and good sanding between, and you may come to quickly recognize that the finishing is more work than the actual wood shaping. A mix of beeswax and a natural oil (coconut, kukui, linseed), rubbed into wood sanded to 400 grit, can come out with with a wonderfull smell and satin finish that is very nice to hand, but there's much to be said for the impervious glossy finish of several coats of urethane.

Veneers over easily shaped cores can be great if you can vacuum press them on. Home-made vacuum presses or vacuum bags are a little advanced but there's really not much to them.

I encourage this kind thing and have koa door trim myself, from some flooring bits I scrounged and shaped on my table saw. All you have to lose is your time, and experience to gain. Generally if it doesn't come out the way you want, pitch it into the weeds, start over, or put back you original bits.

 

[TeamTurpin]

How is the wood attached to the car? Is it glued in place or is there some fastener that I can't see in the photos.

 

[Markos]

It is screwed to a plate that has the vinyl strip by the window felt. The metal strip fits into the door and is held on with several small screws.

 

[aearch]

the front dash is curved in two directions and would be very difficult to reproduce
make the side bases from plywood and glue on the venneeer with
wood glue and and iron
i just redid my dash yesterday
set glue on both side
let it dry- then soak the vaneer in water for a minute
them place and iron over a piece of cloth
http://www.oakwoodveneer.com/wood-veneer/walnut.html
http://www.veneersupplies.com/categories/Raw__Wood__Veneer/Wood__Veneer__N__-__Z/Walnut/

 

[dhanna]

Make your own wood trims from your choice of woods. You can get nice scraps free from some cabinet shops. Door trims are not a difficult profile, and will need only modest tools to accurately reproduce. Heck, make your first set from something easy like redwood, pine or fir. Point is that you get a blank piece with straight not curly grain and most definitely not burl.

You can get fancy by laminating contrasting color woods but beware that the devil lurks in too much imagination. Keep such things subtle.

(Good) wood finishing takes a little more time, many coats and good sanding between, and you may come to quickly recognize that the finishing is more work than the actual wood shaping. A mix of beeswax and a natural oil (coconut, kukui, linseed), rubbed into wood sanded to 400 grit, can come out with with a wonderfull smell and satin finish that is very nice to hand, but there's much to be said for the impervious glossy finish of several coats of urethane.

Veneers over easily shaped cores can be great if you can vacuum press them on. Home-made vacuum presses or vacuum bags are a little advanced but there's really not much to them.

I encourage this kind thing and have koa door trim myself, from some flooring bits I scrounged and shaped on my table saw. All you have to lose is your time, and experience to gain. Generally if it doesn't come out the way you want, pitch it into the weeds, start over, or put back you original bits.

This is awesome advice I'll post pics tonight on this thread of the wood trim I DO have and aerch posted some links to some veneer supliers right above this reply.
My thinking about high figure burl is that it would be more forgiving of slight misalignments since there is no long straight grain to try and get perfectly horizontal.

 

[dhanna]

Okay so I'll get a pic of the dash soon but here's pics of the rest of the pieces

Since were on the subject does anybody know how to remove the black camera case bezels from the instrument panel wood? It seems to be soldered to the metal panel in on the back see here

and here is the condition of my OEM trim wood pieces

The Dash is in a slightly better shape. This is the damage that came on the car sadly

how does one melt the solder to get the black bezels loose without burning the wood?