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MG MG Y Type - YA veneer colour.

Folks, the archives have some good info on renovating the veneered portions of the interior trim; but in my case I have a woodworker friend who will help me - I will prepare new dashboard base pieces (main section plus the glovebox lid and instrument panel base), and he will veneer using a choice of locally sourced timber. Does anyone know of a photo of a restored dash which has NOT used walnut, but is a nice mid-brown? - We have green leather interior and don't think a red tinge would suit, nor a pale walnutty look. Just fishing for help and inspiration! All help gratefully received. Regards, John.
J P Hall

Hi John, You have the phone number for the man with all you need to know - Bill Spall !.

He has built at least six complete dash panels from scratch, and all of them are simply superb and accurate (bookending veneers, colour & finish).

Give him a call, and I'm sure he will share all his secrets with you - have a pen & paper ready !.

Cheers

Tony
A L SLATTERY

Ha! Thanks Tony - will do. Bill's Jaguar racing Green is a ripper. Yours, John.
J P Hall

PS - I will be speaking with Bill Spall, but my original question remains - I would be grateful for any photos of finished dash or door trims, just to see what's out there. Thank you ... John.
J P Hall

burr chestnut before staining on beech ply

B Mellem

finished, a bit amateur but its OK on a dark night

B Mellem

Beautiful, Bryan - is it shadow or is your crossbar (above the dash) and door trim significantly darker than the dash veneer? Is the veneering your own work, and did you also veneer the inside edge of the lower door capping, or just stain and polish/lacquer? Thank you ... John.
J P Hall

The cross rail above the dash is I think solid teak and so this along with the window surrounds were just fine sanded and clear varnished.
The dash is not a just in a weekend job and took me a bit of time.
First the blank base I made from 6 mm beech ply, in my case aircraft quality but I think marine will be OK. two panels were cut and one was reversed, and then glued together so that any warping is negated. This way the recessed switch holes can be simply cut before gluing together.
I made an error with the veneer in that as the glue dried the two book sections shrank in the centre, it was only a very fine hair line but it can be seen, and as the stain was applied the ends of the sheet took up extra fluid. It is something I have to live with.

All the best Bryan
B Mellem

Very helpful, Bryan. My cross rail has veneer on the vertical face only, and I should be able to preserve that.The rest of the teak is perfect - but one thing to check with you: the cross rail seems to be chamfered at each end, presumably to clear interior trim, pinchweld or whatever. Thus the veneer is in fact sanded away at each end, but I think not visible for the above reason. Was yours the same? Regards, John.
J P Hall

I'm not sure about the veneer on your rail, but I have a second rather dilapidated rail though identical and neither are veneered, who knows about our cars history, may be someone in the factory thought it a good idea at the time. I was thinking about the stain absorption at the veneer edges, if with care the very edge could be left untreated, certainly by this stage you would have acquired a very steady hand. Bryan
B Mellem

I guess you've found the thread on the refurbishment of my original dashboard?

In the picture you can see the finished result with the pale burr walnut and the browner 'straight' walnut veneer.

I used a colourless lacquer to get the most natural wood colour.

Willem van der Veer

Bryan, I've now stumbled across to the "no veneer" side as far as the crossbar is concerned. The bar is a lovely teak anyway, and will come up beautifully.

The dash will still need to be veneer-on-ply (sounds like a place in England!), hence my interest in what mid-brown examples people might show me; and that leaves the door trims (bottom pieces only), which were originally veneered but which again are teak with lovely grain markings and which I think we'll just lightly stain, and not re-veneer.

Willem, yes I enjoyed your archived info and it helped me tackle most of this myself. I've never done cheque-book restorations, preferring to develop some sort of skill-set myself, but often having to ask for help.

Thanks as ever ... John.
J P Hall

I didn't stain the teak just clear varnish, the colour on mine deepened enough without staining, perhaps it was stained when first made.
Very nice job Willem, two different ideas about colour density. It must originally been rather variable according to what veneers were available, trees have a bad record for quality control. Bryan
B Mellem

This thread was discussed between 14/11/2016 and 16/11/2016

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