Renovation of Wooden Dash....

[Deleted]

Hi, Can anyone shed any light on easiet way to remove wooden components of Dash behind dials and drivers corner please.

Looking to re-veneer together with door caps, has anyone used a company lately to do this.

I live down in the South East but am willing to travel to get the job well done.

Thanks if anyone can help.

shaun

[DanielSheard]

Ooooh big fun. To get the wood out from behind the dials all of the instrument binnacle needs to come off together with the steering column shrouds. It took me hours - you have to make sure you know exactly where all the wires are going.

I'm stripping and recoating myself but the veneer is OK. I'm using Rustins plastic coating.

Daniel

[Phil Nottingham]

It is a real hassle getting all the wood off the dash - if you are revarnishing though and want to keep it orignal its very difficult to replicate the original "old sideboard" slightly dull brownish finish.

The special varnish Rovers used is not very colour fast, waterproof or shiny but it does have a special quality finish that I have never seen replicated.

Most efforts are far to shiny and too light/red - other have runs/bits in the varnish. It is more than obvoius when they have been redone but then they look an awful mess if left untouched

The most durable are the two pack plastic varnishes that modern cars use on their sometime real wood effect trimings - the best in my view is about 1/2 doz thin coats of Yatch varnish over a suitable stain to get the right colour.

If you are removing the whole lot you may see traces of the original colour and finish although you may not like like it!

How about colour co-ordinated trimmings eg pale blue for blue cars and dark grey for
others!

These seem quite acceptable on modern so called top range BMW/Mercs?

[dorsetflyer]

None of the Rovers seem to have a gloss finish to the dashboard etc, so if just re-varnishing use either Matt or Semi-Matt.

[Deleted]

Never use mahogany colours. That is what makes it look too red. Walnut stain is the correct one.

[Phil Nottingham]

I am glad someone agrees with me - although I do think the redder stains look nicer and are more in tune with modern "wood effects"

[Deleted]

Walnut stain, looks spot on.

[Allan NZ P5b]

While a lot of work to remove the wood behind the binnacle it is well worth it, but be aware the car will be out of action while you refinish this piece.
The right hand corner fillet was the piece I found the manual least helpful on when it came to removing, There is a bolt attached to a bracket just about where the handbrake bracket with the amber light in it attaches to the rail and it is hidden a bit by this bracket and so hard to get at. this bolt secures the bottom-left of this corner fillet. also a screw hidden behind the parcel tray end covers. I think that is all from memory I do know this corner and the bit behind the binnacle took about 4 hours to remove but if I ever have to do it again I reckon I could half that time now. When removing binnacle, check wiring against diagram to check colours are correct so you can put it all together again. I did this, plus took digital photo's of wiring and labeled most wiring groups and drew my own diagram to make refitting quick.

time consuming but not difficult just laborious.

[johnwp5bcoupe]

I used American Walnut for the colour I tried several products for the gloss stage but the best results for me! by using 2k Laquer one thin coat then two more when the first is nearly dry then leave it alone!! dont be tempted to keep throwing it on or it will go opaque as it dries, when it's dry you can cut it if you have any bits in it! polish it if you are happy! or you can mat it and give another coat, the biggest problem on the dash is getting the veneer to look matched! the grain flame effect varies as does the vereer colour so you put say 2 coats of stain on all the bits they look the same when dry, then you laquer and the colours are not the same! it dosn't show on the door caps but the dash varies even though you have a fantastic gloss finish, the problem is even worse if you fit the middle door to hide a modern radio! 3 lots of veneer to match I have gone back to the old AM radio unit to break it up.

Probably why they used the "Wadrobe Finish" in the first place