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road2ruin

Original Poster:

6,466 posts

245 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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Morning chaps,

Looking for a few peoples opinion. The veneer on my dash is starting to peel and look tatty. I have a few choices of what to do but want to know what other people have done and how it has turned out.
1. re-veneer proffesionally about £400
2. Re-veneer myself Cheaper but not sure I am up to it.
3. Peel off veneer, sand down and stain what I assume is ply underneath.
4. peel off veneer and coat with something else (?).

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Peter

tvrgit

8,489 posts

281 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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Options:
1. re-veneer professionally - I have seen a few and tey do look good.

2. Re-veneer myself Cheaper but not sure I am up to it. I would re-veneer the dash. Sticking veneer onto yourself won't look as good. Pies re-veneered his own dash and switch panel and it looks good - see www.tvrsseries.com

3. Peel off veneer, sand down and stain what I assume is ply underneath. It's metal underneat. This won't work.

4. peel off veneer and coat with something else. Some on here have stripped the metal panels and applied a turned swirled metal finish - I don't like it but whatever floats your boat. You could paint it. Again, I don't like it. A professional decorator could probably apply a painted wood look which might look ok - depends how good he is. I have seen one coated with Fablon, Didn't like that either. I saw one which had been trimmed in contrasting leather with a little padding under- now that looked nice.

I ended up touching mine in with a tiny brush and then varnishing it - it looks ok, better than the chipped yellow finish. It'll do until I get round to something more permanent - probaby a self-applied veneer. I'll wait till I have to take the dash out to fix something else though!

S3_Steve

274 posts

279 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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I had the dash and switch panel painted to match the bodywork, it works well with certain colour combinations. Mine is dark blue leather and Porsche diamond blue (more grey) bodywork. The base material I believe is zintec (zinc coated steel) which is a superb material for painting, just make sure you degrease it first.

Wildfire

9,948 posts

281 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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tvrgit said:
Options:
3. Peel off veneer, sand down and stain what I assume is ply underneath. It's metal underneat. This won't work.


It's metal, the veneer is not a real veneer, it is actually paint.


tvrgit said:

4. peel off veneer and coat with something else. Some on here have stripped the metal panels and applied a turned swirled metal finish - I don't like it but whatever floats your boat. You could paint it. Again, I don't like it. A professional decorator could probably apply a painted wood look which might look ok - depends how good he is. I have seen one coated with Fablon, Didn't like that either. I saw one which had been trimmed in contrasting leather with a little padding under- now that looked nice.


Nope, those metal dashes are overlays, not a swirled pattern.

russ35

2,702 posts

268 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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S3_Steve said:
I had the dash and switch panel painted to match the bodywork, it works well with certain colour combinations. Mine is dark blue leather and Porsche diamond blue (more grey) bodywork. The base material I believe is zintec (zinc coated steel) which is a superb material for painting, just make sure you degrease it first.


Steve, any chance you could post some pics of this. Crossed my mind to do this but cannot imagine what it would look like

Pies

13,116 posts

285 months

Friday 3rd November 2006
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Re veneering the dash yourself is relatively easy.Its more a matter of confidence.Its worth doing it yourself as the cost of materials is very cheap and if you avoid using a contact glue air bubbles are not really an issue

The hardest part is getting the dash out

I estimate materials would be about £30 and this would give you enough material to allow mistakes

If anybody wants a discription on how i do my dashes i'll jot some stuff down as ive done a few now

Pies

13,116 posts

285 months

Saturday 4th November 2006
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www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?p=1&f=11&t=207676&h=0


If i was to do one again though I would first stick some thin flexiply down first using a polyurathane glue,as this is moisture and heat resistant,plus it sticks metal to wood very well.Its a non contact glue so you need to place weights on it whilst it cures.

Then I'd glue the veneer to the ply using Cascamite.This is also a non contact adhesive so again you weight it down to cure.I find not using contact adhesives are far better as you stand very little chance of making a balls up and the glues are more suitable.If you use a dremmel to do the cutting out it becomes less daunting

tvrgit

8,489 posts

281 months

Saturday 4th November 2006
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Wildfire said:
tvrgit said:
Options:
3. Peel off veneer, sand down and stain what I assume is ply underneath. It's metal underneat. This won't work.


It's metal, the veneer is not a real veneer, it is actually paint.

....

those metal dashes are overlays, not a swirled pattern.

I know it's paint - I was quoting the OP about the peeling.

I didn't know the metal dashes were overlays. They do look very nice, just IMHO they don't suit the car. It's a matter of personal preference I suppose.

dougc

8,241 posts

294 months

Saturday 4th November 2006
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Before:



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doddze

1,302 posts

268 months

Sunday 5th November 2006
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